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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same author1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed
Eric H. Cline · 264 pages
In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh’s army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of jus
A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present
Andrew Gordon · 400 pages
Introduction: Enduring Imprints of the Longer PastPART 1. CRISIS OF HE TOKUGAWA REGIME 1. The Tokugawa Polity UnificationThe Tokugawa Political SettlementsThe DaimyoThe Imperial InstitutionThe SamuraiVillagers and City-DwellersThe Margins of the Japanese and Japan2. Social and Economic Transformations The Seventeenth-Century BoomRiddles of Stagnation and Vitality3. The Intellectual World of Late T
The Rush
Nathaniel Philbrick
The author of “Travels With George” looks at how America’s modern contradictions were born out of California’s Gold Rush.
The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
David McCullough · 698 pages
The building of the Panama Canal was one of the most grandiose, dramatic, and sweeping adventures of all time. Spanning nearly half a century, from its beginnings by a France in pursuit of glory to its completion by the United States on the eve of World War I, it enlisted men, nations, and money on a scale never before seen. Apart from the great wars, it was the largest, costliest single effort ev
How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
Arthur Herman · 392 pages
"Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland earned the respect of the rest of the world for its crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics - contributions that have forme
Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future
Ian Morris
The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
William K. Klingaman, Nicholas P. Klingaman · 345 pages
"As a result of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia in 1815, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, producing excessive rain, frost, and snowfall across much of the northeastern United States, Canada, and Europe in the summer of 1816. ... The Year Without Summer examines not only the climate change engendered by the eruption, but its effects on politics, the economy, the arts, and soci
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
Daniel Immerwahr · 513 pages
After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405
John Darwin · 583 pages
Tamerlane was the last of the "world conquerors". His armies marauded from the shores of the Mediterranean to the frontier of China. Nomad horsemen from the steppes had been the terror of Europe and Asia for centuries, but with Tamerlane's death in 1405 an epoch of history came to an end. After Tamerlane takes a sweeping new look at our global past. John Darwin's account shows that the ascent of t
A History of the World in 6 Glasses
Tom Standage · 323 pages
Throughout human history certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history during pivotal epochs -- from humankind's adoption of agriculture and the birth of cities to the advent of globalization. A history of the World in 6 Glasses presents an original, well
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
Niall Ferguson · 416 pages
In this book Niall Ferguson argues that the British Empire should be regarded not merely as vanished Victoriana but as the very cradle of modernity. Nearly all the key features of the twenty-first-century world can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth--economic globalization, the communicati
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
Gordon S. Wood · 778 pages
As part of the Oxford History of the United States series the author offers an account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As he reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life, in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hope
Mao's Great Famine
Frank Dikotter · 448 pages
""Between 1958 and 1962, China descended into hell. Mao Zedong threw his country into a frenzy with the Great Leap Forward, an attempt to catch up with and overtake Britain in less than fifteen years. The experiment ended in the greatest catastrophe the country had ever known, destroying tens of millions of lives." So opens Frank Dikotter's astonishing, riveting, magnificently detailed chronicle o
City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire
Roger Crowley · 405 pages
A magisterial work of gripping history, City of Fortune tells the story of the Venetian ascent from lagoon dwellers to the greatest power in the Mediterranean - an epic five hundred year voyage that encompassed crusade and trade, plague, sea battles and colonial adventure.
The Discovery of France
Graham Robb · 480 pages
"From maps, migration and magic, to linguistic differences and tribal disputes, The Discovery of France tells the whole story of this remarkable - and surprising - country."--Jacket.
City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America
Donald L. Miller · 704 pages
From back cover: The epic of Chicago is the story of the emergence of modern America. Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900. [This] powerful narrative embraces it all: reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen,
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Isabel Wilkerson · 635 pages
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. She interviewed more than a t
Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Daniel Okrent · 468 pages
Okrent explores the origins, implementation, and failure of that great American delusion known as Prohibition. "Last Call" explains how Prohibition happened, what life under it was like, and what it did to the country.
The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
Simon Schama · 698 pages
This text explores the enigma of 17th-century Holland, a nation that attained an unprecedented level of affluence, yet lived in constant dread of being corrupted by prosperity. Examines seventeenth-century Dutch life, history, and culture.
The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival
John Bagot Glubb · 52 pages
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
William Cronon · 249 pages
In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-dis
Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty
Catherine Bailey · 448 pages