18 books like The Secret History of the World

What to read after The Secret History of the World — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The decline and fall of practically everybody Will Cuppy · 1950 · ★ 3.2 · 240p · ≈ 8h · Moderate Why do unfortunates suffer from Montezuma's revenge? Just what was so Great about Peter, Catherine, Frederick and Alexander? What did Cleopatra see to admire in the fat man with a beard - Mark Anthony? Learn all this and more in Will Cuppy's humorous romp through the great names of world history. Shares: World history, History

The Age of Capital Eric Hobsbawm · 1975 · ★ 4.3 · 393p · ≈ 13h · Moderate The Age of Capital: 1848–1875 is a book by Eric Hobsbawm, first published in 1975. It is the second in a trilogy of books about "the long 19th century" (coined by Hobsbawm), preceded by The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 and followed by The Age of Empire: 1875–1914. A fourth book, The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991, acts as a sequel to the trilogy. (from Wikipedia) Shares: World history, History

The Innocents Abroad Mark Twain · 1800 · ★ 4.4 · 690p · ≈ 23h · Demanding Twain's letters about his steamship voyage of 1867. Shares: World history, History

Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari · 2011 · ★ 4.3 · 456p · ≈ 15h · Moderate From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What… Shares: World history, History

Apologie pour l'histoire ou Métier d'historien Marc Bloch · 1949 · ★ 4.1 · 179p · ≈ 5h · Challenging Apologie pour l'histoire ou Métier d'historien est un essai de Marc Bloch rédigé entre la fin de 1940 et les premiers mois de 1943. Inachevé, il est publié de manière posthume en 1949, à l’initiative de Lucien Febvre. Marc Bloch s'interroge sur ce qu'est l’histoire, et plus particulièrement sur le rôle et les méthodes de l’historien dans la construction de cette science. Shares: World history, History

Clockwork Angel Cassandra Clare · 2010 · ★ 4.3 · 489p · ≈ 16h · Moderate When Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother in Victorian England, something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld. Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark sisters, who are members of a secret organization called the Pandemonium club, Tessa soon learns that she has the power to transform into another person. The Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the club, will stop at nothing… Shares: Secret societies, History

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth Andrew Joseph White · 2023 · ★ 4.5 · 400p · ≈ 13h · Moderate London, 1883. Der sechzehnjährige Silas Bell ist trans und würde sich lieber seine violetten Augen ausreißen, als eine gehorsame Speaker-Ehefrau zu werden. Doch es spielt keine Rolle, dass er ein Junge ist und nicht das Mädchen, das die Welt unbedingt in ihm sehen will. Nach einem gescheiterten Versuch, einer arrangierten Ehe zu entkommen, wird bei Silas die Schleierkrankheit diagnostiziert –… Shares: Secret societies, History

The Third Circle:(Arcane Society, #4) Jayne Ann Krentz · 2008 · ★ 4.0 · 350p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Called "supremely addictive" by Booklist, the Arcane Society novels, written under both the Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz names, have pulled readers into a saga filled with steamy romance, drama, and dark intrigue. Her newest novel promises to mesmerize as well. Leona Hewitt, disguised in men's formal evening clothes, has secretly made her way into Lord Delbridge's private museum to retrieve… Shares: Secret societies, History

Dead Men's Money Joseph Smith Fletcher · 1920 · ★ 3.7 · 212p · ≈ 7h · Challenging A mysterious one-eyed stranger, a midnight meeting at a lonely spot on the Scottish border, the secret password "Panama", and a corpse This is the situation Hugh Moneylaws, a young law clerk finds himself facing. Who murdered the man he was sent to meet, and why? With the only two men who knew the purpose of the meeting dead, it would seem a puzzle that would never be solved. Yet to save himself… Shares: History

The Lady of the Rivers Philippa Gregory · 2011 · ★ 4.0 The Lady of the Rivers tells the story of Jacquetta, daughter of the Count of Luxembourg, and kinswoman to half the royalty of Europe, who was married to the great Englishman John, Duke of Bedford, uncle to Henry VI. Widowed at the age of nineteen she took the extraordinary risk of marrying a gentleman of her house­hold for love, and then carved out a life for herself as Queen Margaret of Anjou's… Shares: History

The Awful Secret Bernard Knight · 2006 · 356p · ≈ 11h · Moderate Shares: History

American Icon Bryce G. Hoffman · 2012 · ★ 4.5 · 363p · ≈ 12h · Moderate At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was just months away from running out of cash. With the auto industry careening toward ruin, Congress offered all three Detroit automakers a bailout. General Motors and Chrysler grabbed the lifeline, but Ford decided to save itself. Under the leadership of charismatic CEO Alan Mulally, the man who had saved Boeing, Ford had put together a bold plan to unify… Shares: History

Tower of Basel Adam LeBor · 2013 · ★ 4.2 · 323p · ≈ 10h · Moderate An investigative history of the Bank for International Settlements, the central bankers' own bank. Shares: History

Torches Together Emmy Arnold · 1964 · 220p · ≈ 7h · Moderate Not many people talk about "joy" these days. Emmy Arnold's memoir radiates just that - an enthusiasm for life and an unflagging optimism grounded in faith. In a genre awash in sordid sex and dysfunctional relationships, she offers a refreshing account of a hard life lived victoriously, of people brought together, despite their own weakness and turbulent times, to experience new levels of freedom,… Shares: History

Pan Michael An historical novel Henryk Sienkiewicz · 1893 · ★ 4.2 · 542p · ≈ 18h · Challenging The third and final book of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy takes a closer and more intimate look at one of the series’ protagonists: Pan Michael Volodyovski. The Polish Commonwealth has been through intense periods of war, and the peace that follows leaves one of its greatest heroes, Pan Michael, finally free to marry his beloved Panna Anusia. But in a twist of fate, she falls ill and dies, leaving… Shares: History

St. George and St. Michael George MacDonald · 1876 · 450p · ≈ 15h · Challenging It was the middle of autumn, and had rained all day. Through the lozenge-panes of the wide oriel window the world appeared in the slowly gathering dusk not a little dismal. The drops that clung trickling to the dim glass added rain and gloom to the landscape beyond, whither the eye passed, as if vaguely seeking that help in the distance, which the dripping hollyhocks and sodden sunflowers… Shares: History

Marmion Sir Walter Scott · 1800 · 295p · ≈ 9h · Challenging It is a poetry book. Sir Walter Scott’s love of the country induced him, after his marriage in 1797, to settle in a cottage at the pretty village of Lasswade, near Edinburgh. Four years after leaving this district he took Mr. Morritt of Rokeby to see the little dwelling, telling him that, though not worth looking at, ‘it was our first house when newly married, and many a contrivance it had to… Shares: History

Psychology John B. Watson · 1913 · 450p · ≈ 15h · Challenging While this volume is written as a series of lectures and in a somewhat free and easy style, every effort has been made to present facts in unmutilated form and to state theoretical positions with accuracy. In approaching subjective psychology for the first time, the reader meets with one great difficulty. He comes in from the world of things-a world which he can manipulate, hold up, examine and… Shares: History

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