Leading historians share the texts that have inspired and informed their work

By spring 1941, the Afrika Korps was advancing across eastern Libya towards Egypt and the Suez Canal. But a dusty port town lay in their path

The grisly fate of more than 16,000 soldiers and civilians during the First Anglo-Afghan War serves as a timeless lesson in hubris and bad leadership

Europe’s frozen northeast became a new sacred frontier of holy war, forced conversion and occupation against Europe’s last pagans

Anne Weber Sanderling Translated by Neil Blackadder 240pp. Indigo Press. £14.99. The past is not closed; it reaches into us. “For Germans”, Anne Weber recently said, “it’s like discovering your father

This staff sergeant became the first living US Army veteran of the Iraq War to receive the Medal of Honor, following fierce close-quarters combat during the Second Battle of Fallujah