The 25 best history books
The 25 highest-ranked history books in our ranking of 2,819, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 198 history books in all. How we rank
- 1
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer93.3Must-Read ScoreThe Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
It turns a frightening subject into a thrilling story of brilliant, stubborn people, and it explains the science so clearly that you'll actually understand how cancer works.
- 2
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland91.9Must-Read ScoreSay Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
It's history that reads like a gripping true-crime thriller, and it's also a profound book about the cost of political violence and the silence that follows it.
- 3
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration91.5Must-Read ScoreThe Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
It reads like a great novel but is built on years of interviews and research, and it explains how the America we live in now was shaped.
- 4
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York91.2Must-Read ScoreThe Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
It won the Pulitzer Prize and is on the Modern Library's list of the best nonfiction ever written.
- 5
The Making of the Atomic Bomb91.1Must-Read ScoreThe Making of the Atomic Bomb
It's widely considered one of the greatest works of narrative history ever written, winning the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the NBCC Award.
- 6
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer90.1Must-Read ScoreAmerican Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
It's a gripping portrait of a genius haunted by what he made, and of how America turned on him.
- 7
A Brief History of Time89.6Must-Read ScoreA Brief History of Time
It's one of the best-selling science books ever because Hawking makes mind-expanding ideas feel within reach, with wit and wonder.
- 8Maus89.6Must-Read Score
Maus
It's the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize (a special citation in 1992), and it's on TIME's list of the 100 best nonfiction books.
- 9
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/1189.6Must-Read ScoreThe Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
It reads like a thriller, but it's careful, humane history that won the Pulitzer Prize.
- 10
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany89.3Must-Read ScoreThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
Since 1960 it has been the classic one-volume history of Nazi Germany, read by millions and winner of the National Book Award.
- 11Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind88.8Must-Read Score
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
It's one of the best-selling nonfiction books ever, with about 25 million copies sold, a #1 New York Times bestseller, and on the Guardian's list of the best books of the 21st century.
- 12
Stamped From the Beginning88.4Must-Read ScoreStamped From the Beginning
It won the National Book Award and reframed how a generation thinks about the history of race in America.
- 13
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 194588.2Must-Read ScorePostwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
It's the masterpiece of modern European history, sharp, witty and enormously learned, and it makes sense of the continent we know today.
- 14
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents87.7Must-Read ScoreCaste: The Origins of Our Discontents
It's a powerful, beautifully written book that gives readers a new framework for understanding race in America, from the author of The Warmth of Other Suns.
- 15
Cosmos87.7Must-Read ScoreCosmos
Sagan makes science feel like wonder, and his prose can make you see the night sky differently for the rest of your life.
- 16
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness87.1Must-Read ScoreThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
It's one of the most influential books of the century, credited with helping spark the criminal justice reform movement, and it's on the New York Times list of the century's best books.
- 17
Parting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-6386.6Must-Read ScoreParting the Waters : America in the King Years 1954-63
It's widely considered the greatest history of the civil rights movement ever written, and it won the Pulitzer Prize.
- 18
How the Word Is Passed86.6Must-Read ScoreHow the Word Is Passed
It's a moving, generous and quietly powerful book that makes history feel present, with Smith listening to everyone, including people who disagree with him.
- 19The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X86.4Must-Read Score
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award.
- 20
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History86.1Must-Read ScoreThe Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
It won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and is on the Guardian's lists of the best nonfiction ever written.
- 21
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West86.1Must-Read ScoreBury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
It spent months at #1 on the New York Times list in 1971 and changed how Americans understood the West.
- 22
Everything Is Tuberculosis85.7Must-Read ScoreEverything Is Tuberculosis
It's short, compassionate and surprisingly gripping, and it makes the history of a disease feel personal and urgent.
- 23Native Nations: A Millennium in North America85.3Must-Read Score
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America
It won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for History, along with the Bancroft Prize and the Cundill History Prize.
- 24
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power85.2Must-Read ScoreThe Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power
It's the definitive history of oil and won the Pulitzer Prize, and it explains a remarkable amount of twentieth-century history along the way.
- 25On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century84.6Must-Read Score
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century
It spent 82 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists.