History and Current Events

Discover new releases in history and current events.

Updated October 8, 2025
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Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe
Matthew Gabriele
Paper Book
The authors of The Bright Ages return with a real-life Game of Thrones--the story of the Carolingian Civil War, a bloody, protracted battle pitting brother against brother, father against son, that would end an empire, upend a continent, and redefine the future of Europe By...
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Omar El Akkad
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 PALESTINE BOOK AWARDS * From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental...
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation
Bennett Parten
Paper Book
Considered one of "the most innovative studies of American emancipation in the Civil War" (David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass), Somewhere Toward Freedom is a groundbreaking account of Sherman's March to the Sea--the critical Civil War campaign that...
Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left
Eoin Higgins
Paper Book
 A "devastating" (Nation) examination of how a cabal of tech-billionaires is colluding with once-idealistic journalists to create an entirely new media landscape Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and...
The JFK Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Kennedy―and Why It Failed
Brad Meltzer
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR 2025 From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the...
Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America
Elie Mystal
Paper Book
In this New York Times bestseller, Elie Mystal offers a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today--an urgent yet hopeful read for our current political climate "Mystal is a grassroots...
Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
Padraic X. Scanlan
Paper Book
A "vigorous and engaging" (Fintan O'Toole, New Yorker) new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland's most infamous disaster In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen....
Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS
Lisa Rogak
Paper Book
The incredible untold story of four women who spun the web of deception that helped win World War II. Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane...
The Fifteen: Murder, Retribution, and the Forgotten Story of Nazi POWs in America
William Geroux
Paper Book
The revelatory true story of the long-forgotten POW camps for German soldiers erected in hundreds of small U.S. towns during World War II, and the secret Nazi killings that ensnared fifteen brave American POWs in a high-stakes showdown. "In the pantheon of American history, it...
Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
David Enrich
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller "Authoritarian governments abroad have long used legal threats and lawsuits against journalists to cover up their disinformation, corruption, and violence. Now, as master investigative journalist David Enrich reveals, those tactics have arrived in America." --...
The Memory Palace: True Short Stories of the Past
Nate DiMeo
Paper Book
Incredible true stories reveal strange new magic in American history in this wondrous first book from the creator of the award-winning podcast The Memory Palace. "Nate DiMeo zooms in on stories of mishap, invention and adventure. . . . These brief historical lessons read...
The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings From History
Laurence Rees
Paper Book
From an award-winning historian, a "compelling and frankly terrifying" (Telegraph) analysis of the rise of Nazi extremism, how such thinking gained popularity, and why it is vital to fight burgeoning extremist movements today How could the SS have...
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress and How to Bring It Back
Marc J. Dunkelman
Paper Book
A provocative exploration about the architecture of power, the forces that stifle us from getting things done, and how we can restore confidence in democratically elected government-"the best book to date on the biggest political issue that nobody is talking about" (Matthew Yglesias) ...
The Waiting Game: The Untold Story of the Women Who Served the Tudor Queens: A History
Nicola Clark
Paper Book
A New York TImes Book Review Editor's Pick A colorful and authoritative narrative history of the often-overlooked--yet hugely influential--figures of the Tudor court: the ladies-in-waiting. Every Tudor Queen had ladies-in-waiting. They were her...
The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America
Kostya Kennedy
Paper Book
USA Today Bestseller Timed for the 250th anniversary of one of America's most famous founding events: Paul Revere's heroic ride, newly told with fresh research into little-known aspects of the story Americans have heard since childhood but hardly understood On...
Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe
Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Paper Book
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book Real-world solutions to America's thorniest social problems--from housing to retirement to drug addiction--based on original reporting from around the world A new generation of Americans has declared that another...
The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs
Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Paper Book
"Elegantly written and magisterially researched" (Robert Service, author of A History of Modern Russia), the definitive story behind the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty, by the world's foremost expert When Tsar Nicholas II fell from power...
Freedom: Memoirs 1954 – 2021
Angela Merkel
Paper Book
The New York Times and USA Today bestseller For sixteen years, Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany and at the forefront of European and international politics. In her memoir, she looks back on her life in two German states--East Germany until 1990, and...
Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future
Alan Weisman
Paper Book
One of Heatmap's 18 Climate Books to Read in 2025 The award-winning environmental journalist's extraordinary, long-awaited portrait of hope and resilience as we face a fractured and uncertain future In this profoundly human and moving narrative, the...
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Rick Atkinson
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington's army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat. "This is great history . . ....
Abundance
Ezra Klein
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2025 "A must-read for progressives who want a blueprint for reforming government so it can deliver for working people." --Barack Obama * "A terrific book...Powerful and persuasive." --Fareed Zakaria...
Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War
Michael Vorenberg
Paper Book
One historian's journey to find the end of the Civil War-and, along the way, to expand our understanding of the nature of war itself and how societies struggle to draw the line between war and peace LOS ANGELES TIMES "TOP TEN BOOKS TO READ IN 2025" "Eye-opening,...
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Judith Giesberg
Paper Book
