Best 2019

The Best History Books of 2019 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

“What are the best History books released in 2019?” We looked at 154 of the top History books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 23 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best History” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 125+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2019 Articles:

Our Other Years: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

Happy Scrolling!



Top 23 Best History Books From 2019



23 .) American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation written by Holly Jackson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman

A dynamic, timely history of nineteenth-century activists—free-lovers and socialists, abolitionists and vigilantes—and the social revolution they sparked in the turbulent Civil War era “In the tradition of Howard Zinn’s people’s histories, American Radical



22 .) First: Sandra Day O’Connor written by Evan Thomas

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • NPR

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, America’s first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O’Connor’s archives—by the New York Time



21 .) Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, And The Last Trial Of Harper Lee written by Casey Cep

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • NPR

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2019 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION ‘A triumph on every level. One of the losses to literature is that Harper Lee never found a way to tell a gothic true-crime story she’d spent years researching. Casey Cep has excavated this mes



20 .) Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power written by Pemma Hämäläinen

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman

The first comprehensive history of the Lakota Indians and their profound role in shaping America’s history This first complete account of the Lakota Indians traces their rich and often surprising history from the early sixteenth to the early twenty†‘first



19 .) Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler written by Lynne Olson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • NPR

The little-known true story of the woman who headed the largest spy network in Vichy France during World War II. In 1941, a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of Allianc



18 .) Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century written by George Packer

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Pietist Schoolman
  • NPR

“Portrays Holbrooke in all of his endearing and exasperating self-willed glory…Both a sweeping diplomatic history and a Shakespearean tragicomedy… If you could read one book to comprehend American’s foreign policy and its quixotic forays into quicksand



17 .) Spying On The South: An Odyssey Across The American Divide written by Tony Horwitz

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • NPR

The New York Times-bestselling final book by the beloved, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Tony Horwitz. With Spying on the South, the best-selling author of Confederates in the Attic returns to the South and the Civil War era for an epic adventure on the



16 .) The Cigarette: A Political History written by Sarah Milov

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman

The story of tobacco’s fortunes seems simple: science triumphed over addiction and profit. Yet the reality is more complicated—and more political. Historically it was not just bad habits but also the state that lifted the tobacco industry. What brought abo



15 .) The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack The Ripper written by Hallie Rubenhold

Lists It Appears On:

  • Dan Jones
  • Goodreads

Miscast in the media for nearly 130 years, the victims of Jack the Ripper finally get their full stories told in this eye-opening and chilling reminder that life for middle-class women in Victorian London could be full of social pitfalls and peril.



14 .) The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America written by Karen Abbott

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Smithsonian Magazine

The epic true crime story of the most successful bootlegger in American history and the murder that shocked the nation, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sin in the Second City and Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy In the early days of Prohibition,



13 .) The Impeachers: The Trial Of Andrew Johnson And The Dream Of A Just Nation written by Brenda Wineapple

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Pietist Schoolman
  • NPR

“When Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson became President, a fraught time in America became perilous. Congress was divided over how Reconstruction should be accomplished and the question of black suffrage. The South roiled with violence, lawlessne



12 .) The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 written by Garrett Graff

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Goodreads

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is history at its most immediate and moving…A marvelous and memorable book.” —Jon Meacham “Remarkable…A priceless civic gift…On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken.”



11 .) The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West written by David McCullough

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Goodreads

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important and dramatic chapter in the American story–the settling of the Northwest Territory by dauntless pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that



10 .) They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South written by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman

A bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery.



9.) Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence written by Harlow Giles Unger

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman

From New York Times bestselling author and Founding Fathers’ biographer Harlow Giles Unger comes the astonishing biography of the man whose pen set America ablaze, inspiring its revolution, and whose ideas about reason and religion continue to try men’s so



8.) A Woman Of No Importance: The Untold Story Of The American Spy Who Helped Win World War II written by Sonia Purnell

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Goodreads
  • NPR

The never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of the World War II, from the author of Clementine In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: “She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and



7.) Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster written by Adam Higginbotham

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • NPR
  • The Pietist Schoolman

–THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER– ‘An invaluable contribution to history.’ Serhii Plokhy, Evening Standard ‘Tells the story of the disaster and its gruesome aftermath with thriller-like flair. Midnight in Chernobyl is wonderful and chilling … written wit



6.) Say Nothing: A True Story Of Murder And Memory In Northern Ireland written by Patrick Radden Keefe

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • Goodreads
  • NPR

One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR – TIME MAGAZINE ONE OF THE BEST 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR – WASHINGTON POST NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD “Masked



5.) The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, And The Pillage Of An Empire written by William Dalrymple

Lists It Appears On:

  • Telegraph
  • Goodreads
  • NPR

“Superb … A vivid and richly detailed story … worth reading by everyone.” -The New York Times Book Review From the bestselling author of Return of a King, the story of how the East India Company took over large swaths of Asia, and the devastating resul



4.) The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 written by Rick Atkinson

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Pietist Schoolman
  • Goodreads
  • Amazon

From the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy comes this extraordinary history of the American Revolution.



