The acclaimed British historian offers a majestic, single-volume work incorporating all major fronts-domestic, diplomatic, military-for a stunning achievement of research and storytelling (Publishers Weekly)

It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would end officially almost five years later. Unofficially, it has never ended: the horrors we live with today were born in the First World War.

It left millions-civilians and soldiers-maimed or dead. And it left us with new technologies of death: tanks, planes, and submarines; reliable rapid-fire machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare. It introduced us to U-boat packs and strategic bombing, to unrestricted war on civilians and mistreatment of prisoners. Most of all, it changed our world. In its wake, empires toppled, monarchies fell, whole populations lost their national identities as political systems, and geographic boundaries were realigned. Instabilities were institutionalized, enmities enshrined. And the social order shifted seismically. Manners, mores, codes of behavior; literature and the arts; education and class distinctions-all underwent a vast sea change. And in all these ways, the twentieth century can be said to have been born on the morning of June 28, 1914.

One of the first books that anyone should read in beginning to try to understand this war and this century.
-The New York Times Book Review (cover)

Martin Gilbert, author of the multivolume biography of Winston Churchill and other brilliant works of history, chronicles world events year by year, from the dawn of aviation to the flourishing technology age, taking us through World War I to the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt as president of the United States and Hider as chancellor of Germany. He continues on to document wars in South Africa, China, Ethiopia, Spain, Korea, Vietnam, and Bosnia, as well as apartheid, the arms race, the moon landing, and the beginnings of the computer age, while interspersing the influence of art, literature, music, and religion throughout this vivid work.

A rich, textured look at war, celebration, suffering, life, death, and renewal in the century gone by, this volume is nothing less than extraordinary.

The most comprehensive account of Israeli history yet published. -- The Sunday Telegraph

An epic history . . . a picture of an Israel that persevered and prevailed, that was determined to survive and was unwilling to trust its independence to others but sought peace whenever possible. -- Foreign Affairs

Israel is a small and relatively young country, but since the day of its creation more than half a century ago, its turbulent history has placed it squarely at the center of the world stage. For two millennia the Jews, dispersed all over the world, prayed for a return to Zion. Until the nineteenth century, that dream seemed a fantasy, but then a secular Zionist movement was born and soon the initial trickle of Jewish immigrants to Palestine turned into a flood as Jews fled persecution in Europe.

From these beginnings, preeminent historian Martin Gilbert traces the events and personalities that would lead to the sudden, dramatic declaration of Statehood in May 1948. From that point on, Israel's history has been dominated by conflict: Suez, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the Lebanon and the Intifada.

Using contemporary documents and eyewitness accounts, and drawing on his own intimate knowledge of the country and its people, Martin Gilbert weaves together a riveting, page-turning history of a powerful and proud nation, from the struggles of its pioneers in the nineteenth century up to the present day.

Martin Gilbert's presents A magisterial (New York Times) single-volume history of the Second World War.

It began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By the time it came to an end on V-J Day-August 14, 1945 -it had involved every major power and become global in its reach. In the final accounting, it would turn out to be, in both human terms and material resources, the costliest war in history, taking the lives of thirty million people.

In one brilliant volume, eminent historian Martin Gilbert offers the complete history of WWII. With unparalleled scholarship and breadth of vision, Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill as well as one of the leading experts on the Holocaust, weaves together political, military, diplomatic, and civilian elements to provide a global perspective on the war, in a work that is both a treasure trove of information and a gripping, dramatic narrative.

In his transmission of the horror of the war, Martin Gilbert has achieved something no other historian but he could. There is indeed a relentless force about chronology when it is used as a tool by an historian of the stature of Martin Gilbert.
-The Sunday Telegraph

Gilbert's flowing narrative is spiced with anecdotal details culled from diaries, memoirs, and official documents. He is especially skillful at interweaving summaries of military strategy with vignettes of civilian suffering. -Newsweek

In the early hours of November 10, 1938, Nazi storm troopers and Hitler Youth rampaged through Jewish neighborhoods across Germany, leaving behind them a horrifying trail of terror and destruction. More than a thousand synagogues and many thousands of Jewish shops were destroyed, while thirty thousand Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht--the Night of Broken Glass--was a decisive stage in the systematic eradication of a people who traced their origins in Germany to Roman times and was a sinister forewarning of the Holocaust.

