If you’re a true reading buff, you’ll know what the smell of the pages of a good piece of literature truly means to us bookworms.
There’s nothing quite like lifting a text to your nose, fanning the pages, inhaling the scent of those tattered leaves, and perhaps recalling where you picked up the treasure – or even who recommended it to you.
This warm and familiar feeling is not limited to any particular kind of literature, but we’d argue that good history books have an uncanny ability to transport a reader to another world, or another time.
Being a so-called ‘academic’ is certainly not a requirement for getting into literature about world history, so don’t let the professors and pretenders deter you from exploring a subject or moment in time that you’re genuinely interested in.
We understand, however, that getting into history books can seem daunting. Where does one even start? The history of Greco-Roman architecture? The Boer War? The Renaissance?
Hopefully, if you clicked on this article, you have a small idea of where you’d like to begin your journey – a subject or era that you’re specifically interested in. If not, we’re not quite sure what to suggest. Perhaps the beginning of time? Actually, we’ve got a recommendation for that… Scroll for more of our top picks for history books to sink your teeth into.
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
You might recognise this as the never-touched item on your friend’s, parents’ or even grandparents’ bookshelves. It’s quite a mammoth, if you’ll pardon the pun, but it’s a multimillion copy bestseller for a reason.
Reviews from the likes of Bill Gates and Barack Obama show immense praise for the novel that demonstrates just how briefly humans have really roamed our planet. Gates himself said, “I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species.”
The book’s title comes from the term Homo sapiens,the scientific name for humankind as a species. Based on a series of lectures that Harari taught at the University of Jerusalem, Sapiens takes us through the history of mankind, beginning at the Stone Age and taking us all the way up to present day.
So, you’re interested in exploring history from the beginning of recorded time? This is the book for you.
Buy now £11.45, Amazon
The Escape Artist, Jonathan Freedland (Hardback)
In The Escape Artist, Freedland recounts the fascinating and gut-wrenching story of two Jewish prisoners of Auschwitz who managed to escape the infamous World War II death camp and warn the world of its horrors.
In 1944, Rudolf Vrba and Fred Wetzler became the first Jews ever to escape Auschwitz and, in this Baillie Gifford-nominated retelling of their story, Freedland at once illustrates this true tale of heroism, endurance and survival, while educating us on the reality of the Nazi regime.
Buy now £20.00, Waterstones
English Food: A People’s History (Hardback), Diane Purkiss
We discovered this fantastic book thanks to The Full English podcast, hosted by chef and researcher Lewis Bassett. Purkiss, in her discussion with Bassett, mentions how she decided to stick to a solely English history of food, simply because expanding outward into the remainder of the UK would make for a book so large it’d become unpublishable.
Nevertheless, in English Food, Purkiss illustrates how the way we eat is inherently intertwined with notions of class and gender throughout history. Taking us on a journey from the development of the coffee trade to the first breeders of British beef, Purkiss teaches us what is means to eat food in England, and England’s historically complicated relationship with the global food market.
Buy now £30.00, Waterstones
Listen to the Land Speak (Hardback), Manchán Magan
In this work of historical non-fiction, Mangan weaves his way through the myth and folklore that has risen out of the ancient worship of nature. Taking us on a journey across Irish history, Manchan illustrates the power of myth in shaping an entire nation, and its people.
Magan’s novel is published by Gill & Macmillan, which was founded 1968, and is responsible for the dissemination of the work of many great Irish writers, including Maureen Gaffney, Tom Garvin, Fintan O’Toole,and Éamon de Buitléar, to name but a few. As such, you can be sure that you’re in for an instant classic.
Buy now £21.99, Waterstones
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, Anna Funder,
Though first published in 2002, Funder’s unpacking of multiple stories about life in divided Berlin is an utterly timeless classic. Through a series of interviews, Funder details what it was like to grow up in a barely-recovered, fractured society edging towards the new millennium.
