Skip to main content

BEST BOOKS TO UNDERSTAND XX CENTURY'S HISTORY

Rank Title Author Added

1

The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation

by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

534 members

3 reviews

4.1

2 Members: Sciubba, raperper

2

Memoirs of the Second World War

by Winston S. Churchill

844 members

10 reviews

4.2

2 Members: Bretzky1, raperper

3

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

by Jacques Barzun

3,750 members

38 reviews

4.1

2 Members: Bretzky1, raperper

4

Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties

by Paul Johnson

1,146 members

16 reviews

4.1

Member: raperper

5

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom

by Conrad Black

496 members

4 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Bretzky1

6

We Now Know: rethinking Cold War history

by John Lewis Gaddis

342 members

4 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1

7

by George Orwell

82,157 members

1,274 reviews

4.2

Member: Sciubba

8

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

12,965 members

201 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

9

La prima guerra mondiale

by Pierre Renouvin

62 members

1 review

2.9

Member: raperper

10

The World of Yesterday

by Stefan Zweig

2,568 members

76 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: raperper

11

Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended

by Jack Matlock

97 members

1 review

½ 4.3

Member: Bretzky1

12

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire

by David Remnick

1,267 members

16 reviews

4.2

Member: Bretzky1

13

The Collapse of the Spanish Republic, 1933-1936: Origins of the Civil War

by Stanley G. Payne

57 members

1 review

4.2

Member: raperper

14

The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991

by Eric Hobsbawm

3,005 members

35 reviews

4.1

Member: raperper

15

The Revolt of the Masses

by José Ortega y Gasset

1,830 members

29 reviews

3.9

Member: raperper

16

An American Life: The Autobiography

by Ronald Reagan

961 members

12 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

17

27,671 members

574 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Bretzky1

18

The Road to Serfdom

2,798 members

34 reviews

4.2

Member: raperper

19

by Henry Kissinger

2,383 members

17 reviews

4.1

Member: Bretzky1

20

America's Great Depression

by Murray Rothbard

337 members

3 reviews

4.2

Member: raperper

21

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

by Niall Ferguson

534 members

6 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1

22

Centesimus Annus: On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum

by John Paul II

307 members

11 reviews

3.9

Member: raperper

23

Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World

by Margaret MacMillan

3,240 members

53 reviews

4.1

Member: Bretzky1

24

by Vasily Grossman

3,435 members

89 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: raperper

25

The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities

by Mancur Olson

294 members

3 reviews

4.1

Member: Bretzky1

26

Darkness at Noon

by Arthur Koestler

5,386 members

101 reviews

4

Member: raperper

27

Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die

by Garrett M. Graff

256 members

8 reviews

3.8

Member: Bretzky1

28

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

by Samuel P. Huntington

3,356 members

36 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: raperper

29

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty

by Daron Acemoglu

2,356 members

52 reviews

3.8

Member: Bretzky1

30

Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967

by William B. Quandt

80 members

½ 3.3

Member: Bretzky1

31

Del buen salvaje al buen revolucionario

by Carlos Rangel

30 members

2 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: raperper

32

The Abolition of Man

6,622 members

65 reviews

4

Member: raperper

33

A world transformed

by George H. W. Bush

243 members

1 review

3

Member: Bretzky1

34

The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

631 members

31 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

35

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

by Paul Kennedy

2,936 members

20 reviews

4

Member: raperper

36

Miracle Cure: The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine

by William Rosen

74 members

2 reviews

4.1

Member: Bretzky1

37

India: From Midnight to the Millennium

by Shashi Tharoor

322 members

2 reviews

½ 3.5

Member: Bretzky1

38

Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age

693 members

3 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

39

"One Hell of a Gamble": Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964

by Aleksandr Fursenko

247 members

4 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

40

Operation Solo: The FBI's Man in the Kremlin

108 members

2 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: Bretzky1

41

A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

by Ian J. Bickerton

67 members

½ 3.4

Member: Bretzky1

42

Butter and Guns: America’s Cold War Economic Diplomacy

by Diane B. Kunz

10 members

4

Member: Bretzky1

43

The Downing Street Years

by Margaret Thatcher

1,180 members

6 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1

44

The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan

282 members

3 reviews

3.8

Member: Bretzky1

45

Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War

71 members

1 review

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

46

American Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century

by Robert D. Schulzinger

35 members

4

Member: Bretzky1

47

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

by Benjamin A. Valentino

41 members

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

48

by Mikhail Gorbachev

147 members

2.8

Member: Bretzky1

49

Reagan: The Life

by H. W. Brands

382 members

6 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

50

Deciding to Intervene: The Reagan Doctrine and American Foreign Policy

by James M. Scott

8 members

4

Member: Bretzky1

51

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

2,459 members

33 reviews

4.2

Member: Bretzky1

52

The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB

by Milton Bearden

287 members

4 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

53

Gaza: A History (Comparative Politics and International Studies)

by Jean-Pierre Filiu

67 members

1 review

½ 2.5

Member: Bretzky1

54

Double Cross : The True Story of the D-Day Spies

by Ben Macintyre

1,062 members

45 reviews

3.9

Member: Bretzky1

55

Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

643 members

17 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Bretzky1

56

Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of How the Wildest Man in Congress and a Rogue CIA Agent Changed the History of Our Times

by George Crile

1,620 members

32 reviews

4

Member: Bretzky1

57

Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979-1988

by James G. Blight

13 members

1 review

½ 4.5

Member: Bretzky1

58

Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran

by Elaine Sciolino

288 members

2 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: Bretzky1

59

On the Brink: The Dramatic, Behind-the-Scenes Saga of the Reagan Era and the Men and Women Who Won the Cold War

49 members

½ 3.5

Member: Bretzky1

60

The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945 to the Present

by William I. Hitchcock

175 members

4

Member: Bretzky1

61

A History of Russia, Vol. 1: To 1917 (Anthem Series on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies)

by Walter G. Moss

85 members

3.8

Member: Bretzky1

62

One World Divisible: A Global History Since 1945 (The Global Century Series)

by David Reynolds

127 members

1 review

½ 3.3

About This List

Started: raperper
August 2013
Type: Numbered and unnumbered

Current Discussions

None

Related Tags

20th century (1,693) autobiography (1,018) big brother (727) biography (1,283) classic (2,462) classics (2,335) dystopia (3,513) dystopian (916) economics (929) fiction (9,257) history (7,065) Holocaust (2,258) literature (2,035) memoir (1,642) non-fiction (4,167) novel (1,713) philosophy (1,053) politics (2,722) read (1,841) Russia (1,215) Russian literature (780) science fiction (3,863) to-read (6,017) totalitarianism (993) WWII (2,131)

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.