'Wise, compassionate, and urgent.' Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland A Bookseller Nonfiction Editor's Choice for March 2024 Plunge into the depths of the unknown in this thrilling work of nonfiction that combines science, history, and nature writing to explore the deepest recesses of the natural world. Oceans created, shaped, and sustain not just human life, but all life on Earth, and perhaps beyond it. They are our history -- from evolution to exploration and colonialism; our present -- from beach holidays to transporting food and goods; and, as rising sea levels and warming water reshape coastlines and the climate, our future. Deep Wateris a reckoning with humankind's complex relationship with the ocean, a book shaped by tidal movements and vast currents, and lit by the presence of other minds and other ways of being. It speaks directly and uncompromisingly of the urgency of the environmental catastrophe that is overtaking us, but is also suffused with the glories of the ocean, and alert to the extraordinary efforts of the scientists and researchers whose work helps us understand its secrets. Immense in scope but also profoundly personal, it offers vital new ways of understanding humanity's place on our planet, and shows that the oceans might yet save us all.
James Bradley Book order







- 2024
- 2021
Ghost Species
- 288 pages
- 11 hours of reading
As humanity faces the urgency of climate crisis, it is hubris versus hope when Kate Larkin joins a secret project to save the world by resurrecting a ghost species, the Neanderthals. But when the child Eve is born, Kate's role as scientist, and mother, forces her to ask what really makes us, and Eve, human?
- 2017
Clade
- 301 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Moving and nuanced characterizations distinguish this subtle look at an Earth suffering the consequences of climate collapse. -Publishers Weekly Starred Review Bleak and hopeful in equal measure, Clade is a striking paradox of a book-a soothing tale of the coming apocalypse. -BookPage Bradley moves quickly through the lives of his protagonists, sketching their stories during key moments in the unfolding narrative. But the real story here is the all-too- realistic vision of an ecosystem in the throes of collapse,portrayed in stunning, sobering detail. -Booklist a stunningly beautiful novel, characterized as much by lyricism as pointed critique of how humans are stewarding the planet. -Chicago Review of Books Novels like Clade provide the lens we need to see our way forward. -Locus entertaining, insightful, and all around a great book -Gamers Sphere Barnes & Noble SFF blog: haunting, strangely optimistic Bradley's ability to find poetry amid brutal circumstances, his focus on the undeniably human problems of his cast, and a hopeful message of survival make Clade a melancholic celebration of humanity, not an elegy Bradley's novel is absorbing and depressing, as it is thoughtful and fascinating
- 2015
The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia
- 432 pages
- 16 hours of reading
"Bradley is sharp and rueful, and a voice for a more seasoned, constructive vision of our international relations with East Asia." --Christian Science Monitor James Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans--including FDR's grandfather, Warren Delano--who in the 1800s made their fortunes in the China opium trade. Meanwhile, American missionaries sought a myth: noble Chinese peasants eager to Westernize. The media propagated this mirage, and FDR believed that supporting Chiang Kai-shek would make China America's best friend in Asia. But Chiang was on his way out and when Mao Zedong instead came to power, Americans were shocked, wondering how we had "lost China." From the 1850s to the origins of the Vietnam War, Bradley reveals how American misconceptions about China have distorted our policies and led to the avoidable deaths of millions. The China Mirage dynamically explores the troubled history that still defines U.S.-Chinese relations today.
- 2014
More what if? : eminent historians imagine what might have been
- 400 pages
- 14 hours of reading
Concentrating on the crucial and the seemingly insignificant, historians offer an alternative history and take a provocative look at the way our world could easily have been. For example, what if William hadn't conquered?
- 2010
On the success of his two bestselling books about World War II, James Bradley began to wonder what the real catalyst was for the Pacific War. What he discovered shocked him. In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Taft, his daughter Alice, and a gaggle of congressmen on a mission to Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea with the intent of forging an agreement to divide up Asia. This clandestine pact lit the fuse that would-decades later-result in a number of devastating wars: WWII, the Korean War, and the communist revolution in China. In 2005, James Bradley retraced that epic voyage and discovered the remarkable truth about America's vast imperial past. Full of fascinating characters brought brilliantly to life, The Imperial Cruise will powerfully revise the way we understand U.S. history.
- 2009
Podtitul: Skutečný příběh letecké války v Tichomoří. Publikace přibližuje osudy devíti amerických letců, kteří byli sestřeleni Japonci během bojů v Tichomoří v letech 1944-1945. Autor, jehož otec byl přímým účastníkem kruté bitvy o japonský ostrov Iwodžima, kterou popsal v knize "Vlajky našich otců", se ve své další práci věnuje hornatému ostrovu Čičidžima, ležícímu v souostroví Ogasawara, 240 kilometrů severně od Iwodžimy. V období 2. světové války se zde umístěné radiové stanice, spojující císařské velitelství v Tokiu s jednotkami v Pacifiku, staly cílem útoků amerických bombardérů startujích z letadlových lodí. V září roku 1944 byl v blízkosti ostrova sestřelen dvacetiletý George H. W. Bush, budoucí prezident USA v letech 1989-1993, jehož zachránila ponorka. V únoru a březnu roku 1945 takové štěstí nemělo osm letců, kteří byli po sestřelení zajati, mučeni, popraveni a dokonce se stali oběťmi kanibalismu. Tato otřesná skutečnost vyšla najevo až v roce 1997, kdy byly odtajněny přepisy soudních přelíčení s japonskými válečnými zločinci na Guamu z roku 1946. Autor čerpal ze studia soudních záznamů, ročenek, palubních deníků, z rozhovorů s příbuznými a přáteli vojáků i očitými svědky v Japonsku.
- 2008
The Resurrectionist
- 352 pages
- 13 hours of reading
London, 1826: Leaving behind his father's failures, Gabriel Swift arrives to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master's nemesis, Lucan. Dismissed by Mr Poll, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London's underworld. Ten years later, another man teaches art in the penal colony of New South Wales. But as becomes clear when he falls in love with one of his pupils, no one may escape their past forever. A stark, sinister and compelling gothic thriller.
- 2004
Flyboys
- 464 pages
- 17 hours of reading
This paperback edition presents a compelling narrative of the Pacific War through the dramatic and unforgettable stories of nine heroic Americans, highlighting their bravery and experiences during this pivotal conflict.
- 2002