With rare insight and acumen, Martin Gilbert examines this night and day of terror, presenting readers with a meticulously researched, masterfully written, and eye-opening study of one of the darkest chapters in human history.

An insightful history of Churchill's lifelong commitment--both public and private--to the Jews and Zionism, and of his outspoken opposition to anti-Semitism

Winston Churchill's commitment to Jewish rights, to Zionism, and ultimately to the State of Israel never wavered. In 1922, he established on the bedrock of international law the right of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. During his meeting with David Ben-Gurion in 1960, Churchill presented the Israeli prime minister with an article he had written about Moses, praising the patriarch. In between these events he fought harder and more effectively for the Jewish people than the world has ever realized.

Drawing on a wide range of archives and private papers, speeches, newspaper coverage, and wartime correspondence, Churchill's official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, explores the origins, implications, and results of Churchill's determined commitment to Jewish rights, opening a window on an underappreciated and heroic aspect of the brilliant politician's life and career.

This 9th edition of Martin Gilbert's Atlas of Jewish History spans over four thousand years of history in 196 maps, starting with the worldwide migration of the Jews from ancient Mesopotamia and coming up into the first decades of the twenty-first century. It presents a vivid picture of a fascinating people and the trials and tribulations which have haunted the Jewish story, as well as Jewish achievements. The themes covered include:

• Prejudice and Violence - from the destruction of Jewish independence between 722 and 586 BC to the flight from German persecution in the 1930s. Also covers the incidence of anti-Semitic attacks in the Americas and Europe.
• Migrations and Movements - from ancient dispersals from the promised land, to new maps on the ingathering of exiles from Arab and Muslim lands from 1948, and from the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1992.
• Society, Trade and Culture - from Jewish trade routes between 800 and 900, the geography of the Jews of China, of India, to communal life in the ghettoes and the situation of world Jewry in the opening years of the twenty-first century.
• Politics, Government and War - from the Court Jews of the fifteenth century to the founding and growth of the modern State of Israel.

This new edition now includes an additional 39 of Martin Gilbert's maps, across the whole range of Jewish history, originally published across a range of publications, now gathered in this one volume for the first time. Over 50 years on from its first publication, this book is still an indispensable guide to Jewish history.

With The Righteous, an eminent historian presents the unsung heroes of the Holocaust.

Drawing from twenty-five years of original research, Sir Martin Gilbert re-creates the remarkable stories of non-Jews who risked their lives to help Jews during the Holocaust.

According to Jewish tradition, Whoever saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world. Non-Jews who helped save Jewish lives during World War II are designated Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust archive in Jerusalem. In The Righteous, distinguished historian Sir Martin Gilbert, through extensive interviews, explores the courage of those who-throughout Germany and in every occupied country from Norway to Greece, from the Atlantic to the Baltic-took incredible risks to help Jews whose fate would have been sealed without them. Indeed, many lost their lives for their efforts.

Those who hid Jews included priests, nurses, teachers, neighbors and friends, employees and colleagues, soldiers and diplomats, and, above all, ordinary citizens. From Greek Orthodox Princess Alice of Greece, who hid Jews in her home in Athens, to the Ukrainian Uniate Archbishop of Lvov, who hid hundreds of Jews in his churches and monasteries, to Muslims in Bosnia and Albania, many risked, and lost, everything to help their fellow man.

The Routledge Atlas of American History presents a series of 163 clear and detailed maps, accompanied by informative captions, facts and figures. Fully updated to cover significant recent events, the complete history of America is unravelled in this fascinating reference book.

Gilbert has unearthed fascinating details of the campaign . . . An unforgettable read.--The Philadelphia Inquirer

At 7:30 a.m. on July 1, 1916, the first Allied soldiers climbed out of their trenches along the Somme River in France and charged into no-man's-land, toward the barbed wire and machine guns at the German front lines. In the months that followed, the fifteen-mile-long territory erupted into the epicenter of the Great War, marking a pivotal moment in both the war and military history as tanks first appeared on the battlefield and air war emerged as a devastating and decisive factor in battle. All told, there were more than one million casualties, with 310,000 men dead in just 138 days.

