Compilation: Twenty Outstanding History Books

I have a master's degree in history. My favorite focus is Victorian British history, but I also have studied some American history. When I began to compile this list, I was overwhelmed. I apparently read a lot of non-fiction history books. Thus, I limited this list to outstanding titles, primarily read in the past five years, but a half dozen from further back in my blog. Some of my favorite historical authors include Daniel James Brown, Candice Millard, and Erik Larson. Here are twenty that stand above the rest (and I'm sure I'm leaving out a few because I couldn't take the time to skim all the history reads on this blog):

1. Forty Autumns by Nina Willner - Berlin Wall story
2. The Lost Airman by Seth Meyerowitz - Nazi occupied France
3. A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Joseph Loconte - WWI, Lewis & Tolkien
4. The Wager by David Grann - a British shipwreck
5. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore - US history
6. One Summer by Bill Bryson - America 1927
7. The Greater Journey by David McCullough - Americans in Paris
8. Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown - US in WWII
9. The River of Doubt by Candice Millard - Theodore Roosevelt
10. The Library Book by Susan Orlean - LA library fire of 1986
11. Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard - US president
12. The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale - Victorian London
13. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson - Winston Churchill in the Blitz
14. The Five by Hallie Rubenhold - Jack the Ripper victims
15. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown - 1936 Olympic rowing team
16. Dead Wake by Erik Larson - the sinking of the Lusitania
17. Under a Flaming Sky by Daniel James Brown - a Minnesota fire of 1894
18. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson - WWII Berlin
19. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand - WWII
20. Thunderstruck by Erik Larson - advancement of wireless communication