Bestsellers

The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have some very important things to teach the s...

Merle Thornton is one of our game-changing pioneering feminists who helped bring about positive change for generations of Australian women. In her most audacious act, in 1965 Merle, along with Rosalie Bogner, chained herself to the bar at the Regatta Hotel in Brisbane to protest against the law t...

Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, the...

'When it comes to our future, misplaced optimism is as dangerous as blind faith. What is needed is the courage to face the way things are, and the wisdom and imagination to work out how to make things better.' Australia's unprecedented run of economic growth has failed to deliver a more stable or...

The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic-Asian antithesis of the Christian-European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans' multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multi-religious domain reached deep into Europe's heart. In their breadth and versatility, the Ottoman rul...

In today's society it is generally the written word that holds the authority. We are more likely to trust the words found in a history textbook over the version of history retold by a friend after all, human memory is unreliable, and how can you be sure your friend hasn't embellished the facts? B...

In 1989, Richard Fidler was living in London as part of the provocative Australian comedy trio The Doug Anthony All Stars when revolution broke out across Europe. Excited by this galvanising historic, human, moment, he travelled to Prague, where a decrepit police state was being overthrown by cro...

100 Speeches that Roused the World tells the stories behind the most inspiring, rousing and memorable speeches, from ancient Greece to the present day. A concise introduction and analysis of each speech is accompanied by key illustrations and photographs. 100 Speeches presents the power of the sp...

When journalist Damien Cave brought his young family from New York to Sydney, the local customs of Nippers and surf livesaving seemed hair-raisingly dangerous. But when they began to put their toes in the water, they discovered a completely different approach to risk that changed the way they liv...