Best history books ever?

[lokariototal]

What do you think are the best history books ever? Mention them! and their authors!

[Modest Proposal]

If I had to say a single work... Moby Dick.

I know it has parts not incredibly exciting, but at its best it is the best of all time.

[Drkshadow03]

If I had to say a single work... Moby Dick.

I know it has parts not incredibly exciting, but at its best it is the best of all time.

How's that a history book?

[Modest Proposal]

Oh wow, I didn't even see that word.

Sorry, I just thought it said book. In some slight defense of myself, this is the general literature forum... that doesn't really change the fact that I cannot read...

[Granny5]

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. Tells the truth about the story of American Natives and how they were treated by settlers of North America.

[stlukesguild]

Gibbon's- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

[mortalterror]

Gibbon's- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Agreed. Although, I am no history buff. Some people recommend starting at the beginning with Herodotus and Thucydides, but since I hated both of their books, I am not one of that number. Gibbon's prose style is enthralling. I was just reading a bit more of him the other day, after I finished my Herodotus, and he is as fresh and winsome as ever. I find I like his narrative better than I do the works of Livy, Tacitus, Polybius, Macaulay, Prescott, or Toynbee.

[mal4mac]

Like Montaigne, I prefer my history in the form of biography. He recommends reading Plutrach's lives. My favourites include Montaigne (Essays), J.S. Mill (Autobiography), Bryan Magee (Confessions of a philosopher). Also - Shakespeare's history plays.

Straight history books are often just that - too straight - too dry, too boring, too many dates, too little psychological depth, too many lists of non-entities & non-events. (Gibbon, Herodotus, and Thucydides might be exceptions! I must get round to reading them sometime... after Plutarch.)

I tend to pursue history and geography 'as needed', if absolutely necessary. For instance in reading Ellman's (superb) biography of Joyce I had to look up where Trieste was. But, from context, I learned all I needed to know about the struggle between Austria and Italy over Trieste. Also that struggle seen through the eyes of Ellman & Joyce was made very interesting and very memorable, no straight history book could compete in providing such a "useful" and "pleasurable" overview.

Which are the best historical/geographical reference works providing good "as needed" support? I'm tempted to buy the Times History of the World (there's an amazing offer on at W.H.Smiths at the moment).

[sixsmith]

I can offer a few that i've enjoyed. 'The making of the English working class' by EP Thompson provides a frequently compelling, sometimes controversial account, of how a working class emerged in England in the late 18th early 19th century. His historiography is based in historical Marxism, but it's an approach which, despite its flaws, lends itself to a uniquely revealing view of English society.

I'll also proffer another Marxist history. 'Roll Jordan Roll' by Eugene Genovese. I read it as an undergrad, however, so it's possible i was just impressed by the attempt to understand the antebellum south in a way which had not been considered previously (I don't think it had).

I'd probably cop flak from the capital H Historians for saying so, but Robert Hughes' 'The Fatal Shore' is one of the best historical reads around, and certainly one of the best treatments of Australia's formative years.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Here are a few from the Gurgle library:

Sir Bannister Fletcher’s “A History of Architecture” My copy happens to be the 19th edition.

“The Story of Civilization” by Will and Ariel Durant. This is an exhaustive ten part series of books that begins with Part I-“Our Oriental Heritage” and ends with Part X – “The Age of Rousseau and Revolution”

“The Second World War” – Another series covering the history of the second world war by Winston S. Churchill.

I’ll second St. Luke’s; Gibbons- “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”

“The Centennial History of the Civil War” series by Bruce Catton

[Night_Lamp]

If you're interested in the French revolution, When The King Took Flight
by Timothy Tackett is a great read. It follows the failed flight of Louis XVI and its social and political implications. The book reads like one of Scott's historical
fiction novel, but is true. Not at all like a history text.

Highly enjoyable

[Etienne]

Gibbon's- Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

There's always the problem that the historical part is a bit dated, and thus should be the basis for further explorations.

[Gustavo L.]

On Middle Ages:
The Sorceress and Joan of Arc by Jules Michelet; quite dated but superbly written.
George Duby’s The Age of the Cathedrals, on art and society between the Xth and XVth centuries.

[atiguhya padma]

Macaulay's History of England
S R Gardiner's History of the English Civil War
Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down / Century of Revolution
Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic
Norman Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millenium
Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy

More recently

Theodore Zeldin's An Intimate History of Humanity
Jonathan Glover's Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
Sven Lindqvist's History of Bombing
Norman Davies's History of Europe
Diarmaid McCulloch's Reformation: Europe's House Divided

Of more recent

[Eryk]

A People's History of the United States

Guns, Germs and Steel