In this vivid account of one of history's most destructive battles, distinguished historian Martin Gilbert tracks the experiences of foot soldiers, generals, and everyone in between. With new photographs, journal entries, original maps, and military planning documents, The Somme is the most authoritative and affecting account of this bloody turning point in the Great War.

The Routledge Atlas of the Second World War charts the war's political, military and social history through 257 new maps. It covers all the major events from the German invasion of Poland, Stalingrad, and the concentration camps, to the bombing of Dresden and D-Day.

A multifaceted gem, sparkling with anecdotes and insights about the nature of biography, the challenges and rewards of historical research, and of course Winston Churchill. --Richmond Times-Dispatch

Everything about Winston Churchill is extraordinary. During his excavation of his subject, Martin Gilbert has discovered many gems. In this book he holds some of the most gorgeous jewels up to the light for us to admire. --The Spectator.

Gilbert here gives us Churchill's vast humanity with the politics largely left out. Readers daunted by the 8,000-odd pages of the official life should start here. They will love it. --The Times (London).

The portrait of Winston Churchill is . . . vivid and painted with an affection and humour that rarely appear in the official biography. --London Daily Telegraph.

The work [Gilbert] has done puts all historians of the twentieth century, and all students of Churchill, incalculably in his debt. --London Sunday Telegraph.

Basing the book on his intimate knowledge of Churchill's private and official papers, Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer, looks at the public figure and wartime propaganda, to reveal a very human, sensitive, and often tormented man, who nevertheless found the strength to lead his nation forward from the darkest and most dangerous of times.

The graphic history of the Nazi attempt to destroy the Jews of Europe during the Second World War is illustrated in this series of 363 detailed maps. The maps, and the text and photographs that accompany them, powerfully depict the fate of the Jews between 1933 and 1945, while also setting the chronological story in the wider context of the war itself. The maps include:

- Historical background - from the effects of anti-Jewish violence between 1880 and 1933 to the geography of the existing Jewish communities when the Nazi Party came to power

- The beginning of the violence - from the destruction of the synagogues in November 1938 to Jewish migrations and deportations, the ghettos, and the establishment of the concentration camps and death camps throughout German-dominated Europe

- The spread of Nazi rule - the fate of the Jews throughout Europe including Germany, Austria, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Russia, Denmark, Norway, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and the Baltic States

- Jewish revolts and resistance - acts of armed resistance, fighting in the forests, individual acts of courage

- Jews in hiding - escape routes, Christians who helped Jews

- The death marches - the advance of the Allies and the liberation of the camps, the survivors, and the final death toll.

This new edition now includes an additional 30 of Martin Gilbert's maps, with many additional camp and ghetto maps, further illustrating the layout and organization of some of the most significant towns and cities affected by the Holocaust, especially useful to those visiting the sites.

From its origins to its terrible legacy, the tortuous course of the Great War is vividly set out in a series of 196 fascinating maps. Together the maps form a comprehensive and compelling picture of the war that shattered Europe, and illustrate its military, social, political and economic aspects. Beginning with the tensions that already existed, the atlas covers:

• The early months of the war - from the German attack on Belgium and France, to the fierce fighting on the Western and Eastern Fronts
• The developing war in Europe and beyond - from the Somme and Verdun to Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, in the Near East and Africa, and in the Pacific
• The war at sea and in the air - from the Zeppelin and air raids to the naval battles, shipping losses and Atlantic convoys
• Life at the front - the trench system, living underground, the mud of Passchendaele, the French and Russian mutinies
• Technology and the intensifying war - from phosgene gas to submarines, tanks and aerial bombardment
• The home front - war supplies, munitions factories, the air defence of Britain, German food riots, the entry of the United States into the war, the Russian Revolution, and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires
• The aftermath - the peace treaties and territorial changes, war debts, war deaths, and the new map of Europe along with the visual remembrance of the war, memorials that commemorate the tragedy.

This new edition now includes an additional 23 of Martin Gilbert's maps, across the whole period of the war, originally published across a range of publications, now gathered in this one volume for the first time.

