• The best books on Alexander the Great - Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica by Arrian
  • The best books on Alexander the Great - The History of Alexander by Quintus Curtius Rufus
  • The best books on Alexander the Great - The First European: A History of Alexander in the Age of Empire by Pierre Briant
  • The best books on Alexander the Great - The Persian Empire: A Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period by Amélie Kuhrt
  • The best books on Alexander the Great - Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

The best books on Alexander the Great, recommended by Hugh Bowden

Alexander the Great never lost a battle and established an empire that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Indian subcontinent. From the earliest times, historians have argued about the nature of his achievements and what his failings were, both as a man and as a political leader. Here, Hugh Bowden, professor of ancient history at King’s College London, chooses five books to help you understand the controversies, the man behind the legends, and why the legends have taken the forms they have.

  • The best books on Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington by Ted Widmer
  • The best books on Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln's Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words by Douglas L Wilson
  • The best books on Abraham Lincoln - Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America by Garry Wills
  • The best books on Abraham Lincoln - Emancipating Lincoln: The Proclamation in Text, Context, and Memory by Harold Holzer
  • The best books on Abraham Lincoln - They Knew Lincoln by John E Washington

The best books on Abraham Lincoln, recommended by Ted Widmer

He came from humble beginnings and never went to high school. Going into the presidency, he had limited political experience and lacked business, legislative and military achievements. The one thing he did not lack was a moral compass, says historian and author Ted Widmer. He picks the best books on the ups and downs and Shakespearean-style plot twists that were the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States.

  • The best books on Henri IV of France - Henri IV by Jean-Pierre Babelon
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - Henry IV: King of France by David Buisseret
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - France in the Age of Henri IV: The Struggle for Stability by Mark Greengrass
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - The French Wars of Religion, 1562–1629 by Mack Holt
  • The best books on Henri IV of France - Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe by Stuart Carroll

The best books on Henri IV of France, recommended by Vincent Pitts

At a time of bitter division, Henri IV succeeded to the French throne and managed to bring the country together after decades of civil war. He converted to Catholicism but brought in toleration for Protestants with the Edict of Nantes. In 1610 he was assassinated by a religious fanatic with a carving knife. Historian Vincent Pitts, author of a great introduction to Henri IV, talks us through the life and times of one of France’s most impressive monarchs.

  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Suleymanname: The Illustrated History of Suleyman the Magnificent by Esin Atil (editor)
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire by Gülru Necipoglu
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Ali by Cornell Fleischer
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Empress of the East: How a Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire by Leslie Peirce
  • The best books on Sultan Süleyman - Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe by John Julius Norwich

The best books on Sultan Süleyman, recommended by Kaya Şahin

The Ottoman ruler Süleyman was one of the most powerful men in early modern Europe and highly adept at building his reputation for posterity. In European languages, he is still often graced with the epithet ‘the Magnificent.’ The reality was much more mixed, as a new biography of Süleyman shows. Historian Kaya Şahin talks us through books to better understand Sultan Süleyman and the world he lived in.

  • The best books on Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
  • The best books on Sigmund Freud - The Life And Work of Sigmund Freud by Ernest Jones
  • The best books on Sigmund Freud - Becoming Freud: The Making of a Psychoanalyst by Adam Phillips
  • The best books on Sigmund Freud - Dispatches from the Freud Wars: Psychoanalysis and Its Passions by John Forrester
  • The best books on Sigmund Freud - Tribute to Freud by H.D.

The best books on Sigmund Freud, recommended by Lisa Appignanesi

Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Moravia in the Austro-Hungarian empire, Sigmund Freud spent most of his life in Vienna, until fleeing to London just before his death in 1939. Using his classical education to illustrate his points, he introduced the idea that we have an ‘unconscious’ that plays an important role in our actions. For his sessions when patients talked freely to him about their thoughts in a one-on-one setting, he coined the term ‘psychoanalysis.’ Freud expert Lisa Appignanesi talks us through books that shed light on his life as well as his work.

  • The best books on Mary Seacole - Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole
  • The best books on Mary Seacole - Victorian Lady Travellers by Dorothy Middleton
  • The best books on Mary Seacole - Florence Nightingale: The Woman and Her Legend by Mark Bostridge
  • The best books on Mary Seacole - Mrs Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the Crimea, 1854-6 by Fanny Duberly, edited by Christine Kelly
  • The best books on Mary Seacole - An American Diary by Barbara Bodichon

The best books on Mary Seacole, recommended by Jane Robinson

Mary Seacole looked after and provided support to British troops during the Crimean War (1853-1856), setting up a hotel for sick and recovering soldiers close to the fighting near Balaclava. In her day, she was as celebrated as Florence Nightingale, but it was not until the rediscovery and publication of her diary in the 1980s that she came to be widely known as a Victorian heroine in modern times. In 2016, a memorial statue of her was unveiled in London, the first in the UK in honour of a named Black woman. Here her biographer, Jane Robinson, tells us more about the remarkable life of Mary Seacole and the world she lived in.

