Books like

Books like The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way

12 books with a reading profile close to The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson. Outward-looking; a moderate read.

1

Curry

by Lizzie Collingham

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Lizzie Collingham traces the evolution of Indian cuisine by analyzing how centuries of migration, conquest, and trade dictated the contents of the subcontinent's kitchen.
2

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

by Thomas Cahill

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Thomas Cahill argues that during the fifth century, as Germanic tribes dismantled the Roman Empire and burned its libraries, the classical tradition survived only on the remote island of Ireland.
3

A Concise History of Greece

by Richard Clogg

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Richard Clogg examines the evolution of the Greek state from the initial stages of the national movement in the late eighteenth century through the political shifts of the early 2000s.
4

By the Sword

by Richard Cohen

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Richard Cohen chronicles the technical and cultural evolution of swordplay from ancient Egypt to the modern Olympic Games.
5

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

by Timothy Egan

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan moved beyond the deep South to establish a stronghold in the American Midwest, specifically Indiana.
6

Consider the Eel

by Richard Schweid

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Richard Schweid tracks the biological lifecycle of the eel from its mysterious breeding grounds in the Sargasso Sea to its development in the freshwater rivers of Europe and North America.
7

Aftermath

by Harald Jähner

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Harald Jähner chronicles the decade between 1945 and 1955, examining the logistical and psychological survival of Germans in a nation fractured into occupation zones.
8

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

by Sam Kean

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Sam Kean organizes the history of the world through the chemical elements, moving beyond the sterile rows of the periodic table to reveal the human chaos behind scientific discovery.
9

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

by Erik Larson

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Erik Larson reconstructs the final 1915 voyage of the luxury ocean liner Lusitania, tracking its path from New York toward the Irish coast during the early stages of World War I.
10

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11

by Garrett M. Graff

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Garrett M.
11

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

by Nathaniel Philbrick

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

In this historical account, Nathaniel Philbrick examines the fifty-year period beginning with the 1620 arrival of the Pilgrims and culminating in the devastation of King Philip’s War.
12

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

by Erik Larson

Also outward-looking · history, narrative

Erik Larson chronicles the five months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the surrender of Fort Sumter.

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