Historical Non-Fiction Books

[Gazella]

I love to read historical non-fiction/ biography books. I just finished reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Are there any good books that fits the genre.

Other than the following:
Escape from Camp 14
The Things They Carried
Flyboys
The Last Voyage of Columbus

[WillAdams]

If you enjoyed Flyboys you'll likely enjoy _Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors_.

I think _everyone_ should read _Escape from Warsaw_ (originally published as _The Silver Sword_).

I've been enjoying the H. Rider Haggard autobiography which HarryT uploaded here:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54917

[Catlady]

How about Paul Brickhill's The Great Escape (the basis for the movie of the same name), and Tim Carroll's more recent account of the same story, The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III.

[jgaiser]

Anything written by Antony Beevor.
Shelby Foote's Civil War Trilogy
A number of WWII books by Robert Leckie
Almost anything written by William Manchester
Ditto David McCullough
Ditto Barbara Tuchman

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

If you enjoyed Flyboys you'll likely enjoy _Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors_.

I think _everyone_ should read _Escape from Warsaw_ (originally published as _The Silver Sword_).

I've been enjoying the H. Rider Haggard autobiography which HarryT uploaded here:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54917

Originally Posted by Catlady

How about Paul Brickhill's The Great Escape (the basis for the movie of the same name), and Tim Carroll's more recent account of the same story, The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III.

Thank you both for your recommendations. I'll make sure to check them out!

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Anything written by Antony Beevor.
Shelby Foote's Civil War Trilogy
A number of WWII books by Robert Leckie
Almost anything written by William Manchester
Ditto David McCullough
Ditto Barbara Tuchman

Never heard of these authors. In fact, I just did some quick 'googling' of some of the listed authors. All are historians which is just what I'm looking for. Great! Thanks.

[usuallee]

I just started reading Inferno by Max Hastings. It's supposed to be the best, or one of the best, single volume accounts of World War II. I'm only 2% in, but so far it's well-written, compelling and fascinating.

Also I strongly recommend 1491 by Charles Mann. It is the utterly astonishing account of, as the title suggests, what the Americas were like pre-Columbus. And a great seasonal choice would be Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick which is the riveting account of the Puritans landing in Plymouth. It debunks a lot of the mythology surrounding those events.

[Catlady]

A couple more that may be of interest are

We Die Alone, by David Howarth
The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

I haven't read these two yet but they've been recommended to me.

[Apache]

I just started The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter R. Borneman.
Apache

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Catlady

How about Paul Brickhill's The Great Escape (the basis for the movie of the same name), and Tim Carroll's more recent account of the same story, The Great Escape from Stalag Luft III.

And also The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams, the account of another daring escape from the same camp at the same time the great escape was being planned.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by issybird

And also The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams, the account of another daring escape from the same camp at the same time the great escape was being planned.

Oh, thanks for mentioning this--when I wanted to read this one last year, it was out of print and rather pricey. Glad to see it's now available as an e-book.

[Gazella]

Wow all these books sound really great. What I do is, for each recommendation, I search for the book on Amazon and read the synopsis. So far based on the summaries, they seem really interesting. I'm going to have a lot of books to read, thank you all for that

[AlexBell]

I recommend Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft, War is a Racket by Maj. Gen. Smedley D Butler (both available in the MR library), Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, and When the World Outlawed War by David Swanson

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I recommend Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft, War is a Racket by Maj. Gen. Smedley D Butler (both available in the MR library), Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, and When the World Outlawed War by David Swanson

Thank you!
This is completely irrelevant to the thread topic. My first language is Arabic and I can't help but comment on your avatar, it looks really cool. I noticed the word (سلام) in your avatar (the green writing), which means peace in Arabic, did you know that? And what's the other language? The one on the top, I'm assuming it's Peace written in a language I don't recognize.

[Hamlet53]

I read quite a bit of non-fiction history. Here is a list of those from the last 18 months or so that I found decent. It is a varied list in subject matter.

Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance by Lisa Alther

Harold: The Last Anglo-Saxon King by Ian W. Walker

The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842 by Diana Preston

Lincoln for President: An Unlikely Candidate, an Audacious Strategy, and the Victory No One Saw Coming by Bruce Chadwick

Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire by James Romm

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary

Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 by Michael Korda

Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment: Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind by James Buchan

The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug by Thomas Hager

The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager

Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and The Indian Mutiny Of 1857 by Andrew Ward

The Slaves' War: The Civil War in the Words of Former Slaves by Andrew Ward

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time by Dava Sobel

Last Manchu by Henry Pu Yi

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick

Prisons and Patriots: Japanese American Wartime Citizenship, Civil Disobedience, and Historical Memory by Cherstin Lyon