History

History (from Greek ἱστορία - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation") is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and its usefulness. This includes discu ...more

This Dark Night: Emily Bronte, A Life
The Lost Voices of Pompeii: Life and Death on Pompeii's Final Day
How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words
The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World
Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World
House of Fidelity: The Rise of the Johnson Dynasty and the Company That Changed American Investing
How Queer Bookshops Changed the World
The Black Death: A Global History of Humanity's Most Devastating Pandemic
Freedom Round the Globe: A World History of the American Revolution
The Almighty Dollar: 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money
The Forgotten World War: Exploring the Secret History of the American Revolution, from Spain to India and Back Again
National Treasure: How the Declaration of Independence Made America
An Inconvenient Widow: The Torment, Trial, and Triumph of Mary Todd Lincoln
Color Me Country: A Celebration of Black Women Who Shaped Country Music
Servus: How Slavery Made the Roman World
  • Format: Kindle book

    Giveaway ends in: a

    Availability: 100 copies available, 308 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Jun 15 - Jun 29, 2026

    Countries available: U.S.

  • American Scoundrel by Kai Bird
    American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
    by

    Release date: Sep 01, 2026
    From the Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor of American Prometheus (Oppenheimer) comes AMERICAN SCOUNDREL by Kai Bird. Enter to win now.
    View Details »

    Format: Print book

    Giveaway ends in: a

    Availability: 10 copies available, 1767 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Jun 01 - Jun 29, 2026

    Countries available: U.S.

  • The Tallahassee Civil Rights Story as Told by Miss Jasmine by Jasmine Barnes
    The Tallahassee Civil Rights Story as Told by Miss Jasmine: In Black and White
    by

    Release date: May 17, 2025
    Expand your horizons about Civil Rights events of Tallahassee, Florida, not to mention green eggs, Spam, and two dogs named Whale.
    View Details »

    Format: Kindle book

    Giveaway ends in: a

    Availability: 100 copies available, 584 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: May 30 - Jun 29, 2026

    Countries available: U.S.

  • London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth
    Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
    A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
    The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
    The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
    The Marriage Portrait
    The Diamond Eye
    The Foursome
    The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
    The Personal Librarian
    1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History – and How It Shattered a Nation
    Abundance
    107 Days
    Lázár
    Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
    Sapiens by Yuval Noah HarariThe Cosmic Experience of One by Jasun EtherHomo Deus by Yuval Noah HarariA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
    Best of 21st Century Non-fiction
    1,294 books — 1,364 voters
    Steve Jobs by Walter IsaacsonUnbroken by Laura HillenbrandEinstein by Walter IsaacsonInto the Wild by Jon KrakauerJohn Adams by David McCullough
    Best Biographies
    1,762 books — 3,126 voters

    Band of Brothers by Stephen E. AmbroseBlack Hawk Down by Mark BowdenUnbroken by Laura HillenbrandWe Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Harold G. MooreAn Accidental Philanthropist by Winsome Dunn McIntosh
    Best Non-fiction War Books
    2,229 books — 2,744 voters

    Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryTrue Grit by Charles PortisBlood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthyAll the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthyNo Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
    Best Westerns
    1,436 books — 1,618 voters
    The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankWalden or, Life in the Woods by Henry David ThoreauGuns, Germs, and Steel by Jared DiamondSocialism Is Dead! Long Live Socialism! by Todor BombovQuantum Energetics and Spirituality Volume 1 by Kenneth Schmitt
    Non-fiction - Something for Everyone
    4,149 books — 1,542 voters

    Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
    A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
    The Diary of a Young Girl
    The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
    1776
    SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
    A Short History of Nearly Everything
    The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
    1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
    Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
    Night
    Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

    Related News

      It’s time once again, gentle reader, for our annual Big Books of Summer celebration, in which we offer a genre-sorted selection of the...
    Mark Twain
    History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. ...more
    Mark Twain

    Oscar Wilde
    The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.
    Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

    More quotes...
    The Goodreads page for BBC World Book Club - the BBC World's Service podcast where the world's b…more
    1 member, last active 40 days ago
    Underground Knowledge — A discussion group This global discussion group has been designed to encourage debates about important and underrep…more
    25,732 members, last active 11 hours ago
    Around the World in 80 Books Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world lit…more
    31,420 members, last active 8 hours ago
    The History Book Club "Interested in history - then you have found the right group". The History Book Club i…more
    26,268 members, last active 10 hours ago

    Tags

    Tags contributing to this page include: history, past, and storia