Best 2020, Best Books, Best Year-End, History

The Best History Books of 2020 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

“What are the best History books released in 2020?” We looked at 194 of the top History books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 27 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best History” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 150+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2020 Articles:

Previous Years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

All titles have been added to a Bookshop list as well!

Happy Scrolling!



Top 27 Best History Books From 2020



27.) A Curious History of Sex written byKate Lister

A Curious History of Sex

Lists It Appears On:

  • Book Authority
  • The Times

This is not a comprehensive study of every sexual quirk, kink and ritual across all cultures throughout time, as that would entail writing an encyclopaedia. Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless. The act of



26.) A Promised Land written byBarack Obama

A Promised Land

Lists It Appears On:

  • Barnes & Noble
  • NPR

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making–from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his



25.) A World Beneath the Sands: Adventurers and Archaeologists in the Golden Age of Egyptology written byToby Wilkinson

A World Beneath the Sands: Adventurers and Archaeologists in the Golden Age of Egyptology

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Times

From the decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon a hundred years later, the uncovering of Egypt’s ancient past took place in an atmosphere of grand adventure and international rivalry.In A World Beneath the Sands, acclaimed Egy



24.) Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy written byBen Macintyre

Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • Barnes & Noble

The “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) behind the New York Times bestseller The Spy and the Traitor uncovers the true story behind the Cold War’s most intrepid female spy. In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her



23.) Black SpartacusThe Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture written bySudhir Hazareesingh

Black SpartacusThe Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Times
  • Book Authority

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize “Black Spartacus is a tour de force: by far the most complete, authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are likely to have for a long time . . . An extraordinarily gripping read.” –David A. Bell, The Guardian A new interpretation of the l



22.) Britain’s War: A New World, 1942-1947 written byDaniel Todman

Britain’s War: A New World, 1942-1947

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Telegraph
  • Financial Times

The second volume of Daniel Todman’s account of Great Britain and World War II The second of Daniel Todman’s two sweeping volumes on Great Britain and World War II, Britain’s War: A New World, 1942-1947, begins with the event Winston Churchill called the “worst disaster” in British military history:



21.) Crucible of Hell: Okinawa, the Last Great Battle of the Second World War written bySaul David

Crucible of Hell: Okinawa, the Last Great Battle of the Second World War

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Telegraph
  • The Times

With Allied forces sweeping across Europe and into Germany in the spring of 1945, one enormous challenge threatened to derail America’s audacious drive to win the world back from the Nazis



20.) Eat The Buddha: Life And Death In A Tibetan Town written byBarbara Demick

Eat The Buddha: Life And Death In A Tibetan Town

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • NPR

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy. “You simply cannot understand China without reading Barbara Demick on Tibet.”–Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Ba



19.) Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain written byPen Vogler

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Times



18.) Sicily ’43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe written byJames Holland

Sicily ’43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Wall Street Journal
  • The Times

On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion eleven months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soi



17.) The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story written byKate Summerscale

The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Telegraph
  • The Times

Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford prize Internationally bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Kate Summerscale follows a ghost hunter in 1938 London in a case that illuminates changing social attitudes toward psychoanalysis, sexuality, and the supernatural London, 1938. In the suburbs of



16.) The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar written byPeter Stothard

The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Times

Many men killed Julius Caesar. Only one man was determined to kill the killers. From the spring of 44 BC through one of the most dramatic and influential periods in history, Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, exacted vengeance on the assassins of the Ides of March, not only



15.) The Ratline written byPhilippe Sands

The Ratline

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Telegraph

Hypnotic, shocking, and unputdownable. –John le Carr From the author of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning East West Street: A tale of Nazi lives, mass murder, love, cold war espionage, a mysterious death in the Vatican–and the Ratline, the Nazi escape route to Peron’s Argentina. Baron O



