Powers and Thrones

Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built.

The instant Sunday Times bestseller

A Times, New Statesman and Spectator Book of the Year

Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. It is a thousand-year adventure that moves from the ruins of the once-mighty city of Rome, sacked by barbarians in AD 410, to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century. It shows how, from a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. The book identifies three key themes that underpinned the success of the West: commerce, conquest and Christianity.

Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones's trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive western powers thrived by attracting - or stealing - the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations - Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople - and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women.

This is a book written about - and for - an age of profound change, and it asks the biggest questions about the West both then and now. Where did we come from? What made us? Where do we go from here?

Also available in audio, read by the author.

About the Author

Dan Jones is a journalist and editor living in London. Formerly the shopping editor at i-D magazine, Time Out’s Shopping & Style editor, and most recently Senior Men’s Editor at ASOS, Dan is currently a style consultant, working with brands like Topman and Swatch, and publishers, incl. Conde Nast.

He also loves to entertain, constantly ‘researching’ his cocktail craft and honing his cocktail credentials. He is the author of The Mixer’s Manual, Man Made and Gin: Shake, Muddle, Stir.