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  1. Genres
  2. ›History

Best History Books

Historical events and periods

508 summaries

Showing 433–456 of 508

  1. Julius Caesar

    William Shakespeare

    ★ 4.3 (2k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    In the shadow of ambition and betrayal, Rome's most powerful general, Julius Caesar, discovers that even the closest friends can wield the deadliest daggers.

  2. Bury the Chains

    Adam Hochschild

    ★ 4.3 (2k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Twelve determined men in a London printing shop started the world's first grassroots movement, using boycotts and celebrity endorsements to end the British Empire's slave trade against strong opposition.

  3. Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

    Shigeru Mizuki

    ★ 4.0 (2k) average on Goodreads

    In the harrowing, semi-autobiographical graphic novel, 'Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths,' Shigeru Mizuki plunges readers into the final, futile weeks of a Japanese infantry unit in World War II, where soldiers are condemned to a 'glorious' death in battle or execution for daring to survive.

  4. On the Rez

    Ian Frazier

    ★ 3.9 (2k) average on GoodreadsLifestyle

    Ian Frazier explores the realities of the Oglala Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation, showing a culture sustained by humor, resilience, and the past in the face of modern challenges.

  5. The Idea of Justice

    Amartya Sen

    ★ 4.0 (2k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Amartya Sen argues against seeking a perfectly just society, instead favoring a practical, comparative approach to justice that addresses real-world inequalities by considering diverse viewpoints.

  6. Elephant Man

    Christine Sparks

    ★ 4.0 (2k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    The true story of John Merrick, the 'Elephant Man,' shows the soul and human needs beneath his deformed body, changing ideas about beauty and humanity.

  7. The Quest for Cosmic Justice

    Thomas Sowell

    ★ 4.4 (2k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Sowell shows how seeking an ill-defined 'cosmic justice' undermines true equality and freedom, slowly eroding the foundations of the American Revolution through well-intentioned but flawed social ideas.

  8. Outline of a Theory of Practice

    Pierre Bourdieu

    ★ 4.0 (2k) average on GoodreadsPhilosophy

    Bourdieu's main work shows 'habitus' as a system of tendencies, shaped by and shaping social practices within Kabyle society.

  9. Portrait of a Turkish Family

    Irfan Orga

    ★ 4.2 (2k) average on GoodreadsLifestyle

    In fin-de-siècle Istanbul, an Ottoman family, led by an autocratic grandmother and a child-bride mother, copes with the collapse of their empire, fortune, and way of life, from opulent hamam rituals to the reality of a new Turkish republic.

  10. The Story of Civilization

    Will Durant

    ★ 4.4 (2k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Durant’s "Story of Civilization" is an eleven-volume series that covers human history from ancient Mesopotamia to the Napoleonic era, detailing the rise and fall of empires, philosophies, and the evolution of art and science.

  11. Parallel Lives

    Plutarch

    ★ 4.1 (1k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    Plutarch's 'Parallel Lives' pairs the lives of Greek and Roman figures, not to chronicle history, but to show character through anecdote and detail, revealing how virtue and vice shaped their destinies.

  12. The Revolution Betrayed

    Leon Trotsky

    ★ 4.0 (1k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    Trotsky explains how the Soviet Union, under Stalin, fell from a revolutionary state to a totalitarian one, showing how bureaucratic corruption and the rejection of true socialist goals betrayed the workers' state.

  13. The Boer War

    Thomas Pakenham

    ★ 4.2 (1k) average on Goodreads

    Thomas Pakenham masterfully recounts the brutal and complex Boer War, weaving together gripping narratives with rich visuals that illuminate the clash of empires and the human cost of conflict.

  14. Night of the Grizzlies

    Jack Olsen

    ★ 4.1 (1k) average on GoodreadsScience

    In Glacier National Park, August 1967, two campers died in separate grizzly bear attacks, changing the park's approach to its predators.

  15. The New Penguin History of the World

    J.M. Roberts

    ★ 4.0 (1k) average on GoodreadsLifestyle

    From the African savannah to the post-9/11 world, this sweeping chronicle traces the diversity of human civilization, power shifts, and the triumphs and struggles of people across continents.

  16. The Airmen and the Headhunters

    Judith M. Heimann

    ★ 4.2 (1k) average on Goodreads

    In Japanese-occupied Borneo, a downed B-24 crew's survival depends on enigmatic Dayak tribesmen, blurring the lines between 'civilized' and 'savage' during wartime.

  17. Timaeus and Critias

    Plato

    ★ 3.9 (1k) average on GoodreadsScience

    Plato's Timaeus and Critias explores the creation of the cosmos, the divine origin of humans, and the advanced civilization of Atlantis through ancient Greek philosophical dialogues.

  18. The Anatomy of Melancholy

    Robert Burton

    ★ 4.2 (1k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    Robert Burton's 17th-century work is a vast, elegant exploration of human melancholy, dissecting every aspect of the condition and offering a timeless journey through psychology, history, and philosophy.

  19. The Origins of the Second World War

    A.J.P. Taylor

    ★ 4.0 (1k) average on GoodreadsPolitics

    A.J.P. Taylor argues that the Second World War was not Hitler's premeditated plan, but a series of blunders and miscalculations, rewriting the war's beginnings.

  20. Frida

    Jonah Winter

    ★ 4.2 (1k) average on GoodreadsBiography

    Frida Kahlo turned life's hardest moments and greatest joys into lasting art, from her father's color lessons to the raw depiction of polio and bus crash pain.

  21. Rabelais and His World

    Mikhail Bakhtin

    ★ 4.3 (1k) average on GoodreadsPhilosophy

    Bakhtin describes the revolutionary laughter of Rabelais's carnival as a timeless force of popular renewal, subtly defying the oppressive orthodoxies of his own Stalinist era.

  22. The Art of Memory

    Frances A. Yates

    ★ 4.2 (1k) average on GoodreadsPsychology

    Frances Yates explores how ancient orators and Renaissance mages mastered vast knowledge before printing, using forgotten memory palace techniques that shaped Western thought.

  23. Civil War

    Marcus Annaeus Lucanus

    ★ 3.9 (1k) average on Goodreads

    Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great tear the Roman Republic apart in a brutal, bloody struggle that shatters law, order, and the soul of a civilization.

  24. The Lost Book of Enki

    Zecharia Sitchin

    ★ 4.1 (1k) average on GoodreadsSpirituality

    Follow the Anunnaki leader Enki as he shares the extraterrestrial origins of humanity, a story of celestial politics, ancient rivalries, and scientific discoveries that challenge what we know about our past and future.

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