r/AskHistorians' Recommended Books

Description
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/46890061-askhistorians
Members
5 participating members
1
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
19,522 members
414 reviews
3.8
2 Members
ahef1963, ManWithAnAgenda
2
The Waning of the Middle Ages
by Johan Huizinga
3,115 members
35 reviews
4
2 Members
pitjrw, ahef1963
4
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by Nathaniel Philbrick
5,939 members
165 reviews
4.2
Member
ahef1963
5
A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya
by Linda Schele
710 members
6 reviews
3.8
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
6
The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861
by David M. Potter
567 members
8 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
pitjrw
7
The Fatal Shore
by Robert Hughes
3,730 members
55 reviews
4
Member
ahef1963
9
The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000
by William H. McNeill
459 members
1 review
4.2
Member
pitjrw
10
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
by Adam Hochschild
4,444 members
124 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
11
Goodbye to All That
by Robert Graves
3,562 members
65 reviews
4
Member
ahef1963
12
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt
by Ian Shaw
983 members
12 reviews
4
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
13
Seven Years in Tibet
by Heinrich Harrer
2,707 members
41 reviews
3.9
Member
ahef1963
14
The Return of Martin Guerre
by Natalie Zemon Davis
1,266 members
20 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
15
From Dawn to Decadence
by Jacques Barzun
3,590 members
37 reviews
4.1
Member
ManWithAnAgenda
17
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas S. Kuhn
7,709 members
84 reviews
4
18
Salt: A World History
by Mark Kurlansky
5,750 members
157 reviews
½ 3.7
19
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
by Nathaniel Philbrick
5,219 members
120 reviews
3.9
20
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
by James M. McPherson
5,073 members
70 reviews
½ 4.4
21
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
4,851 members
136 reviews
½ 4.4
22
The Story of Art
by E. H. Gombrich
4,452 members
34 reviews
½ 4.3
23
Stalingrad
by Antony Beevor
3,993 members
58 reviews
4.2
24
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil
by Hannah Arendt
3,853 members
56 reviews
4.2
25
The Good Soldier Svejk
by Jaroslav Hašek
3,353 members
58 reviews
4
27
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
by Richard Rhodes
3,282 members
50 reviews
½ 4.5
28
A Little History of the World
by E. H. Gombrich
3,260 members
59 reviews
3.9
29
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright
3,251 members
77 reviews
½ 4.3
30
A History of the Arab Peoples
by Albert Hourani
3,113 members
18 reviews
½ 3.7
31
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World
by Mark Kurlansky
3,100 members
66 reviews
3.9
32
The First World War
by John Keegan
3,046 members
39 reviews
3.8
33
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
by Jack Weatherford
2,944 members
84 reviews
4
34
Berlin: The Downfall 1945
by Antony Beevor
2,928 members
54 reviews
4.1
35
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
by Tony Judt
2,836 members
42 reviews
½ 4.3
36
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates
by David Cordingly
2,660 members
40 reviews
½ 3.7
37
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943
by Rick Atkinson
2,586 members
60 reviews
½ 4.3
38
Gulag: A History
by Anne Applebaum
2,489 members
43 reviews
4.2
39
Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust
by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
2,350 members
27 reviews
½ 3.5
40
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
by Daniel Yergin
2,119 members
24 reviews
½ 4.3
42
Storm of Steel
by Ernst Jünger
2,108 members
66 reviews
4
43
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–63
by Taylor Branch
2,106 members
21 reviews
½ 4.5
44
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
2,070 members
36 reviews
4.1
45
The Coming of the Third Reich
by Richard J. Evans
1,980 members
44 reviews
½ 4.3
46
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
by Christopher Clark
1,925 members
50 reviews
½ 4.3
47
The Conquest of New Spain
by Bernal Díaz del Castillo
1,881 members
32 reviews
4
48
What Is History?
