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Best History Books
Proper nonfiction history books, not historical fiction, about any period, event, area or topic you like. Just well-written, well-researched, informative and interesting books for historians, history students and history enthusiasts. I didn't mean this to be a list of pop history, but I think it's too late now, so you might as well go ahead.
See also:
Best History Books
Best Non fiction American History Books
Best Non fiction War Books
Best Popular History Books on Goodreads
History By Year:
2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
See also:
Best History Books
Best Non fiction American History Books
Best Non fiction War Books
Best Popular History Books on Goodreads
History By Year:
2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 600 |
|
Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World
by
3.65 avg rating — 427 ratings
score: 295,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 600 |
|
Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London
by
3.75 avg rating — 728 ratings
score: 295,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 600 |
|
Diplomacy Blitz: Take Charge
by
Snapshot Systems (Goodreads Author)
4.39 avg rating — 36 ratings
score: 295,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 604 |
|
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings
by
3.94 avg rating — 970 ratings
score: 294,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 605 |
|
Ofredsår: Om den svenska stormaktstiden och en man i dess mitt
by
4.32 avg rating — 455 ratings
score: 293,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 605 |
|
Muhammad, the World-Changer: An Intimate Portrait
by
4.48 avg rating — 572 ratings
score: 293,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 607 |
|
Amendment Seventeen: A Blessing? Or a Curse?
by
4.58 avg rating — 12 ratings
score: 292,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 608 |
|
The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy
by
3.89 avg rating — 2,061 ratings
score: 288,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 608 |
|
Walden or, Life in the Woods
by
3.77 avg rating — 201,826 ratings
score: 288,
and
6 people voted
|
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| 610 |
|
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed
by
4.46 avg rating — 16,142 ratings
score: 287,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 610 |
|
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
by
4.38 avg rating — 10,938 ratings
score: 287,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 612 |
|
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
by
4.31 avg rating — 26,856 ratings
score: 286,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 613 |
|
The Children's Blizzard
by
David Laskin (Goodreads Author)
3.89 avg rating — 12,930 ratings
score: 285,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 614 |
|
T.R.: The Last Romantic
by
4.17 avg rating — 2,020 ratings
score: 284,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 614 |
|
The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany
by
4.10 avg rating — 240 ratings
score: 284,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 614 |
|
The Comanche Empire
by
4.17 avg rating — 1,814 ratings
score: 284,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 614 |
|
Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing
by
Melissa Mohr (Goodreads Author)
3.88 avg rating — 2,286 ratings
score: 284,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 618 |
|
Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
by
4.13 avg rating — 2,910 ratings
score: 283,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 619 |
|
The Age Of Napoleon Part 3 Of 3
by
4.50 avg rating — 10 ratings
score: 282,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 620 |
|
Landscape and Memory
by
4.19 avg rating — 1,198 ratings
score: 281,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 621 |
|
Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century
by
4.24 avg rating — 2,762 ratings
score: 280,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 622 |
|
To Marry an English Lord or, How Anglomania Really Got Started
by
3.59 avg rating — 5,768 ratings
score: 278,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 623 |
|
En defensa de España: Desmontando mitos y leyendas negras
by
3.91 avg rating — 287 ratings
score: 277,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 624 |
|
The Murder of King Tut
by
James Patterson (Goodreads Author)
3.39 avg rating — 10,911 ratings
score: 276,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 624 |
|
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
by
4.28 avg rating — 11,729 ratings
score: 276,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 624 |
|
American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History
by
4.03 avg rating — 139,425 ratings
score: 276,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 624 |
|
Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
by
4.17 avg rating — 6,077 ratings
score: 276,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 628 |
|
The Oxford History of the American People
by
4.14 avg rating — 203 ratings
score: 275,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 628 |
|
Imperium
by
4.36 avg rating — 7,625 ratings
score: 275,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 630 |
|
The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History
by
3.70 avg rating — 1,113 ratings
score: 274,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 630 |
|
The Armada
by
4.12 avg rating — 914 ratings
score: 274,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 632 |
|
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America
by
4.16 avg rating — 8,546 ratings
score: 273,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 632 |
|
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
by
3.82 avg rating — 48,346 ratings
score: 273,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 634 |
|
England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton
by
Kate Williams (Goodreads Author)
3.90 avg rating — 1,051 ratings
score: 272,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 634 |
|
The Lessons of History
by
4.06 avg rating — 19,711 ratings
score: 272,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 636 |
|
Ur of the Chaldees: A Revised and Updated Edition of Sir Leonard Woolley's Excavations at Ur
