I don’t tend to read a lot of non-fiction, but am thinking of getting into it. I’m finding myself wanting to read some world history books, but there’s so much out there, and I don’t know where to start. I’d like to read some that are fairly unbiased and accurate. I’d like to say comprehensive, but if I ask that, I’m sure to get books with 4 digit pages, and I feel that would be intimidating.
I fully understand this is a broad subject, so maybe something that doesn’t delve too deeply into their subjects, and something that doesn’t go off on tangents about unecessary detail.
Ideally, I’d like a general overview of major world history, but a few subjects interest me more than others. British history, Napoleonic wars, Arab history, religious history, musical history. I’m sure there’s a few other things I might want to check out, but those are just off the top of my head.
by JRCSalter
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Nicholas Crane: the Making of the British Landscape
David Olusoga: Black and British – a Forgotten History
These books have served me well both as assigned texts in college and as ready reference books in subsequent years:
*The Penguin History of the World: Sixth Edition* by J. M. Roberts and Odd Arne Westad.
*The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Eugene F. Rice Jr. and Anthony Grafton.
*The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1715* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Richard S. Dunn.
*Kings and Philosophers, 1689-1789* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Leonard Krieger.
*The Age of Revolution and Reaction: 1789-1850* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Charles Breunig.
*The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848* by E. J. Hobsbawm.
*1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals* by Lewis Bernstein (L. B.) Namier.
*The Age of Nationalism and Reform, 1850-1890* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Norman Rich.
*The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Felix Gilbert and David Clay Large.
*Societies and Cultures in World History: Single Volumes Edition Chapter 1-35* (the history of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, as well as early and modern Asia) by Mark A. Kishlansky, Patrick J. Geary, Patricia O’Brien, and R. Bin Won.
*American History: A Survey* by Richard N. Current, T. Harry Williams, and Frank Freidel and later by Alan Brinkley and Allan Nevins. (A 2004 survey reported that at universities (as opposed to community and junior colleges) this text was the fourth most popular American History textbook on American campuses nationwide.) T. Harry was another of my college professors.
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber
A People’s History of the World by Chris Harman
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. He’s great at explaining complicated things so they don’t become overwhelming.
I recommend Agrippina by Emma Southern as a good intro level book, it is fun, irreverent but importantly at the beginning she discusses what the historian’s job is and how they navigate sources. Just because of internet discourse I have come to realise that I was unusually fortunate in my history teacher giving us a through grounding on Primary and Secondary sources in school. I feel reading her book gives you a sense of what to look out for in other books. A narrative history doesn’t have to overload you with sources and references but I get very nervous when there is no discussion of the source material at all.
Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. Very readable!