Books like

Books like Seabiscuit

12 books with a reading profile close to Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand. Outward-looking and clear-cut; a moderate read.

1

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Simon Winchester

Also clear-cut · history, biography

In 1879, James Murray began the monumental task of compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary, a project requiring the categorization of every word in the language alongside its chronological history.
2

Alexander the Great

by Philip Freeman

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, biography

Philip Freeman traces the trajectory of the Macedonian king from his tutelage under Aristotle to his sudden death at age thirty-two.
3

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

by Candice Millard

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, biography

Following a stinging electoral defeat in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt headed into the Amazon basin to map an unchartered tributary alongside Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon.
4

The Wright Brothers

by David McCullough

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, biography

David McCullough recounts the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright, focusing on the five-year period between 1903 and 1908.
5

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

by Erik Larson

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, biography

Erik Larson chronicles Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister, focusing on the period from May 1940 to May 1941 during the height of the German Blitz.
6

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

by Dava Sobel

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, biography

Dava Sobel chronicles the eighteenth-century race to determine a ship's east-west position at sea, a challenge that caused frequent shipwrecks and stunted global trade.
7

AMERICAN STRUGGLE

by Jon Meacham

Also outward-looking · history, biography

Jon Meacham analyzes four centuries of American political and social friction to explain how structural divisions have repeatedly threatened national stability.
8

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune

by Bill Dedman

Also clear-cut · history, biography

Huguette Clark was the daughter of copper magnate W.A.
9

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

by Ross King

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, biography

Ross King reconstructs the four-year ordeal of painting the Sistine Chapel, focusing on the volatile relationship between Michelangelo Buonarroti and Pope Julius II.
10

The Bookseller of Kabul

by Åsne Seierstad

Also outward-looking and clear-cut · history, narrative

Following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad lived with the family of Sultan Khan, a bookseller in Kabul who risked imprisonment to preserve Afghan literature.
11

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

by Candice Millard

Also outward-looking · history, biography

Candice Millard recounts the 1881 assassination of James A.
12

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

by Tracy Kidder

history, biography

Tracy Kidder follows the life and medical philosophy of Dr.

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