by
4.14 avg rating — 76 ratings
score: 271,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 636 |
|
The Gangs of New York
by
3.57 avg rating — 4,092 ratings
score: 271,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 636 |
|
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942
by
Ian W. Toll (Goodreads Author)
4.61 avg rating — 9,876 ratings
score: 271,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 639 |
|
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
by
4.23 avg rating — 2,592 ratings
score: 270,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 640 |
|
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
by
Helen Rappaport (Goodreads Author)
3.88 avg rating — 24,203 ratings
score: 269,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 640 |
|
Blood Royal: A True Tale of Crime and Detection in Medieval Paris
by
3.82 avg rating — 1,701 ratings
score: 269,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 642 |
|
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by
4.17 avg rating — 57,117 ratings
score: 268,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 643 |
|
Boone: A Biography
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2,091 ratings
score: 267,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 643 |
|
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean up Sin-loving New York
by
3.66 avg rating — 2,036 ratings
score: 267,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 643 |
|
A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - The Last Great Battle of the American West
by
4.15 avg rating — 2,448 ratings
score: 267,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 646 |
|
The Great Terror: A Reassessment
by
4.14 avg rating — 1,193 ratings
score: 266,
and
5 people voted
|
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| 646 |
|
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership
by
4.09 avg rating — 49,206 ratings
score: 266,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 648 |
|
Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization
by
Nicholson Baker (Goodreads Author)
4.06 avg rating — 2,072 ratings
score: 265,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 648 |
|
Auschwitz
by
4.31 avg rating — 18,032 ratings
score: 265,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 650 |
|
The Growth of the American Republic, Vol 1
by
4.45 avg rating — 42 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 650 |
|
The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History
by
3.61 avg rating — 3,408 ratings
score: 264,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 650 |
|
Investment in Blood: The True Cost of Britain’s Afghan War
by
4.09 avg rating — 35 ratings
score: 264,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 653 |
|
The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty
by
3.95 avg rating — 5,278 ratings
score: 263,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 653 |
|
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
by
4.46 avg rating — 19,693 ratings
score: 263,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 655 |
|
The Weaker Vessel
by
3.92 avg rating — 1,426 ratings
score: 262,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 655 |
|
History of the War in South Africa 1899-1902 v. 1 (of 4) Compiled by Direction of His Majesty's Government
by
4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings
score: 262,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 657 |
|
Farther Than Any Man: The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook
by
Martin Dugard (Goodreads Author)
4.33 avg rating — 2,446 ratings
score: 261,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 658 |
|
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
by
3.67 avg rating — 10,164 ratings
score: 260,
and
3 people voted
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| 658 |
|
Bloody British History: Liverpool
by
4.04 avg rating — 25 ratings
score: 260,
and
3 people voted
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| 658 |
|
1421: The Year China Discovered America
by
3.61 avg rating — 15,101 ratings
score: 260,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 661 |
|
Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
by
Therese Oneill (Goodreads Author)
3.82 avg rating — 9,125 ratings
score: 259,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 661 |
|
Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution
by
Mike Duncan (Goodreads Author)
4.50 avg rating — 7,019 ratings
score: 259,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 663 |
|
Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,706 ratings
score: 258,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 663 |
|
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
by
Jon Krakauer (Goodreads Author)
4.09 avg rating — 42,931 ratings
score: 258,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 663 |
|
The Basque History of the World
by
3.87 avg rating — 5,512 ratings
score: 258,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 666 |
|
Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front 1914-1918
by
4.26 avg rating — 600 ratings
score: 257,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 667 |
|
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War
by
4.18 avg rating — 2,535 ratings
score: 255,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 667 |
|
The Case for Christ
by
4.23 avg rating — 150,495 ratings
score: 255,
and
3 people voted
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| 669 |
|
Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62
by
4.07 avg rating — 5,031 ratings
score: 254,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 669 |
|
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
by
3.41 avg rating — 5,403 ratings
score: 254,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 669 |
|
In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
by
4.29 avg rating — 25,022 ratings
score: 254,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 672 |
|
Hidden Figures
by
Margot Lee Shetterly (Goodreads Author)
3.80 avg rating — 18,769 ratings
score: 253,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 672 |
|
Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe
by
Laurie Lisle (Goodreads Author)
4.14 avg rating — 2,386 ratings
score: 253,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 674 |
|
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
