Transcription
These are the five best history books I've ever read. People tell me all the time these are the best books they've ever read and I think they're probably right on the last one. So, you're going to want to grab a pen and paper and write these down.
Say Nothing by Patrick Braden Keith. This is about the troubles in Northern Ireland. The writing is on a thriller level, but it's also packed full of historical detail, and it doesn't compromise any of the storytelling or the historical facts.
D. Brown's Bury My Heart of Wounded Knee. This changed how people understood the history of the United States of America. It tells the history of the American West from the perspective of native peoples as they are being displaced and their culture is being destroyed. This book might sound very heavy but I promise you you will enjoy it greatly and it will change the way you see American history.
Simon Contury's Stalin the Court of the Red Star. This is one of the best written books I have ever read. A really great book reads like a movie where you see every scene in your mind and this is absolutely the case with this. It takes you inside the halls of power in the Kremlin during the 20s, 30s and 40s. So that you experience the historical events, but not from a geopolitical level. You experience them through the gossips, the dinners, the rivalries, the power plays of the inner workings of the Kremlin. A deeply readable book, a real page turner.
While Swans by Young Chang, this is the story of China told through the lives of three generations of women of the same family. This is a deeply raw, humor and emotional story where you experience these transformative geopolitical events but through the lives of ordinary people. You feel at every stage that history is crashing into normal human beings lives. But at the same time, this is written in such a powerful and thrilling way. They will always leave you wanting more.
And the final book and possibly the best book I've ever read is Anthony Beaver's Stalin Grab. This tells the story of the largest battle and probably the definitive turning point in all of the Second World War, but it tells it through the lives of ordinary people on the ground in the trenches. This is one of those books that you feel, you feel the hunger, you feel the cold, you feel the terror of the individual people who are experiencing this cataclysmic apocalyptic event. But the way that this is written, the pacing, the detail, it allows you to see every single event, every single chapter through your own eyes as if you are living it. A truly wonderful book.
Let me know what are the best books that you've ever read. The ones that you would recommend to absolutely everyone. If you want to pick one of these up, comment book below or click the link on my bio to see our curated reading list and follow Ancient to Reason for more book reviews and recommendations just like this.