History book recommendations?

Question

I'd like to get into reading some history books! I have a Goodreads account and I have read some classic historical literature pieces, but I haven't really dove deep into this area (excluding school textbooks). I don't have the best recommendations in the history genre because of this and I'm not great at searching for some good literary work with a genre I'm not familiar with (I've tried lol).

I'd love to open this up to a broad group of readers by asking for any awesome history book recommendations that bring to life the events that have occurred from the 15th century to I'd say.. mid-20th century. It can be fiction stories that depict cool events during the large time period I have asked for, or non-fiction (bear in mind, please don't suggest any books that have the boring school textbook context going on.. I beg of you :p)

Let it begin!

Answer 1

It sounds like what you are looking for, is what is generally called "popular history": easy to read, not academic, utilizes more personal touches. I would caution that they are not always the best sources of information, or completely accurate.



For the Second World War period, you may want to consult Anthony Beevor. His books "Stalingrad" and "Berlin: the downfall" were particularly highlight praised although not without controversy. They are easy and fast reads that focus on personal accounts about as much as telling the story. His later work "D-Day" brought various generally obscure things to light, such as Allied war crimes, but on the whole - imo - it is largely utter tosh and inaccurate. His early work on Crete is highly praised, although I found it a dry read.



Charles Mann's "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created" is another popular history that follows the author's travels around the world looking at the world Columbus "created". For me, having just finished studying the rise of global empires at university, there was very little in the way of new information in it and I only bought it to read on the plane. It goes on to long in places, but other sections are fascinating and on the whole the book is rather enlightening. I have not read it, but his earlier work "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus" also received high praise.



One of my favorite books is "After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000" by John Darwin. It is pretty academic and a serious study of empires during the period, but it is very accessible and utterly fascinating.



As soon as you said no school text books, the following popped to mind: "

The Long European Reformation: Religion, Political Conflict and the Search for Conformity, 1350-1750" I actually fell asleep reading this one ... several times! avoid :P



"I would recommend most of the books of Stephen Ambrose for non-fiction ... His writing style is much more like a novel or story-telling than a history textbook ..."



I doubt that some historians would argue that his writing style is that way because they are fiction. Ambrose is a very much criticized historian, although his books on Normandy were pretty good reads. Just don't take them as the final say on anything.

Answer 2

I would recommend most of the books of Stephen Ambrose for non-fiction, especially Undaunted Courage and Band of Brothers. His writing style is much more like a novel or story-telling than a history textbook and the books of his that I have read have been very interesting. Most of books cover the 19th and 20th centuries.



For historical fiction, you can try writers like Philippa Gregory (Tudor/Elizabethan England - The Other Boleyn Girl and others), CS Forester (18th Century seafaring - Horatio Hornblower series), or Bernard Cornwell (18th century warfare - Sharpe's series).



If you don't mind a little time travel, fantasy or romance in your historical fiction, then try Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Connie Willis' The Doomsday Book will take you back a little farther to Medieval England, but is a good read. Her Blackout and All Clear (WWII) are also good. The Guns of the South (Civil War) by Harry Turtledove is also good. He also has many other series that propose alternate outcomes or histories of the Civil War and WWII as well as many other historical events.



If you like getting your history Indiana Jones style, then books by Clive Cussler (primarily the Dirk Pitt and Isaac Bell series) or Matthew Reilly (Scarecrow, Jack West Jr. series) or even Dan Brown (Robert Langdon series) might be for you. These are all action adventure type books with a historical premise. While these will be a little lighter on the history, they do all feature real historical events, places and people, so might be more fun to read than some of the others.

Answer 3

That's a LOT of years and its a BIG world. :)



You are correct about fiction books. Most works of fiction are great sources of information about the topic and era of the work.



For American history...



To start you off on slavery in the United States, I highly recommend Frederick Douglass' autobiography. The man rose from slave to statesman and gives you true insights as to what it was like to be a slave. His persoanl dealings with John Brown and Abraham Lincoln are also worthy of your time.



There are many, many books on the American revolution and the founding fathers. They all offer a slightly different perspective, so I wouldn't recommend one over the other. The most interesting figures for me are Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Jefferson, Washington and Hamilton - in that order. That was a fascinating time.



Then there is the Civl War and WWII...



And that's just the US. Do you want to focus or jump around? I find its more fun to jump around.

Answer 4

Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook



The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt



I Was Vermeer by Frank Wynne (about an art forger plying his craft during WWII)



Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle



Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded by Simon Winchester



In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson. (Technically a travel book about Australia but it delves into a lot of history.)



