87,270 ratings — published 1992, avg rating 4.26 — 159,100 ratings — published 2016, avg rating 4.20 — It was Epicurus who laid the foundation for science and the scientific method by his insistence that nothing should be believed unless it could be established through direct observation and logical deduction. Some nonfiction categories—like literary nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, and creative nonfiction—overlap with historical nonfiction, and many bestselling books can be categorized in two or more of these genres. With his eyes focused on the harsh realities of that all-consuming conflict, Hastings debunks the myths that inspired these books and takes their exaggerations down a peg with a long-lacking sense of perspective. It was far from clear that a catastrophic clash of the extremes could be prevented. The Best Books: Top 100 Nonfiction list is a concise selection of books that provides the reader with an understanding of the social and natural world. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers – Life in the maelstrom of Hurricane Katrina, The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein – Teacher training, normal schools, and “bad teachers”, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann – The case that helped put the FBI on the map, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin – A stirring account of the watershed 2008 election, Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes by Adam Hochschild—Early 20th-century America viewed through the life of one extraordinary woman, Mary’s Mosaic: The CIA Conspiracy to Murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer, and Their Vision for World Peace by Peter Janney – The CIA murder conspiracy that ended JFK’s plan for peace, The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of the American Empire by Stephen Kinzer – The origins of the American empire, Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream by Nicholas Lemann—Economic inequality deconstructed in a brilliant historical study, Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service by Devin Leonard – An entertaining history of the post office, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson – When a U-boat sank the Lusitania and changed history, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean – Historical perspective on “the vast Right-Wing conspiracy”, One Nation Under Gods: A New American History by Peter Manseau – America’s surprising religious history in a highly readable book. Using this logic, he undermined the basis of all the world’s fear-based religions, asserting that the purpose of life was to seek pleasure and the absence of pain. Not so Erik Larson, one of the most outstanding popular historians writing today in the English language. 17,957 ratings — published 2011, avg rating 4.14 — Is it possible to pick 50 of the best nonfiction books ever? This list is generated from 129 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. 19,009 ratings — Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott – This book will challenge everything you know about ancient history, The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph – An extraordinary episode in Israeli history, In the Enemy’s House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies by Howard Blum – How the Soviet atomic spies were caught, The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell: A Dyslexic Traitor, an Unbreakable Code, and the FBI’s Hunt for America’s Stolen Secrets by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee – Before Edward Snowden was “The Spy Who Couldn’t Spell”, The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn and Petra Couvée—How a novel helped speed the collapse of the Soviet Union, The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman – A gripping true-life tale of Cold War spycraft, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan — The secret history of cyber war, Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family’s Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Europe by Alex Kershaw – A revealing account of life under the Nazis in occupied Europe, Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet by Yasha Levine – Shocking revelations: the secret military history of the Internet, Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism by Karen M. Paget – How the CIA infiltrated the National Student Association, Operation Shakespeare: The True Story of an Elite International Sting by John Shiffman – How Homeland Security went abroad to capture an Iranian arms dealer, Spies in Palestine: Love, Betrayal, and the Heroic Life of Sarah Aaronsohn by James Srodes—The female Jewish spy who helped pave the way to the State of Israel, Versailles: A History by Robert B. Abrams—History versus fiction: How Netflix’s Versailles distorts the facts, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark – Does history repeat itself? Book set in the same time period delved more deeply into the story book sounds intense awesome. Lists defined ( often arbitrarily ) by category that include more than once on list. Include my 10 favorite books about women for you to discover, purchase and read to create a master based. Mirage: the Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz by Omer Bartov— the Holocaust under microscope! 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