  • The best books on Saint Teresa of Avila - The Book of Her Life by Teresa of Avila
  • The best books on Saint Teresa of Avila - Imperial Spain 1469-1716 by JH Elliott
  • The best books on Saint Teresa of Avila - The Avila of Saint Teresa: Religious Reform in a Sixteenth-Century City by Jodi Bilinkoff
  • The best books on Saint Teresa of Avila - Ruth Burrows: Essential Writings by Ruth Burrows
  • The best books on Saint Teresa of Avila - Teresa of Avila: Doctor of the Soul by Peter Tyler

The best books on Saint Teresa of Avila, recommended by Rowan Williams

St Teresa of Avila was one of the towering figures of the Counter-Reformation, both as a theologian and as a reformer of the religious life. Here, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, discusses her insights into spiritual growth and prayer, the impact her Jewish roots had on her life and career, and why Bernini’s statue of her in ecstasy is unhelpful.

  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great by Isabel de Madariaga
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Catherine the Great by Simon Dixon
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Catherine the Great and Potemkin: The Imperial Love Affair by Simon Sebag Montefiore
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Selected Letters of Catherine the Great by Catherine the Great
  • The best books on Catherine the Great - Working the Rough Stone: Freemasonry and Society in 18th Century Russia by Douglas Smith

The best books on Catherine the Great, recommended by Andrei Zorin

She was born in 1729 as Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, a German princess, but by 1762 had become Empress of All Russia and went on to rule for 34 years as Catherine II. She regarded herself as an enlightened despot who embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment and consorted with the French philosophes. Russian historian Andrei Zorin introduces the remarkably industrious and able politician who is remembered as Catherine the Great.

  • The Best Mary Wollstonecraft Books - Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke
  • The Best Mary Wollstonecraft Books - A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke
  • The Best Mary Wollstonecraft Books - A Vindication of the Rights of Men and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, edited by Sylvana Tomaselli
  • The Best Mary Wollstonecraft Books - Letters written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft
  • The Best Mary Wollstonecraft Books - The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

The Best Mary Wollstonecraft Books, recommended by Sylvana Tomaselli

Mary Wollstonecraft lived by her pen and wrote trenchant critiques of the role of women and marriage in late 18th century British society. She died aged 38, a few days after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley. She is often remembered for writing the Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but it was not in fact her best book, says Cambridge intellectual historian Sylvana Tomaselli. Here, she recommends books to read to get a good understanding of the extraordinary Mary Wollstonecraft, and the writers she was both influenced by and reacting against.

  • The best books on Hannah Arendt - The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
  • The best books on Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
  • The best books on Hannah Arendt - Men in Dark Times by Hannah Arendt
  • The best books on Hannah Arendt - Thinking Without a Banister by Hannah Arendt
  • The best books on Hannah Arendt - Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl

The best books on Hannah Arendt, recommended by Samantha Rose Hill

Unimpressed by the response of philosophers to the rise of Nazism in her native Germany, Hannah Arendt rejected the notion of being a philosopher and said she was a political theorist. Samantha Rose Hill, writer and formerly assistant director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College, talks us through Hannah Arendt’s life and work—and suggests which books to read if we want to learn more about her and her ideas.

  • The best books on Charlemagne - King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne by Janet Nelson
  • The best books on Charlemagne - Charlemagne: Empire and Society by Joanna Story (editor)
  • The best books on Charlemagne - Ich und Karl der Große: Das Leben des Höflings Einhard by Steffen Patzold
  • The best books on Charlemagne - Charlemagne's Practice of Empire by Jennifer Davis
  • The best books on Charlemagne - Conquest and Christianization: Saxony and the Carolingian World, 772–888 by Ingrid Rembold
  • The best books on Charlemagne - Saxon Identities, AD 150-900 by Robert Flierman

The best books on Charlemagne, recommended by Carine van Rhijn

We call him Charlemagne, but it was not a name that was used in his own lifetime. His conquests stretched across vast swathes of Europe, but he probably didn’t set out to become an emperor. Much has been written about him, but very little is known. Dutch historian Carine van Rhijn, a lecturer at the University of Utrecht, recommends the best books on Charles, King of the Franks.

