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Recommendations based on Secondhand Time: The Last of the Sovietsby Svetlana Alexievich
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
War's Unwomanly Face
by Svetlana Alexievich
An exploration of the lives of Soviet women who served in World War II.
This book is a confession, a document and a record of people's memory. More than 200 women speak in it, describing how young girls, who dreamed of becoming brides, became soldiers in 1941. More than ... (Goodreads)
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster
by Svetlana Alexievich
An oral history of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as told by the survivors.
Written by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. ... (Goodreads)
Homage to Catalonia
by George Orwell
A first-hand account of the Spanish Civil War, and the political conflicts in the 1930s.
In 1936 George Orwell travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the fight against the Fascists. This famous account describes the war and Orwell’s own experiences. Introduction ... (Goodreads)
One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway
by Åsne Seierstad
Tragic account of the life of a mass murderer and the terror he inflicted on Norway.
A harrowing and thorough account of the massacre that upended Norway, and the trial that helped put the country back together On July 22, 2011, Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb outside ... (Goodreads)
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
by Yuval Noah Harari
An exploration of humanity's future, and the potential paths of our species.
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed, New York Times, bestseller and international phenomenon, Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning ... (Goodreads)
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
by Steven Pinker
A data-driven argument for the progress of humanity through reason, science, and humanism.
If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ... (Goodreads)
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder
A study of history and a call to action against the rise of authoritarianism.
#1, New York Times, Bestseller •, A historian of fascism offers a guide for surviving and resisting America's turn towards authoritarianism., The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat ... (Barnes & Noble)
A Tale of Love and Darkness
by Amos Oz
A tale of love, loss, and identity set against the backdrop of the tumultuous history of Israel.
Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, A Tale of Love and Darkness is at once a family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent ... (Goodreads)
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
by Peter Frankopan
An epic narrative of the discover of the world's trade routes, spanning more than 3,000 years.
The New Silk Roads takes a fresh look at the relationships being formed along the length and breadth of the ancient trade routes today. The world is changing dramatically and in an age of Brexit and ... (Goodreads)
M Train
by Patti Smith
A memoir of Patti Smith's travels, musings, and creative inspirations, from cafes in New York to graves in Paris.
M Train begins in the tiny Greenwich Village café where Smith goes every morning for black coffee, ruminates on the world as it is and the world as it was, and writes in her notebook. Through prose ... (Goodreads)
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
by Robert A. Caro
Biography of Robert Moses, city planner and power broker who reshaped New York City.
One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of ... (Goodreads)
The World of Yesterday
by Stefan Zweig
Autobiography of a Jewish writer, describing the intellectual and social life of fin de siècle Europe.
The World of Yesterday, mailed to his publisher a few days before Stefan Zweig took his life in 1942, has become a classic of the memoir genre. Originally titled “Three Lives,” the memoir describes ... (Goodreads)
The Shadow of the Sun
by Ryszard Kapuściński
An epic account of a journey through Africa, navigating the continent's diverse cultures and politics.
In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence ... (Goodreads)
The Myth of Sisyphus
by Albert Camus
An essay on understanding the absurdity of life, and realizing there is meaning in even the most mundane tasks.
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves—and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, ... (Goodreads)
The Origins of Totalitarianism
by Hannah Arendt
Analysis of the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe, and their consequences for the modern world.
Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism ... (Goodreads)
The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media
by Walter Benjamin
Reflection on the impact of technology on art, culture and society.
Benjamin’s famous 'Work of Art' essay sets out his boldest thoughts–on media and on culture in general--in their most realized form, while retaining an edge that gets under the skin of everyone who ... (Goodreads)
Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
by Norman Ohler
Examines the Nazi regime's widespread use of drugs to fuel its war machine.
In this highly original book, a bestseller in Germany, Norman Ohler investigates the murky, chaotic world of drug use in the Third Reich. There have been other books on Dr Morell's cocktail of ... (Goodreads)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
A captivating overview of the natural sciences, spanning the history of the universe.
In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory ... (Goodreads)
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster
by Jon Krakauer
A gripping narrative of the 1996 expedition on Mount Everest that resulted in tragedy.
When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. ... (Goodreads)
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
by John Carreyrou
The rise and fall of Theranos, a fraudulent blood-testing startup, and the deceitful actions of its founder Elizabeth Holmes.
The full inside story of the breathtaking rise and shocking collapse of a multibillion-dollar startup, by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end in the face ... (Goodreads)
Gulag: A History
by Anne Applebaum
A comprehensive account of the Soviet Union's notorious prison system, the history of its inhumane treatment of inmates.
The Gulag–a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners--was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying ... (Goodreads)
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
by Anna Funder
An exploration of life in East Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell; shortly afterwards the two Germanies reunited, and East Germany ceased to exist. In a country where the headquarters of the secret police can become a museum literally ... (Goodreads)
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon
An in-depth account of the fall of the Roman Empire, tracing its causes and effects.
Length: 126 hrs and 31 mins The History of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire was written by English historian Edward Gibbon & originally published in six quarto volumes. Volume 1 was published ... (Goodreads)
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
by Alex Ross
A journey through the music of the 20th century, exploring its cultural and historical context, and its impact on society and politics.
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century is a voyage into the labyrinth of modern music, which remains an obscure world for most people. While paintings of Picasso and Jackson Pollock ... (Goodreads)
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
by Tony Judt
History of Europe since the end of World War II, examining the changes and challenges of the region.
Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first ... (Goodreads)
On Photography
by Susan Sontag
Examination of the implications of photography and its effects on society.
First published in 1973, this is a study of the force of photographic images which are continually inserted between experience and reality. Sontag develops further the concept of 'transparency'. When ... (Goodreads)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by Joan Didion
Collection of essays exploring the cultural landscape of 1960s America.
The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of ... (Goodreads)
The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss
by Edmund de Waal
A journey through time, tracing the history of a family's collection of art and their struggles with loss.
The Ephrussis were a grand banking family, as rich and respected as the Rothschilds, who “burned like a comet” in nineteenth-century Paris and Vienna society. Yet by the end of World War II, almost ... (Goodreads)
If This Is a Man • The Truce
by Primo Levi
A memoir of Primo Levi's time in Auschwitz and his journey home. The Truce follows his travels through war-torn Europe.
'With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly ... (Goodreads)
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin
by Timothy Snyder
History of the mass extermination of civilians in Central and Eastern Europe during WWII.
Americans call the Second World War “The Good War.” But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens—and kept killing them during and after the ... (Goodreads)
