Historic non-fiction books

I love historic non-fiction. I'm sure there are a lot of you who'd share the interest So discuss your fav non fiction historic books and also share your views about the genre. If you're reading a non-fiction historic book, do let us know too:)

I love historic non-fiction. Especially books that are written seamlessly, without pouring and cramming history into the minds of readers.

My fav book in this genre is "Freedom at Midnight" by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. It is an account of Lord Mountbatten's entry to India and all the events from then till partition. Its a brilliant read and I love it.

Excellent idea for a thread!

I have a large interest in history books, ancient through to fairly modern! Ancient Egyptian and Roman and Greek history. The fiction series Sharpe by Bernard Cornwell, got me interested in the history of Wellington and Napoleon. Wellington's travels around India, Spain, France, etc, then I wanted to find out more about these countries. There are plenty of eras that spark my curosity like the Victorian era, for example.

Sometimes history books contradict each other, which makes pin-pointing an event down a little difficult for research, but I guess that is to be expected.

I also love non fiction history books. Among my favourites is "The Third Reich" by Michael Burleigh, who simply writes it all down as fact, but it's still quite harrowing to read the happenings of the era and how it all came about.

Another favourite of mine is called "Century", which is a Phaidon book, full of pictures and historical fact. No matter what page you open, it just hits you like a ton of bricks the amount of things that have happened in 100 years.

There's a book version of "Band of Brothers", which is a wonderful read, if slightly inaccurate in places (which is, I suppose, to be expected when you're documenting times of specific soldiers). It's really great.

Anything about the Six Day War and the history of Palestine and Israel is also well liked by me- Six Days, Why Blame Israel?, etc. Really good stuff there, and not half as boring as you might think.

Recently, I've been introduced to historical graphic novels, which are just amazing. Joe Sacco wrote Palestine, about the First Intifada and how it came about and how bad it was for the people living in the area at the time.

But the best one is called "Maus", by Art Spiegelman, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his work. It's simply amazing. he portrays the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice, and tells his family's story in that way. It's one of the best books I have ever read.

Excellent idea for a thread!
Thanks Annie:)

But the best one is called "Maus", by Art Spiegelman, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his work. It's simply amazing. he portrays the Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice, and tells his family's story in that way. It's one of the best books I have ever rea
My Dad loves that book and has been recommending it to me for so long! May be I should try that soon..
There are plenty of eras that spark my curiosity like the Victorian era, for example.
Oh ..me too!:agree: Strangely I haven't found many good non-fiction books about it, though it has a huge share of fiction.. Any recommendations?

I have just bought the book "Indian Summer" by Alex Von Tunzelmann and I hope to read it soon- I have a long list waiting, though:lol: The book is about the Mountbattens, Indian Independence and Partition of India and Pakistan.

:rolleyes:As you may have noticed, I have a huge obsession for that topic- anything Mountbatten , Indian Independence or Partition related. It is sort of my pet subject:D

There's a book version of "Band of Brothers", which is a wonderful read, if slightly inaccurate in places (which is, I suppose, to be expected when you're documenting times of specific soldiers). It's really great.



Some of the latest books I've been reading are from The Great War. They have used officer/soldier diaries in order to document the facts of certain battles, or routes Divisions/Battalions/Regiments took. My mum has actually been able to get a copy of a war diary, due to it being so long ago, it's possible to access and trace these people (family line in our case) now.

These are a collection of books, "Battlefield Europe Series", each one documents a battle, or in the case of a long campaign breaks it down into managable amounts. I'm reading about "Bourlon Wood" at the moment, it gives a great deal of information. It deals with others as well, like WWII, the Civil War, War of the Roses, Napoleonic War, etc.



Oh ..me too!:agree: Strangely I haven't found many good non-fiction books about it, though it has a huge share of fiction.. Any recommendations?


Actually a bit of a difficult question. The Victorian era had such a wide variety of social boundaries. From the high class, working class, the orphanages, life on the streets and all the different clothes and life styles because of the situations. Then there's the industrial revolution around that time. You might be better of, looking for individual books (if money and time allows :) ) that deal with different areas, rather than a book that tries to cram it all in one.

There's a book version of "Band of Brothers", which is a wonderful read, if slightly inaccurate in places (which is, I suppose, to be expected when you're documenting times of specific soldiers). It's really great.


I've been wanting to read this for awhile now. It took me awhile to figure out it was also a book. :whistle: I've read a few of my own as well, "John Adams" by David McCullough, which was a very good read, long, but good. :tu: I've also read "Manhunt" by James L. Swanson, its aboout Abraham Lincoln's assassination and the hunt for his serial killer after his death. That was a swell read too. I've been wanting to read a biography on Lincoln, its emmensely huge and expensive, so haven't gotten around to it. I would also like to try McCullough's latest one on Thomas Jefferson I believe, I think that'd be interesting. I would great appreciate anything from the WWI or WWII eras, I think I need more books about anything other than American history. :whistle:

Try "Indian Summers'' if you like knowing about India's independence, partition and the role of Gandhi, Mountbatten, Nehru and Jinnah.

