Books like SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
12 books with a reading profile close to SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. Deep, outward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.
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1
The Guns of August
Also deep and outward-looking · history, analytical
Barbara Tuchman chronicles the opening month of World War I, tracing the rigid military planning and diplomatic failures that led to a global stalemate.
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2
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
Also deep and outward-looking · history, analytical
Adam Hochschild details the private seizure of the Congo River basin by King Leopold II of Belgium and the subsequent industrial exploitation of the region.
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3
The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Also outward-looking and contemplative · history, analytical
Michael Pollan argues that plants manipulate human cravings to ensure their own evolutionary success.
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4
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
The 1619 Project argues that the arrival of the White Lion privateer in the Virginia colony, carrying enslaved Africans, represents the foundational moment of the United States.
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5
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties
by Tom O'Neill
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
Tom O’Neill spent twenty years investigating the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, uncovering discrepancies in the official prosecution narrative established by Vincent Bugliosi.
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6
Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
Lawrence Wright investigates the internal mechanics of the Church of Scientology, tracing its evolution from L.
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7
The Right Stuff
by Tom Wolfe
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
In 1959, the United States selected seven military test pilots to become the first astronauts for Project Mercury.
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8
Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
by Sheri Fink
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
Sheri Fink documents the medical crisis at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans during the five days following Hurricane Katrina.
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9
All the President’s Men
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
In 1972, a botched burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex triggered an investigation by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
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10
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
John M.
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11
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
Adam Higginbotham reconstructs the events leading up to the 1986 explosion of Reactor Number Four at the V.I.
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12
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Also outward-looking · history, analytical
Kristin Kobes Du Mez traces the seventy-year evolution of American evangelicalism from a religious movement focused on internal piety into a political force defined by militant patriarchy.
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