14.) The White Ship written byCharles Spencer

The White Ship

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Telegraph



13.) War written byProfessor Margaret MacMillan

War

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Wall Street Journal

The instinct to fight may be innate in human nature, but war–organized violence–comes with organized society. War has shaped humanity’s history, its social and political institutions, its values and ideas. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, and some of our greatest cultura



12.) Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country written bySierra Crane Murdoch

Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman's Search for Justice in Indian Country

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • NPR

The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it–an urgent work of literary journalism. “I don’t know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in Ame



11.) A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain 1874-2018 written byPaul Preston

A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain 1874-2018

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Telegraph
  • Financial Times

The culmination of a half-century of historical investigation, A People Betrayed is not only a definitive history of modern Spain but also a compelling narrative that becomes a lens for understanding the challenges that virtually all democracies have faced in the modern world.Whereas so many twentie



10.) Britain at BayThe Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941 written byAlan Allport

Britain at BayThe Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Times
  • Book Authority

A sweeping, groundbreaking epic that combines military with social history, to illuminate the ways in which Great Britain and its people were permanently transformed by the Second World War. Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the m



9.) Gladius: Living Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army written byGuy de la Bédoyère

Gladius: Living Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army

Lists It Appears On:

  • Waterstones
  • The Telegraph
  • The Times

The Roman army was the greatest fighting machine in the ancient world. More than that, it was the single largest organization in Western antiquity, taking in members from all classes, from senators to freed slaves. The Roman Empire depended on its army not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers,



8.) His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope written byJon Meacham

His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

Lists It Appears On:

  • Barnes & Noble
  • Goodreads
  • Amazon

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present–from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America John Lewis, who a



7.) Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980 written byRick Perlstein

Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980

Lists It Appears On:

  • Barnes & Noble
  • Amazon
  • The Times

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 From the bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge comes the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power. Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of co



6.) The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X written byLes Payne

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

Lists It Appears On:

  • Amazon
  • NPR
  • Smithsonian

Finalist — National Book Award for Nonfiction – Excerpted in The New Yorker – Longlisted — Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction – New Books to Watch Out for in October — New York Times – Best Books of Fall 2020 — O, the Oprah Magazine, The Week, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Best New B



5.) The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power written byMartyn Rady

The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Telegraph
  • The Times
  • Book Authority

The definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries — from their rise to power to their eventual downfall. In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built — and then lost — over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the



4.) The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom written byH. W. Brands

The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom

Lists It Appears On:

  • Barnes & Noble
  • Amazon
  • Smithsonian

Gifted storyteller and bestselling historian H. W. Brands narrates the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln–two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin. John Brown was a charismatic and deeply religious man who heard the God of



3.) You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington written byAlexis Coe

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • NPR
  • Smithsonian

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “In her form-shattering and myth-crushing book….Coe examines myths with mirth, and writes history with humor… [You Never Forget Your First] is an accessible look at a president who always finishes in the first ranks of our leaders.” –Boston Globe Alexis Coe



2.) Caste written byIsabel Wilkerson

Caste

Lists It Appears On:

  • Barnes & Noble
  • Amazon
  • Goodreads
  • NPR
  • Smithsonian

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK – LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”–Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The W



1.) The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz written byErik Larson

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

Lists It Appears On:

  • The Wall Street Journal
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Goodreads
  • Amazon
  • NPR

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz–an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis One of Chicago Tribune’s Best Books of the Year So




