Book Recommendations
Book Recommendations
Science of History
Ages of Discord: A Structural Demographic Analysis of American History by Peter Turchin. Tracing patterns by why America goes through eras of prosperity and collapse.
Foragers, Farmers and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve by Ian Morris. How energy systems determine value systems.
Forces of Change: An Unorthodox View of History by Henry Hobhouse. An analysis of the minor ignored variables across history like disease and food production.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond.
History of Manners by Norbert Elias. How European civilization repressed human biology as the state became more powerful.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. About human nature and history.
Secular Cycles by Peter Turchin. Tracing the century long patterns by why European nations go through eras of prosperity and collapse.
The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis by Carroll Quigley. Trying to create a pattern of the rise and fall of civilizations.
The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hackett Fischer. How inflation has been tied to population growth and political instability across Western history.
The Lessons of History by Will Durant. The historian Durant draws philosophic conclusions from his studies.
Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth by Peter Turchin. How large human societies formed.
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires by Peter Turchin. The science of why empires rise and fall.
War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat. A darwinistic biological history of war and human nature in general.
War: What is it Good For?: The Role of Conflict in Civilisation, from Primates to Robots by Ian Morris. How war has been one of the greatest drivers of technological and progress across history.
General History
A History of Civilizations by Fernand Braudel. A look at the unique histories of each civilization around the world.
Millenium: From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization has Changed over a Thousand Years by Ian Mortimer. A look at how Western civilization changed over each century.
Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures by Mark K. Matsuda. A history of Trans-Pacific culture and connections.
Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community by William McNeil. A history of the world as portrayed through the interplay of European, Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese civilization.
The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection by Tamim Ansary. A history of religion and ideology across history.
The History of Civilization by Will Durant. (13 columns) Will Durant’s attempt to write a history of all civilization. Disproportionately cultural and artistic. Heavily lopsided towards Early Modern Europe.
The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World by Lincoln Paine.
Modern History
A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America by Bruce Cannon Gibney. Looks at Baby Boomer political parties through the lense of narcissistic personality disorder.
The Colonial Empires: A Comparative Survey from the Eighteenth Century by D. K. Fieldhouse.
The Global Crisis: War, Climate Change, & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century by Geoffrey Parker. How the world fell apart in the 17th century.
Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley. A history of 1890–1960.
European History
Europe: A History by Norman Davies.
Europe’s Steppe Frontier, 1500–1800 by William McNeil. Look at the frontier in Eastern Europe.
The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 by William McNeil. How capitalism, science, and warfare worked together to allow the West’s rise to dominance.
Asian History
China: A History by John Keay. The definitive history of China.
Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary. A history of the Islamic world from an Islamic perspective.
Silk Roads: A New History of The World by Peter Frankopan. About the medieval Silk Road.
The Soul of India by Amaury de Riencourt. A look at how Indian society and history has worked.
African History
Africa in History by Basil Davidson. Definitive history of Africa.
Inside Africa by John Gunther. A 1950s journalist goes around Africa, looking at the geography, culture, politics, and history.
Sunjata. A West African medieval national heroic epic.
The Looting Machine: Warlords Tycoons, Smugglers and the Systematic Theft of Africa’s Wealth by Tom Burgis. How Africa’s elite steals its mineral wealth.
Latin America History
A History of Latin America by Hubert Herring.
Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492–1830 by J. H. Elliot. How the Spanish and British governed differently resulting in very different Latin and North Americas.
Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul by Michael Reid. A summary of modern Latin America and its politics.
Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914 by John McNeil. How European expeditions to the Caribbean would experience 80% fatality rates due to disease and the political effects.
American History
A Short History of the United States: From the Arrival of Native American Tribes to the Obama Presidency by Robert V. Remini. Intro to American history.
Ethnic America. A History by Thomas Sowell. A look at how different groups have assimilated into American culture.
The Story of the Americas: The Discovery, Settlement, and Devolopment of the New World by Leland DeWitt Baldwin. A riveting history of the colonization of the New World. It basically tries to answer why America is rich and Mexico poor.
The Nine Nations of North America by Joel Garreau. A general breakdown of today’s American cultural regions.
Human Nature
Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck. How envy has driven history and societies.
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. A bleak yet interesting look at how the human race will evolve over the next century.
Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung. A top tier look at how humans use symbols and stories for our own psychologies and as societies.
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. How overparenting resulted in the rise of radical leftism.
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. Why humans act the way they do as explained through history.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt. The science of why we believe in certain political or religious positions.
Anthropology
The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer. How to communicate across cultures.
The Tree of Culture by Ralph Linton. An amazing book about how all cultures in the world are descended from prehistoric and ancient roots.
War Before Civilization: The Myth of The Peaceful Savage by Lawrence Keeley. Tribal peoples really weren’t peaceful.
Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India, China, Tibet, Japan by Hajime Nakamura. The logic and philosophic systems of Asian societies.
Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past by David Reich. A genetic history of the ancient and prehistoric world.
Political Theory
48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene.
Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity – And Why this Harms Everybody by James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose. A top tier breakdown and explanation of social justice philosophy.
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman & Noam Chomsky.
On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis. About making complex strategic decisions.
Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul Alinsky. A left-wing guide on how to take down bourgeois society. Became a textbook for the modern Left.
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott. How states and corporations have continually tried to grow their power over history.
The Tyranny of Guilt: Essay on Western Masochism by Pascal Bruckner. How anti-racism is often a self-agrandizing backwards form of racism.
Geopolitics and Economics
After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order by Emnanuel Todd.
Asian Waters: The Struggle over the South China Sea and the Strategy of Chinese Expansion by Humphrey Hawksley. About US-Chinese rivalry, looks at culture, geography, politics etc.
Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific by Robert Kaplan. About the South China Sea crisis.
Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell. A right-wing explanation of how the economy works.
China’s Asian Dream: Empire Building along the New Silk Road by Tom Miller. Chinese influence across Asia.
Destined for War by Graham Allison. The Thucydide’s trap book.
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger.
Disintegration: Indicators of the Coming American Collapse by Andrei Martyanov.
Fool’s Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions by Diana Johnstone.
Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities by John J. Mearsheimer.
How to Make War: A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Warfare in the Twenty-First Century by James Dunnigan. An 80’s book that looks at the military systems of the time.
Losing Military Supremacy: The Myopia of American Strategic Planning by Andrei Martyanov.
On China by Henry Kissinger.
Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power by Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: A History of Now by Michael Burleigh. Summary of modern world politics.
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington. A book from the 90’s that correctly predicted the rise of intercivilizational conflict in the 21st century.
The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for its Renewal by William J. J. Burns.
The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama.
The Grand Chess Board: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives by Zbigniew Brzezinski.
The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer.
The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations by Daniel Yergin. The effect of energy and oil on global politics.
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman.
The Storm Before the Calm: America’s Discord, the Crisis of the 2020s and the Triumph Beyond by George Friedman. Predictions of the 2020s.
The Third World Century by Charles Stewart Goodwin.
The Tragedy of Great Power Politics by John J. Mearsheimer.
To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti.
War and Democracy: Selected Essays 1975–2012 by Paul Gottfried.
World Order: Reflections on the Character of Nations and the Course of History by Henry Kissinger. How different regions of the world have very different ideas of what political ideals they want.
Demographics
Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson.
The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World by Paul Morland. A demographic history of the last 200 years.
The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray. A controversial look at the migrant crisis in Europe.
