The Victorians are remembered for their propriety and stolid middle-class manners—in sharp contrast to the libertine spirit of Byron, Shelley, and the Romantics of the generation just prior. In The Making of Victorian Values, Ben Wilson—only in his twenties but already hailed in Britain as heir to the great radical historians of the twentieth century—offers a brilliant and provocative portrayal of how rebels and dissenters were quashed by authoritarians and imperialists and how mindless materialism and capitalism rolled over them all. In so doing, Wilson’s eloquently written account also illuminates the startling parallels between the pre- Victorian era and our own.

The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain: 1789-1837

History

Wilson, Ben

World

Penguin (Non-Classics)

Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy

Military

Weidenfeld&Nicolson

HEYDAY brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in modern history. Over the course of the 1850s, the world was reshaped by technology, trade, mass migration and war. The global economy expanded fivefold, millions of families emigrated to the ends of the earth to carve out new lives, technology revolutionised communications, while steamships and railways cut across vast continents and oceans, shrinking the world and creating the first global age. It was a decade of breathtaking transformation, with striking parallels for our own times. The 1850s saw the laying of the first undersea cable in 1851, the rush for gold from California to Australia, while fleets of pirate vessels docked in Hong Kong harbour, eager to take advantage of booming trade. The West's insatiable hunger for land, natural resources and new markets encouraged free trade, bold exploration and colonisation as never before. In a fast-paced, kaleidoscopic narrative, the acclaimed historian Ben Wilson recreates this time of explosive energy and dizzying change, a rollercoaster ride of booms and bust, focusing on the lives of the men and women reshaping its frontiers. At the centre stands Great Britain. The country was the peak of its power as it attempted to determine the destinies of hundreds of millions of people. A dazzling history of a tumultuous decade, HEYDAY reclaims an often overlooked decade that was fundamental not only in in the making of Britain but of the modern world.

Heyday: Britain and the Birth of the Modern World

Europe

In a captivating tour of cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben Wilson tells the glorious, millennia-spanning story how urban living sparked humankind's greatest innovations. &nbsp; "A towering achievement. . . . Reading this book is like visiting an exhilarating city for the first time--dazzling." --The Wall Street Journal During the two hundred millennia of humanity's existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. From their very beginnings, cities created such a flourishing of human endeavor--new professions, new forms of art, worship and trade--that they kick-started civilization. Guiding us through the centuries, Wilson reveals the innovations nurtured by the inimitable energy of human beings together: civics in the agora of Athens, global trade in ninth-century Baghdad, finance in the coffeehouses of London, domestic comforts in the heart of Amsterdam, peacocking in Belle Époque Paris. In the modern age, the skyscrapers of New York City inspired utopian visions of community design, while the trees of twenty-first-century Seattle and Shanghai point to a sustainable future in the age of climate change. Page-turning, irresistible, and rich with engrossing detail, Metropolis is a brilliant demonstration that the story of human civilization is the story of cities.

Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention

DOUBLEDAY

In this exhilarating look at cities, past and future, Ben Wilson proposes that, in our world of rising seas and threatening weather, the natural world may prove the city's savior\n"Illuminating...Wilson leaves readers with hope about the future of efforts to preserve the ecosystems that surround us, as well as a new perspective that looks beyond the concrete and asphalt when walking along a city’s streets."—Associated Press\nSince the beginning of civilization, humans have built cities to wall nature out, then glorified it in beloved but quite artificial parks. In Urban Jungle Ben Wilson—the author of Metropolis, a seven-thousand-year history of cities that the Wall Street Journal called “a towering achievement”—looks to the fraught relationship between nature and the city for clues to how the planet can survive in an age of climate crisis.\nWhether it was the market farmers of Paris, Germans in medieval forest cities, or the Aztecs in the floating city of Tenochtitlan, pre-modern humans had an essential bond with nature. But when the day came that water was piped in and food flown from distant fields, that relationship was lost. Today, urban areas are the fastest-growing habitat on Earth and in Urban Jungle Ben Wilson finds that we are at last acknowledging that human engineering is not enough to protect us from extremes of weather. He takes us to places where efforts to rewild the city are under way: to Los Angeles, where the city’s concrete river will run blue again, to New York City, where a bleak landfill will be a vast grassland preserve. The pinnacle of this strategy will be Amsterdam: a city that is its own ecosystem, that makes no waste and produces its own energy. In many cities, Wilson finds, nature is already thriving. Koalas are settling in Brisbane, wild boar may raid your picnic in Berlin. Green canopies, wildflowers, wildlife: the things that will help cities survive, he notes, also make people happy.\nUrban Jungle offers the pleasures of history—how backyard gardens spread exotic species all over the world, how war produces biodiversity—alongside a fantastic vision of the lush green cities of our future. Climate change, Ben Wilson believes, is only the latest chapter in the dramatic human story of nature and the city.

Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City

Americas

Heyday brings to life one of the most extraordinary periods in modern history. Over the course of the 1850s, the world was reshaped by technology, trade, mass migration and war. The global economy expanded fivefold, millions of families emigrated to the ends of the earth to carve out new lives, technology revolutionized how people communicated, and a steamships and railways cut across vast continents and oceans, shrinking the world and creating the first global age. It was a decade of breathtaking and remorseless transformation, fueled by the promise of exponential progress. In Heyday, the acclaimed historian Ben Wilson recreates this time of explosive energy and dizzying change, a rollercoaster ride of booms and busts. The 1850s were witness to the laying of the first undersea cable in 1851, the rush for gold from California to Australia, and fleets of pirate vessels docked in Hong Kong harbor, eager to take advantage of booming trade. The West's insatiable hunger for land, natural resources, and new markets encouraged free trade, bold exploration, and colonization like never before. Buoyed by supreme self-confidence—as well as new technologies of war—nations clashed across the globe, and indigenous peoples fell victim to an assurgent West. Reckless economic expansion led to lasting ecological damage, and to the demise of local cultures which could not keep pace with the blistering pace of capitalism and free trade. In Heyday we encounter Muslim guerrilla fighters in the Caucasus Mountains and freelance empire-builders in the jungles of Nicaragua, British free trade zealots preying on China and samurai warriors resisting Western incursions in Japan. A dazzling history of a tumultuous decade, Heyday traces the origins of our globalized world order.

Heyday: The 1850s and the Dawn of the Global Age

Basic Books

METROPOLIS: A HISTORY OF THE CITY, HUMANKIND'S GREATEST INVENTION

Product Description 
In a captivating tour of cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben Wilson tells the glorious, millennia-spanning story how urban living sparked humankind's greatest innovations. “A towering achievement. . . . Reading this book is like visiting an exhilarating city for the first time—dazzling.” —The Wall Street Journal\nDuring the two hundred millennia of humanity’s existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. From their very beginnings, cities created such a flourishing of human endeavor—new professions, new forms of art, worship and trade—that they kick-started civilization. Guiding us through the centuries, Wilson reveals the innovations nurtured by the inimitable energy of human beings together: civics in the agora of Athens, global trade in ninth-century Baghdad, finance in the coffeehouses of London, domestic comforts in the heart of Amsterdam, peacocking in Belle Époque Paris. In the modern age, the skyscrapers of New York City inspired utopian visions of community design, while the trees of twenty-first-century Seattle and Shanghai point to a sustainable future in the age of climate change. Page-turning, irresistible, and rich with engrossing detail, 
Metropolis is a brilliant demonstration that the story of human civilization is the story of cities. 
 Review 
" 
Metropolis teems with information and observations."\n—The Wall Street Journal\n"Ben Wilson takes us on an exhilarating tour of more than two dozen cities and thousands of years . . . 
Metropolis is a bold undertaking that makes for gripping reading."\n—The New York Times Book Review 
"[An] ode to cities and cosmopolitan life . . . 
Metropolis has the added virtue of Wilson as 
an erudite, creative guide to the history of civilization through its great urban areas."\n—TIME magazine\n"He explores the growth, diversity and evolution of human civilisation in this enchanting and meandering book."\n—The Evening Standard 
"[A] sharp reminder that the metropolis is vulnerable... [Wilson] brilliantly synthesises the forces that make cities hum."\n—Financial Times\n"[Wilson] hops from city to city and century to century, interweaving data, primary sources, anecdotes and the arts. . . . Wilson has done an admirable job wrangling his topic down to an easily digestible size."\n—Star Tribune\n"Historian Wilson ( 
Empire of the Deep) offers a sweeping survey of how the rise of cities over the past 6,000 years has shaped human history. . . . An amiable and well-informed tour guide, Wilson stuffs his account with intriguing arcana and analysis. Armchair travelers will be enlightened and entertained."\n—Publishers Weekly\n"Information rich and accessible. For history and public policy readers seeking a global vision of the impact of world cities."\n—Library Journal\n"Wilson has mastered a gargantuan sweep of knowledge. . . Wilson’s enthusiasm for what ancient and modern cities have done for civilization is infectious, as is his magpie approach to various subjects under discussion . . . impeccably crafted."\n—Highbrow Magazine 
 About the Author 
BEN WILSON is the author of five critically acclaimed books, including 
What Price Liberty?, for which he received the Somerset Maugham Award; the 
Sunday Times bestseller 
Empire of the Deep; and, most recently, 
Heyday: The Dawn of the Global Age. He graduated with a first-class degree and an MPhil in history from Pembroke College, Cambridge, and writes regularly for publications such as 
The Times, Daily Telegraph, and 
Prospect. 
 Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 
1\ndawn of the city\nUruk, 4000–1900 bc\nEnkidu lives in harmony with nature. Strong as a “rock from the sky” and possessing godlike beauty, his heart delights as he runs free with the wild animals. That is until he sees the naked figure of Shamat bathing at the waterhole. Entranced by his first sight of a woman, Enkidu makes love to Shamat for six days and seven nights.\nSated by

Anchor

Decency and Disorder

Faber&Faber

LAUGHTER OF TRIUMPH

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Diversified Publishing

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