The 150+ Additional Best History Books Released In 2020



#BookAuthorLists
28100 Great Black BritonsPatrick Vernon Angelina Osborne
Waterstones
29999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to AuschwitzHeather Dune MacadamGoodreads
30A Black Women’s History of the United StatesDaina Ramey BerryGoodreads
31A Mind Spread Out on the GroundAlicia ElliottAmazon
32A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing TeamArshay CooperAmazon
33A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical OrderJudith FlandersThe Times
34African EuropeansOlivette Otele
Waterstones
35AKBARThe Great MughalIra Mukhoty
Book Authority
36Alaric the GothAn Outsider’s History of the Fall of RomeDouglas Boin
Book Authority
37All Against All: The Long Winter of 1933 and the Origins of the Second World WarPaul Jankowski
Financial Times
38American HistoryA Captivating Guide to the History of the United States of America, American Revolution, Civil War, Chicago, Roaring Twenties, Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and Gulf WarCaptivating History
Book Authority
39Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White HouseRachel Maddow
Barnes & Noble
40Banned Book ClubKim Hyun Sook and Ryan EstradaNPR
41Behind the EnigmaJohn Ferris
Waterstones
42Black Heroes Of The Wild WestJames Otis SmithNPR
43Blood On The River: A Chronicle Of Mutiny And Freedom On The Wild CoastMarjoleine KarsNPR
44Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval EuropeRobert Bartlett
Financial Times
45Bread Winner 
The Telegraph
46British Summer Time BeginsYsenda Maxtone Graham
Waterstones
47Burning the BooksRichard Ovenden
Waterstones
48Capital And IdeologyThomas PikettyNPR
49Conditional Citizens: On Belonging In AmericaLaila LalamiNPR
50Conquistadores: A New HistoryFernando CervantesThe Times
51Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music And Changed American CultureGrace Elizabeth HaleNPR
52Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthyLarry TyeAmazon
53Desert Notebooks: A Road Map For The End Of TimeBen EhrenreichNPR
54Dresden: The Fire and the DarknessSinclair McKayThe Times
55Elizabethans 
Waterstones
56Endell StreetWendy Moore
Waterstones
57Everything Man: The Form And Function Of Paul RobesonShana L. RedmondNPR
58ExilePortraits of the Jewish DiasporaAnnika Hernroth-Rothstein, Tiffany Gabbay
Book Authority
59Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU CasesMichael ChabonGoodreads
60Fire in Paradise: An American TragedyAlastair Gee Dani AnguianoAmazon
61First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our CountryThomas E. RicksAmazon
62Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion ManifestoMiren ArzalluzNPR
63Gambling With ArmageddonMartin J. Sherwin
The Wall Street Journal
64Genocide in LibyaAli Abdullatif Ahmida
Book Authority
65George III 
The Telegraph
66Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The BrontësIsabel GreenbergNPR
67GreeceBiography of a Modern NationRoderick Beaton
Book Authority
68Haldane 
The Telegraph
69Heaven and HellA History of the AfterlifeBart D. Ehrman
Book Authority
70His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A LifeJonathan AlterNPR
71HumankindA Hopeful HistoryRutger Bregman, Elizabeth Manton, Erica Moore
Book Authority
72I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust MemoirEsther Safran FoerNPR
73If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the FutureJill Lepore
Barnes & Noble
74In the Reign of King JohnDan Jones
Waterstones
75International Brigades 
The Telegraph
76Inventing Latinos: A New Story Of American RacismLaura E. GómezNPR
77Islamic EmpiresThe Cities that Shaped Civilization: From Mecca to DubaiJustin Marozzi
Book Authority
78JFK 
The Telegraph
79Kent State: Four Dead In OhioDerf BackderfNPR
80Ladies Can’t Climb Ladders 
The Telegraph
81LancasterJohn Nichol
Waterstones
82Legendary Children: The First Decade Of RuPaul’s Drag Race And The Last Century Of Queer LifeTom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo MarquezNPR
83Life Of A Klansman: A Family History In White SupremacyEdward BallNPR
84Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle For The Ballot BoxEvette DionneNPR
85Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in AmericaMichael Eric DysonAmazon
86Looking To Get Lost: Adventures In Music And WritingPeter GuralnickNPR
