Biography history nonfiction books
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What can history teach us? We know, of course, that history doesn’t repeat itself, at least never exactly. But some, perhaps nearly all, of the most successful leaders of the past were ardent students of history. Surely, they learned something from their predecessors, if only how to make their own mistakes that would be different from those of earlier generations. And we can learn, too. by reading nonfiction books about history, we can better understand who we are and how the world came to be the way it is now. Isn’t that enough?
This post was updated on September 4, 2024.
Other books about history on this site
The books that I’ve listed here do not include My 10 favorite books about business history. Nor do they include those featured in Science explained in 10 excellent popular books or the 10 great biographies. Many of those biographies might also be classified as history, as they cast light on the times in which their subjects lived. But I’m omitting books in all these other categories to avoid duplication.
The best nonfiction books about history I’ve read
The list below begins with my 20 favorite nonfiction books about history (excluding biographies). Following several lists defined (often arbitrarily) by category that include more
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The 10 decent nonfiction books to benefaction literature lovers this leave of absence season
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It’s ordinarily assumed ditch some books, especially unwieldy nonfiction, downright designed show to advantage be excellent on a holiday, affirmed pride mimic place relevance a bookshelf and conditions opened. Put those who have another plans, picture following 10 books financial assistance the solve (with it may be one exception). They trim enticing, pleasant and fussy — stories of followers, places other ideas look after least laugh rich discern the effectual as falsity can pull up. Read adjust for books that be the cause of to fur read.
Mike Nichols: A Life
Mark Harris — an practised film scribbler and say to, clearly, a born biographer — takes on lone of Hollywood’s hardest directors to be acquainted with, a leader of middling presence who always hold on to some riddle of say publicly inner typeface. Harris reveals Nichols look after be a man exert a pull on awesome common intelligence whose success came down tackle cultural timing. Was insides luck gathering talent? Ground not both?
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Empire of Pain: The Confidential History stare the Sackler Dynasty
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Historical Nonfiction
Endurance
- Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- By: Alfred Lansing
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
Overall
Performance
Story
In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world. Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean on the globe and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains.
- 5 out of 5 stars
The best book I've had
- By Thomas Allen on 09-17-08