American History

Democracy in America (1835) by Alex de Tocqueville 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe

How the Other Half Lives (1890) by Jacob Riis

The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair

1776 (2005) by David McCullough

The Story of American Freedom (1994) by Eric Foner

In the Kingdom of Ice (2014) by Hampton Sides


Western Civilization

Histories (c. 440 BC) by Herodotus

The Guns of August (1965) by Barbra Tuchman

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2015) by Mary Beard

Why Nations Fail (2012) by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) by Jared Diamond

Rise and Fall of Great Civilizations (1987) by Paul Kennedy


Middle Eastern History

Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922) by T.E. Lawrence

A History of the Middle East (1013) by Peter Mansfield

The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999) by Thomas Friedman

From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989) by Thomas Friedman

Lawrence in Arabia (2013) by Scott Anderson

The Prince of Marshes (2006) by Rory Stewart


Asian History

The Opium War, 1840-1842 (2000) by Peter Ward Fay

The Man Who Loved China (2008) by Garrison Kiellor

Caravans (1963) by James Michener

The Places in Between (2004) by Rory Stewart

Cohen, W., East Asia at the Center (New York, 2000).

Ebrey, P. et al., East Asia: A Cultural, Social and Political History (Boston, 2006).

Goldman, M. et al., eds, Historical Perspectives on Contemporary East Asia (Cambridge, Mass., 2000)

Holcombe, Ch., The Genesis of East Asia, 221 BC – AD 907 (Honolulu, 2001).

Schirokauer, C. et al., Modern Asia: A Brief History (Boston, 2008)


Latin History

Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America (2000) by John Charles Chasteen

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of a Pillage of a Continent (1971) by Eduardo Galeano

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten City (2009) by Greg Grandin

1491: New Revelations About the Americas before Columbus (2005) by Charles C. Mann


Women’s History

The Book of the City of Ladies (1995) by Christine de Pizan

The Worth of Women (16c.) by Moderata Fonte

The New Blazing World (1666) by Margaret Cavendish

The Second Sex (1949) by Simone de Beauvoir