87Love Child’s Hotbed Of Occasional Poetry: Poems & ArtifactsNikky FinneyNPR
88Machiavelli: His Life and TimesAlexander Lee
Financial Times
89March OnLucy Lang, Grace Lang
Book Authority
90Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles IILinda PorterThe Times
91Music For The Dead And Resurrected: PoemsValzhyna MortNPR
92Mussolini’s War 
The Telegraph
93My Autobiography Of Carson McCullers: A MemoirJenn ShaplandNPR
94Night Letters: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar And The Afghan Islamists Who Changed The WorldChris Sands with Fazelminallah QazizaiNPR
95Notre-DameThe Soul of FranceAgnès Poirier
Book Authority
96One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965Jia Lynn Yang
Smithsonian
97Our Bodies Their Battlefield: What War Does to WomenChristina LambThe Times
98Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast Of The 50 StatesColin QuinnNPR
99Pandora’s JarNatalie Haynes
Waterstones
100Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That LastWright ThompsonAmazon
101Political Sign (Object Lessons)Tobias CarrollNPR
102Prisoners of History: What Monuments to the Second World War Tell Us About Our History and OurselvesKeith LoweThe Times
103Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell’s ProtectoratePaul LayThe Times
104Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases Of The Civil Rights EraJerry MitchellNPR
105Race For Profit: How Banks And The Real Estate Industry Undermined Black HomeownershipKeeanga-Yamahtta TaylorNPR
106Ravenna 
The Telegraph
107RavennaCapital of Empire, Crucible of EuropeJudith Herrin
Book Authority
108RemembranceRita WoodsNPR
109RevolutionsPeter Furtado
Waterstones
110Roadside Americans: The Rise And Fall Of Hitchhiking In A Changing NationJack ReidNPR
111Royal WitchesWitchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century EnglandGemma Hollman
Book Authority
112Salazar 
The Telegraph
113Sam Houston and the Alamo AvengersThe Texas Victory That Changed American HistoryBrian Kilmeade
Book Authority
114Show Me A SignAnn Clare LeZotteNPR
115Spartans 
Book Authority
116Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia’s Quest for World PowerGregory Afinogenov
Financial Times
117Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, And YouJason Reynolds and Ibram X. KendiNPR
118Story of the World Text Bundle, PaperbackHistory for the Classical Child: Ancient Times through The Modern AgeSusan Wise Bauer
Book Authority
119Strange Antics 
The Telegraph
120Survivors 
The Telegraph
121Swimming In The Dark: A NovelTomasz JedrowskiNPR
122Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born RebelRachel HolmesThe Times
123The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and PowerDeirdre MaskGoodreads
124The Age Of PhillisHonorée Fanonne JeffersNPR
125The Autobiography Of Alice B. Toklas IllustratedGertrude SteinNPR
126The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian RenaissanceCatherine FletcherThe Times
127The Boston Massacre: A Family HistorySerena ZabinAmazon
128The Care and Feeding Of Waspish WidowsOlivia WaiteNPR
129The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the VikingsNeil PriceThe Times
130The CraftJohn Dickie
Waterstones
131The Daughters of YaltaCatherine Grace Katz
The Telegraph
132The Decline of Magic: Britain in the EnlightenmentMichael Hunter
Financial Times
133The Deepest South Of All: True Stories From Natchez, MississippiRichard GrantNPR
134The Fortress: The Siege of Przemyśl and the Making of Europe’s BloodlandsAlexander Watson
Financial Times
135The Glamour BoysChris Bryant
Waterstones
136The Good GermansCatrine Clay
Waterstones
137The Good Sharps 
The Telegraph
138The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on CancerJennet Conant
Smithsonian
139The History of Magic 
The Telegraph
140The History of Middle-earth Boxed SetChristopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien
Book Authority
141The history of the island of Antigua, one of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the first settlement in 1635 to the present timeVere Langford Oliver
Book Authority
142The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American CapitalismSusan BerfieldAmazon
143The House of KennedyJames PattersonGoodreads
144The Human Cosmos: Civilization And The StarsJo MarchantNPR
