IBHistory Year 2 Optional Summer Reading List
Russia - Soviet Union
Fleming, Candice. The Family Romanov: murder, rebellion and the fall of
Conquest, Robert. Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet collectivization and the terror
Rappaport, Helen. Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917- a
Mieville, China. October: the story of the Russian Revolution
Overy, Richard. Russia’s War: a history of the Soviet War effort 1941-1945
Yevtushenko, Yevgeny. Fatal Half Measures: the culture of democracy in the
Walker, Martin. Waking Giant: Gorbachev’s Russia
Massie, Robert. The Romanovs: the final chapter
Tumarkin, Nina: Lenin Lives: the Lenin cult in Soviet Russia
Beevor, Antony. Stalingrad: the fateful siege 1942-1943
World War I
Clark, Christopher. The Sleepwalkers: how Europe went to war in 1914
Thomas, Louisa. Conscience: two soldiers, two pacifists, one family - a
Cobbs, Elizabeth. The Hello Girls: America’s first women soldiers
Civil War
Preston, Paul. The Spanish Civil War: reaction, revolution, & revenge
Dunlop, Nic. The Lost Executioner: a journey to the heart of the Killing Fields
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier.
Hochschild, Adam. Spain in our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil
Aronson, Marc and Marina Budhos. Eyes of the World: Robert Capa, Gerda
Taro, and the invention of modern photojournalism
Rhodes, Richard. Hell and Good Company: the Spanish Civil War and the
Fisher, Harry. Comrades: tales of a brigadista in the Spanish Civil War
Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain: the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
Vulliamy, Ed. Seasons in Hell: understanding Bosnia’s war
Deac, Wilfred. Road to the Killing Fields: the Cambodian War of 1970-1975
China
Platt, Stephen. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the west and the epic story
Chang, Jung. Empress Dowager CIXI: the concubine who launched modern China
Kurtz-Phelan, Daniel. The China Mission: George Marshall’s unfinished war 1945-1947
Spence, Jonathan. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: the Chinese and their revolution
Cheng, Nien. Life and Death in Shanghai
Lin, Jennifer. Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian
Mitter, Rana. Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II 1937-1954
Bouc, Alain. Mao Tse-Tung: a guide to his thought
Eastman, Lloyd. Seeds of Destruction: nationalist China in war & revolution
Vietnam
Partridge, Elizabeth. Boots on the Ground: America’s war in Vietnam
Sweet, Matthew. Operation Chaos: the Vietnam deserters who fought
Nguyen, Viet Than. Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the memory of war
Wells, Tom. The Battle Within: America’s battle over Vietnam
World War II
Overy, Richard. Why the Allies Won
Buruma, Ian: The Wages of Guilt: memories of war in Germany & Japan
Overy, Richard. The Bombers & the Bombed: Allied air war over Europe 1940-1945
Harris, Mark. Five Came Back: a story of Hollywood and the second World
Freeman, Sally M. The Jersey Brothers
Mulley, Clare. The Women who Flew for Hitler: a true story of soaring
Burma, Ian. Year Zero: a History of 1945
Saraiva, Tiago. Fascist Pigs: technoscientific organisms and the history
Kaiser, Charles. The Cost of Courage
Wyden, Peter. Day One: before Hiroshima and after
Marrin, Albert. The Secret Armies: spies, counter spies, and saboteurs in
Schneer, Jonathan. Ministers at War: Winston Churchill & his war cabinet
Olson, Lynne. Those Angry Days: Roosevelt, Lindbergh, & America’s fight over WW II
Olason, Lynne. Last Hope Island: Britain, occupied Europe, and the brotherhood that
Dimbleby, Jonathan. The Battle of the Atlantic: how the allies won the war
Roberts, Andrew. The Storm of War: a new history of the second world war
Cold War
Grandin, Greg & Gilbert Joseph, eds. A Century of Revolution: insurgent & counter-
Insurgent violence during Latin America’s long Cold War
Walsh, Daniel. An Air War With Cuba: the United States radio campaign against Castro
Mikoyan, Sergo. The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis: Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy,
Gelb, Norman. The Berlin Wall: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and a showdown in the
Heart of Europe (out of print but used copies on Amazon)
Doherty, Thomas. Cold War Cool Medium: television, McCarthyism, and
