These nonfiction history books – covering a wide variety of topics and time periods – are well-researched and page-turning true stories published in the last few years. This list was created by a Librarian at The Seattle Public Library. Annotations from NoveList, unless otherwise attributed. (December 2024)
Smoke and Ashes
The author … charts the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China - and on contemporary globalism itself, revealing the role one small plant had in making our world, now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Smoke and Ashes
Witchcraft
A fascinating, vivid global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate the pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history.
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
View Witchcraft
Book and Dagger
This untold story of the academics who became OSS spies and invented modern spycraft tells how they were able to change the course of World War II and help defeat the Nazis.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Book and Dagger
The Wager
In this tale of shipwreck, survival and savagery, the author of Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events on The Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740 on a secret mission, resulting in a court martial that revealed a shocking truth.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Wager
Normal Women
Drawing on an enormous archive of primary and secondary sources to rewrite history, and focusing on the agency, persistence and effectiveness of everyday women throughout periods of social and cultural transition, historical novelist Philippa Gregory redefines "normal" female behavior to include heroism, rebellion, crime, treason, money-making and sainthood.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Normal Women
The 1619 Project
An illustrated edition of The 1619 Project, with newly commissioned artwork and archival images, The New York Times Magazine's award-winning reframing of the American founding and its contemporary echoes, placing slavery and resistance at the center of the American story. (Publisher’s description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The 1619 Project
Empires of the Steppes
A narrative history of how Attila, Genghis Khan, and the so-called barbarians of the Steppes shaped world civilization. (Publisher’s description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Empires of the Steppes
Black AF History
The acclaimed columnist and political commentator presents a sharp and often hilarious retelling of American history that focuses on the overlooked contribution of Black Americans and corrects the idea that American history is white history.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View Black AF History
An Amerikan Family
A history of the rise and lasting impact of Black liberation groups in America, as seen through the Shakurs, one of the movement's most prominent and fiercely creative families, home to Tupac and Assata, and a powerful incubator for today's activism, scholarship, and artistry.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View An Amerikan Family
The Infernal Machine
Johnson’s engrossing account of the epic struggle between the anarchist movement and the emerging surveillance state stretches around the world and between two centuries - from Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite and the assassination of Czar Alexander II to New York City in the shadow of World War I. (Publisher’s description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
View The Infernal Machine