History Books

Among the many horrors of World War II was the construction of the Burma–Thailand Railway, where tens of thousands of prisoners dropped dead of illness, exhaustion, and malnutrition, and once strong young men were reduced to skeletal frames of flesh. Jacqueline Passman, daughter of a British prisoner of war, talks to us about the experiences of her father, Harry Silman, a doctor with the British Army who was there and kept a diary, now published for the first time.

The popular military historian Antony Beevor recommends some of his own favourite books about the Second World War.

It's been more than 100 years since World War I ended, but there is still very little consensus about what caused it, or what its consequences were. Historian Jonathan Boff talks us through the latest books and best modern interpretations of World War I.

Which are the best books on American history? Brent Glass, Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the world’s largest museum devoted to telling the story of America, chooses five standout books in a crowded field.

To write The Shortest History of Ancient Rome, bestselling author Ross King went back to the insightful and often entertaining accounts Roman and Greek historians gave of the city's past. He talks us through some of his favourites, from Polybius—who wrote during the Roman Republic's heyday—to Cassius Dio, who penned his magnum opus as the Roman Empire was in its decline.

It's a golden age for historical writing, as well-researched and sometimes quite specialist books by historians are written in an engaging style for a broad audience. History books out in recent months range from ancient Assyria to the CIA in the 21st century.

Frederick the Great (1712-1786) embodied two ideas of kingship: on the one hand, the traditional one of the warrior monarch, and on the other, an enlightened monarch, patron of the arts, a social reformer, and the friend of philosophes like Voltaire. It is on this dual character of his rule that his perennially high reputation rests, says historian Adam Storring. He introduces us to both sides of Frederick's kingly character and recommends books to learn more about the brilliant military campaigner who led Prussia from 1740 until his death nearly half a century later.

The history of the Aztecs is the best documented of all the Native American peoples, shedding light on life in the Americas before the arrival of the conquistadors. Professor Michael E. Smith, an archaeologist at Arizona State University, introduces books about the Aztec Empire — with a focus on documentary sources and artefacts that reveal not only how the elites lived, but also ordinary people.

The Soviet Union was the world's first communist country and lasted around seven decades. It played a key role in defeating Nazism in Europe and became a global superpower before collapsing unexpectedly in 1991. Sheila Fitzpatrick, a leading historian of the Soviet Union, recommends books that bring to life different aspects of it, from forced labour in Glavnoye Upravleniye LAGerey (GULAG) to the heady days of the Khrushchev thaw and including the memoir of Stalin's beloved daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva.

To win the Wolfson History Prize, a book must be both original and accessible to the general reader. British historian Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of the prize's judges, talks us through the six books that made the 2024 shortlist, from the voyage of an English diplomat to Mughal India to the intimacy of a South African marriage, from the barbarity of the slave trade in the 18th century to the history of an institution that provides free health care to all.