Pelican Books

The British system has been radically transformed in recent decades, far more than most of us realise. As acclaimed political scientist and bestselling author Anthony King shows, this transformation lies at the heart of British politics today. Imagining - or pretending - that the British political system and Britain's place in the world have not...

Why do we care what others think?What keeps us bound together?How does the brain shape our behaviour?Bruce Hood is an award-winning psychologist who has researched and taught at Cambridge and Harvard Universities and is currently Director of the Cognitive Development Centre at the University of Bristol. He delivered the Royal Institution's...

Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed books on Russian history, including A People's Tragedy, which The Times Literary Supplement named as one of the '100 most influential books since the war', Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers, Crimea and Just Send Me Word. The Financial Times called him...

What makes us human?How did we develop language, thought and culture?Why did we survive, and other human species fail?The past 12,000 years represent the only time in the sweep of human history when there has been only one human species. How did this extraordinary proliferation of species come about - and then go extinct? And why did we emerge such...

Where do our ideas about politics come from?What can we learn from the Greeks and Romans?How should we exercise power?Melissa Lane teaches politics at Princeton University, and previously taught political thought at the University of Cambridge, where she was a Fellow of King's College. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of...

What makes Greek and Roman literature great?How has classical literature influenced Western culture?What did Greek and Roman authors learn from each other?Richard Jenkyns is emeritus Professor of the Classical Tradition and the Public Orator at the University of Oxford. His books include Virgil's Experience and The Victorians and Ancient Greece,...