I want to read more in 2007, which great history books would you put on your top ten list?

Question

I am looking for good books for "lay people." I would love reccomendations for specific regions such as European, American, Asian, African, South American, as well as general world history. My goal is to read 6-10 books on history this year, so a top ten list would be great!

Answer 1

When I was at your stage (admittedly years ago), I discovered the series by Will and Ariel Durant called the Story of Civilization. The eleven volumes range from Our Oriental Heritage (1935) to The Age of Napoleon (1975). Of course, they are better on European and Western Civilization, and may seem somewhat dated now. But I still have all eleven volumes and consult them regularly. They are accurate and detailed, but very readable.

My favorite American history series is the three-volume one entitled The American Experiment by James MacGregor Burns (Vineyard of Liberty, Workshop of Democracy, and Crosswinds of Freedom). Again, very accurate, detailed and readable. Burns is esp. interested in leadership and the way it has been played out in US history.

If you're interested in British history, you still can't beat Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples (4 volumes, as I remember). Just a fun read, but also fun for browsing.

Robert Hughes, the Australian art critic for Time Magazine, has written an engaging account of the British convict settlements in Australia (The Fatal Shore, 1987).

I wish I could be helpful on Asian, African, and Latin American histories. I simply haven't come up with good readable, yet comprehensive ones yet. I hope others have.

In recent years, I have come to rely on biographies to tell the real story of history, especially recent history. If you want to branch out in that direction, try any of the ones by David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin. (I'd begin with McCullough's Truman or Goodwin's The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.)

Happy 2007! And Good Reading!

Answer 2

I am reading 1491 by Charles Mann..it is great and I am almost done. It is about the history of the Americas before the Europeans arrived. It dispells the common belief that natives were simply living in harmony with nature and were totally gullible when the Europeans came. They were a force of nature that irrigated land, built cities and had complex political systems.

I would also recommend Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford..it really opened my eyes to what an incredible empire was built..they were not savages..It was a great history lesson..

Answer 3

I'm not sure I can think of 10, but I would definitely include:

1. From Sea to Shining Sea, by James Alexander Thom (historical fiction about the Lewis and Clark expedition)

2. Moonshot, by Alan Shepherd (history of the space program)

And if you want to read alternate history (how history might have changed if one or two circumstances had been different), read the Stars & Stripes series by Harry Harrison.

Answer 4

'A People's History of the United States' by Howard Zinn. It's a little left-of-center politically, but it tells a lot of the history of the 98% of the country that got left out of the history books. You know--the poor and nonwhite people.

And I realy liked Vidal's 'Burr'. I mean...who knows anything about Aaron Burr except that he shot Hamilton? On the other hand, I have no idea if it's at all historically accurate. Vidal seems like somebody I can trust to do his research (or have a class of grad students do it for him), but he's a novelist, not a historian.

Answer 5

History as it truely was. My own life with other stories I have saved for 40 years. All tied together with a family I call WEED.
If you like true stories check my site at www.wizeoldphart.com for a preview of "MY" books. True stories of kids growing up during the 40's and 50's. Pee your pants funny with a few tears. After the first book I had so many emails from my readers that I wrote the second. THE GOOD WEEDS and THE FAMILY WEED.
Thanks, Wayne

Answer 6

a million. 1000 Masterpieces (Sister Wendy) 2. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) 3. The Earth's little ones sequence (Jean Auel) 4. Pusssy, King of the Pirates (Kathy Acker) 5. The Tibetan e book of the lifeless (some extremely previous Tibetan guy) 6. Lonesome cities (Rod McKuen) 7. Poems for young ones (Lewis Carroll) 8. lost thoughts (J.R.R. Tolkien) 9. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) 10. It (Stephen King)

Answer 7

These books are my absolute favorite they are historical buit considered fiction but they are impeccabley researched and just amazing reads:

The Killer angels by Michael Shaara (about the battle of Gettysburg)

Gos and Generals by Jeff Shaara (events leading up to and the begining of the Civil war)

The Last Full Measure by Jeff Shaara (about the end of the civil war)

Gone for Soliders by Jeff Shaara (about the Mexican war when all the civil war generals fought for the same side)

Jeff Shaara has written others that are really great to but that i havent read so i cant personally reccomend them

1776 by David McCullough (about the American Revolution) I havent read it but heard amazing things about it its on my reading list this year.

There was one more i had but i cant remember the name sorry!

Answer 8

I'm not a big history book reader, but last year I read "Kristallnacht" by Martin Gilbert, and really liked it. It was well-written and easy to follow for a non-historian such as myself. I highly recommend it.

Answer 9

many versions of the Spartans at Thermopylae have been written but none touch the dramatization of it in Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield I cannot not recommend it more highly good reading regardless of what it is

Answer 10

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich