Best Books for History Lovers
History lovers know that the past is never as simple as textbooks suggest — it is messier, stranger, and far more gripping. These are the top-rated history books across all eras and topics, ranked by readers who couldn't stop at just one.
- 1
Yuval Noah Harari
(110,000 reviews)One hundred thousand years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. How did our species succeed in the battle for domin…
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Marcus Aurelius
(75,000 reviews)The "Meditations" of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius are a readable exposition of the system of metaphysics known as stoicism. Stoics maintained that by putting a…
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Anne Frank
(62,000 reviews)Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been read by tens of…
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Corrie ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, John Sherrill
(45,000 reviews)This 35th anniversary edition of a bestselling book recounts Corrie tenBoom's horrific experiences in Hitler's concentration camps, explains how she survived, a…
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Yuval Noah Harari
(32,000 reviews)From the author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind comes an extraordinary follow-up that explores the future of the human spe…
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Walter Isaacson
(28,000 reviews)The #1 New York Times bestseller "A powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life...a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it." --The New Yor…
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Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry
(25,000 reviews)The prosecution of Charles Manson and his followers for the murders of Sharon Tate and six other people was a defining event in American history. Vincent Buglio…
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Stephen E. Ambrose
(24,000 reviews)In the summer of 1942, 506 young men from across America came together in the hills of Georgia to form E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airbo…
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Isabel Wilkerson
(22,000 reviews)NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S F…
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David McCullough
(22,000 reviews)"David McCullough once again tells a dramatic story of people and technology, this time about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur an…
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Plato
(22,000 reviews)The classic translation of the cornerstone work of western philosophy Plato's Republic is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential works in the histor…
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Jared Diamond
(19,000 reviews)Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, rather than the reverse? Jared Diamond argues that the gaps in pow…
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G. Edward Griffin
(16,000 reviews)Where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The money magicians' secrets are unveiled. We get a close look at their mirror and smoke machines, t…
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Peter Frankopan
(14,000 reviews)From the bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes an updated, timely, and visionary book about the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right…
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Homer, translated by Robert Fagles
(14,000 reviews)Dating to the ninth century BCE, Homer's timeless poem still vividly captures the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with one another's fates on the f…
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