What do you think?
A History of the World in 51 Heroes and Villains
'The world's most successful history podcast ... Holland and Sandbrook have pretty much reinvented popular history for the modern age' The Times
'The history publishing phenomenon of my lifetime' New Statesman
From the award-winning podcast The Rest is History and Sunday Times bestselling authors Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook comes a riotous deep dive into history’s biggest heroes and most notorious villains
Welcome to a shadowy realm where the divide between the noble and the nefarious isn’t quite as clear as it seems. Where supposed saints appear suspiciously traitorous, and so-called scoundrels reveal unexpected glimmers of virtue. Prepare for sword fights, scandals and enough moral ambiguity to make Machiavelli blush – from the imperial court of eleventh-century Japan to the studios of twentieth-century Hollywood.
Along the way, Holland and Sandbrook debate questions like:
-Was Caligula an irredeemable monster or history’s favourite scandal magnet?
-Was Joan of Arc a saintly saviour or a dangerous heretic?
-Was Wojtek the bear a true Second World War hero or simply a cuddly mascot?
-Was Elizabeth I a true Virgin Queen or just brilliant at branding?
So polish your armour, don your villainous moustache and get ready to choose a side in the ultimate showdown between history’s greats and rogues...
'The history publishing phenomenon of my lifetime' New Statesman
From the award-winning podcast The Rest is History and Sunday Times bestselling authors Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook comes a riotous deep dive into history’s biggest heroes and most notorious villains
Welcome to a shadowy realm where the divide between the noble and the nefarious isn’t quite as clear as it seems. Where supposed saints appear suspiciously traitorous, and so-called scoundrels reveal unexpected glimmers of virtue. Prepare for sword fights, scandals and enough moral ambiguity to make Machiavelli blush – from the imperial court of eleventh-century Japan to the studios of twentieth-century Hollywood.
Along the way, Holland and Sandbrook debate questions like:
-Was Caligula an irredeemable monster or history’s favourite scandal magnet?
-Was Joan of Arc a saintly saviour or a dangerous heretic?
-Was Wojtek the bear a true Second World War hero or simply a cuddly mascot?
-Was Elizabeth I a true Virgin Queen or just brilliant at branding?
So polish your armour, don your villainous moustache and get ready to choose a side in the ultimate showdown between history’s greats and rogues...
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
432 pages, Hardcover
Published September 10, 2026
About the author
Tom Holland
97 books4,108 followersTom Holland is an English historian and author. He has written many books, both fiction and non-fiction, on many subjects from vampires to history.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in the village of Broadchalke near Salisbury, England. He obtained a double first in English and Latin at Queens' College, Cambridge, and afterwards studied shortly for a PhD at Oxford, taking Lord Byron as his subject, before interrupting the post graduate studies and moving to London.
He has adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio 4. His novels, including Attis and Deliver Us From Evil, mostly have a supernatural and horror element as well as being set in the past. He is also the author of three highly praised works of history, Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium.
He is on the committee of the Society of Authors and the Classical Association.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in the village of Broadchalke near Salisbury, England. He obtained a double first in English and Latin at Queens' College, Cambridge, and afterwards studied shortly for a PhD at Oxford, taking Lord Byron as his subject, before interrupting the post graduate studies and moving to London.
He has adapted Herodotus, Homer, Thucydides and Virgil for BBC Radio 4. His novels, including Attis and Deliver Us From Evil, mostly have a supernatural and horror element as well as being set in the past. He is also the author of three highly praised works of history, Rubicon, Persian Fire and Millennium.
He is on the committee of the Society of Authors and the Classical Association.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 14, 2026
1⭐️
Found multiple passages that were plagiarised or very closely paraphrased from Wikipedia articles on the subject in question. How did this get to publication? You’re better off just reading the Wikipedia pages of the people you’re interested in yourself.
Found multiple passages that were plagiarised or very closely paraphrased from Wikipedia articles on the subject in question. How did this get to publication? You’re better off just reading the Wikipedia pages of the people you’re interested in yourself.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review