by Edward Hallett Carr
1,864 members
28 reviews
3.8
49
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
by Timothy Snyder
1,834 members
61 reviews
½ 4.3
50
The Worst Journey in the World
by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
1,805 members
53 reviews
4.2
51
A History of Western Music
by Donald Jay Grout
1,799 members
10 reviews
4
52
A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World
by Tony Horwitz
1,780 members
53 reviews
3.9
53
Plagues and Peoples
by William H. McNeill
1,760 members
19 reviews
4
54
The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller
by Carlo Ginzburg
1,758 members
25 reviews
4
55
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944
by Rick Atkinson
1,756 members
42 reviews
½ 4.4
56
Montaillou : Cathars and Catholics in a French village, 1294-1324
by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie
1,720 members
18 reviews
3.9
57
The Making of the English Working Class
by E. P. Thompson
1,685 members
10 reviews
4.1
58
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World
by Nicholas Ostler
1,628 members
34 reviews
4
59
The Peloponnesian War
by Donald Kagan
1,614 members
21 reviews
4.1
60
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
by Daniel Walker Howe
1,604 members
25 reviews
½ 4.3
61
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789
by Robert Middlekauff
1,589 members
19 reviews
4
62
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924
by Orlando Figes
1,577 members
19 reviews
4.2
63
The Radicalism of the American Revolution
by Gordon S. Wood
1,576 members
22 reviews
4
64
Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris
by Ian Kershaw
1,567 members
22 reviews
½ 4.3
65
The Middle East: 2000 Years of History From the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day
by Bernard Lewis
1,518 members
14 reviews
½ 3.5
66
The Civil War: A Narrative
by Shelby Foote
1,449 members
14 reviews
½ 4.6
67
Hitler: 1936-1945: Nemesis
by Ian Kershaw
1,437 members
19 reviews
½ 4.3
68
Six Days of War
by Michael B. Oren
1,435 members
23 reviews
4.1
69
The Third Reich in Power
by Richard J. Evans
1,434 members
21 reviews
½ 4.3
70
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
by David M. Kennedy
1,423 members
14 reviews
½ 4.3
71
All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945
by Max Hastings
1,412 members
29 reviews
½ 4.3
72
The Cold War: A New History
by John Lewis Gaddis
1,402 members
32 reviews
3.9
73
The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945
by Rick Atkinson
1,358 members
44 reviews
½ 4.5
74
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
by Daniel Okrent
1,345 members
45 reviews
4
75
The Fate of Africa
by Martin Meredith
1,340 members
24 reviews
4.2
76
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
by William Cronon
1,325 members
12 reviews
4.2
77
The Second World War
by John Keegan
1,310 members
11 reviews
4
78
The Scramble for Africa: 1876–1912
by Thomas Pakenham
1,298 members
21 reviews
4.2
82
Armageddon : The Battle for Germany 1944-45
by Max Hastings
1,269 members
25 reviews
4.1
84
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
by John W. Dower
1,242 members
13 reviews
4.1
85
The Third Reich at War
by Richard J. Evans
1,227 members
25 reviews
½ 4.3
86
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
by Bernard Bailyn
1,219 members
18 reviews
4.2
87
The Search for Modern China
by Jonathan D. Spence
1,215 members
18 reviews
4.2
88
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
by Gordon S. Wood
1,214 members
12 reviews
4.2
89
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
by Ronald Takaki
1,212 members
9 reviews
4
90
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
by David Remnick
1,208 members
14 reviews
4.2
91
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947
by Christopher Clark
1,192 members
30 reviews
4.1
92
The Glorious Cause
by Jeff Shaara
1,170 members
18 reviews
4
93
Pompeii: The Life of A Roman Town
by Mary Beard
1,162 members
34 reviews
4.1
94
The First World War: A Complete History
by Martin Gilbert
1,159 members
11 reviews
4
95
All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror
by Stephen Kinzer
1,110 members
22 reviews
4.1
96
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
by Adam Hochschild
1,100 members
50 reviews
4.2
97
The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
by Eamon Duffy
1,092 members
16 reviews
½ 4.4
99
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
by Richard Rhodes
1,086 members
13 reviews
4
100
The Historian's Craft
by Marc Bloch
1,080 members
16 reviews
4.1