by
3.76 avg rating — 24,722 ratings
score: 252,
and
4 people voted
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| 674 |
|
How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions
by
4.32 avg rating — 669 ratings
score: 252,
and
3 people voted
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| 676 |
|
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
by
3.99 avg rating — 4,658 ratings
score: 251,
and
3 people voted
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| 676 |
|
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House
by
Kate Andersen Brower (Goodreads Author)
3.81 avg rating — 22,739 ratings
score: 251,
and
3 people voted
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| 678 |
|
The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century
by
4.22 avg rating — 511 ratings
score: 250,
and
3 people voted
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| 678 |
|
Malcolm X: The Last Speeches
by
4.50 avg rating — 913 ratings
score: 250,
and
3 people voted
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| 678 |
|
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
by
Garrett M. Graff (Goodreads Author)
4.72 avg rating — 42,416 ratings
score: 250,
and
3 people voted
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| 681 |
|
Bess of Hardwick: Empire Builder
by
4.12 avg rating — 3,440 ratings
score: 249,
and
4 people voted
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| 682 |
|
The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome
by
3.78 avg rating — 687 ratings
score: 248,
and
3 people voted
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| 682 |
|
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842
by
Nathaniel Philbrick (Goodreads Author)
4.04 avg rating — 6,794 ratings
score: 248,
and
3 people voted
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| 684 |
|
The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War
by
3.75 avg rating — 175 ratings
score: 247,
and
3 people voted
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| 684 |
|
Decision Points
by
George W. Bush (Goodreads Author)
3.81 avg rating — 42,242 ratings
score: 247,
and
3 people voted
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| 686 |
|
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
by
4.15 avg rating — 5,058 ratings
score: 246,
and
3 people voted
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| 686 |
|
The Book of Margery Kempe
by
3.30 avg rating — 4,830 ratings
score: 246,
and
3 people voted
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| 686 |
|
The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861
by
4.18 avg rating — 2,433 ratings
score: 246,
and
3 people voted
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| 689 |
|
The King's Peace, 1637-1641
by
4.15 avg rating — 186 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
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| 689 |
|
Official History of the Operations in Somaliland, 1901-04, Volume 1
by
Great Britain War Office (Creator)
3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
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| 689 |
|
A People's History of the World
by
4.03 avg rating — 2,568 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
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| 689 |
|
The Cartoon History of the Universe I, Vol. 1-7: From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great (The Cartoon History of the Universe, #1)
by
4.27 avg rating — 3,558 ratings
score: 245,
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3 people voted
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| 689 |
|
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde
by
4.21 avg rating — 5,215 ratings
score: 245,
and
3 people voted
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| 694 |
|
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
by
4.17 avg rating — 3,567 ratings
score: 244,
and
3 people voted
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| 694 |
|
On China
by
4.19 avg rating — 9,987 ratings
score: 244,
and
3 people voted
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| 696 |
|
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England
by
3.85 avg rating — 5,733 ratings
score: 243,
and
3 people voted
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Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence
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The Irish Soldiers of Mexico
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Tags:
17th-century-history, 18th-century-history, 19th-century-history, 20th-century-history, 21st-century-history, aboriginal, aboriginal-history, academic, african-american, african-american-history, african-american-studies, afro-american-studies, america, american, american-history, american-politics, american-president, american-presidents, american-revolution, american-revolution-history, american-revolutionary-war, american-studies, american-war-of-independence, autobiographies, autobiography, biographies, biography, black-american, black-history, british-history, colonial-america, colonial-history, early-american-republic, european-history, first-nations, first-nations-history, founder, founders, founding-family, founding-father, founding-fathers, french-revolution, history, history-american, indigeneity, indigenous, indigenous-history, medieval, memoir, memoirs, middle-ages, native-american, native-american-history, non-fiction, political-history, political-science, politics, president, presidents, revolution, u-k-history, u-s-history, u-s-politics, uk-history, united-states, united-states-history, united-states-politics, united-states-president, united-states-presidents, us-history, us-politics, us-president, us-presidents, usa, war-of-independence, women, womens-history, womens-studies
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Comments Showing 1-50 of 75 (75 new)
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Abi
(last edited Apr 24, 2010 02:41AM)
(new)
Feb 13, 2009 03:40AM
I really wish I could disqualify anything that has the words 'epic story' in the title. Great history books make an argument based on an interpretation of the past; a history book that just tells you a story has a seriously limited value.
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I cant seem to add books to the list but could I suggest A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich.
