I was curious today about all the books that have years as their titles (1665: Journal of the Plague Year (Defoe), 1434, 1491, 1776, and so forth). How many of these books are out there to be read? Since you all are history buffs (and I am trying to be), I was hoping I could enlist your help in the matter. Thanks!

1968 The year that rocked the World

I typed 1968 in the brackes to bring up a touchstone and it gave me 100 titles to choose from. Not all are history but it was a very 'interesting' year.

1066 is the beginning of the title for several books.

>3 One of those 1066 books is the source of one of my tags.

I love books that have years as titles! We have:

1491
1776
1812: the war that forged a nation
1858: Abraham Lincoln
1912
1943: the victory that never was
1948 by Benny Morris
1984
1999: Victory Without War

Sorry, touchstones for year titles are a bit dodgy!

Message edited by its author, Jan 13, 2009, 6:40pm.

More books with years as titles:
1688 - A global History
1812 - Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
1914 - by Lyn MacDonald
1915
1918
1920

Message edited by its author, Jan 14, 2009, 3:29am.

I can't recommend the following as history, but as speculative fiction they make entertaining reading:

1421 and 1434 by Gavin Menzies

Newest history of the fall of Constantinople:
1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West

1587 - A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline, by Ray Huang. Besides having a date for a title, I highly recommend this look into why Ming Dynasty officials were unable to respond to the social, political and economic changes that ultimately brought down the dynasty.

1492: the poetics of diaspora by John Docker.
Docker sees 1492 as a dividing year in history for three “key happenings”: (1) Columbus sailed to the Americas, (2) Moorish Spain came to an end, and (3) the (not converted) Jews were expelled from Spain. The book is about the consequences of (2) and (3): the beginning of several diaporas and nationalisms. All kinds of texts are considered (literary, cooking, political, religious).
Have not read it yet, just purchased it (second hand) for its theme and method.

1913: America Between Two Worlds by Alan Chester Valentine

The Other 1492: Jewish Settlement in the New World - I have a signed copy by the author.

We just got A.D. 381 (darn that Charles Freeman for not putting the A.D. behind the number!)

Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan, a good, readable survey of the Paris Peace Conference that officially ended WWI, redrew the map of Europe and much of the world, and, some charge, created the conditions that led to WWII.

1483: The Year of Three Kings by Giles St. Aubyn about the end of the War of Roses in England and the three monarchs who ruled that year.

1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World by Frank McLynn but why do we have to have such long book titles these days? are people that much dumber than 20 years ago?

1215 The Year of Magna Carta is one I know of

I really like the idea of framing a story around a year. I took a class in high (many years ago) wherein we chose a year to explore. It was a lot of fun scanning the world for events to write about. I forget the year I wrote about, but the subject was piracy in the Adriatic Sea.

Sometimes, however, you get less perspective on the significance of that year because the scope is limited. For example, I got a better sense of the pivotal nature of --and the jeopardy of the War of the American Revolution-- 1776 from Christopher Ward's The War of the American Revolution than I did from David McCullough's 1776.

Daniel

Message edited by its author, Oct 19, 2009, 6:45pm.

Found another one: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro.

The Making of the President 1960

Freedom Riders: 1961 ant the Struggle for Racial Justice

An American Insurection: The Battle of Oxford Mississippi, 1962

The Death of a President: November 1963

October 1964

Cool of the Evening: The 1965 Minnesota Twins

Small Unit Action in Vietnam, Summer 1966

1967: Isreal, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East

1968 The Year that Rocked the World (from post 2 above)

1969: The Year Everything Changed

The sixties (textbook for the class I am taking on the sixties)

I did not think I was going to find every year in a title but thanks to baseball there is one each year.

1898: The Birth of the American Century by David Traxel is superb

In 1926: Living on the Edge of Time by Hans Gumbrecht is on my to-read list, since both my parents were born that year.