Any history book ideas?

[thaegumathteth]

Ds is 15 and studying for his history higher. He's asked for books about history for Xmas but not textbooks iyswim. Doesn't have to be related to school topics and he doesn't want ones about slavery, ww1&2 as he already has a few of those.

I'm thinking maybe Scottish history, but beyond that I'm really quite stuck as I am not very knowledgeable about historical eras tbh.

Can anyone recommend anything Scottish history related or anything else that fits the bill? I wondered about Russian and American history too?

How about Nothing to Envy - real accounts from people living in North Korea

I would recommend a history of the world by Andrew Marr - very readable and I loved how it was not just focused on Europe. It tied the big events from across the world together and put some of it into perspective. Not a mention of the Tudors at all :)

The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan and Sapiens are both brilliant, dazzling sweeps of history and very accessibly written

For Scottish history look at Birlinn publishing. They're based in Edinburgh and have some niche Scottish history books. You'll probably find some of them in local book shops too.

birlinn.co.uk/product-category/hb/

I have this - it has pictures! (I've very partial to books with pictures 😁)
birlinn.co.uk/product/picts-gaels-and-scots/

For non-Scottish history, Bernard Cornwell's Waterloo is very readable (and is non-fiction). You'll definitely understand the strategic importance of a reverse slope after reading it!

The CJ Sandsome books are brilliant.
I will be looking in to a few of the titles mentioned too.

River Kings by Kat Jarman is a good book if he is into the Vikings. If he is interested in spies then anything by Ben McIntyre is good. The spy and the traitor reads more like a thriller than a history book but it is all true.

I recently enjoyed Gimsons Kings and Queens - it's a very quick run though of the English Kings and Queens, but is great at showing how they are connected and included a couple of interesting and unusual things about each of them.

However, as you mention Highers, I wonder if English kings and queens aren't going to be as interesting to him, so maybe the presidents or prime minister books by the same author might be more suitable.

Bill Bryson is also good - I enjoyed his book about Shakespeare

I was also going to suggest that and he also did one on the Vikings.

I also enjoyed this one which is a bit different to the normal WW2/Weimar republic emphasis: www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Iron-German-Empire-1871-1918/dp/0750996226

it's not very long either. She also has a new book coming out early next year.

Ian Mortimer and his time travellers guides are fantastic.

also check out Germania or Danubia by Simon Weller. Both are wary to read and kind of set the scene for understanding why Europe has the history it has

Another vote for Ian Mortimer - hugely readable and informative.

Also anything by Simon Sebag-Montefiore. He writes proper history but in a very page-turning style.

Bess of Hardwick, Mary Lovell.
Biography of a kickass woman of rhe Reformation.

The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown.
An account of the travails and triumphs of the University of Washington crew in Depression era America. Not a straight history, and not fiction, full of details of life in a remote corner of the world, captures the essence of the time and place in an unforgettable account based on the experiences of one particular member of the crew.

The travel trilogy of Patrick Leigh Fermor - accounts of travel and observations of life in interwar Europe. Fermor wasn't too much older than your DS when he set out.

Rock Me on the Water, Ronald Brownstein
A long look at Los Angeles in 1974 and the impact of the city and its culture on movies, music, TV, and politics.

The Gulag Archipelago. Not straight history as it's also a work of literature but it is a mind blowing read and something that you can learn an awful lot from, besides the facts that you get about the Soviet Union.

To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland's Global Diaspora by T.M. Devine

I’ve just finished, Mortal Monarchs 1000 years of Royal Deaths by Susie Edge. An entertaining read and a good way to learn the key facts about our monarchy

DK has a huge range of amazing history books on so many topics. Great to read , great to look at

Ian Mortimer's Time Travellers' Guides are fantastic, full of colour and atmosphere. He likens them to a travel guide to the past. He does Medieval, Elizabethan, Restoration and Georgian. I listen to them on audible and play them over and over again

www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Travellers-Guide-Regency-Britain/dp/1784705969/ref=asc_df_1784705969/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=344389236467&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6980671726938392436&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045120&hvtargid=pla-1158898350148&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

I see I've been pipped to the post !
just goes to show it's good stuff 😀

This. A fascinating read. Based on smuggled comms between prisoners and the IRA command on the outside.
Ten Dead Men: Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike amzn.eu/d/8QkXI8r

Bernard Cornwell. There’s a few series and stand alones from a wide range of periods. They’re fiction but well researched, and include notes about if/ where he’s digressed from facts.

The Richard Smyth "Strange but True" series. There are books about History: Strange but True amzn.eu/d/4Wa4mlb England, Scotland and Wales.

@mathanxiety thank you for remembering the Patrick Leigh Fermour books. Between the woods and the water is my favourite but all three are a wonderful (if embroidered) evocation of Central Europe between the wars. So readable too.

For historical fiction with accurate facts, James Michener is great.

Thank you everyone. I knew you'd all come good! Now I just have to whittle the list down !!!

Richard J. Evans' biography of Eric Hobsbawm. £6 on World of Books. Yes, covers some German history, but it's a hugely readable portrait of a star historian and the times he lived in (and his lifelong love affair with communism). I was glued to it, think a teenage history buff would really enjoy it!