3.) The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to the Present written by David Treuer

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Pietist Schoolman
  • Goodreads
  • NPR

FINALIST FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Chapter after chapter, it’s like one shattered myth after another.” – NPR “An informed, moving and kaleidoscopic portrait…



2.) The Season: A Social History Of The Debutante written by Kristen Richardson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman
  • NPR

In this enthralling history of the debutante ritual, Kristen Richardson sheds new light on contemporary ideas about women and marriage. Kristen Richardson, from a family of debutantes, chose not to debut. But as her curiosity drove her to research this end



1.) How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States written by Daniel Immerwahr

Lists It Appears On:

  • Telegraph
  • Smithsonian Magazine
  • The Pietist Schoolman
  • Goodreads
  • NPR

A pathbreaking history of the United States’ overseas possessions and the true meaning of its empire We are familiar with maps that outline all fifty states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an “empire,” exercising power aro




The 125+ Additional Best History Books Released In 2019



# Books Authors Lists
24 1919 Eve L. Ewing NPR
25 A Good American Family: The Red Scare And My Father David Maraniss NPR
26 A Wild And Precious Life: A Memoir Edie Windsor and Joshua Lyon NPR
27 Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, The World’s Greatest Rodeo, And A Hidden History Of The American West David Wolman and Julian Smith NPR
28 American Pop: A Novel Snowden Wright NPR
29 An American Sunrise: Poems Joy Harjo NPR
30 Attlee and Churchill Telegraph
31
Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society
Goodreads
32 Big Wonderful Thing: A History Of Texas Stephen Harrigan NPR
33 Birds in the Ancient World: Winged Words Jeremy Mynott Five Books
34 Bringing Down The Duke Evie Dunmore NPR
35 Building Anglo-Saxon England John Blair Five Books
36 Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead Amazon
37 Cantoras: A Novel Carolina De Robertis NPR
38 Cherokee America: A Novel Margaret Verble
The Pietist Schoolman
39
Code Name: Lise. The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII’s Most Highly Decorated Spy
Goodreads
40 Cold Warriors Telegraph
41 Court Number One: The Old Bailey Trials that Defined Modern Britain Telegraph
42
D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II
Amazon
43 Delayed Rays Of A Star: A Novel Amanda Lee Koe NPR
44 Desire Lines Elizabeth Kingston NPR
45 Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind Telegraph
46 Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through The Heart Of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom Adam Chandler NPR
47 Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II Goodreads
48 Edison Edmund Morris
The Pietist Schoolman
49 Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France and England, Mother of Empires Sara Cockerill Dan Jones
50 Elizabethan Globalism: England, China And The Rainbow Portrait Matthew Dimmock NPR
51 Empress: Queen Victoria and India Miles Taylor Five Books
52 Epic Continent: Adventures In The Great Stories Of Europe Nicholas Jubber NPR
53 First to Fight: The Polish War 1939 Telegraph
54 Floating Coast: An Environmental History Of The Bering Strait Bathsheba Demuth NPR
55 Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story Kevin Noble Malliard, illustrated NPR
56 Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest Hanif Abdurraqib NPR
57 God Save The Queens: The Essential History Of Women In Hip-Hop Kathy Iandoli NPR
58 Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy Amazon
59 Hitler Telegraph
60 Hitler: Only the World Was Enough Telegraph
61 Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz And The Secret History Of L.A. Lili Anolik NPR
62 How Was It For You? Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s Telegraph
63 Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War Amazon
64 In Waves A.J. Dungo NPR
65 Inventing Victoria Tonya Bolden NPR
66 Jerome Robbins, By Himself: Selections From His Letters, Journals, Drawings, Photographs, And An Unfinished Memoir Jerome Robbins, edited NPR
67 Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries Of African-American Cooking Toni Tipton-Martin NPR
68 Just Like Beverly: A Biography Of Beverly Cleary Vicki Conrad, illustrated NPR
69 King and Emperor Telegraph
70 King of the World Telegraph
71 Lady In The Lake: A Novel Laura Lippman NPR
72 Last Boat Out Of Shanghai: The Epic Story Of The Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution Helen Zia NPR
73 Legacy Telegraph
74 Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography — Herself Alone Charles Moore
The Pietist Schoolman
75 Mitz: The Marmoset Of Bloomsbury Sigrid Nunez NPR
76 Mrs. Everything: A Novel Jennifer Weiner NPR
77 Nightingale Paisley Rekdal NPR
78 Nobody’s Looking At You: Essays Janet Malcolm NPR
79 Norco ’80: The True Story Of The Most Spectacular Bank Robbery In American History Peter Houlahan NPR
80 Oblivion or Glory Telegraph
81 One Day: The Extraordinary Story Of An Ordinary 24 Hours In America Gene Weingarten NPR
