Category: British History
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The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023) by David Grann
David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder has been a publishing phenomenon, especially for an historical non-fiction account of an event that happened 300 years ago. Since its initial release in 2023, the book has dominated bestseller lists, sold more than a million copies worldwide, and cemented Grann’s reputation as one…
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The Boer War (1979) by Thomas Pakenham
Thomas Pakenham’s The Boer War, first published in 1979, remains one of the most absorbing accounts of imperial warfare ever written. It is at once sweeping and immediate: a grand chronicle of armies clashing across South Africa’s high veldt, yet also a study of private fears and petty ambitions that together reshaped the British Empire’s…
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The Armada (1959) by Garrett Mattingly
When Garrett Mattingly’s “The Armada” was first published in 1959, it became an immediate sensation – not just among historians, but among general readers. It won the National Book Award and quickly carved out a reputation as one of the most engaging works of narrative history ever written. Even today, over half a century later,…
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The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1992) by Alison Weir
I first discovered this book in a box of donated books at a forward operating base on the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2010. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be one of the most entertaining works of history I’ve ever picked up. Alison Weir has an unusual knack for putting flesh-and-bones on long dead…
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Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (1991) by Robert K. Massie
Robert K. Massie’s “Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War” (1991) is a monumental achievement in narrative history, weaving together biography, diplomacy, military innovation, and geopolitical rivalry into a compelling and deeply human account of the path to World War I. It stands as one of my all-time favorite books. At its…
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The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (1990) by Peter Hopkirk
In the annals of imperial history, few conflicts have captured the imagination quite like the Great Game – that shadowy, century-long struggle between the British and Russian empires for dominance over Central Asia. Peter Hopkirk’s masterful work, “The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia” (1990), stands as the definitive account of this…
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Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves (2005) by Adam Hochschild
I was first introduced to the work of Adam Hochschild with his 1998 bestselling “King Leopold’s Ghost,” a searing account of Belgium’s exploitation of the Congo in the late nineteenth century. “Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves,” a National Book Award Finalist first published in 2005, is…
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Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty (2015) by Dan Jones
The Magna Carta. It’s one of those things that everyone knows, but few truly know anything about. Hip Hop mega star Jay-Z (for reasons known only to him) titled his 2013 album “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” In 2014, British Prime Minister David Cameron, who one would presume would know a thing or two about it,…
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The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (1976) by Paul Kennedy
Paul Kennedy made quite a splash with “The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery” when it first came out in 1976, although I’m not entirely sure why. His primary theses – that the rise and fall of sea power track closely with that of economic power, and that the effective exercise of military might…
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