Best non-fiction historical book

[Wanttocry]

What is the best non-fiction historical book you’ve read? I quite like reading non-fiction sometimes, really enjoyed The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, but I’m not only interested in Tudor history (or even UK history). But it’s hard to know what will be good reading for a non-expert, in depth enough to be interesting, but not so detailed that I need to know lots before starting.
Any recommendations? Don’t really have a preference on time period or country, but would prefer pre-1900.

I really like 'The Lunar Men: the Friends who made the Future 1730-1810' by Jenny Uglow: lunarsociety.org.uk/lunar-men-an-introduction/

[quote LydiaGwilt]I really like 'The Lunar Men: the Friends who made the Future 1730-1810' by Jenny Uglow: lunarsociety.org.uk/lunar-men-an-introduction/[/quote]
Oh that looks really interesting, thanks!

It depends what you're interested in history wise what era?
Chaucer's People by Liza Picard is good.

After the Flood- What the Dambusters did next by John Nichol is also very enjoyable

How to be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman I really love her books

The Housekeepers Tale by Tessa Boase very interesting and great as a talking books too

A short history of England by Simon Jenkins is so informative and a great read

Almost all of these are also on audible, my commute is almost 3 hours (50 miles each way) 3 days a week so I listen to all sorts and also read avidly

Always looking for something new to listen too

Susan Doran Elizabeth 1 and her Circle is good.

I second How to be a Tudor.

Currently listening to John Guy’s Mary Queen of Scots biography which is good.

And A somewhat complete history of sorting down by Greg Jenner

Sitting

Might be too ancient given that it’s about the evolution of humankind... but Sapiens is fascinating. I’m seeing our society in a whole new light.

How To Be A Tudor - I never finish history books, but I loved this one.

Iraq - John Robertson
The Silk Road - Peter Frankopan
A History of the World in 100 Objects - Neil McGregor

Judith Flanders' books about the 19th century: Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain, The Victorian City and The Victorian House: www.judithflanders.co.uk/books/

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman (all of hers are wonderful)

The biography of Peter the Great by Robert Massie is great. I liked most of Antonia Frazers biographies too.

Erebus: The Story of a Ship by Michael Palin - about the Franklin expedition.

Thanks, lots of these sound really good.

I’ve read Sapiens and did enjoy that so definitely not too ancient.

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens by Claire Tomalin,

Mrs Jordan's Profession by Claire Tomalin,

Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier by Jeffrey Lockwood,

The Ghost Disease and Twelve Other Stories of Detective Work in the Medical Field by Michael Howell and Peter Ford,

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury is really interesting and well written.
Not exactly what you asked for, but brilliant is Travels in to the Interior of Africa by Mungo Park.

The Five - Helen Rubenhold. It's the biographies of five victims of Jack the Ripper. Utterly fascinating and an incredible insight into how hard the life of the poor was in Victorian Britain - and how quickly life could spiral out of control.

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Persian Fire by Tom Holland

The Rasputin File by Edvard Radzinsky was very interesting.

Blood River by Tim Butcher, which is kind of travel, history and current affairs all mixed together. It's about the Congo River.

Ungrateful Daughters by Maureen Waller. About Mary and Anne, the daughters of James the Second. Very readable about an era not very well covered.

Travellers in nazi Germany by Julia boyd about the experiences of people who travelled there before the war and how gullible some of them were but not all.
Heavens Command by Jan Morris about the British empire - not turgid or dry but really brings to life the experiences of ordinary people.
Bill Bryson - At home, A short history of Everything and Summer 1927 mass market but still good.

Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown is hands down one of the best books I have ever read non- fiction or otherwise. it's a native American history of the American West and profoundly moving.

Alison Weir's Lancaster and York is excellent. It gets a bit confusing in places with some of the peripheral dukes and heirs but well worth a read if the Wars of the Roses is something you fancy getting to grips with.

Bess of Hardwick by Mary S Lovell is fantastic, really interesting biography of the second richest woman in Tudor England. She was a fascinating dynamic character.

I'm going to recommend Barrow's Boys by Fergus Fleming. It's an absolutely cracking book about British exploration in the 19th century, mostly at the instigation of John Barrow, who was Second Secretary to the Admiralty.

The stories of some of the exploits are just incredible (sheer foolhardiness didn't stop most of the officers who set out to try and explore Africa or sail to the Arctic - if anything, it was a plus) and tragedy isn't far behind, but the sheer ambition of the endeavours is staggering.

The most fascinating part of the book is around the Franklin expedition and its tragic and mysterious end - although there have been recent developments explaining more of what happened, that shouldn't put you off reading this book. I read Michael Palin's Erebus after this and tbh I vastly prefer Barrow's Boys.

Agree with @Terpsichore that Barrow's Boys is superb.

I tend to get interested in something via something else and immerse myself in it. So after Barrow's Boys I read an awful lot of exploration books - things about Scott and Shackleton, and then onto George Mallory and Everest expeditions.

The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst is interesting too. All about Robert Louis Stevenson's ancestors (4 generations of them, I think) who built all of the lighthouses around Scotland. Incredible feats of engineering.

Also recommend The Roses of No Man's Land if you like WW1 - lots of excerpts from women who nursed on the Western Front, etc.

Just thought of another. The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. Another great book, about the men (and a few women) who made the scientific discoveries that revolutionised the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It's another fantastically readable book - and Holmes was so fascinated by the stories he found about one group of pioneers, the early balloonists, that he went on to write a book just about them, Falling Upwards (which I also heartily recommend).

The scientists and thinkers Holmes explores means there's a bit of crossover here with the excellent Lunar Men by Jenny Uglow, which a PP has recommended. As MadMad says, it can be exhilarating to get into a book and find it opens the doors to a whole chain of others.