I went ahead and did disqualify a couple of works of fiction. But really, I don't think the "epic story" label should eliminate a work from consideration. You could start with Herodotus and Thucydides whose work is undeniably epic, but also epochal, in that we would have no history without them. Serious history has scholarly obligations, but it has artistic ones as well. If the matter isn't interesting, then ultimately no one is going to care about the footnotes or the argument.
Water for Elephants is most emphatically not a work of history.
Removed for being fiction:Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
I am of two minds about The Devils of Loudun, so I left it.
The Devils of Loudun is really not a novel, despite Huxley's reputation as a novelist. It is as "literary" as Barbara Tuchman. If you are thinking of the dreadful Ken Russell film based on the book, all I can say is, please don't.
Adding "Benedict Arnold's Navy" by James Nelson.Had it not been for Horatio Gates, who stole Arnold's genius at Saratoga and threw him to the wolves causing Arnold to "turn coat", Benedict Arnold could quite possibly been a greater American Hero than George Washington.
This book is of Benedict Arnolds building of a small fleet in the harbor of Skenesborough (modern day Whitehall, NY) to sail north and interdict the British fleet arriving via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Richelieu river.
The ensuing "Battle of Valcour Island" is considered to be the very first naval engagement by the American Navy.
All of the Edward Rutherfurd books on the list (Sarum, London, Russka, New York) are novels. If you include them, you have to open the field to Michener.
I was only able to find Russka. I have deleted it. Cheers.
I found the others, on page 3. I'll delete them.ETA: Also removed "The Great Indian Novel." Because it, too, is a novel.
Too much american history.You're not the world y'know ?
You could, of course, add works about non-American history to the list.
Removed: The Killer Angels - a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
Removed for being novels:Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
Chesapeake, by James A. Michener
Removed for being poetry:
The Ballad of the White Horse, by G.K. Chesterton
You could add him. It's easy to add books to lists; at the top of the page, at the tab next to "all votes."
David & Russ - any clue as to what book "Unknown Book 9379560" is at No. 147 on this list? You were the ones who voted for it.
The list is a little ethnocentric. Just a thought...if you know of a good book that is also the history of women, or Native Americans, or any other underrepresented group, you may want to add it. I added a few, but it could still use some rounding out.
D. wrote: "The Guns of August is a great, great book...but it is HISTORICAL FICTION. It is strong, well-researched historical fiction, but it is fiction This list is supposed to be strictly nonfiction."It is most certainly not historical fiction. What is your evidence that it is?
It won the Pulitzer for "general nonfiction."
Removed, for being novels:Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield
The Pale Criminal, by Philip Carr
Queen Margot, by Alexandre Dumas
A Philosophical Investigation, by Philip Kerr
Oh, it's a great book. It really does "read like a novel."
Revisited Feb 10 and asked the system to find duplicates, because I spotted one (Sherman's memoirs). The system found and removed 5 duplicates.I sympathize with the person who pointed out there is too much American history here. I went back and found some good books I had read (primarily Russian Revolution and Cuba) and added those; I can't reasonably add anything I haven't read, but have added some "want to reads" from the wider world.
Removed, for being novels:One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Quo Vadis
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Prince of the Atlantic: An Epic Novel Based on the True Exploits of Captain Luke Ryan Irish Swashbuckler & American Patriot Benjamin Franklin's Most Dangerous Privateer
And this is one of the times when I wish I had more than 100 votes!
I admire your fantastic library of golden books. Thank you.
I only had a hundred books I could add!
Wow, so many great sounding books that I've missed. Might have to read John Adams now, since it's at the top of the list. How about a history book that was just "fun" to read? Like "One of a Kind" about Stu Ungar, or "Vegas and the Mob," about, well, Las Vegas? Or are those too low-brow to admit at guilty pleasures?
Ron wrote: "Wow, so many great sounding books that I've missed. Might have to read John Adams now, since it's at the top of the list. How about a history book that was just "fun" to read? Like "One of a Kind" ..."Not familiar with these, but in order to qualify as history books, they must refer to a period at least 50 years before the publication date...at least I think so. Susanna CBG would know for sure.
I'm having a terrible time whittling my choices down to 100!
I wish I could pull books OFF this list. How about anything by Joseph Ellis is on this list is beyond me.
Socraticgadfly wrote: "I wish I could pull books OFF this list. How about anything by Joseph Ellis is on this list is beyond me."Exactly how I feel when I see Gone With the Wind as "best" historical fiction, when it is myth, and not even benign myth. But on the other hand, the First Amendment right to say what books we like is even more critical.
