Best Books in Historical Non-Fiction

There are many historical non-fiction novels to pick from, whether you're a history buff or just searching for an intriguing read. These books will keep you on the edge of your seat and force you to reconsider the past.

An insightful examination of the racial notions that marred American history and continue to have an impact now is provided by Stamped from the Beginning. Anyone interested in politics, history, or racism should read it.

A significant history that tells the epic tale of the conquistadors' conquest of America up until the early 20th century and the slavery of tens of thousands of Indians there.

Resendez outlines the entire extent of what he calls "the other slavery" in this highly regarded historical non-fiction work. It was so pervasive and destructive that it permeated every region of North America, even after the Spanish Empire and Mexico governments established laws outlawing the enslavement of Native Americans inside their borders.

Resendez highlights the vicious flexibility of Indian slavers, who frequently sidestepped law and court to preserve their authority, from the Caribbean through Mexico, New Mexico, and portions of northern North America. No other form of slavery in the New World ever came close to being as widespread as this one, and both its intricacy and pervasiveness impacted our shared history.

Our view of the Americas before Columbus is fundamentally altered by 1491, a ground-breaking study of science, history, and archaeology. Mann disputes that Native Americans lived in a sparsely populated wilderness and contends that their culture was quite advanced.

He also argues that diseases, notably terrible plagues like cholera and bubonic plague, contributed to a higher population fall among Indians than among any other tribe in the globe. The fact that Europeans succeeded in subduing the Americas before the Indians did is no coincidence.

Although the author has an agenda and some bias in this book, it is a well-researched work that presents both sides of the argument. It will help if you read it because it will make you aware of a world you would otherwise have missed.

Unbroken is a stirring story of the tenacity of the human spirit, body, and intellect. It is based on the life of former Olympic runner Louis Zamperini and was written by Laura Hillenbrand.

Zamperini, a bombardier in World War II, was finally saved by the Japanese after surviving an aircraft crash and spending 47 days floating on a raft in the Pacific Ocean. His extraordinary tale is written vividly, making the reader feel as though they were present with him.

One of the best historical non-fiction books ever written is this one. It will encourage you to be more powerful and resilient and is a monument to how inventive humans can be in seeking beauty.

Millions of individuals have traveled around the nation for a better living. The Gold Rush and the Dust Bowl migrations are two examples. One huge movement, the Great Movement of Americans, eclipses the others.

The greatest successful mass migration in American history is the subject of celebrated writer Isabel Wilkerson's magisterial book, The Warmth of Other Suns. She mixes a broad historical view with fascinating, in-depth biographies of three extraordinary people who made the shift.

The book was a New York Times bestseller and won six jury awards. It is a fascinating and stirring narrative of how black Southerners left the South in great numbers in search of work, a better life, and a haven from the ills of Jim Crow.

One of its most intriguing features is the ability to view history as a web of interactions. The old Silk Roads crossed the continent and permitted the exchange of products, ideas, and cultures between East and West.

Empires grew as a result of these networks. They also permitted an extensive flow of ideas, with Buddhist ideas crossing into China from India and Greek pantheons traveling from the West to the East.

Peter Frankopan's book is a must-read for anybody interested in world history. It is geared toward a younger audience but has enough substance to hold the interest of adults as well. It covers many themes without becoming bogged down in geopolitics or excessive detail.

A network of trade routes that linked East and West, the Silk Roads served as a crucial conduit between the Mediterranean and the expansive grasslands of Central Asia. The first settlements, cities, kingdoms, and empires in the globe all originated here.