Learning about the past is so important, and as a social studies teacher, I encourage it through whatever way you want to learn. One way to learn about history is to read history books. Historical fiction books are a great and easy way to learn history – sometimes it even happens accidentally. Below is a list of my top 30 books that I recommend to learn the past, on purpose or by accident!
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Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
Devil in the White City is a book that I read while I was in high school and it made me fall in love with history. It is based in the 1890s and has two story lines. One follows the World’s Fair in Chicago and the other follows H. H. Holmes, who is considered to be the United States first serial killer.
Honestly, any book by Erik Larson is an amazing historical read. There are several other books that written in a similar format of Devil in the White City. I read In the Gardens of Beasts for a history class in college, which provided a view point of an American family living in Berlin as Hitler rises to power. One of his most popular books is Dead Wake, which is about the last voyage of the Lusitania – such an interesting story there. He also just released a new book about the beginning of the Civil War, called The Demon of Unrest. I personally haven’t read it yet, but if it’s anything like his other works, it’ll be phenomenal!
Night by Elie Wiesel
Night is one of the most important history books anyone can read. Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and he wrote about his experience within Auschwitz. Night is the most well-known, often read in history classes at the high school and college level. There are also two books that are part of the trilogy, Dawn and Day.
Collapse by Jared Diamond
If you’ve heard of Guns, Germs, and Steel, this book is from the same author. It analyzes old civilizations and finds reasons for why they failed. Jared Diamond then takes those reasons and applies to present day civilizations. It’s an interesting history book that looks at ancient civilizations and relates to why this is important for today. To continue with the research of how civilizations rise and fall, Diamond also has a third book that came out in 2020 called Upheaval.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
This book is another classic history book that should be read by everyone. If you don’t know who Anne Frank is, she became famous after her diary was published. It records the years that she was in hiding in the Netherlands when Germans were occupying the region during World War II.
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
I have to admit, I’ve only read a couple chapters from this books. BUT even after I do that, I am always caught thinking about the content and, as a history teacher, how to teach my students about these subjects. Highly recommend if you want to learn about bits and pieces, not just one topic.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
This book is pretty big, but it’s what inspired the Hamilton Musical, so it has to be good right? It’s a biography about Alexander Hamilton, from living as an orphan, his role in the Revolutionary War, to his death by Aaron Burr.
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
I read this book back in college, and perhaps is a favorite of mine because I got 100% on the paper for it. Besides that, it provides a great overview of how the issue of determining longitude was solved through the creation of the chronometer. It’s a short book and provides a snapshot into life during the 18th century.
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Unbroken is one of several history books that focuses on World War II. This book follows Louie Zamperini’s experience of crashing his bomber, surviving in the open sea, and eventually his experience in several Japanese POW camps. Reading the book can inspire you to do anything!
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Girls by Kate Moore
I read this book while on my honeymoon – just some light reading of course (ha!). There were several times that I had to place the book down and cry. The treatment these girls went through from the company, how hard they had to fight while dying, and how history has a tendency to repeat itself. It’s a great book, that makes you realize the importance of worker’s rights and how sexism influences the work force during the 1920s. Moore has also written The Woman They Could Not Silence, which is on my TBR list!
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westbrook
I got this book for Christmas and read it in 2 days. It is so good at explaining the importance of learning. Tara goes through so much with her family and being homeschooled, to then going to college and eventually Cambridge – wow!
The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep: Voices from the Donner Party by Allan Wolf
If you’re looking for a verse historical novel, this is a great book to read. It follows the trip of the Donner Party – which is well known for being stuck in the mountains during the winter and resorting to cannibalism – from when they leave to finally getting rescued. As I was reading, I was blown away at the writing style, where the different characters had different formats and having Hunger be a character was so interesting. Highly recommend it! Honestly, it’s so good that I’m looking at reading Wolf’s other verse history books that he has – he has one from the sinking of the Titanic and from the Lewis and Clark Expedition!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
This history book is heavy related to science and the importance of HeLa cells. HeLa cells were gathered from Henrietta Lacks while she was being treated for cancer, and they end up becoming a huge scientific discovery that helps science move forward. However, Henrietta nor her family ever learn about this or receive compensation because they are African American. It’s a great book to read, as it discusses race, science, and family rights through a story many have no idea about.
Snow Falling on Ceders by David Guterson
What I appreciate about it the most is that it takes place in Washington state, my home state. It follows the trial of a Japanese American citizen after World War II and the racism that developed. It’s super rich in detail and the story line is very interesting – with flashbacks to when the adults were kids in the same community and how the dynamic changes based on the internment of Japanese Americans.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
When I was a senior in high school, I read this book as part of my English class. Whenever I teach about monarchies or think about monarchy systems, I always think of this book. It’s part of a series, and I have yet to read the series. But this book is a great read!
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Books by Laurie Halse Anderson are some of my favorites, such as Speak, Twisted, and Wintergirls. So when I found that she had written a historical fiction book, I was won over. It’s a great read at the middle school level, and it focuses on the yellow fever epidemic that begins in 1793.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
This history book is another book that is about a middle school level read. It focuses on the escape of a Jewish family in Denmark during World War II. I read this book in middle school and it changed the way I looked at the Holocaust – not just an event that happened, but something to learn from.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner looks at the caste system within Afghanistan. While reading this in high school, it provided a glimpse into the Middle East that I had never learned. The book has a lot of difficult moments within, but I still highly recommend it. It’s our first book that we read in AP Literature and, so far, every year, it has been the favorite book of the year. I chose it because I wanted a book to hook students’ attention – which it absolutely does. But gosh, then I’m trying to recreate that all year ha! This author has a couple of other great books – A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed.
A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Uldrich
A Midwife’s Tale is a classic book that was one of the first that provided an idea of what life was like during the 18th century for women in the British colonies. Prior to this book, women’s history and women’s sources were hardly considered important, but after Laurel Thatcher Uldrich wrote this book, that changed quite a bit!
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This is another book that I have students read in AP Literature and they are almost always drawn into the book quite a bit. World War II novels are fairly common, but this one provides two separate storylines that eventually weave together and it’s just amazing how well it’s done.
Celia, A Slave by Melton McLaurin
I had about 5 or 6 students read this book this school year, and many told me that it was a hard read. It tells the story of Celia, who was a slave in the South. She attacks her master one night, when he’s trying to raper her, and ultimately kills him. The book follows her trial and the aftermath of that.
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series by Eliot Asinof
If you are a sports buff, you probably know about the Chicago Black Sox and the biggest scandal in baseball – when they threw the series due to gambling. It’s a scene-by-scene story that provides snapshots into why players did it and follows the story all the way to the journalists finding out.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
In this book, we get to read about one company during the Vietnam War. Each soldier contributes to the story through chapters, sometimes in essay format or through stories shared. I know several English teachers that teach this during American Literature, as it provides a different perspective on the Vietnam War.
White Rose by Kip Wilson
This is another historical verse novel that follows the story of a group called the White Rose that fought against the fascism in Nazi Germany. It was a great read, where you get to hear about a perspective that we don’t hear about often when learning about Nazi Germany.
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
This is another book that I’ve had several students read this book and enjoy it. I personally haven’t read it, but with the student recommendations, I want to! It follows the story of an African American who is captured in the North and is transported to the South to work for 12 years as a slave.
3 Comments
Cool book recommendations, always looking for a good read on the plane.
no, but I’m going to try one
This looks like an amazing list of books. I have not read any of these but I read similar from a war survivor “My friend Anna!”. It was a very emotional read. I will definitely read some of yours.