Delving into the cruel world of a post-Cold War East Germany – a place where the headquarters of the secret police became a museum overnight – Funder gives voice to the oppressed with grit, a sense of humour and truth.
Buy now £9.55, Amazon
The Ruin of all Witches: Life and Death in the New World, Malcom Gaskill
The Salem witch trials of 1692-1693 have been the object of fascination for history buffs for decades, if not centuries. Whether reimagined in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible to illustrate the horrors of the McCarthyism in America or reflected in popular culture to emphasise the demonisation of self-sufficient women, the plight of the women accused of devil worship back in 17th century New England is deeply intriguing for so many reasons.
Gaskill’s novel takes us through the history of the witch trials through an anthropological, sociological, political, and theological lens. He tells the stories of lives entangled in heresy, fear, jealousy, and desire by bringing attention to previously neglected source materials in what has become a simply unforgettable retelling. Not to mention it was also shortlisted for the Wolfson History prize in 2022.
If you’ve just binged Netflix’s Wednesday and want to know more about the time of Goody Addams, you’ll want to grab a copy of Gaskill’s book.
Buy now £10.99, Amazon
The Forever War, Dexter Filkins
As a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, Dexter Filkins has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. In this non-fiction book, Filkins details the history, and offers a nuanced opinion, of the wars in the Middle East through the authority of experience. He illustrates with harrowing detail the reality of the wars which continue to rage on to this day.
There are many books already in existence on the wars in the Middle East. However, if you’re looking to understand the history of these conflicts from an entirely human, first-hand perspective, it’s certainly worth picking up a copy of Filkins’ fantastic book.
Buy now £12.99, Waterstones
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World, Kate Mosse
Speaking on her writing of this book, and on the importance of history as a whole, Mosse has said, “It’s a love letter to the importance of history and about how, without knowing where we come from - truthfully and entirely - we cannot know who we are.”
Indeed, in picking up a copy of Warrior Queens, you’ll be met with over 1,000 different women throughout history – warriors, writers, scientists, historians and so much more – who have been integral to the creation of society as we know it. A perfect gift for all feminists out there, you won’t want to miss out on a copy of Mosse’s incredible book this winter.
Buy now £16.37, Amazon
Tutankhamun's Trumpet: The Story of Ancient Egypt in 100 objects, Toby Wilkinson
Reignite your childhood obsession with ancient Egypt and, in particular, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. If you’ll cast your mind back, ancient Egyptian rulers were decanted into urns and buried with all their greatest riches.
Luckily for us, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson has also spent his life enthralled by the discovery of the boy-king’s tomb, and with the history that goes along with it. In his book Tutankhamun’s Trumpet, Wilkinson moves through the 100 objects buried with the infamous Pharaoh in order to provide insight into what life was like in Egypt before, during and after the reign of Tutankhamun.
Buy now £25.00, WH Smith
The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel
This instant best-seller is a feminist, revisionary history of art by the inimitable Katy Hessel. An essential first step in re-conceptualising the artistic canon by putting the historically sidelined sex at the forefront, this brilliant text makes a fantastic gift.
Buy now £20.00, Amazon
Orientalism by Edward W. Said
A highly acclaimed piece of text, Edward Said’s Orientalism is a deep dive into East-West relations. Said delineates the West’s othering attitudes towards the East, drawing upon the works of Homer, Nerval and Flaubert, Disraeli and Kipling to evidence this. He deems various artists, authors and philosophers as guilty of depicting romanticised, exotic depictions of the Orient, in turn reflecting Europe's imperialist, racist views that were manifested in the works of Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme and others.
Buy now £10.11, Amazon
The Wager by David Grann
From the very first page of David Grann’s The Wager, it feels impossible to believe that you’re reading a non-fiction novel. The author holds up a magnifying glass to the enthralling tale of a shipwreck and mutiny aboard the doomed HMS Wager in 1741.
Buy now £8.99, Amazon
