History

History (from Greek ἱστορία - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation") is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and its usefulness. This includes discu ...more

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History--and How It Shattered a Nation
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America
The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling
The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising
Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Lincoln's Ghost: Houdini's War on Spiritualism and the Dark Conspiracy Against the American Presidency
The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding
Useless Etymology: Offbeat Word Origins for Curious Minds
The Nine Lives of Christopher Columbus
The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau’s Quest to Set Things Right
Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle That Changed the War, the Speech That Changed the Nation
Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary
The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur: A Graphic Novel Based on a True Story
Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945
  • The Age of Calamities by Senaa Ahmad
    The Age of Calamities

    Release date: Jan 13, 2026
    Enter for a chance to win a copy of THE AGE OF CALAMITIES by Senaa Ahmad!
    View Details »

    Format: Print book

    Giveaway ends in: a

    Availability: 50 copies available, 4723 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Oct 12 - Nov 11, 2025

    Countries available: U.S.

  • A Biography of a Mountain by Matthew Davis
    A Biography of a Mountain: The Making and Meaning of Mount Rushmore

    Release date: Nov 11, 2025
    Enter for a chance to win 1 of 15 finished copies of A BIOGRAPHY OF A MOUNTAIN by Matthew Davis!
    View Details »

    Format: Print book

    Giveaway ends in: a

    Availability: 15 copies available, 3836 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Oct 21 - Nov 11, 2025

    Countries available: U.S. and Canada

  • Barbieland by Tarpley Hitt
    Barbieland: The Unauthorized History

    Release date: Dec 02, 2025
    We're giving away 100 galley copies of BARBIELAND: The Unauthorized History by Tarpley Hitt. ...more
    View Details »

    Format: Print book

    Giveaway ends in: a

    Availability: 100 copies available, 3669 people requesting

    Giveaway dates: Oct 12 - Nov 11, 2025

    Countries available: U.S.

  • Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
    Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
    107 Days
    Circle of Days
    Hostage
    Abundance
    A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
    1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History--and How It Shattered a Nation
    The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
    The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
    Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
    One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
    The Personal Librarian
    The Happiest Man on Earth
    The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
    Kitchen Confidential by Anthony BourdainThe Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael PollanAnimal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara KingsolverFast Food Nation by Eric SchlosserIn Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
    Food-Related Non-Fiction
    1,224 books — 1,633 voters
    The Book Thief by Markus ZusakThe Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankNight by Elie WieselThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John BoyneNumber the Stars by Lois Lowry
    Well-Written Holocaust Books
    890 books — 2,879 voters

    The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne FrankThe Glass Castle by Jeannette WallsI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya AngelouEat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth GilbertPersepolis by Marjane Satrapi
    Memoirs by Women
    2,962 books — 2,993 voters
    Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtryTrue Grit by Charles PortisBlood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthyAll the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthyNo Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
    Best Westerns
    1,372 books — 1,495 voters

    Sapiens by Yuval Noah HarariHomo Deus by Yuval Noah HarariA Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanQuiet by Susan Cain
    Best of 21st Century Non-fiction
    1,190 books — 945 voters
    1984 by George OrwellAnimal Farm by George OrwellGuns, Germs, and Steel by Jared DiamondBrave New World by Aldous HuxleyMan's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
    Best Books To Frame Thinking
    1,275 books — 1,421 voters

    Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
    Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
    A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
    The Diary of a Young Girl
    The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
    1776
    SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
    A Short History of Nearly Everything
    The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
    1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
    Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
    Night
    Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
    Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
    Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

    Related News

    As you might expect, we are book people here at Goodreads World Headquarters—rather intense book people, actually. And when the holidays roll...
    George Orwell
    The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
    George Orwell

    George Harrison
    It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one. ...more
    George Harrison

    More quotes...
    Books for the soul and mind Welcome to our cosy literary community! In our book club, "Books for the Soul and Mind", we come…more
    9 members, last active 3 days ago
    All About Animals We read books about all types animals, reptiles, sea life, birds, and insects. Also, any book …more
    724 members, last active 31 days ago
    bleh; add books you wanna read
    2 members, last active 44 days ago
    Silent World — A discussion group A place to discuss all the unique aspects of Deaf culture as highlighted in the thriller Silent …more
    1,529 members, last active 4 hours ago

    Tags

    Tags contributing to this page include: history, past, and storia