The Medici Giraffe and Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power by Marina Belozerskaya

Answer 5

NO books are "awesome", and the only "cool" event was the Ice Age - if you meant" accurate" - and "interesting", why not say so ? All of Arthur Bryant's books in his series starting with "Makers of the Realm" are highly "readable"; C.V. Wedgewood's "The Thirty Years' War" is fascinating, as are her "The Kings's Peace" and "The King's War"; Antonia Fraser's "Cromwell - Our Chief of Men", and the recently-published "Cromwell - an Honourable Enemy", by Tim O'Reilly - an IRISH historian - give the truth about a period grossly misrepresented in "Popular History"; Chester Wilmot's "The Struggle for Europe" - the second World War. None are ANYTHING like School textbooks !

Answer 6

I've done a bit of reading about the Middle Ages and Renaissance. I wholeheartedly second the recommendation for Barbara Tuchman's books. There is also a series of books by Michael Wood which are made from his television shows. They include "In Search of the Dark Ages" and "In Search of the Domesday Book". If you are willing to make the effort to read older books, you should look at some written during the period you're interested in. Many of them are also available in translation, like "Beowullf", "Canterbury Tales", and "Le Morte d'Arthur". Some others, more or less at random: "Egil's Saga" about a badass character, Egil Skallagrimsson", who actually existed in the Viking era. "The Book of the Courtier", by Baldesar Castiglione, which recounts bull sessions among the courtiers of the Duke of Urbino, became a best-seller in its time because it was a "how to become a success in court" manual. "The Art of Courtly Love" was written by Andreas Capellanus in the late 12th C. Everybody knows at least a little bit about the Crusades, but here's a diffferent take: "Arab Historians of the Crusades" by Francesco Gabrieli. One of the writers he excerpts must have been writing for the counterpart of a supermarket tabloid. On a completely different topic, try Frederick Lewis Allen's "Only Yesterday", about the US in the 20's. I know I've gotten outside your time period of interest with some of these, but they're all good fun.

Answer 7

If you're willing to go a bit farther back in time, to the 1390s in China, you might enjoy "A Tale of Two Melons" by Sarah Schneewind. The author is a history professor but the book is written for a general, non-professional audience; it's relatively short; and it's a fascinating story that reads like fiction or even a folk tale, but is true.

Answer 8

Here is a sequence of history books in which you can trace the rise and fall of Hitler more accurately than any other way:

1 read Barbara G. Walker's, "Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" the articles on "Vehm" and "Zeitgeist" to see Hitler's earliest rise in 1919 under the tutelage of Princess Franzeska Oettingen whom he promised he would restore the "Vehm" (Inquisition) and the "Vehmgerichte" (Punishment Courts) in order to bring about a "Vernichtung" (Extermination) of the Jews, for which Princess Franzeska introduced him at the Ramsau Conference in 1919 as the "Zeitgeist" (Holy Spirit).

2 Read Bryan Riggs's, "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" for documentation that Hitler, Goebbels Heydrich--indeed, all of the High Command--were of "Mischling" (Mixed) ancestry of Jewish and Christian and that they sought to eradicate Jews from the Reich partly to hide their partial Jewish ancestry and partly because they were convinced that it was a "pollution" within the German folk.

3 and 4 Read both Karl Shaw's, "Royal Babylon" --only the chaopter called "God's Bailiffs"-- and Lachlan MacTan's, "Hidden Hitler" for proof that the Kaiser in World War One as well as Hitler in World War Two shared a homosexual lover named Prince Philip von Eulenberg, and Ernst Roehm leader of the Brown Shirts was also Hitler's homosexual partner, and that the "Night of Long Knives" on which Hitler had the SS murder all of the Brown Shirts oncluding Ernst Roehm, was to cover up his own homosexuality. There is the real motive behind Hitler's persecution of the homosexuals as well as the Jews.

5 read Martha Schad's, "Hitler's Spy Princess" for documentation that Pricess Stefi von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfuerst was actually born a Jewess in Vienna, married the POrince for the title in 1911, and got herself recruited into Hitler's spy network in order to bring him down. After playing it straight for many years, she amassed a wealth of information about Hitler's Third Reich and then went to Sand Francisco in the US, turned herself in to the FBI, gave them this mass of escpionage documents, and preceeded to advise the US throughout the war until Hitler was defeated.

THUS it was that one Princess raised Hitler up, while another Princess brought him down. These six books trace Princess Power throughout Hitler's career and make a fascinating sequential read in History.

Answer 9

Anything by



Max Hastings

Barbara Tuchman

C.V. Wedgwood.