Accessible, short-(ish) books of history

I am trying to get back into reading and am making a goal to read 12 books in 2026 – one per month. I am looking for history (or geography/geopolitics) books that would be manageable for a slow reader to finish within a month's time by reading 10-15 pages a day – books divided up into discrete sections or chapters of about that length would be awesome, but it's not strictly necessary. Monographs are fine, collections of shorter pieces about a central topic are fine.

I'm open to other topics, but my interests include: Europe from the late 19th century onward, the Cold War (from pretty much all perspectives), the Middle East post-1945, American foreign relations.

Thank you so much!