The Ten Best History Books of 2024

by Smithsonian Magazine

|

11 books

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and examine how the United States ended up where it is today.

Read more... Read less...

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

Wide Awake

The Forgotten Force That Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War

Jon Grinspan, 2024

The Missing Thread

A Women's History of the Ancient World

Daisy Dunn, 2024

No Road Leading Back

An Improbable Escape from the Nazis and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust

Chris Heath, 2024

Eden Undone

A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II

Abbott Kahler, 2024

We Refuse

A Forceful History of Black Resistance

Kellie Carter Jackson, 2024

Night Flyer

Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People

Tiya Miles, 2024

Silk

A World History

Aarathi Prasad, 2024

The Lost Queen

The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza—the Forgotten Queen Who Bridged Two Worlds

Sophie Shorland, 2024

The Playbook

A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War

James Shapiro, 2024

The Wide Wide Sea

Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

Hampton Sides, 2024

The Barn

The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

Wright Thompson, 2024