• The best books on Henri IV of France - Henri IV by Jean-Pierre Babelon
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - Henry IV: King of France by David Buisseret
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - France in the Age of Henri IV: The Struggle for Stability by Mark Greengrass
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 by Mack Holt
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe by Stuart Carroll

The best books on Henri IV of France, recommended by Vincent Pitts

At a time of bitter division, Henri IV succeeded to the French throne and managed to bring the country together after decades of civil war. He converted to Catholicism but brought in toleration for Protestants with the Edict of Nantes. In 1610 he was assassinated by a religious fanatic with a carving knife. Historian Vincent Pitts, author of a great introduction to Henri IV, talks us through the life and times of one of France’s most impressive monarchs.

  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Suleymanname: The Illustrated History of Suleyman the Magnificent by Esin Atil (editor)
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire by Gülru Necipoglu
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Ali by Cornell Fleischer
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Empress of the East: How a Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire by Leslie Peirce
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe by John Julius Norwich

The best books on Sultan Süleyman, recommended by Kaya Şahin

The Ottoman ruler Süleyman was one of the most powerful men in early modern Europe and highly adept at building his reputation for posterity. In European languages, he is still often graced with the epithet ‘the Magnificent.’ The reality was much more mixed, as a new biography of Süleyman shows. Historian Kaya Şahin talks us through books to better understand Sultan Süleyman and the world he lived in.

  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - Venice: A Documentary History 1450-1630 by Brian Pullan & David Chambers
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - The Military Organization of a Renaissance State: Venice 1400-1617 by John Rigby Hale & Michael E. Mallett
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - Venice: A Maritime Republic by Frederic Chapin Lane
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - Venice: the Hinge of Europe by William McNeill
  • The best books on The Venetian Empire - The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage by Jan Morris

The best books on The Venetian Empire, recommended by Georg Christ

The Venetian Republic was one of the mightiest empires of early modern Europe, with its Terraferma dominions on land and a maritime empire, the Stato da Màr,  that stretched across the Mediterranean. Its unique strength lay in long-distance trade and, as historian Georg Christ explains, in some ways, it resembled a company more than a state. Here, he recommends books to better understand the Venetian empire, what it was and how it grew.

  • The best books on The Great Divergence - The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia by E L Jones
  • The best books on The Great Divergence - The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy by Kenneth Pomeranz
  • The best books on The Great Divergence - The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress by Joel Mokyr
  • The best books on The Great Divergence - Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
  • The best books on The Great Divergence - How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth by Jared Rubin & Mark Koyama

The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky

After a slow start, why did northwest Europe move ahead of the rest of the world in the early modern period and establish an economic dominance whose effects are felt to this day? Davis Kedrosky, a student at Berkeley and publisher of the economic history newsletter, Great Transformations, introduces ‘the Great Divergence’ and suggests some books that get to the heart of the question.

  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Negotiating Mughal Law: A Family of Landlords across Three Indian Empires by Nandini Chatterjee
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - The Princes of the Mughal Empire, 1504–1719 by Munis Faruqui
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship & Sainthood in Islam by A. Azfar Moin
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court  by Audrey Truschke
  • The best books on The Mughal Empire - Writing Self, Writing Empire: Chandar Bhan Brahman and the Cultural World of the Indo-Persian State Secretary by Rajeev Kinra

The best books on The Mughal Empire, recommended by Richard M. Eaton

The Mughals ruled the Indian subcontinent for three centuries, a multicultural empire that brought together an extraordinary mix of Mongol, Islamic, Persian and Indian practices, religious beliefs and philosophies. Here, historian Richard M. Eaton, a professor at the University of Arizona, chooses some of the best scholarly works on the Mughals that shed new light on how the empire functioned.

  • The best books on The Body - Smell in Eighteenth-Century England: A Social Sense by William Tullett
  • The best books on The Body - Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography by Clifton Crais and Pamela Scully
  • The best books on The Body - The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution by Faramerz Dabhoiwala
  • The best books on The Body - Sleep in Early Modern England by Sasha Handley
  • The best books on The Body - The Smile Revolution in Eighteenth Century Paris by Colin Jones

The best books on The Body, recommended by Karen Harvey

We assume that many of our bodily functions—sleeping and smiling, for example—are ‘natural’ and culturally invariant. But their characteristics and expression are heavily influenced by their cultural milieu. Professor Karen Harvey explains how attitudes to the body in the 18th century were radically rethought in the light of changing scientific and cultural views of its nature and function.

  • The best books on The Renaissance - Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy by Michael Baxandall
  • The best books on The Renaissance - Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
  • The best books on The Renaissance - Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance by Lisa Jardine
  • The best books on The Renaissance - The Printing Press as an Agent of Change by Elizabeth L Eisenstein
  • The best books on The Renaissance - The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch

The best books on The Renaissance, recommended by Jerry Brotton

A century-and-a-half ago the Swiss art historian, Jacob Burckhardt, popularized the idea of a ‘Renaissance’ in 14th century Italy. For most people, the term still conjures up works of art by the likes of Michelangelo or Leonardo. But there is much, much more to it than that. Professor of Renaissance studies, Jerry Brotton, picks the best books to read for a more complete understanding of the Renaissance.