Dudziak, Mary. Cold War, Civil Rights. Race and the image of American
Kennedy, Robert. Thirteen Days: a memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Rice, Gerard. The Bold Experiment: Jfk's Peace Corps
Budiansky, Stephen. Code Warriors: NSA’s codebreakers and the secret
Intelligence war against the Soviet Union
Cha, Victor. Powerplay: the origins of the American alliance system
Reed, W. Craig. Red November: inside the secret U.S.-Soviet submarine
Moran, Barbara. The Day we Lost the H-Bomb
Hoffman, David. The Dead Hand: the untold story of the Cold War arms
Fursenko, Aleksandr and Timothy Naftali. One Hell of a Gamble: the secret history
Biographies / Memoirs
Sebestyen, Victor. Lenin: the man. The dictator, & the master of terror
Kotkin, Stephen. Stalin: waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941
Payne, Stanley. Franco and Hitler: Spain, Germany, and WW II
Herman, Arthur. Joseph McCarthy: reexamining the life & legacy of America’s
Nordholt, Jan W. Woodrow Wilson: a life for world peace
Nash, George. The Life of Herbert Hoover: the humanitarian 1914-1917
Ricks, Thomas. Churchill & Orwell: the fight for freedom
Ellsberg, Daniel. The Doomsday Machine: confessions of a nuclear war
Ullrich, Volker. Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939
Maathai, Wangari. Unbowed: a memoir (Kenya)
Talty, Stephan. Escape from the land of the Snows: the young Dalai Lama’s
Harrowing flight to freedom & the making of a spiritual hero
Lagnado, Lucette, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: my family’s exodus
From old Cairo to the New World
Ambinder, Marc. The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare
Farrell, John. Richard Nixon.
Smith, Gene. Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: the life of General of the Armies
Clary, David. Rocket Man: Robert H. Goddard & the birth of the Space Age
Ishikawa, Masaji. A River in Darkness: one man’s escape from North Korea
Weber, Thomas. Becoming Hitler: the making of a Nazi
Ricks, Thomas. Churchill & Orwell: the fight for freedom
Anderson, M.T. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostaovich and
Goldsmith, Martin. The Inextinguishable Symphony: a true story of love in
Duffy, Michael. From Chicago to Vietnam: a memoir of war
Cliff, Nigel. Moscow Nights: the Van Cliburn story- how one man and his
Piano transformed the Cold War
Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: an olympian’s journey from airman to
Manchester, William. Goodbye Darkness: a memoir of the Pacific war
Orwell, George. Homage to Catalonia
Stout, Nancy. One Day in December: Celia Sanchez and the Cuban
Thompson, Nicholas. The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and
Fuentes, Norberto. The Autobiography of Fidel Castro
Taubman, William. Gorbachev: his life and times
Fuentes, Norberto. Hemingway in Cuba
Eichinger, Eric. The Final Race: the incredible WW II story of the Olympian who
Miscellanea
Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble: how the United Nations has fueled global
Karpin, Michael. The Bomb in the Basement: how Israel went nuclear and
Rydell, Anders. The Book Thieves: the Nazi looting of Europe’s libraries
And the race to return a literary inheritance
Socolow, Michael. Six Minutes in Berlin: broadcast spectacle and rowing
Trumpi, Fritz. The Political Orchestra: the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics during the
Meyer, Michael. The Year that Changed the World: the untold story behind the fall
Reeves, Richard. Infamy: the shocking story of the Japanese American Internment
Bascomb, Neal. The Winter Fortress: the epic mission to sabotage Hitler’s atomic
Carpenter, John. Wall, Watchtower, and Pencil Stub: writing during World War II
Sides, Hampton. Ghost Soldiers: the forgotten epic story of WWII’s most dramatic
Larson, Eric. In the Garden of the Beasts: love, terror, and an American family in
Manning, Molly. When Books Went to War: the stories that helped us win WW II
McElvaine, Robert. The Great Depression: America 1929-1941
Stargardt, Nicholas. Witnesses of War: children’s lives under the Nazis
Grose, Peter. A Good Place to Hide: how one French community saved thousands
Martin, Benjamin. The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture
Rose, Sarah. For all the Tea in China: how England stole the world’s favorite