Good books but not as Useful for APWH or Retired from List

The books below are still good reads but were determined to be either:

• not as useful for APWH as other books on the topic on the list, or
• too narrow in their focus to be useful for APWH (but might be useful for APEuro or APUSH).

Some of these books used to be on the list but were either:

• superseded by other books that I found addressed the topic better
• removed because I simply got tired of reading the review, or
• taken off the list because of student lack of interest or complaints

Fiction Series that cross periods

• Until the Sun Falls and other books by Cecelia Holland including Rakossy
• Most historical books by Alison Weir like: Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey
• Katherine by Anya Seton
• Sharon Kay Penman's trilogies including When Christ and His Saints Slept; Here Be Dragons,
• Jean Plaidy's historical fiction including Victoria Victorious; Battle of the Queens
• Japanese historical mysteries by Laura Joh Rowland (set in the Tokugawa period)

Fiction

• Empress Orchid or The Last Empress: A Novel by Anchee Min

Period 6

• 1. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi. Story of a Nigerian woman who moves to the United States and then returns to Nigeria and the challenges she faces in both places.

• Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje; A book about the recent past in Sri Lanka. It concerns a young forensic anthropologist returning to the land of her birth as an investigator for a human rights organization.
• Beneath a Sky of Porphyry by Aïcha Lemsine. Describes life in an Algerian village before, during & after the war of liberation against French.
• Girl at war: a novel by Nović, Sara. Story about the war in Yugoslavia (Croatia) and the situation faced by civilians there.
  • Grain of Wheat by Ngugi W. Thiong'o; Independence struggle in Kenya against British rule during the 50s
  • God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene. 1947 strike on the Dakar-Niger railway in colonial Senegal.
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - take on the Biafra War in Nigeria
• LAST TRAIN TO ISTANBUL by Kulin, AysÌʹe. Examination of Turkey's role during WWII and how it protected its Jews.
• Munich by Robert Harris - interesting examination into the events of the Munich Conference

• Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh; Recent Indian political history especially partition and violence in Bengal.

Period 2

• The Pericles Commission by Gary Corby and other books in that series about Ancient Athens/Greece
  • Pompeii by Robert Harris. Great tale about Rome around the time of the eruption of Pompeii. His other books (e.g. Conspirata, Dictator, etc.) are also pretty good reads.
  • Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Introduction to Buddhism and life of Siddhartha (later known as the Buddha).

Period 3

• Japanese historical mysteries by I. J. Parker (set in the Heian period)
• Historical mysteries by Edward Marston set after the Norman Conquest.

Period 5

• All Souls’ Rising by Madison Smartt Bell. A very violent (and long) read on the Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804.
• Any of the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser - raunchy and racist but interesting depictions of events in the late 19th C.
• Grandfather’s Tale by Ulfat Idlibi. Follows a Dagestani family into Syria and back into the soon to be Russia.
• The Luminaries: A Novel (Man Booker Prize) by Eleanor Catton - very good read about the early days of the English colonies of New Zealand
• Paris red: a novel BY Gibbon, Maureen. Looks at the making of Manet's painting Olympia.
  • The printmaker's daughter: a novel by Govier, Katherine. Looks at the ukiyo-e artist - Hokusai and his daughter. Be sure to read the last section which examines the evidence for the fact that his daughter might be responsible for some of the works credited to him.
  • Red Earth and Pouring Rain: A Novel by Vikram Chandra. Various stories from India including 18^th and 19^th C Mogul India, but also earlier and later.
  • Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth; Exploration of the British slave trade from 1752-1765.
  • Non-Fiction

Period 6

• Barber, Benjamin. Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World, A look at globalization.
• Brown, Daniel James. The Boys in the Boat. Great narrative on the University of Washington's crew team, their coach and boat maker.
  • Harden, Blaine. Escape from Camp 14. Compelling tale of a teenager’s escape from a North Korean labor camp. UPDATE: MORE RECENT VERSION INDICATES MOST OF THIS IS FABRICATION!
• Kertzer, David. The Pope and Mussolini: the secret history of Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe. Great analysis of the factors behind the Vatican's support of Mussolini (and eventually Hitler) and the forces that kept it in place.
• Larson, Eric. Dead Wake. Compelling examination of the sinking of the Lusitania - looking at the actions taken by the Germans, Brits and Americans. (Pretty much any book by him is a good read).

