a reddit reader posed the question “I want to read 12 history books in a year to know ‘all things’, what should be on the list?”
After much debate, the 12 below were chosen.
You are reading: History books to read
1. a history of the modern world
…provides a comprehensive survey that helps readers understand both the complexities of major events (eg, the French Revolution, World War I, or the collapse of great imperial systems) and the importance of analysis historical. it also provides a careful summary of the modern political changes that have affected the social and cultural development of all modern cultures.
2. postwar: a history of europe since 1945
This is the best story we have of Europe in the post-war period and it is not likely to be surpassed for many years.
3. walking from dawn
Part history, part memoir, this unconventional account of the fate of the Baltic nations is also a major reappraisal of World War II and its aftermath.
4. the tragedy of a town
See Also: 2010 Best Children&39s Books: The Complete List | Kirkus Reviews
Written in a narrative style that captures both the scope and detail of the Russian Revolution, Orlando Figes’s story is sure to become one of the most important contemporary studies of early 20th-century Russia.
5. china: a history
keay’s narrative spans 5,000 years, from the three dynasties (2000-220 bce) to deng xiaoping’s opening of china and the last three decades of economic growth. Broadly speaking, the book presents a history of all of China, including the regions (Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria) that make up two-thirds of the PRC’s land mass but barely appear in its conventional history. .
6. the arabs, a story
No better guide to the modern history of the Arab world could be found than Eugene Rogan. He is as attentive to insider stories in Arab memoirs as he is to imperial schemes hatched in paris and london drawing rooms, as concerned with popular movements and uprisings as he is with elite reformism, and unafraid to confront them directly and with the best evidence and documentation. controversial topics of colonialism, orientalism and the Arab-Israeli conflict are available.
7. orientalism
Regardless of whether the reader agrees with him, anyone interested in the Middle East should have read this book at least once.
8. The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of War as We Know It
The 20th century is generally considered to be “the century of total war,” but, as historian David Bell argues in this landmark work, the phenomenon actually began much earlier, in the age of Napoleon. Bell takes us from the “extermination” campaigns in the blood-soaked fields of western France to the savage street fights in the ruined Spanish cities to the battlefields of central Europe where tens of thousands died in a single day. Between 1792 and 1815, Europe was plunged into an abyss of destruction and our modern attitudes toward war were born.
See Also: Richard Russo – Book Series In Order
9. the problem of slavery in the era of revolution
a work of majestic scale, written with great skill. explores the growing awareness, over half a century of revolutionary change, of the oldest and most extreme form of human exploitation. Concentrating on the Anglo-American experience, the historian also pursues his theme wherever it leads him in Western culture. his book is a distinguished example of historical scholarship and art.
10. old world encounters
… examines cross-cultural encounters before 1492, focusing in particular on the main cross-cultural influences that transformed Asia and Europe during this period: the ancient silk routes linking China with the Roman Empire, the spread of religions of the world, and the Mongol empire of the thirteenth century. the author’s goal throughout the work is to examine the conditions (political, social, economic, or cultural) that allow one culture to influence, blend with, or suppress another. Based on its global analysis, the book identifies several distinctive patterns of conversion, conflict, and compromise that emerged from cross-cultural encounters.
11. introduction to medieval europe, 300-1550: age of discretion
I think this is the best medieval history textbook.
12. from alexander to actium: the historical evolution of the hellenistic age
green offers a particularly scathing analysis of what has been seen as the conscious spread in the East of Hellenistic culture, finding it to be largely a myth nurtured by Victorian scholars seeking justification for an imperialism that is no longer morally respectable. his work leaves us with a final impression of the Hellenistic age as a world with eerie and unsettling resemblances to our own. This lively, personal study of a period as colorful as it is complex will fascinate the general reader as well as students and scholars.
source
See Also: Leveled Books, K-8 by Irene Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell. Matching Texts