Best History Books. Your recommendations

Thought I'd list some of my favorite history books. And would love to hear your best and a little synopsis please. History is a broad topic, and throughout out my life I have gone through different phases of research and interest.
Following are my best of:

LLydel Harts History of the First World War

Bill Bryson History of Everything (funny and thorough, if a history of everything can be thoroguh)

Jay Barbree Live from Cape Canaveral , History of Nasa.

Isaac Asimov Chronology of the World, it gives insights rather than account of facts, good read

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, Gettysburg, civil war history.

Venerable St Bede Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum
written in the 8th century. History of the English Church, interesting to read a history written 1300 years ago

George Ostrogorsky History of the Byzantine State. I have a thing for Byzantium , so any book really but this is a good and thorough start.

succinctly traces the intricate thousand-year course of the Byzantine Empire. While his emphasis is on political development, he gives extensive consideration to social, esthetic, economic, and ecclesiastical factors as well. He also illuminates the Empire’s links with classical antiquity, as well as its effect on contemporaneous and subsequent European and Near Eastern history. The author captures the full sweep, the grandeur, and the tragic course of Byzantium’s rise and fall, backed by the scholarship and authority of a lifetime devoted to its study.

www.barnesandnoble.com... ping+Textbooks_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP20436&k_clickid=3x20436

Peoples History of the United States
Howard Zinn

My library
My History
Books on Google Play

Pr!: A Social History of Spin
Stewart Ewen
Late 19th century through 1980. Discusses corporate power, advertising and the drive to turn citizens into consumers. Happy consumers.
While Zinns work is known well, this one is not but is a real eye opener

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Ellis

While many books talk about the forgers of the American nation as the founding fathers, this book describes them not as a monotithic group of saints, but rather as a number of flawed individuals who managed to work together well enough to found the nation. It follows the differing courses of their lives and the differing power memes alive at the time.

"The Frontiersman" by Allen Eckert.
Pretty much about one man going into the frontier before the American Revolution and many of the people he came in contact with.

Written in a way that is story like but every piece of info is based upon fact, gathered through letters and stories and all foot noted at the end.

Its pretty good but honestly brutal.

a reply to: zazzafrazz

Richard Evans The Third Reich Trilogy surpasses even Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Charlie Pelligrino's Ghosts of Vesuvius is great, it deals with 9/11 and its similarities to Pompeii.

Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Else Like it in the World which is a detailed history of the transcontinental railroad.

David McCullough's 1776.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

I've read Zinn's book am am so glad you included it, it was revolutionary in its own way
Social History of Spin on my list now thx

a reply to: zazzafrazz
Anything by Arnold Toynbee.
His Study of History analyses the growth and development of the different civilisations which have shared the planet.
If you like Byzantine history, try his "Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his world".
For Anglo-Saxon history, I have an excellent modern paperback translation (Phoenix Press) of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

originally posted by: tinner07
"The Frontiersman" by Allen Eckert.
Pretty much about one man going into the frontier before the American Revolution and many of the people he came in contact with.

Written in a way that is story like but every piece of info is based upon fact, gathered through letters and stories and all foot noted at the end.

Its pretty good but honestly brutal.

I would love to read this, Since moving to the US I have gotten into the whole frontier thing, after I learned about the Donner Pass catastrophe whilst visiting Lake Tahoe

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
Peoples History of the United States
Howard Zinn

I enjoyed watching the History channel special they had of the book a few years ago. When different celebrities and speakers would read different passages from the book. However, I don't think it's 100% accurate and should be looked with much skepticism.

RationalWiki: Peaople's History

Auschwitz: A New History by author Laurence Rees looks like it will be very informant about the history of the Holocaust and what happened in the Auschwitz concentration camp. There was also a companion DVD released: Auschwitz The Nazis and the Final Solution.

Forgive if the video is not working.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: zazzafrazz
Anything by Arnold Toynbee.
His Study of History analyses the growth and development of the different civilisations which have shared the planet.
If you like Byzantine history, try his "Constantine Porphyrogenitus and his world".
For Anglo-Saxon history, I have an excellent modern paperback translation (Phoenix Press) of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

Read Born in the Purple good recommendation for anyone wanting to learn this fascinating empire.

A good set of old encyclopedias is a great reference to battle revisionist history and to understand how people thought in a particular era.

Cheap too if you look at garage sales and such like.

P

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Thought I'd list some of my favorite history books. And would love to hear your best and a little synopsis please. History is a broad topic, and throughout out my life I have gone through different phases of research and interest.
Following are my best of:

LLydel Harts History of the First World War

Bill Bryson History of Everything (funny and thorough, if a history of everything can be thoroguh)

Jay Barbree Live from Cape Canaveral , History of Nasa.

Isaac Asimov Chronology of the World, it gives insights rather than account of facts, good read

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, Gettysburg, civil war history.