• Mernissi, Fatima. Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society. Muslim women’s lives in Morocco.

• Shannon, Lisa. A Thousand Sisters: My Journey of Hope Into the Worst Place on Earth to be a Woman. If you can ignore the narrator's own story, this is a compelling read on the situation in Congo, especially for women and impact that events in Rwanda and elsewhere have had on it. Shannon's own role in it while admirable really detracts from the story.

Period 3

• Gabrieli, Francesco. Arab Historians of the Crusades. Arab sources without filters.
  • Polo, Marco, The Travels of Marco Polo. The mostly true story of Polo’s visit to Kublai Khan’s court.Rabinal Achi: A Mayan Drama of War and Sacrifice translated by Dennis Tedlock. A Mayan drama about a war between city-states and the religion of the Maya before the arrival of the Spanish.

Period 4

• Leon-Portillo, Miguel. Broken Spears. Short and plainly written account of the Aztec view of the conquest.

Period 5

• Klingaman, Nicholas. The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the volcano that darkened the world and changed history. Interesting information, but some sections become a litany of crop failures in different counties of the same country and that become a little dry.
• Meyer, Karl E. Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland. Political history of Central Asia.
• Nimura, Janice. Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back. Interesting tale of 5 Japanese girls sent to the US to learn about it and then back to Japan to share their knowledge with their countrywomen and the challenges that this presented to them personally.
• Pomeranz, Kenneth. The Great Divergence: Europe, China and the Making of the Modern World. Original and detailed perspectives on the origin of the world market and the industrial revolution.
• Preston, Diana. The Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900. Detailed examination of the role played by the various people (European and Chinese) in the Boxer Rebellion.
• Sides, Hampton. Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West. An interesting examination of the forces at work in the conquest of the American West. (The Last Gunfight is also interesting but rather narrow in its examination).
• Willis - 1688 - interesting global examination of events in one year in history
• Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters. Interesting examination of the various figures involved in the American revolution (last chapter loses steam)

Cross Era Histories (Generally focused on one region or theme)

• Curtin, Philip D. Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade. Slave trade from a non-European perspective.
• Nadeau, Jean-Benoît. The Story of Spanish (Also the Story of French) - interesting history on the development of the language across time with different influences.
• Record, Jeffrey. Beating Goliath: Why Insurgencies Win. Air Force reading list book - examines case studies.
• Tanner, Stephen. Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban. More of a focus on the early history than Ewan’s book, but more opinions at the end on US actions in Afghanistan.

World Histories

• Bernstein, William J. A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. A slightly Eurocentric examination of global trade.
• Black, Edwin. Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq’s 7,000-year History of War, Profit, and Conflict. Weak on the first 5000 years; has a strong opinion on why we are in Iraq. On the Air Force reading list on the Middle East.
• Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics by Martin Ewans. Written in 2002, looks at Afghanistan's history, leading up to events after 9/11. Also was on the Air Force reading list.
• Lewis, Bernard.What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. Controversial interpretation and survey of how Islamic civilization fell from worldwide leadership to its condition today.
• Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed the World – interesting account of coffee, linking it to many dictatorships around the world.
• Worster, Donald. The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History. Looks at history with an environmental lens.
• Pagden - Peoples and Empires
• The Man Who Loved China

• Hansen, Valerie. The Open Empire. Debunks the classic Western view of the “isolated” Chinese system by showing examples of the open border from the time of the Shang dynasty to 1600
• Pepper: A History of the World's Most Influential Spice - very interesting discussion on the importance of pepper globally