  • The best books on Chinggis Khan - Chinggis Khan by Michal Biran
  • The best books on Chinggis Khan - Chinggis Khan by Ruth W. Dunnell
  • The best books on Chinggis Khan - The Secret History of the Mongols by Igor de Rachewiltz (trans.)
  • The best books on Chinggis Khan - The Mongols and the Islamic World: From Conquest to Conversion by Peter Jackson
  • The best books on Chinggis Khan - Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

The best books on Chinggis Khan, recommended by Timothy May

He was born Temüjin and was afraid of dogs as a child. He went on to create the largest land empire the world has ever known, but was more than just a bloodthirsty conqueror. Timothy May, Professor of Eurasian History at the University of North Georgia and author of a number of books on the Mongol Empire, separates the facts from the myths and explains how the modern world would have looked very different without Genghis or, more accurately, Chinggis Khan.

  • The best books on Jesus - Jesus and the Word by Rudolf Bultmann
  • The best books on Jesus - The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Albert Schweitzer
  • The best books on Jesus - The Shadow of the Galilean by Gerd Theissen
  • The best books on Jesus - The Birth of the Messiah by Raymond Brown
  • The best books on Jesus - Born of a Virgin? by Andrew Lincoln

The best books on Jesus, recommended by Robert Morgan

Jesus was a 1st century Jew from Galilee who had a ministry of teaching and healing. He gathered disciples around him, but was eventually arrested and executed by the Roman governor of Judaea from 26 to 36CE, Pontius Pilate. But what else do we know about Jesus and what is his significance in an increasingly secular age? New Testament scholar Robert Morgan talks us through his favourite books on Jesus.

  • The best books on Rembrandt - Rembrandt: The Painter at Work by Ernst van de Wetering
  • The best books on Rembrandt - Rembrandt's Universe: His Art, His Life, His World by Gary Schwartz
  • The best books on Rembrandt - Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama
  • The best books on Rembrandt - The Painter and the Girl by Margriet de Moor
  • The best books on Rembrandt - Rembrandt: the Complete Drawings & Etchings by Peter Schatborn

The best books on Rembrandt, recommended by Onno Blom

Though he left more self-portraits to posterity than practically any Old Master, there remains an air of mystery around Rembrandt the man—even on the 350th anniversary of his death. Piecing together the very few personal letters and documents left behind, Onno Blom has now reconstructed Rembrandt’s formative years in Young Rembrandt. Here he guides us through five of the most authoritative—and imaginative—accounts of the artist.

  • The Best Simone de Beauvoir Books - Philosophical Writings by Simone de Beauvoir
  • The Best Simone de Beauvoir Books - All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir
  • The Best Simone de Beauvoir Books - America Day By Day by Simone de Beauvoir
  • The Best Simone de Beauvoir Books - The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
  • The Best Simone de Beauvoir Books - A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir

The Best Simone de Beauvoir Books, recommended by Kate Kirkpatrick

Simone de Beauvoir is remembered today as the pioneering feminist author of The Second Sex and a close companion of Jean Paul Sartre. But the scope of her intellectual contribution has long been underestimated, argues her latest biographer Kate Kirkpatrick, who offers an introduction to the landscape of Beauvoir’s works, from fiction to philosophy to life writing.

  • The best books on Spinoza - The Collected Works of Spinoza (Volume I) by Baruch Spinoza & Edwin Curley
  • The best books on Spinoza - Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spinoza's Ethics by Edwin Curley
  • The best books on Spinoza - A Study of Spinoza's Ethics by Jonathan Bennett
  • The best books on Spinoza - The Explainability of Experience: Realism and Subjectivity in Spinoza's Theory of the Human Mind by Ursula Renz
  • The best books on Spinoza - Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion, and Politics: The Theologico-Political Treatise by Susan James

The best books on Spinoza, recommended by Steven Nadler

In 1656 Baruch Spinoza was thrown out by Amsterdam’s Portuguese-Jewish congregation for ‘abominable heresies’ and ‘monstrous deeds’, ensuring he would be forever remembered as a radical thinker. Here Steven Nadler, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of a number of books on Spinoza, talks us through the life and work of the 17th century philosopher whose worldview remains, in many ways, remarkably modern.

  • The Best George Eliot Books - Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
  • The Best George Eliot Books - Adam Bede by George Eliot
  • The Best George Eliot Books - The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  • The Best George Eliot Books - Middlemarch by George Eliot
  • The Best George Eliot Books - George Eliot's Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals by John Walter Cross

The Best George Eliot Books, recommended by Philip Davis

George Eliot is all but synonymous with Victorian realism; for D H Lawrence, she was the first novelist to start ‘putting all the action inside.’ Here, Philip Davis, author of The Transferred Life of George Eliot, selects the best books by or about one of the greatest novelists of all time: ‘If you want to read literature that sets out to create a holding ground for raw human material—for human struggles, difficulties, and celebrations—read George Eliot’

  • The best books on Galileo Galilei - Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht
  • The best books on Galileo Galilei - Galileo’s Telescope: A European Story by Franco Giudice, Massimo Bucciantini and Michele Camerota, translated by Catherine Bolton
  • The best books on Galileo Galilei - Letters to Father: Sister Maria Celeste to Galileo by Suor Maria Celeste (Virginia Galilei) and Dava Sobel (editor and translator)
  • The best books on Galileo Galilei - On Trial for Reason: Science, Religion, and Culture in the Galileo Affair by Maurice A. Finocchiaro
  • The best books on Galileo Galilei - Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei & Stillman Drake (trans.)