You don't give any reason for writing that Joseph Ellis shouldn't be on the list. At least one historian places him among the five best historywriters today (http://practicallyhistorical.net/2011...)
A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution, Vol 1\This 8 volume set written as a popular history is essential to understand the continuity of the development of the United States. This history is readable, does not focus on politics, politicians or generals and warfare. Rather all the above are included as they apply to the social fabric, and cultural development that caused America to become what it has. Here you will understand why normal people did what they did and the events that impacted peoples lives for good or evil. This set can be collected for about $8 or less per volume in used book stores. If you have any interest in history find any volume in a library and read a chapter.
Cameron wrote: "Siddhartha, being a novel, should be removed."Open ended listopia such as this one rely largely upon volunteer librarians, such as myself. If a title is misplaced on this list and you want to see it removed, please indicate on what page of the list you found it. This is a very long list, and I can't see scrolling through 18+ pages searching for 1 book, but I will zap it if I know where it is. Thanks.
page 2 Neil Shubin Your Inner Fish is not a history book. The only way that it is historical is if broad-stroke paleontology can be classified as historical
Whats wrong with novels? My interest in history started from The Other Boleyn Girl that is pretty much fiction. I wanted to know how the real story went, and the rest is "history". Recently I went to Amsterdam. As usual, before I have read few books about history of Netherlands. Some were unnecessary long and boring. In between I read The Coffee Trader, a novel, intertaining and very close to reality.So, whatever gets you going. Besides, the author disclaims in the book what is fiction and whats not.
Irina wrote: "Whats wrong with novels? My interest in history started from The Other Boleyn Girl that is pretty much fiction. I wanted to know how the real story went, and the rest is "history". Recently I went ..."Nothing is wrong with novels, but a fictional story set during an historic period is classified as historical fiction. There are a number of listopias for that genre. There are also some mixed listopias that include both history and historical fiction; the first that comes to mind is the American Civil War listopia, where both genres are welcome.
The listmaker determines the parameters, and by definition a history book is nonfiction. The subscript below the title specifies no historical fiction, so it's as clear as a bell.
If you dislike the listmaker's parameters, you are also free to start a new list, but it's best to check and make sure (using the search bar for listopias) that the list you want to vote on doesn't already exist.
Jonas wrote: "page 2 Neil Shubin Your Inner Fish is not a history book. The only way that it is historical is if broad-stroke paleontology can be classified as historical"History is defined as beginning when there is written language, so no, it's not historical.
Removed for genre reasons from page 3:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
The system found and removed 14 duplicates.
Dear Donna, goodreads is not University History department recommended reading, it's for people who like reading. How about Herodotus Histories? It is a history book, however I quote from experts "is bedevilled with the questions that still haunt it today concerning the relationship between truth and storytelling, SUBJECTIVE witnessing and objective record."
Irina wrote: "Dear Donna, goodreads is not University History department recommended reading, it's for people who like reading. How about Herodotus Histories? It is a history book, however I quote from experts "..."Thanks for the education, yo. If you want the parameters of the list changed, talk to Goodreads employees. I'm a volunteer, and I'm done with this thread.
Same here - GR librarians are not GR staff; we are all volunteers. You want to change the parameters of this list, I suggest you either argue with its creator, or contact GR staff and make a persuasive argument.
Otherwise your choices are to follow the parameters of this list, or to start another one. There are a ton of lists here on Listopia, and more every day.
Removed for genre reasons:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
and from page 8:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
And from page 4, the death of Bin Laden being too recent to qualify as history:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Was surprised this wasn't on the list: Jerusalem The Biography - by Simon Sebag Montefiore - a spectacular read, and listen.
Mark wrote: "Was surprised this wasn't on the list: Jerusalem The Biography - by Simon Sebag Montefiore - a spectacular read, and listen."Did you add it to the list? If not, you can do that using the tabs at the top of the list.
Historical fictionWinds of War, Herman Wouk, page 4
War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk, page 7
Sally wrote: "Historical fictionWinds of War, Herman Wouk, page 4
War and Remembrance, Herman Wouk, page 7"
Removed as fiction:
Winds of War, #374:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
War and Remembrance, #651:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Removed as out of genre, When Breath Becomes Air, which is a groundbreaking memoir but not history. History is defined as factual and having taken place at least 50 years prior to the time in which it is written. From page 4:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Removed #1960 Follow the River---fiction
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