The Ten Best History Books of 2020

by Smithsonian Magazine

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10 books

In a year marked by a devastating pandemic, a vitriolic presidential race and an ongoing reckoning with systemic racism in the United States, these ten titles served a dual purpose. From an irreverent biography of George Washington to a sweeping overview of 20th-century American immigration, these were some of our favorite history books of 2020.

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See the source list and commentary at www.smithsonianmag.com

Caste

The Origins of Our Discontents

Isabel Wilkerson, 2020

The Great Secret: The Classified World War II Disaster that Launched the War on Cancer

Jennet Conant, 2020

Uncrowned Queen

The Life of Margaret Beaufort, Mother of the Tudors

Nicola Tallis, 2020

You Never Forget Your First

A Biography of George Washington

Alexis Coe, 2021

Veritas

A Harvard Professor, a Con Man and the Gospel of Jesus's Wife

Ariel Sabar, 2020

The Other Madisons

The Lost History of a President's Black Family

Bettye Kearse, 2020

The Three-Cornered War

The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West

Megan Kate Nelson, 2020

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965

Jia Lynn Yang, 2020

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

Les Payne, Tamara Payne, 2020

The Zealot and the Emancipator

John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom

H. W. Brands, 2020