Six banger history books for casual readers

[@GerryThePigeon]

I’ll be honest I clicked because I saw the Borussia Dortmund jersey. I’m game for anyone that enjoys soccer/football.

[@the_eerie_faerie_tales]

I recommend The Wager by David Grann. The 18th Century shipwreck of the HMS Wager and the ensing mutiny, murder and mayhem. Written more like a thriller. Lots of additional info and photos included. Everybody I know who has read it (including me) has thoroughly enjoyed it.

[@JerryThomas-c1w]

The wager has been on my list for a while. I read his other book, killers of the flower moon and as someone who never reads history, his writing was digestible and enjoyable.

[@the_eerie_faerie_tales]

@JerryThomas-c1w now this is your sign to read it! ☺

[@cathycrandall5264]

I listened to it on audio and really enjoyed it and I recently found it at a library book sale for a dollar so now I have my own copy📚!!

[@stephanerivest3166]

@@JerryThomas-c1w The Wager was so good

[@josiahhager4046]

In this vein, In the Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides. Tells the story of a ship's arctic exploration in the late 1870s. Absolutely riveting and terrifying and inspiring, with many details coming directly from the writings of those involved. Truly reads like a novel. It's so good that the only "problem" with it is resisting the urge to Google the event to find out the fate of everyone involved.

[@aliyahfarooqi4119]

Always excited for a new histroy books video. I've bought three books on your recommendation & I've loved all of them. Keep these videos coming!

[@KistReadsBooks]

Love hearing that! Glad they're hittin

[@ludium_Gambit]

Thank you! I appreciate this video as I am planning on becoming a history teacher and am diving into every history book/documentary I see! Subscribed within the first minute!

[@BenCallahanCo]

would love a video on the most difficult books you've ever read

[@Colty1]

We need an office tour. So many cool nik nacs in the background

[@tae4177]

Loving the consistency brother

[@brice5061]

Great video!

[@KistReadsBooks]

Appreciate ya!

[@jenniferst.george810]

I would recommend Bury my Heart at wounded knee by Dee Brown and Ice Ghosts ( about the search for the Franklin expedition)

[@Gregor147]

Empire of the summer moon is good too.

[@Tartan]

Anything by Dan Jones is great - the best writing I’ve come across.

[@KistReadsBooks]

For sure, I put a buncha books from him in the first video I did like this.

[@senzubean31]

I'll recommend 'Moscow 1812' by Adam Zamoyski, about Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia.

[@PAJama_Reads]

Race of Aces by John Bruning was phenomenal

[@mattdorsey8800]

Two Arctic Shipwreck books, ‘Labyrinth of Ice’ and ‘Empire of Ice and Stone’ by Buddy Levy were really fun reads. Incredible stories that are written in a way that makes you feel like you are there experiencing it first hand.

[@nanimaonovi2528]

'Ornament of the World' by Maria Rosa Menocal, 'House of Rain' by Craig Childs and 'The Perfect Heresy' by Stephen O'Shea are some of my favourites that haven't been mentioned yet.

[@DaisyMae0929]

Candice Millard is an entertaining and informative writer in the popular history genre. Well worth checking out, I am currently going through her catalogue and have not been disappointed yet.

[@KlingonPrincess]

A few I really enjoyed - Rats, Lice, and History; The Endurance; The Discovers; and The Big Oyster. Also, The Professor and the Madman (more a memoir but of historical interest.) Thanks for the recommendations. 🌻🍄

[@fightronin3753]

Great video!! Another amazing history book with no sugarcoating is The Great Evil: Christianity, the Bible, and the Native American Genocide by Professor Matu Nunpa. Definitely, worth checking out for people who want to know about real American history!

[@TheSummerCoast]

I've started SPQR a few days ago, and she just gets me hooked on the subject even if only 170 pages in and during the part of Roman Republic that I'll be honest isn't my biggest interest, but the fact you say that Dynasty Disrupted is even better at that than SPQR I'm pumped to read it. And it will fit nicely on my 2025 goal of expanding my history reading from eurocentric topics. One book I would recommend to everyone, it's not really casual history, but I just felt it was so fascinating is "The Untold History of Ramen" by George Solt.

[@KistReadsBooks]

Yup I rate SPQR quite high too so I think you'll very much enjoy Destiny Disrupted.

[@krishbohra5536]

I know you are interested in the subject. Two books on popular Indian history that I can recommend are False Allies by Manu S. Pillai and Lords of the Deccan by Anirudh Kanisetti. Both incredible reads.

[@KistReadsBooks]

Will look into those, thank you!

[@bigtreece2011]

I HIGHLY recommend A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage. This is a world history periodization book based on six different drinks that changed the world or essential in the time period. (I am a high school social studies teacher and this is a book I highly enjoy) Thanks for all the things you create. I am reading Game of Thrones and the Bloodsworn Saga because of you.

