What Is the Best History/Biography Book You Have Read Recently?u

[M.]

What History/Biography book that you have recently read would you recommend?

[K.A.]

Depends on your preference of time period in history and what location - but I really liked "So Rugged and Mountainous" by Will Bagley (So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848) which covers the antebellum westward immigration in the U.S. in the most thorough and inclusive manner I've encountered. A couple others in that time period that I really liked:

Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
Hard Road West: History and Geology along the Gold Rush Trail

[M.]

I finished reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" a few weeks ago and thought that it was a terrific account of Lincoln's presidency. I had previously read two other of Goodwin's books: "No Ordinary Time," which was an account of FDR and Eleanor on the home front during WWII and which definitely deserved the Pulitzer Prize that it won, and "Wait 'Til Next Year," an interesting memoir of her childhood in 1950's Brooklyn.

[M.]

This is the best book I've read this year; a very well-researched historical novel about a small town in England that is decimated by the Bubonic Plague. The characters were strong and interesting, particularly Anna Frith, the narrator, an intelligent and quick-witted young lady, whose growth during that horrible year of death is heartwarming. The novel illustrates how desperate times can bring out the best in some folks and the worst in others.
Although the ending may have been a bit contrived, it did not take away from the overall excellence of this work.
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