Venerable St Bede Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum
written in the 8th century. History of the English Church, interesting to read a history written 1300 years ago

George Ostrogorsky History of the Byzantine State. I have a thing for Byzantium , so any book really but this is a good and thorough start.

succinctly traces the intricate thousand-year course of the Byzantine Empire. While his emphasis is on political development, he gives extensive consideration to social, esthetic, economic, and ecclesiastical factors as well. He also illuminates the Empire’s links with classical antiquity, as well as its effect on contemporaneous and subsequent European and Near Eastern history. The author captures the full sweep, the grandeur, and the tragic course of Byzantium’s rise and fall, backed by the scholarship and authority of a lifetime devoted to its study.

www.barnesandnoble.com... ping+Textbooks_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP20436&k_clickid=3x20436

Here are the few that just popped into my head. All were wonderful and mind-opening.

Total War: From Stalingrad to Berlin

Excellent and in-depth overview of Germany/USSR conflict during WWII.

www.amazon.com...

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

A book about the latest anthropological evidence and ideas surrounding pre-Columbian Americas. Both extremely educational and eye-opening about some of the simplicities of our views surrounding this time period and region.

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450747757&sr=1-1&keywords=1491

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

Another excellent book about many of the myths and much of the whitewashed history we have been taught about the America's, written in a way accessible to all.

www.amazon.com...=nb_sb_ss_i_2_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=lies+my+teacher+told+me+everything+your+american+history+textb ook+got+wrong&sprefix=lies+my%2Cstripbooks%2C141&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Alies+my+teacher+told+me+everything+your+american+history+textbook+got+wrong

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, Potrait of an Age

Interesting and well-written account of Europe basically from the fall of the Roman Empire through the Renaissance. A great education in the rise of the Church, contemporary philosophy, culture, history, standards of living, etc.

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450747810&sr=1-1&keywords=a+world+lit+only+by+fire

The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History

One of the best accounts of the history of the Korean peninsula and the rise of the current conflict. I bought this while in Korea.

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450747969&sr=1-1&keywords=two+koreas

Book of the Hopi

Fascinating look at the ancient history, evidenced and mythical, of the Hopi. Extremely interesting when one realizes that the Hopi claim they can read the glyphs of everything from the Aztec to the Maya and say those are lost tribes of the Hopi, or those who did not continue their sacred journey to the Southwest. Also, the book details that the Hopi were one of the tribes who appear to have had accurate prophecies for when their white brethren or even gods would return, and it corresponded with the dates for when Cortez arrived.

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450748205&sr=1-2&keywords=Hopi

Lots of others.

Oh Oh OH!!

The Great War for Civilization: Conquest of the Middle East

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk is probably the ultimate "real" investigative journalist focusing on the Middle East. He defines what real journalism is, and is anything but propaganda. This book is his magnus opus, focusing on his decades of journalism and historical analysis in the ME. This book should be a required primer for anyone studying the modern ME, including the various conflicts that have occurred in the past 100 odd years.

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450748479&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+war+for +civilization

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

I think I am the only person on ATS who hasn't read a book on the Hopi.

a reply to: zazzafrazz

What period?

What country or region?

What era of publication?

Academic or popular?

If you're just looking for something exciting to read, the Anabasis of Xenophon is hard to beat. If you want something more modern, try Millennium by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.

A good one-volume history of the United States, not written by a conspiracy theorist, a political ideologue or an American, Is Hugh Brogan’s Penguin History of the United States.

And if you’re looking for literature, look no further than Winston Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

a reply to: DISRAELI

Anything by Arnold Toynbee

Arnold Toynbee is both a fantastic writer and historian.

! would recommend " Lectures On The Industrial Revolution In England"

This event was eventually to affect the entire world.

Zero - The biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife.

back cover :

The Babylonians invented it, the Greeks banned it. The Hindus worshiped it, and the Church used it to fend off heretics. For centuries, the power of Zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. Zero follows this number from it's birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to it's struggle for acceptance in Europe and its apotheosis as the mystery of the black hole.

Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest controversies of all time, the quest for the theory of everything.

Elegant, witty, and enlightening, Zero is a compelling look at the strangest number in the Universe-and one of the greatest paradoxes of human thought.

A very good read.

It is bit outdated (age of universe), but cosmic calendar is in my opinion best 5 minute video that shows how insignificant is what we call 'history of modern humans'...



Late Sagan had a way to visually show and explain... what a great teacher...

Lies My Teacher Told Me - James Loewen

Great book to read and learn about all the things you learned wrong in history class, and no this isn't a conspiracy theory/revisionist history book either. It unravels all the pro-American propaganda that has white-washed American history classes throughout the nation.

Forgot to mention book and video serial worth watching: Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone.

Well made with lots of supporting documentation and footage if you have a chance to watch videos.

a reply to: DeceptioVisus

Your first image didn't load, but the second is not of a history book but of a pack of lies.