82 Opium: How An Ancient Flower Shaped And Poisoned Our World John H. Halpern and David Blistein NPR
83 Oscar: A Life Matthew Sturgis Five Books
84 Out Of Darkness, Shining Light: A Novel Petina Gappah NPR
85 Permanent Record Edward Snowden NPR
86 Places And Names: On War, Revolution, And Returning Elliot Ackerman NPR
87 Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom
Smithsonian Magazine
88 Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself Telegraph
89 Queen Of The Sea Dylan Meconis NPR
90 Rebel Beverly Jenkins NPR
91 Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice Mary Fulbrook Five Books
92 Republic Of Shame: Stories From Ireland’s Institutions For ‘Fallen Women’ Caelainn Hogan NPR
93 Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations Amazon
94 Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation Steve Luxenberg
The Pietist Schoolman
95 Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI Telegraph
96 Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 James Donovan
The Pietist Schoolman
97 Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives In World War II Goodreads
98 Spy Runner Eugene Yelchin NPR
99 Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow Henry Louis Gates
The Pietist Schoolman
100 Supreme Glamour Mary Wilson with Mark Bego NPR
101 Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Amazon
102 The Archive Of Alternate Endings Lindsey Dragger NPR
103 The Border: A Novel Don Winslow NPR
104 The Broken Road: George Wallace And A Daughter’s Journey To Reconciliation Peggy Wallace Kennedy NPR
105 The Brothers York: An English Tragedy Telegraph
106 The Castle On Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, And Scandal At Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont Shawn Levy NPR
107 The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age Leo Damrosch
The Pietist Schoolman
108 The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century Clay Risen
The Pietist Schoolman
109 The Darksome Bounds of a Falling World Telegraph
110 The Dead Queens Club Hannah Capin NPR
111 The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story Goodreads
112 The Downstairs Girl Stacey Lee NPR
113 The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California Amazon
114 The Education Of An Idealist: A Memoir Samantha Power NPR
115 The End Is Nigh Telegraph
116 The Europeans Telegraph
117 The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington Goodreads
118 The Future Of Another Timeline Annalee Newitz NPR
119 The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians and Other European Immigrants Out of America Daniel Okrent
The Pietist Schoolman
120 The Heartland: An American History Kristin L. Hoganson NPR
121 The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick Goodreads
122 The Man Who Was Saturday Telegraph
123 The Map of Knowledge: How Classical Ideas were Lost and Found: A History in Seven Cities Telegraph
124 The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. Evan Ratliff NPR
125 The Mosquito: A Human History Of Our Deadliest Predator Timothy C. Winegard NPR
126 The Nickel Boys: A Novel Colson Whitehead NPR
127 The Old Drift: A Novel Namwali Serpell NPR
128 The Plaza: The Secret Life Of America’s Most Famous Hotel Julie Satow NPR
129 The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution Amazon
130 The Secrets We Kept: A Novel Lara Prescott NPR
131 The Shadow King: A Novel Maaza Mengiste NPR
132 The Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI Lauren Johnson Dan Jones
133 The Song of Simon de Montfort: England’s First Revolutionary Sophie-Thérèse Ambler Dan Jones
134 The Stationery Shop Marjan Kamali NPR
135 The Undefeated Kwame Alexander, illustrated NPR
136 The Voices of Nîmes: Women, Sex and Marriage in Reformation Languedoc Suzannah Lipscomb Dan Jones
137 The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul From the Revolution to the Civil War Andrew Delbianco
The Pietist Schoolman
138 The War Nobody Wanted: 1939: A People’s History Telegraph
139 They Called Us Enemy George Takei, Justin Eisinger and Steven NPR
140 They Will Have To Die Now: Mosul And The Fall Of The Caliphate James Verini NPR
141 This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto Suketu Mehta NPR
142 Trading in War: London’s Maritime World in the Age of Cook and Nelson Margarette Lincoln Five Books
143 Underground: A Human History Of The Worlds Beneath Our Feet Will Hunt NPR
144 Unexampled Courage: The Blinding Of Sgt. Isaac Woodard And The Awakening Of President Harry S. Truman And Judge J. Waties Waring Richard Gergel NPR
145 Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis Goodreads
146 Useful Enemies Telegraph
147 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories Of Social Upheaval Saidiya Hartman NPR
148 What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir Of Witness And Resistance Carolyn Forché NPR
149 When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History Massoud Hayoun NPR
150 Who Dares Wins: Britain 1979-82 Telegraph
151 Winds of Change Telegraph
152 Witcraft Telegraph
153 Working Amazon
154 You Will Be Safe Here Damian Barr NPR


8 Best History Book Sources/Lists



Source
Amazon
Dan Jones
Five Books
Goodreads
NPR
Smithsonian Magazine
Telegraph
The Pietist Schoolman
A.M. Anderson

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