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Detailed illustrations and cutaways are the leading feature of this series of books celebrating the most significant military hardware of the modern era. Charting technological development from the first innovations to the latest high-tech models, each volume selects 50 of the most significant vehicles, the entry for each including specification tables, photographs and descriptions outlining notable design features. The three titles included in this set are: Tanks (Read more...) Warships (Read more...) Military Jets (Read more...)

Along with the gadgets that went straight to landfill – the pneumatic attachment for trousers, illuminated ice cubes, glow-in-the-dark sunglasses or the ‘:Cuecat’ barcode scanner that failed to solve a problem that never existed – this compendium of wrong-headedness includes weird weapons of war, transport disasters and some inventions, such as the dreaded automated pay toilet, that are with us still.

Outlining the many and varied challenges women faced during the Second World War, this illustrated volume considers both their life at home – with rationing, black-outs and air raids, and on the front line – as nurses, secret agents, journalists and members of the armed forces, interspersed with reminiscences.

Beginning with the first armoured warship, the French Gloire of 1859, the naval vessels analysed in this volume include Hood (1918), Bismarck (1939), the Soviet cruiser Kirov (1977), the American nuclear submarine Ohio and the Royal Navy’s current Type 45 destroyer.

The German A7V and British Mark V of 1917–1918 open this volume which also features classic designs of the Second World War, including the T-34, Panther and Sherman tanks as well as examples in current use, such as the Russian T-90 and British Challenger II.

This highly illustrated guide to naval submarines shows how their strategic importance has grown since the unexpectedly effective First World War German U-Boat attack on HMS Pathfinder. It covers all the main classes that have been deployed around the world by military powers including Russia, China and the USA, from the technical advances of the interwar period, through the Cold War and the nuclear era, to contemporary missile-carrying craft.

With detailed specifications, drawings and archival photographs, this guide to Russian military hardware includes every significant weapon deployed by Soviet forces during the Second World War, some of which provided models for those still in use decades later. Chapters cover tanks and armoured fighting vehicles, artillery and small arms, aircraft and naval weapons, in addition to the lend-lease weapons that were supplied to the Red Army by the Western Allies.

Charting Native American struggles against white interlopers from the Pequot Wars (1636–38) to the Ghost Dance War of 1891, this history profiles warriors such as Metacomet, Pontiac, Tecumseh and Sitting Bull, and examines the tactics they employed. Illustrated with more than 180 photographs and artworks, it also describes the varied tribes and cultures: East Coast agriculturalists, mound-builders on the Mississippi, buffalo hunters on the plains, and the pueblo-dwellers of the Southwest.

The British led the way in military jets in the 1940s but by the 1960s American and Russian aircraft represented the state of the art. This volume analyses 50 planes, with the Messerschmitt Me262 of 1945 and modern classics such as the F-15 and MiG-29.

When William Harley and Arthur Davidson began making motorcycles in 1906, they realized that the great distances between towns in America and the poor quality of roads meant their product needed to be solidly built, powerful and comfortable. The line of models the company has produced since then is reviewed in this volume with a focus on 50 classic bikes, specially photographed for the book.

Inscriptions are a fascinating source of information, offering insight into the lives, customs and concerns of ancient people, from kings and emperors to gladiators and restaurant owners. More than 200 examples are illustrated and discussed here, written between the 3rd millennium BCE and the 4th century CE. They include a dedicatory inscription from a Carthaginian street, a Hebrew calendar, Ptolemy V’s Rosetta Stone and the tomb inscription of Cyrus the Great. Previously published as The Ancients in their Own Words.

The Tudor dynasty lasted just 118 years (1485–1603), but transformed Britain from a medieval kingdom to a major European power. This extensively illustrated history focuses on the darker side of the period: the murder, adultery, and religious and political turmoil, from Henry VIII's treatment of his wives and the tragedy of Lady Jane Grey to Elizabeth I’s suppression of the Irish rebellion and sponsorship of pirates and slave traders.