Skip to main content

Ten books that most shaped your view of history

Description: Ten books that most shaped your view of history

Rank Title Author Added

1

by Henry Kissinger

2,389 members

17 reviews

4.1

2 Members: Bretzky1, puffintopia

2

On the Genealogy of Morality

by Friedrich Nietzsche

3,102 members

29 reviews

4

2 Members: pomonomo2003, puffintopia

3

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

by Jared M. Diamond

12,253 members

184 reviews

3.9

2 Members: aulsmith, puffintopia

4

Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit

by Alexandre Kojève

611 members

7 reviews

3.9

2 Members: pomonomo2003, puffintopia

5

by Niccolò Machiavelli

23,808 members

255 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: pomonomo2003, ManWithAnAgenda

6

by Robert Graves

9,224 members

168 reviews

4.2

2 Members: aulsmith, TheoClarke

7

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

by Paul Kennedy

2,952 members

20 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

8

The Alexiad of Anna Comnena

by Anna Comnena

823 members

10 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

9

The Making of the English Landscape

by W. G. Hoskins

577 members

6 reviews

4.1

Member: TheoClarke

10

Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations

by Brian M. Fagan

73 members

5 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: aulsmith
Explanations: aulsmith: It's not a book, it's an audio course, but Fagan completely changed my ideas about how civilization came about.

11

The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structure and Social Systems

by Emmanuel Todd

26 members

1 review

5

Member: pomonomo2003

12

The Divine Comedy

by Dante Alighieri

21,924 members

188 reviews

4.1

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

13

Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil

by Ron Rosenbaum

709 members

15 reviews

4

Member: aulsmith

14

The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000

by Niall Ferguson

536 members

6 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1

15

The Pursuit of History

494 members

1 review

½ 3.6

Member: TheoClarke

16

The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of Jus Publicum Europaeum

by Carl Schmitt

126 members

½ 4.3

Member: pomonomo2003

17

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland

by Christopher R. Browning

2,364 members

35 reviews

4.1

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

18

The Ruin of the Roman Empire: A New History

by James J. O'Donnell

372 members

6 reviews

3.8

Member: aulsmith

19

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

by G. N. Garmonsway

320 members

2 reviews

3.8

Member: TheoClarke

20

The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand?

by Andre Gunder Frank

36 members

3 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: pomonomo2003

21

Medieval People

by Eileen Power

1,316 members

8 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: aulsmith

22

War in Human Civilization

206 members

3 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Bretzky1

23

The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (Studies in the History of Sexuality)

by George Mosse

100 members

2 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

24

Capital, Expectations, and the Market Process: Essays on the Theory of the Market Econony (Studies in Economic Theory)

by Ludwig M. Lachmann

25 members

1 review

4.1

Member: pomonomo2003

25

The Victoria History of the County of Suffolk. Edited by William Page

by William Page

1 member

Member: TheoClarke

26

The Anatomy of Revolution

by Crane Brinton

561 members

7 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: aulsmith

27

Theory of Religion

by Georges Bataille

372 members

4 reviews

3.8

Member: pomonomo2003

28

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire {unabridged - Womersley 3v.}

by Edward Gibbon

206 members

2 reviews

4.8

Member: Bretzky1

29

Love Poems of Ancient Egypt

80 members

1 review

3.1

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

30

History and the reader

by G.M. Trevelyan

17 members

5

Member: TheoClarke

31

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

by Barbara W. Tuchman

7,197 members

123 reviews

4.1

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

32

The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

by Robert Jay Lifton

860 members

8 reviews

4

Member: aulsmith

33

Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age

696 members

3 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

34

Aspects of Anglo-Saxon archaeology: Sutton Hoo and other discoveries

by Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford

31 members

½ 3.5

Member: TheoClarke

35

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor

by David S. Landes

1,704 members

19 reviews

3.8

Member: Bretzky1

36

Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

by Joseph A. Schumpeter

1,323 members

11 reviews

4.1

Member: pomonomo2003

37

The Way of Wyrd: Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer

360 members

10 reviews

3.9

Member: TheoClarke

38

A Record of Cambodia: The Land and Its People

34 members

2 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

39

From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life

by Jacques Barzun

3,769 members

38 reviews

4.1

Member: Bretzky1

40

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

by Thomas S. Kuhn

8,129 members

92 reviews

4

Member: pomonomo2003

41

by James A. Michener

4,000 members

61 reviews

4.1

Member: TheoClarke

42

by Hannah Arendt

1,385 members

11 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

43

Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps

by Yitzhak Arad

146 members

3 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aulsmith

44

Constantinople: The Forgotten Empire.

by Isaac Asimov

127 members

4 reviews

3.8

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

45

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong {revised & updated}

by James W. Loewen

6,365 members

97 reviews

4

Member: ManWithAnAgenda

46

Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World

by Margaret MacMillan

3,268 members

56 reviews

4.1

Member: Bretzky1

47

The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe

588 members

7 reviews

3.9

Member: aulsmith

48

Guide to Dartmoor

by William Crossing

27 members

4

Member: TheoClarke

49

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

by Jared Diamond

25,144 members

377 reviews

4.1

50

The Federalist Papers

by Alexander Hamilton

10,054 members

67 reviews

4.1

51

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom

by Conrad Black

497 members

4 reviews

½ 4.3

52

We Now Know: rethinking Cold War history

by John Lewis Gaddis

343 members

4 reviews

½ 3.6

53

A world transformed

by George H. W. Bush

243 members

1 review

3

54

George Washington: A Biography (7 volumes)

by Douglas Southall Freeman

69 members

½ 4.7

55

The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons

by Scott Douglas Sagan

59 members

1 review

½ 4.7

56

Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century

by Benjamin A. Valentino

41 members

3.9

57

The Origins of Major War (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)

by Dale C. Copeland

40 members

1 review

½ 3.6

About This List

Started: TheoClarke
January 2015
Type: Numbered and unnumbered
Limit: 10 books

Current Discussions

None

Related Tags

American history (1,003) anthropology (2,009) civilization (771) classic (1,100) classics (1,614) economics (904) European History (767) fiction (2,950) historical fiction (1,357) history (15,009) Italian literature (905) Italy (764) literature (1,291) medieval (890) non-fiction (7,729) philosophy (4,092) poetry (2,123) political science (1,052) politics (3,261) read (1,058) science (2,577) sociology (1,355) to-read (6,555) unread (799) world history (1,015)

Verdana Standard Verdana Small The Lorax System Standard System Large Georgia Large Text Atkinson

This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.