I'm half way through it and I love it so far. The author Alex Von Tunzelmann is a very talented story teller( which IMO is the MOST important trait of a good historian) and her writing is so mature and interesting for a debut book. I'm in love with the book and very impressed by the author. If there's one profession that has always intrigued me, other than journalism which I am pursuing now, it is history. I always love reading history and researching history.

So much so that I once made my parents take me a tour of some places of immense historic and architectural significance in India-places that were part of the marvellous Vijayanagara Empire. It was sweltering hot and I wasnt in the best of health; but I bore it all just because of the fascination I had for its history. Not unexpectedly , my parents were a bit indifferent when I suggested a similar tour again.

This book makes me want to take up some or the other research on the Rise and Exit of the British Raj and the pivotal figures of that time. :sigh: I told all this to make a point of how impressive and inspiring this book is, and I've only completed half of it.

Way to go Alex Von Tunzelmann!:tu:

Where do I start? I like anything by John Keegan. Military history supremo. I like Simon Schama for how he uses language even if I do feel that sometimes he is lacking in depth. I got 'Monarchy' by David Starkey but I find his fixation on the Tudors to the expense of everything else unsettling. I loved 'A Great and Terrible King' by Marc Morris fascinating, even if as a Scot I am not to fond of Edward 1. I really like 'Stalingrad' by Anthony Beevor, I didn't like 'Battle for Berlin' as much. I suppose the two authors I really, really love in historical non-fiction are James M. MacPherson, especially for 'Battle Cry of Freedom', the best single volume book at the American Civil War ever written and anything by Bruce Catton. The most precious book in my library is a first edition of 'This Hallowed Ground'.

I'm now reading The Discovery of India by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and I'm loving it :) It's such a beautiful, well-written, emotional piece of work and I'd recommend it to any history buff.

IMy favorite is a modern history book. A Long Way Gone. It's about the boy soldiers in Sierra Leone told from the point of voiew of a survivor Ishmael Beah.

I read about the RMS Titanic a lot, but also some about Olympic, Britannic and Lusitania. It's something they never covered in history class and I just wanted to know more.
Not sure if these are the same kinds of books you are talking about, but it sounded like it.

I love books like "Truman" by David McCullough, "How the Irish Saved Civilization" and "Gifts of the Jews" by Thomas Cahill and countless pieces of Military history.

But the books that have mattered to me the most recently have been books like Jared Diamond's "Guns Germs and Steel" and "Collapse" which deal with the underlying reality which cause China to be one way and Europe another. Probably the most interesting recent read of this type was "1491" by Charles Mann. It's subject was not just what the Native Americans accomplished up to 1491 but then why they essentially not only lost the Americas but lost everywhere.

All the Best,

Lunatic

I read King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild recently and it was really fantastic. It was terribly sad in a lot of parts, but very interesting to read about how the brutal regime of King Leopold II in the Belgian Congo was actually discovered and the activists who fought to show the world the truth. I was absolutely enthralled.

Mornings in Jenin (aka Scar of David) by Susan Abulhawa is an excellent absolutely heartbreaking historical fiction about a Palestinian family from pre 1948 times to about 2002. I couldn't put it down. It's fiction, but I've heard many true stories that are very similar.

More about it, my rather long review:
http://notanotherpoliticalblog-j.blogspot.com/2010/05/mornings-in-jenin.html (http://notanotherpoliticalblog-j.blogspot.com/2010/05/mornings-in-jenin.html)

I also love non fiction history books. Among my favourites is "The Third Reich" by Michael Burleigh, who simply writes it all down as fact, but it's still quite harrowing to read the happenings of the era and how it all came about.


I love this book! I also really enjoyed Auschwitz: The Final Solution which won a BBC award for the history book of the year and I believe a documentary was made as well. Absolutely flawlessly written and really fascinating, it is obviously very confronting but I couldn't put it down.

I love Laurence Rees for historical non-fiction. He writes about World War II and his book 'Auschwitz' is brilliant.

I like Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins' historic non-fiction books, like Is Paris Burning?. That one's a great read.

I couldn't get into their O Jerusalem, though.

I also liked Bertram Fields' Royal Blood - the mystery of the Princes in the Tower and the guilt or innocence of Richard III. It's written as a brief for a trial, with evidence, witness, character of the suspects, motive, means, opportunity, etc. Fascinating.

I found Winston Churchill's memoirs about WWII earlier this year, and I loved it. I was a bit afraid it would be a bore, but it's surprisingly easy to read, and absolutely fascinating. Mr Churchill was an excellent writer, and I was surprised at his humanity and even his humour.

I have a book on "Josephus - The Complete Works" translated by William Whiston, A.M. on my shelves in line to be read but I haven't started it yet.

I tend to like books written about ancient cultures, or historical biographies.

L'Aiglon (The Eaglet) by André Castelot, the biography of the King of Rome, later Duke of Reichstadt, Napoléon I's son.

The play with the same title by Edmond Rostand which, IMO, is a masterpiece. I cry at certain scenes every time I read/reread it.