"[A] meticulously excavated tribute to the formerly enslaved mothers, fathers, siblings, and kin who published 'last seen' advertisements in search of loved ones stolen from them in bondage...a vital work of recovery." --Ilyon Woo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Master, Slave,...
A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis That Spurred the American Revolution
Andrew Lawler
Paper Book
From the nationally bestselling author of The Secret Token, the largely untold story of rebellion in Virginia that will forever change our understanding of the American Revolution As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events...
Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service
Michael Lewis
"Perhaps never before has there been a book better timed or more urgent." --Washington Post One of President Obama's 2025 Summer Reads As seen on CBS Mornings, CNN Anderson Cooper, ABC News Live, MSNBC Morning Joe, and many more ...
El Cid: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary
Nora Berend
Paper Book
Exploring the creation of the El Cid legend over the centuries, this masterful and evocative biography peels away the layers of myth to reveal the real-life historical figure. El Cid was perhaps the most famous warrior involved in the indiscriminate fighting--irrespective of...
Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children
Noliwe Rooks
Paper Book
A powerful, incisive reckoning with the impacts of school desegregation that traces four generations of the author's family to show how the implementation of integration decimated Black school systems and did much of the Black community a disservice "Rooks deftly sketches this...
All the President's Money: Investigating the Secret Foreign Schemes That Made the Biden Family Rich
James Comer
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Joe Biden made less than $200,000 a year for most of his life, but as soon as he left office, he bought his second multimillion-dollar mansion. In All the President's Money, Congressman James Comer takes readers on a captivating journey...
Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn
Christopher Cox
Paper Book
An "assiduously researched" (The Wall Street Journal), "powerful...dispassionate new biography" (The Christian Science Monitor) of Woodrow Wilson, focused on his role in the long national struggle for racial equality and women's voting rights. More than a century...
Secret History of the Five Eyes
Richard Kerbaj
Paper Book
This is the definitive account of the Western world's most powerful--but least known--intelligence alliance, which remains central to the defense of the free world in a dangerously uncertain time. The Five Eyes--a spy network between the intelligence agencies of the...
The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice
Simon Parkin
Paper Book
Named a Best Book of the Year by Scientific American and The Economist The riveting, untold true story of the botanists at the world's first seed bank who made "the mad, heroic decision during the siege of Leningrad to guard biodiversity at the cost of human life...
Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America
Kevin D. Roberts
Paper Book
With a Foreword by J.D. Vance Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts outlines a peaceful "Second American Revolution" for voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people. America is on the brink of destruction. A corrupt and incompetent elite...
Presidents at War: How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK through Reagan and Bush
Steven M. Gillon
Paper Book
World War II loomed over the twentieth century, transforming every level of American society and international politics and searing itself onto the psyche of an entire generation, including that of six American presidents: John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon,...
The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and Their Century-Long Mission to Infiltrate the West
Shaun Walker
Paper Book
The definitive history of Russia's most secret spy program, from the earliest days of the Soviet Union to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and a revelatory examination of how that hidden history shaped both Russia and the West. More than a century ago, the new Bolshevik government...
The Crossing: El Paso, the Southwest, and America's Forgotten Origin Story
Richard Parker
Paper Book
A radical work of history that re-centers the American story around El Paso, Texas, gateway between north and south, center of indigenous power and resistance, locus of European colonization of North America, centuries-long hub of immigration, and underappreciated modern blueprint...
Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare
John Lechner
Paper Book
"Extraordinary."-CHRIS MILLER, author of Chip War "Incredible."-ANNIE JACOBSEN, author of Nuclear War, via X From John Lechner, "an amazingly bold reporter" (Adam Hochschild), the shocking inside story of how the Wagner Group made...
The Rebel Empresses
Nancy Goldstone
Paper Book
From the acclaimed author of In the Shadow of the Empress comes the thrilling, "richly detailed, entertaining" chronicle of two of the most influential and glamorous women in nineteenth-century Europe--Elisabeth, empress of Austria, and Eugénie, empress of France--and their efforts to rule...
Paris Undercover: A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal
Matthew Goodman
Paper Book
Two women in Nazi-occupied Paris created a daring escape line that rescued dozens of Allied servicemen. With one still in a German prison camp, the other wrote a book about it-a memoir built on fabrications. Now the bestselling author of Eighty Days shares their incredible, never-before...
The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine
Alexander Vindman
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller  A chilling analysis of how Western indecision and apathy made possible the return of brutal Russian expansionism with catastrophic consequences - "A must-read for anyone who wants to understand what went...
A Certain Idea of America: Selected Writings
Peggy Noonan
Paper Book
For a quarter century, Peggy Noonan has been thinking aloud about America in her much-loved Wall Street Journal column. In this new collection of her essential recent work, Noonan demonstrates the erudition, wisdom and humor that have made her one of America's most admired writers. She calls balls...
Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents
Nigel Hamilton
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 GILDER LEHRMAN LINCOLN PRIZE From the New York Times bestselling presidential biographer comes the greatest untold story of the Civil War: how two American presidents faced off as the fate of the nation hung in the balance-...
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning
Peter Beinart
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A bold, urgent appeal from the acclaimed columnist and political commentator, addressing one of the most important issues of our time "At this painful moment, Peter Beinart's voice is more vital than ever. His reach is broad--from the tragedy of...
Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash
Alexander Clapp
Paper Book
A globe-trotting work of relentless investigative reporting, this is the first major book to expose the catastrophic reality of the multi-billion-dollar global garbage trade.                            ...

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