Patrick Murtha
Reader
Here are the history books of more recent vintage that I have been engaged with lately. I’ll separate out some sub-types (cultural history, local history) in separate posts, as I already did with disaster books.
Bella Bathurst, The Wreckers (scavengers of the seacoast)
Hilaire Belloc, Marie Antoinette (interesting conservative take, written in the high style; Belloc was an arch-Catholic, with all that implies)
Pierre Berton, My Country: The Remarkable Past (Canada, of course. Berton was a first-rate popular historian)
Pierre Berton, Niagara: A History of the Falls (enlightening, funny, sharp, and at times deeply moving)
Keith Brown, Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia
Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (as much history as biography)
Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 (ambitious contrapuntal account of the major criminal gangs of the era)
Peter Calvert, Mexico (massive and worthwhile)
J.M.S. Careless, Canada: A Story of Challenge (not the surname I’d want as a historian, but he is good)
Paul Cartledge, The Spartans
Carmel Cassar, A Concise History of Malta (that is one interesting island!)
Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking (a modern classic, but so depressing)
Jean-Pierre Chretien, The Great Lakes of Africa (history, natural history, anthropology, archaeology; amazing)
Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun (essential, sometimes contentious)
Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire (wonderful)
Stuart Easterling, The Mexican Revolution: A Short History, 1910-1920
Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life (also as much history as biography)
Craig Fehrman, Author in Chief (on the writings of US Presidents)
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash: 1929
David Garrioch, The Making of Revolutionary Paris (beautifully written)
Maud Wilder Goodwin, Dutch and English on the Hudson: A Chronicle of Colonial New York (from the 50-volume Chronicles of America series published in the late 1910s, so really more classic)
Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan
Eliga H. Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution
David Grann, The Lost City of Z (overrated)
Mark Harris, Mark the Glove Boy, or The Last Days of Richard Nixon (an unacknowledged landmark of the New Journalism)
John Hickman, News from the End of the Earth: A Portrait of Chile
Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (muy brillante)
James W. Hulse, The Silver State: Nevada’s Heritage Reinterpreted (I have a passion for Nevada history, which I’ll explain in another post)
Fred Kaplan, 1959: The Year Everything Changed
Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (I like the concept of “year histories”)
Douglas Edward Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip’s War
J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society (huge and hardcore, lots of economics and sociology)
David Lida, First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, the Capital of the 21st Century
Cyril Mango, The Oxford History of Byzantium
Robert E. May, The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire (fascinating)
Alan Moorehead, The Fatal Impact (first European incursions into the Pacific; very even-handed)
Cullen Murphy, God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World
Andrew C. Nahm, A Panorama of 5,000 Years: Korean History
Craig Nelson, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
David Ogg, Europe in the Seventeenth Century (fabulously old-school)
Dominic A. Pacyga, Chicago: A Biography
John Prebble, Culloden (intense)
Rodman Wilson Paul, Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880 (terrific)
Arthur King Peters, Seven Trails West (crossing the US)
Roger Riendeau, A Brief History of Canada
Larry Rohter, Brazil on the Rise
Richard W. Slatta / Jane Lucas De Grummond, Simon Bolivar’s Quest for Glory (disappointing)
Andrew Smith, Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth
Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire (very well-done)
Marion L. Starkey, The Cherokee Nation
Barbara Tuchman, The Zimmerman Telegram (a masterpiece)
Gavin Weightman, The Frozen-Water Trade (lovely “micro-history” of how ice was harvested, transported, and sold)
Robert P. and Wynona H. Wilkins, North Dakota: A Bicentennial History (one of a series covering all the states)
Arthur H. Williamson, Apocalypse Then: Prophecy and the Making of the Modern World (very problematic, even batty)
Douglas Woodruff, The Tichborne Claimant (fascinating Victorian episode. General rule: “claimants” are always imposters)
Harold Zink, City Bosses in the United States
Bella Bathurst, The Wreckers (scavengers of the seacoast)
Hilaire Belloc, Marie Antoinette (interesting conservative take, written in the high style; Belloc was an arch-Catholic, with all that implies)
Pierre Berton, My Country: The Remarkable Past (Canada, of course. Berton was a first-rate popular historian)
Pierre Berton, Niagara: A History of the Falls (enlightening, funny, sharp, and at times deeply moving)
Keith Brown, Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia
Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (as much history as biography)
Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 (ambitious contrapuntal account of the major criminal gangs of the era)
Peter Calvert, Mexico (massive and worthwhile)
J.M.S. Careless, Canada: A Story of Challenge (not the surname I’d want as a historian, but he is good)
Paul Cartledge, The Spartans
Carmel Cassar, A Concise History of Malta (that is one interesting island!)
Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking (a modern classic, but so depressing)
Jean-Pierre Chretien, The Great Lakes of Africa (history, natural history, anthropology, archaeology; amazing)
Bruce Cumings, Korea’s Place in the Sun (essential, sometimes contentious)
Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune, and Empire (wonderful)
Stuart Easterling, The Mexican Revolution: A Short History, 1910-1920
Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political Life (also as much history as biography)
Craig Fehrman, Author in Chief (on the writings of US Presidents)
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash: 1929
David Garrioch, The Making of Revolutionary Paris (beautifully written)
Maud Wilder Goodwin, Dutch and English on the Hudson: A Chronicle of Colonial New York (from the 50-volume Chronicles of America series published in the late 1910s, so really more classic)
Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan
Eliga H. Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution
David Grann, The Lost City of Z (overrated)
Mark Harris, Mark the Glove Boy, or The Last Days of Richard Nixon (an unacknowledged landmark of the New Journalism)
John Hickman, News from the End of the Earth: A Portrait of Chile
Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It (muy brillante)
James W. Hulse, The Silver State: Nevada’s Heritage Reinterpreted (I have a passion for Nevada history, which I’ll explain in another post)
Fred Kaplan, 1959: The Year Everything Changed
Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (I like the concept of “year histories”)
Douglas Edward Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip’s War
J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society (huge and hardcore, lots of economics and sociology)
David Lida, First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, the Capital of the 21st Century
Cyril Mango, The Oxford History of Byzantium
Robert E. May, The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire (fascinating)
Alan Moorehead, The Fatal Impact (first European incursions into the Pacific; very even-handed)
Cullen Murphy, God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World
Andrew C. Nahm, A Panorama of 5,000 Years: Korean History
Craig Nelson, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
David Ogg, Europe in the Seventeenth Century (fabulously old-school)
Dominic A. Pacyga, Chicago: A Biography
John Prebble, Culloden (intense)
Rodman Wilson Paul, Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880 (terrific)
Arthur King Peters, Seven Trails West (crossing the US)
Roger Riendeau, A Brief History of Canada
Larry Rohter, Brazil on the Rise
Richard W. Slatta / Jane Lucas De Grummond, Simon Bolivar’s Quest for Glory (disappointing)
Andrew Smith, Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth
Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire (very well-done)
Marion L. Starkey, The Cherokee Nation
Barbara Tuchman, The Zimmerman Telegram (a masterpiece)
Gavin Weightman, The Frozen-Water Trade (lovely “micro-history” of how ice was harvested, transported, and sold)
Robert P. and Wynona H. Wilkins, North Dakota: A Bicentennial History (one of a series covering all the states)
Arthur H. Williamson, Apocalypse Then: Prophecy and the Making of the Modern World (very problematic, even batty)
Douglas Woodruff, The Tichborne Claimant (fascinating Victorian episode. General rule: “claimants” are always imposters)
Harold Zink, City Bosses in the United States
