History

History (from Greek ἱστορία - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation") is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and its usefulness. This includes discu ...more

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History--and How It Shattered a Nation
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling
The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising
Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Lincoln's Ghost: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency
The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding
Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds
The Once and Future Riot
The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus
The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau’s Quest to Set Things Right
Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary
Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation
The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur: A Graphic Novel Based on a True Story
  • Progress by Samuel Miller McDonald
    Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It
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    Release date: Dec 02, 2025
    For readers of Thomas Piketty, David Graeber, and Jared Diamond: A bold, provocative, wide-ranging argument about the human idea of progress that offe ...more
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    Availability: 50 copies available, 3687 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Nov 09 - Nov 30, 2025

    Countries available: U.S. and Canada

  • To Catch a Fascist by Christopher Mathias
    To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right

    Release date: Feb 03, 2026
    We're giving away 100 galley copies of TO CATCH A FASCIST by Christopher Mathias. ...more
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    Availability: 100 copies available, 2398 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Nov 01 - Nov 30, 2025

    Countries available: U.S.

  • Opera Wars by Caitlin  Vincent
    Opera Wars: Inside the World of Opera and the Battles for Its Future
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    Release date: Jan 13, 2026
    Enter for a chance to win a galley of OPERA WARS by Caitlin Vincent!
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    Availability: 15 copies available, 2178 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Nov 01 - Nov 30, 2025

    Countries available: U.S.

  • Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
    107 Days
    Circle of Days
    A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
    One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
    Abundance
    The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
    1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History--and How It Shattered a Nation
    The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
    Hostage
    Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1 - The Birth of Humankind
    The Personal Librarian
    Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
    The Happiest Man on Earth
    The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
    John Adams by David McCulloughThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer1776 by David McCulloughTeam of Rivals by Doris Kearns GoodwinThe Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
    Best History Books
    3,687 books — 3,724 voters
    Freakonomics by Steven D. LevittA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonStiff by Mary RoachOutliers by Malcolm GladwellGuns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
    Interesting and Readable Nonfiction
    3,988 books — 2,003 voters

    Animal Farm by George OrwellThe Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-ExupéryThe Prince by Niccolò MachiavelliThe Communist Manifesto by Karl MarxThe Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
    Most influential books under 100 pages
    250 books — 924 voters
    1984 by George OrwellAnimal Farm by George OrwellGuns, Germs, and Steel by Jared DiamondBrave New World by Aldous HuxleyMan's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
    Best Books To Frame Thinking
    1,277 books — 1,426 voters

    Band of Brothers by Stephen E. AmbroseBlack Hawk Down by Mark BowdenUnbroken by Laura HillenbrandWe Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Harold G. MooreLone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
    Best Non-fiction War Books
    2,117 books — 2,348 voters

    Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
    A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
    The Diary of a Young Girl
    The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
    1776
    SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
    A Short History of Nearly Everything
    The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
    1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
    Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
    Night
    Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

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    George Harrison
    It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one. ...more
    George Harrison

    Christopher Paolini
    People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't. ...more
    Christopher Paolini, Eragon

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