The best books on Galileo Galilei, recommended by Paula Findlen

The trial of Galileo by the Roman Inquisition was one of the most public confrontations between the new science emerging in the 17th century and the Catholic Church but, nearly 400 years later, there’s still a lot of scope to argue what it was about. Here historian of science Paula Findlen, a professor at Stanford University, explains the endless fascination of Galileo Galilei, the Renaissance man who turned a telescope to the sky and took the world by storm, and recommends the best books to start learning more about him.

  • The best books on Julius Caesar - Et Tu, Brute? The Murder of Caesar and Political Assassination by Greg Woolf
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 by William Manchester
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - The Complete Works of Julius Caesar by Julius Caesar
  • The best books on Julius Caesar - Imperial Projections in Modern Popular Culture by Sandra R. Joshel (Ed)

The best books on Julius Caesar, recommended by Peter Stothard

Julius Caesar was a populist politician and general of the late Roman Republic who immortalized himself not only by his beautiful writing about his military exploits, but also by the manner of his death. Here, British journalist and critic Peter Stothard, author of The Last Assassin, chooses five books to help you understand both the man and what motivated him and some of the people who have been inspired by him in the 2,000 years since he died.

  • The best books on Thucydides - Pericles of Athens by Vincent Azoulay
  • The best books on Thucydides - Nemesis: Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens by David Stuttard
  • The best books on Thucydides - The Invention of Athens: The Funeral Oration in the Classical City by Nicole Loraux
  • The best books on Thucydides - Histories by Herodotus
  • The best books on Thucydides - The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika by Xenophon

The best books on Thucydides, recommended by Johanna Hanink

The Greek historian and general Thucydides wanted his History of the Peloponnesian War “to be a possession for all time.” In that, he’s been remarkably successful, with his name still echoing in the corridors of power. But what lessons should we take away from his great work? Translator and classicist Johanna Hanink talks us through books to better understand Thucydides and the mythical Athens he lived in and wrote about.

  • The best books on JFK - JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956 by Fredrik Logevall
  • The best books on JFK - Prelude to Leadership: The Postwar Diary of John F. Kennedy by John F Kennedy
  • The best books on JFK - Profiles in Courage by John F Kennedy
  • The best books on JFK - Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History by Ted Sorensen
  • The best books on JFK - The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

The best books on JFK, recommended by Fredrik Logevall

Of the thousands of books written about JFK, America’s iconic 35th president, which ones should you read first? Fredrik Logevall, professor of history and international affairs at Harvard University, talks us through five key books, starting with the first volume of his biography, tracking JFK’s coming of age in the years that also saw America transforming from economic powerhouse to global superpower.

  • The best books on The Marquis de Sade - The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade
  • The best books on The Marquis de Sade - Eugenie De Franval and Other Stories by Marquis de Sade
  • The best books on The Marquis de Sade - Sade/Fourier/Loyola by Roland Barthes
  • The best books on The Marquis de Sade - The Sadeian Woman: An Exercise in Cultural History by Angela Carter
  • The best books on The Marquis de Sade - Quills and Other Plays by Doug Wright

The best books on The Marquis de Sade, recommended by Will McMorran

The word ‘sadism’ derives from the Marquis de Sade, the infamous 18th century French aristocrat. His works such as Justine and The 120 Days of Sodom are profoundly disturbing, retaining the ability to shock, disgust, and unsettle. Will McMorran, Sade’s translator, looks at the way Sade destabilises the idea of benevolent narrators, and how we must remain ethically engaged when reading him

  • The Best Thomas Cromwell Books - Thomas Cromwell: A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch
  • The Best Thomas Cromwell Books - The Tudor Constitution: Documents and Commentary by G R Elton
  • The Best Thomas Cromwell Books - The Reformation Parliament 1529-1536 by Stanford E Lehmberg
  • The Best Thomas Cromwell Books - Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame by John Guy
  • The Best Thomas Cromwell Books - London and the Reformation by Susan Brigden

The Best Thomas Cromwell Books, recommended by Benedict King

The Mirror and the Light—the final instalment of Hilary Mantel’s epic trilogy covering the life of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s chief minister and architect of the English Reformation—was published to great acclaim this month. Here, Five Books contributing editor Benedict King chooses five of the best books to help you get to grips with the real Thomas Cromwell and the political and religious environment in which he operated. You can watch Benedict talking about his Thomas Cromwell book choices here.