[@Ravenblade86]

Always have to recommend The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte and The Germans and Europe by Peter Millar. Destiny in the Desert by Jonathan Dimbleby is a good one for WW2 in north Africa, and for something a bit different The Ghosts of K2 by Mick Conefrey which is great account of the first ascent of the world's second highest mountain.

[@KistReadsBooks]

Loved Brussate's dino book, have to read his book on the mammals and look into your recs, appreciate it!

[@taylorr.1589]

Genghis Khan by Weatherford was actually the first biography I read and didn't love. I think the author writes really dryly and I don't appreciate how much he assumes the details from the contemporary sources are correct. Cleopatra by Schiff I think does a much better job at taking scant primary sources and writing a compelling story while still making it clear that a lot is unknown.

[@KistReadsBooks]

That's interesting becsuse I was mixed on Cleopatra (talked about it on my Egyptian vid) but different strokes an' all

[@heidi6281]

Mongolian Historical Fantasy that I enjoyed very much is Stephen Aryan’s The Nightingale & the Falcon: Judas Blossom, Blood Dimmed Tide and in coming out in 2025 The Sorrow & the Sea!

[@KistReadsBooks]

Will check that out!

[@JJJabel]

Currently reading Babylon, Mesopotamia the birth of civilization by Paul Kriwaczek highly recommend Another book I read early in my History endeavors was Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Great video and appreciate your recommendations

[@chrisdeleuze4493]

The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire

[@jameskyle7943]

In my Texas high school the history teachers were mostly disgruntled football coaches who were forced to also teach some classes.

[@KistReadsBooks]

There's a lot of that unfortunately

[@dl5631]

Any WW1/WW2 recommendations? I read the grape of nanking recently and was horrified but fascinated. I’d like to read more about both wars but don’t know where to pivot after that book.

[@KistReadsBooks]

For WW1 The Last of the Doughboys (Rubin) is great. For WW2 I've recently read Bloodlands (Snyder) and Ordinary Men (Browning) and loved em both

[@annacalifornia6498]

I have kind of love/Hate feeling towards Genghis Khan. On one hand he was a warmonger. He killed lots of people but that's how he grew up. I mean his family was killed. His wife was stolen and raped before it. Even technically got married. His own brother wanted to kill him. So he realized that power and strength. What gets the job done? On the other hand, after he conquered whatever land he learned the little people live as long as they didn't rise up against him. He didn't care about the religion. He didn't try to enforce their his religion and so bad for Conquering but at the same time also good as a leader

[@MrCaseHarts]

BVB jersey, hmmmm is it pulisic on the back?

[@KistReadsBooks]

Reus

[@peace-vi8jg]

Genghis Khan - you pronounce this as jenghes khan . the first G is pronounced as J as in jug. Second G is g as in ghost. Hope this helps!

[@maxe6538]

We are led by someone illiterate. His name is James Franklin

[@KistReadsBooks]

Lmfao

[@JerryThomas-c1w]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@kevinalexander4792]

4 books come to mind for the history beginner reader 1. The Boy: A Holocaust Story by Dan Porat (Reads like a novel but is still the work of a serious historian) 2. March by Congressman John Lewis (It’s a series of Graphic Novels that detail his experiences during the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s) 3 Battle Lines by Ari Kelman (A history of the American Civil War written in the form of a Graphic Novel) 4. Liar Temptress Soldier Spy by Karen Abbott (A serious work of History however, it is readily accessible and reads like a novel. It follows four different women who undertake the roles mentioned in the title of the book during the American Civil War.) Rather Riveting read and also comes in audiobook format

[@ItsMedodd]

I haven't read the one on Mongols but I have this to say : Any attempt to cast a positive light on the Mongol conquests and Genghis Khan risks trivializing the sheer scale of devastation they wrought. While the Mongols undeniably facilitated cultural exchange and advanced trade through the Silk Road, these outcomes were built on a foundation of unimaginable violence and destruction. Entire cities were razed, populations annihilated, and countless lives irreparably disrupted. The death toll from the Mongol campaigns is estimated in the tens of millions, leaving scars on civilizations that took centuries to heal. To focus on the administrative or economic benefits of their empire while minimizing the brutality of their expansion is to ignore the human cost and suffering that accompanied their rise to power. Celebrating such a legacy risks romanticizing a period of history defined by relentless bloodshed and oppression.

[@KistReadsBooks]

I don't entirely disagree, hence my heavy disclaimer on it which also mentioned the tens of million toll.

[@nanimaonovi2528]

To the Mongols humans who didn't worship the sky father and ride horses weren't really people. That's the lesson history teaches. The greatest doomsday weapon is being able to other another human. "We aren't like them" is all you need to believe to burn down the world.

[@pouetpouetdaddy5]

if history book can be a turn-off, clearly I see what can be…a turn-on😉

[@blackeneddarkangel]

It's pronounced Ching ghis Khan Ching not Ghing.