I have been a big fan of history books especially that analyses the past to decode why we are where we are. Think about gun germs and steel, sapiens. I also like books on true events from the past such as Endurance. Can anyone recommend something similar? I know it may sound a wide range but you get the idea.
by BluebirdNorth5355
5 Comments
If you haven’t then check out Dan Carlin’s hardcore history podcasts. Each topic he spends hours on and does a good job of relating history to the modern view. Helps in showing history in a way that makes the modern person see it in that light.
I think anyway.
Worth a check if you like history. Deep dives on many topics with many hours spent on each.
He also cites his sources so you also get book recommendations
I’m not sure if it quite fits what you’re looking for, but I have a lot of appreciation for *Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919* by Stephen Puleo.
A lot of people make jokes about the molasses flood because they don’t really understand the scale of the tragedy. Using extensive records from the subsequent court case along with a lot of research, Puleo recreates the time period and narrates the events leading up to, during, and after the flood. It’s surprisingly intense.
Couple of fiction recommendations here.
***Time and Again* by Jack Finney (1970)** is a sort of historical sci-fi kind of hybrid. It’s set in New York and a man from the 1970s travels back in time to 1883 as part of a government experiment.
It’s basically a love letter to late 1800s New York City with what I think are pretty accurate descriptions of the city in that era. Illustrated with photographs from the time. He uses some actual events that happened as part of the storyline.
**Stephen King** then did a similar thing with ***11/22/63* (2011)** where a man travels back in time to stop the assassination of JFK.
The Worst Hard Time by Tim Egan about the American Dust Bowl (nonfiction)
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown about the Donner party (nonfiction)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (not completely nonfiction or true crime but based on a real event)
Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven both by Jon Krakauer (nonfiction)
*The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World*, by Paul Morland, is great. I’m reading it now. He notes demography is an often under appreciated factor in world history, and in general has a large impact on economics and wars.