“What are the best History books released in 2024?” We looked at 102 of the top History books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 25 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best History” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 75+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.
All of the books have Amazon affiliate links attached to them, but I will be building out Bookshop versions of these lists HERE in the next week for those who would rather support a local book store. Honestly, just use the bookshop link for books (Or even better go in person somewhere). If you are going to buy something else expensive from Amazon, feel free to click on the link before buying so I get an affiliate percentage, but these are the only articles I post on here each year, so I don’t expect to make any real money from this site anymore. I’ve just made these articels for enough years in a row that I can’t stop now. Plus I like using to see what books I missed or need to get myself.
Our other Best Of 2024 Articles:
Previous Years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Happy Scrolling!
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
26) A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue – Dean Jobb List: (Amazon)
27) A History of Britain in Ten Enemies – Terry Deary List: (Waterstones)
28) A History Of The World In Twelve Shipwrecks – David Gibbins List: (Listener)
29) A Travel Guide To The Middle Ages – Anthony Bale List: (Listener)
30) All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil – Stephen Alford List: (Waterstones)
31) American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond – Jeremy Dauber List: (Goodreads)
32) An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence – Zeinab Badawi List: (Waterstones)
33) An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s – Doris Kearns Goodwin List: (Amazon)
34) Arnhem: Black Tuesday – Al Murray List: (Waterstones)
35) Autocracy Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World – Anne Applebaum List: (Amazon)
36) Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home – Chris La Tray List: (Amazon)
37) Between Britain: Walking the History of England and Scotland – Alistair Moffat List: (Waterstones)
38) Cassino ’44: Five Months of Hell in Italy – James Holland List: (Waterstones)
39) Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond – Alice Roberts List: (Waterstones)
40) Cypria: A Journey to the Heart of the Mediterranean – Alex Christofi List: (Waterstones)
41) Dark Brilliance: The Age of Reason from Descartes to Peter the Great – Paul Strathern List: (Waterstones)
42) Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe – Sathnam Sanghera List: (Waterstones)
43) Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won The War – Jonathan Dimbleby List: (Waterstones)
44) Fall of Civilizations: Stories of Greatness and Decline – Paul Cooper List: (Waterstones)
45) Four Shots in the Night: A True Story of Stakeknife, Murder and Justice in Northern Ireland – Henry Hemming List: (Waterstones)
46) Ghosts of Panama: A Strongman Out of Control, A Murdered Marine, and the Special Agents Caught in the Middle of an Invasion – Mark Harmon List: (Barnes & Noble)
47) Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God – Catherine Nixey List: (Waterstones)
48) History Hit Story of England: Making of a Nation – History Hit & Dan Snow List: (Waterstones)
49) How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Fascism – Ece Temelkuran List: (Indigo)
50) How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler – Peter Pomerantsev List: (Waterstones)
51) Humans: The 300,000-Year Struggle for Equality – Alvin Finkel List: (Indigo)
52) Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century – Simon Kuper List: (Waterstones)
53) Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia – Gary J. Bass List: (Waterstones)
54) Land Between The Rivers: A 5000-Year History Of Iraq – Bartle Bull List: (Listener)
55) Madrid: A New Biography – Luke Stegemann List: (Listener)
56) Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America – Joy-Ann Reid List: (Amazon)
57) Melting Point: Family, Memory And The Search For A Promised Land – Rachel Cockerell List: (Waterstones)
58) Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA – Patrick Winn List: (Amazon)
59) Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People – Tiya Miles List: (Smithsonian)
60) Night of Power: The Betrayal of the Middle East – Robert Fisk List: (Waterstones)
61) No Road Leading Back: An Improbable Escape From the Nazis and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust – Chris Heath List: (Smithsonian)
62) Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong – Katie Gee Salisbury List: (Goodreads)
63) Nuclear War: A Scenario – Annie Jacobsen List: (Barnes & Noble)
64) Operation Biting: The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler’s Radar – Max Hastings List: (Waterstones)
65) Other Rivers: A Chinese Education – Peter Hessler List: (Listener)
66) Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough – Ian Frazier List: (Amazon)
67) Paris ’44: The Shame and the Glory – Patrick Bishop List: (Waterstones)
68) Patriot – Alexei Navalny List: (Barnes & Noble)
69) Reagan His Life and Legend – Max Boot List: (Barnes & Noble)
70) Reconciling History: A Story of Canada – Jody Wilson-raybould List: (Indigo)
71) Saints: A new legendary of heroes, humans and magic – Amy Jeffs List: (Waterstones)
72) Silk: A World History – Aarathi Prasad List: (Smithsonian)
73) The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience – Nikole Hannah-Jones List: (Barnes & Noble)
74) The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic – Daniel de Visé List: (Amazon)
75) The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore – Evan Friss List: (Goodreads)
76) The English Soul: The Faith of a Nation – Peter Ackroyd List: (Waterstones)
77) The Greatest Nobodies of History: Minor Characters from Major Moments – Adrian Bliss List: (Waterstones)
78) The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East – Barnaby Rogerson List: (Waterstones)
79) The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective – Steven Johnson List: (Indigo)
80) The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza—the Forgotten Queen Who Bridged Two Worlds – Sophie Shorland List: (Smithsonian)
81) The Lost Tomb: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder – Douglas Preston List: (Goodreads)
82) The Message – Ta-Nehisi Coates List: (Barnes & Noble)
83) The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World – Daisy Dunn List: (Smithsonian)
84) The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper – Roland Allen List: (Indigo)
85) The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place – Kate Summerscale List: (Waterstones)
86) The Picnic: An Escape To Freedom And The Collapse Of The Iron Curtain – Matthew Longo List: (Waterstones)
87) The Rest is History Returns: An A–Z of Historical Curiosities – Dominic Sandbrook List: (Waterstones)
88) The Shortest History of Japan – Shortest Histories 15 – Lesley Downer List: (Waterstones)
89) The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade – Hannah Durkin List: (Amazon)
90) The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History – Karen Valby List: (Amazon)
91) The Umbrella Murder: The Hunt for the Cold War’s Most Notorious Killer – Ulrik Skotte List: (Waterstones)
92) The Unknown Warrior: A Personal Journey of Discovery and Remembrance – John Nichol List: (Waterstones)
93) The Walnut Tree: Women, Violence and the Law – a Hidden History – Kate Morgan List: (Waterstones)
94) The War We Won Apart: The Untold Story of Two Elite Agents who Became One of the Most Decorated Couples of WWII – Nahlah Ayed List: (Indigo)
95) The Wild Men: The Remarkable Story of Britain’s First Labour Government – David Torrance List: (Waterstones)
96) Unruly – David Mitchell List: (Listener)
97) Venice: The Remarkable History Of The Lagoon City – Dennis Romano List: (Listener)
98) Vertigo: The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany – Harald Jähner List: (Waterstones)
99) We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance – Kellie Carter Jackson List: (Smithsonian)
100) When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion – Julie Satow List: (Goodreads)
101) Why War? – Richard Overy List: (Waterstones)
102) Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age – Kathleen Sheppard List: (Goodreads)
| Source | Article |
| Amazon | Best History Books of 2024 |
| Barnes & Noble | Barnes & Noble’s Best History Books of 2024 |
| Indigo | Best History & Political Science of 2024 |
| Listener | The Listener’s 100 best books of 2024 |
| Goodreads | Readers’ Favorite History & Biography |
| Smithsonian | The Ten Best History Books of 2024 |
| Waterstones | The Best History Books of 2024 |
"What are the best Science Fiction And Fantasy books released in 2024?" We looked at…
"What are the best All Genres of books released in 2024?" We looked at 1282…
"What are the best Graphic Novels And Comics books released in 2024?" We looked at…
"What are the best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller books released in 2024?" We looked at…
"What are the best Cookbooks books released in 2024?" We looked at 267 of the…
"What are the best Fiction books released in 2024?" We looked at 440 of the…