145The Hunt for HistoryOn the Trail of the World’s Lost Treasures―from the Letters of Lincoln, Churchill, and Einstein to the Secret Recordings Onboard JFK’s Air Force OneNathan Raab, Luke Barr
Book Authority
146The Infiltrators 
The Telegraph
147The Interest 
The Telegraph
148The International BrigadesGiles Tremlett
Waterstones
149The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRueV.E. SchwabNPR
150The Invisible RainbowA History of Electricity and LifeArthur Firstenberg
Book Authority
151The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade And The Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our WorldVincent BevinsNPR
152The Japanese: A History in Twenty LivesChristopher HardingThe Times
153The Jews and the ReformationKenneth Austin
Financial Times
154The Journeys Of Trees: A Story About Forests, People, And The FutureZach St. GeorgeNPR
155The King of Nazi Paris: Henri LaFont and the French GestapoOthen Christopher
The Telegraph
156The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons From World War To Cold WarDavid NasawNPR
157The Light Ages 
The Telegraph
158The Lincoln Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill America’s 16th President⁠—and Why It FailedBrad MeltzerGoodreads
159The Mirror & The LightHilary MantelNPR
160The Mountains SingNguyễn Phan Quế MaiNPR
161The Napoleonic WarsA Global HistoryAlexander Mikaberidze
Book Authority
162The Night WatchmanLouise ErdrichNPR
163The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black FamilyBettye Kearse
Smithsonian
164The Pilgrim HypothesisTimothy Ballard
Book Authority
165The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War–a Tragedy in Three ActsScott AndersonAmazon
166The Riches Of This LandJim TankersleyNPR
167The Shadow KingMaaza MengisteNPR
168The Shortest History of England 
Waterstones
169The Socrates Express: In Search Of Life Lessons From Dead PhilosophersEric WeinerNPR
170The Story of ChinaMichael Wood
Waterstones
171The Things They FanciedMegan Kate NelsonNPR
172The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West 
Smithsonian
173The Wax Pack: On The Open Road In Search Of Baseball’s AfterlifeBrad BalukjianNPR
174The World AflameDan Jones, Marina Amaral
Waterstones
175The Young LordsA Radical HistoryJohanna Fernández
Book Authority
176They Went LeftMonica HesseNPR
177This Sporting Life: Sport and Liberty in England, 1760-1960Robert CollsThe Times
178Time Traveller’s Guide to Regency Britain 
The Telegraph
179To Calais, In Ordinary TimeJames MeekNPR
180Trouble The Saints: A NovelAlaya Dawn JohnsonNPR
181Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of AuthoritarianismAnne ApplebaumAmazon
182Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945Ian W. Toll
Barnes & Noble
183Uncrowned Queen: The Life of Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the TudorsNicola Tallis
Smithsonian
184Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on EmpireTim Harper
Financial Times
185Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession Of Native Americans And The Road To Indian TerritoryClaudio SauntNPR
186Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, And The Birth Of 24-Hour NewsLisa NapoliNPR
187Venus and AphroditeA Biography of DesireBettany Hughes
Book Authority
188Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus’s WifeAriel Sabar
Smithsonian
189Wagnerism: Art And Politics In The Shadow Of MusicAlex RossNPR
190Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her RootsMorgan JerkinsAmazon
191Waves Across the SouthSujit Sivasundaram
Waterstones
192We Were Eight Years in Power: An American TragedyTa-Nehisi CoatesAmazon
193Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White SupremacyDavid ZucchinoAmazon
194Year Of The RabbitTian VeasnaNPR


11 Best History Book Sources/Lists



SourceArticle
Amazon Best history books of 2020
Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble’s Best History of 2020
Book Authority 28 Best New History Books To Read In 2021
Financial Times Best books of 2020: History
Goodreads Best History & Biography
NPR NPR’s Book Concierge
Smithsonian The Ten Best History Books of 2020
The Telegraph The best history books of 2020
The Times Best history books of the year 2020
The Wall Street Journal Holiday Gift Books 2020: History
Waterstones The Best Books of 2020: History