From its origins to its terrible legacy, the tortuous course of the Great War is vividly set out in a series of 196 fascinating maps. Together the maps form a comprehensive and compelling picture of the war that shattered Europe, and illustrate its military, social, political and economic aspects. Beginning with the tensions that already existed, the atlas covers:

• The early months of the war - from the German attack on Belgium and France, to the fierce fighting on the Western and Eastern Fronts
• The developing war in Europe and beyond - from the Somme and Verdun to Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, in the Near East and Africa, and in the Pacific
• The war at sea and in the air - from the Zeppelin and air raids to the naval battles, shipping losses and Atlantic convoys
• Life at the front - the trench system, living underground, the mud of Passchendaele, the French and Russian mutinies
• Technology and the intensifying war - from phosgene gas to submarines, tanks and aerial bombardment
• The home front - war supplies, munitions factories, the air defence of Britain, German food riots, the entry of the United States into the war, the Russian Revolution, and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires
• The aftermath - the peace treaties and territorial changes, war debts, war deaths, and the new map of Europe along with the visual remembrance of the war, memorials that commemorate the tragedy.

This new edition now includes an additional 23 of Martin Gilbert's maps, across the whole period of the war, originally published across a range of publications, now gathered in this one volume for the first time.

The graphic history of the Nazi attempt to destroy the Jews of Europe during the Second World War is illustrated in this series of 333 detailed maps.

The maps, and the text and photographs that accompany them, powerfully depict the fate of the Jews between 1933 and 1945, while also setting the chronological story in the wider context of the war itself. The maps include:

• historical background - from the effects of anti-Jewish violence between 1880 and 1933 to the geography of the existing Jewish communities before the advent of the Nazis
• the beginning of the violence - from the destruction of the synagogues in November 1938 to Jewish migrations and deportations, the ghettos, and the establishment of the concentration camps and death camps throughout German-dominated Europe
• the spread of Nazi rule - the fate of the Jews throughout Europe including Germany, Austria, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Russia, Denmark, Norway, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and the Baltic States
• Jewish revolts and resistance - acts of armed resistance, fighting in the forests, individual acts of courage
• Jews in hiding - escape routes, Christians who helped Jews
• the death marches - the advance of the Allies and the liberation of the camps, the survivors, and the final death toll.

This revised edition includes a new section which gives an insight into the layout and organization of some of the most significant places of the Holocaust, including Auschwitz, Treblinka and the Warsaw ghetto, maps that will be especially useful to those visiting the sites.

In 1996 Martin Gilbert was asked by a group of his graduate students to lead them on a tour of the places in Europe that were the stage of one of history's greatest human tragedies. The two-week journey that resulted, with England's leading Holocaust and World War II scholar as its guide, culminated in the powerful travel narrative Holocaust Journey.

Gilbert skillfully interweaves present-day experiences, personal memories, and historical accounts. More than fifty photographs taken over the course of this unique voyage are included, among them shots of Berlin, at the spot of the 1933 book burning; the railway line to Auschwitz; Oskar Schindler's factory in Crakow, Poland; and memorial stones from Treblinka. Together with fifty-five maps, these illustrations add an arresting visual dimension to this powerful story.

'An unusual and compelling insight into Jewish history... sheer detail and breadth of scale' BBC History Magazine

This newly revised and updated edition of Martin Gilbert's Atlas of Jewish History spans over four thousand years of history in 154 maps, presenting a vivid picture of a fascinating people and the trials and tribulations which have haunted their story.

The themes covered include:

• Prejudice and Violence- from the destruction of Jewish independence between 722 and 586 BC to the flight from German persecution in the 1930s. Also covers the incidence of anti-semitic attacks in the Americas and Europe.
• Migrations and Movements- from the entry into the promised land to Jewish migration in the twenty- first century, including new maps on recent emigration to Israel from Europe and worldwide.
• Society, Trade and Culture- from Jewish trade routes between 800 and 900 to the situation of world Jewry in the opening years of the twenty- first century.
• Politics, Government and War- from the Court Jews of the fifteenth century to the founding and growth of the modern State of Israel.

This new edition is also updated to include maps showing Jewish museums in the United States and Canada, and Europe, as well as American conservation efforts abroad. Other topics covered in this revised edition include Jewish educational outreach projects in various parts of the world, and Jews living under Muslim rule. Forty years on from its first publication, this book is still an indispensible guide to Jewish history.