“What are the best History books released in 2020?” We looked at 194 of the top History books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 27 books, all appearing on 2 or more “Best History” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 150+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2020 Articles:

• The Best Art, Photography, And Coffee Table Books
• The Best AudioBooks
• The Best Biography And Memoir Books
• The Best Graphic Novels And Comics
• The Best Cookbooks
• The Best Fiction Books
• The Best Books (All Categories)
• The Best History Books
• The Best Kids, Children, and Youth Books
• The Best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller Books
• The Best Nonfiction Books
• The Best Poetry Books
• The Best Science And Nature Books
• The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
• The Best Young Adult Books

Previous Years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

All titles have been added to a Bookshop list as well!

Happy Scrolling!

Top 27 Best History Books From 2020

27.) A Curious History of Sex written byKate Lister

Lists It Appears On:

• Book Authority
• The Times

This is not a comprehensive study of every sexual quirk, kink and ritual across all cultures throughout time, as that would entail writing an encyclopaedia. Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless. The act of

26.) A Promised Land written byBarack Obama

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• NPR

A riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making–from the president who inspired us to believe in the power of democracy In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his

25.) A World Beneath the Sands: Adventurers and Archaeologists in the Golden Age of Egyptology written byToby Wilkinson

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Times

From the decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon a hundred years later, the uncovering of Egypt’s ancient past took place in an atmosphere of grand adventure and international rivalry.In A World Beneath the Sands, acclaimed Egy

24.) Agent Sonya: Moscow’s Most Daring Wartime Spy written byBen Macintyre

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• Barnes & Noble

The “master storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) behind the New York Times bestseller The Spy and the Traitor uncovers the true story behind the Cold War’s most intrepid female spy. In 1942, in a quiet village in the leafy English Cotswolds, a thin, elegant woman lived in a small cottage with her

23.) Black SpartacusThe Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture written bySudhir Hazareesingh

Lists It Appears On:

• The Times
• Book Authority

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize “Black Spartacus is a tour de force: by far the most complete, authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are likely to have for a long time . . . An extraordinarily gripping read.” –David A. Bell, The Guardian A new interpretation of the l

22.) Britain’s War: A New World, 1942-1947 written byDaniel Todman

Lists It Appears On:

• The Telegraph
• Financial Times

The second volume of Daniel Todman’s account of Great Britain and World War II The second of Daniel Todman’s two sweeping volumes on Great Britain and World War II, Britain’s War: A New World, 1942-1947, begins with the event Winston Churchill called the “worst disaster” in British military history:

21.) Crucible of Hell: Okinawa, the Last Great Battle of the Second World War written bySaul David

Lists It Appears On:

• The Telegraph
• The Times

With Allied forces sweeping across Europe and into Germany in the spring of 1945, one enormous challenge threatened to derail America’s audacious drive to win the world back from the Nazis

20.) Eat The Buddha: Life And Death In A Tibetan Town written byBarbara Demick

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• NPR

A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the bestselling author of Nothing to Envy. “You simply cannot understand China without reading Barbara Demick on Tibet.”–Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition Just as she did with North Korea, award-winning journalist Ba

19.) Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain written byPen Vogler

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Times

18.) Sicily ’43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe written byJames Holland

Lists It Appears On:

• The Wall Street Journal
• The Times

On July 10, 1943, the largest amphibious invasion ever mounted took place, larger even than the Normandy invasion eleven months later: 160,000 American, British, and Canadian troops came ashore or were parachuted onto Sicily, signaling the start of the campaign to defeat Nazi Germany on European soi

17.) The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story written byKate Summerscale

Lists It Appears On:

• The Telegraph
• The Times

Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford prize Internationally bestselling and Edgar Award-winning author Kate Summerscale follows a ghost hunter in 1938 London in a case that illuminates changing social attitudes toward psychoanalysis, sexuality, and the supernatural London, 1938. In the suburbs of

16.) The Last Assassin: The Hunt for the Killers of Julius Caesar written byPeter Stothard

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Times

Many men killed Julius Caesar. Only one man was determined to kill the killers. From the spring of 44 BC through one of the most dramatic and influential periods in history, Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, exacted vengeance on the assassins of the Ides of March, not only

15.) The Ratline written byPhilippe Sands

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Telegraph

Hypnotic, shocking, and unputdownable. –John le Carr From the author of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning East West Street: A tale of Nazi lives, mass murder, love, cold war espionage, a mysterious death in the Vatican–and the Ratline, the Nazi escape route to Peron’s Argentina. Baron O

14.) The White Ship written byCharles Spencer

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Telegraph

13.) War written byProfessor Margaret MacMillan

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Wall Street Journal

The instinct to fight may be innate in human nature, but war–organized violence–comes with organized society. War has shaped humanity’s history, its social and political institutions, its values and ideas. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, and some of our greatest cultura

12.) Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country written bySierra Crane Murdoch

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• NPR

The gripping true story of a murder on an Indian reservation, and the unforgettable Arikara woman who becomes obsessed with solving it–an urgent work of literary journalism. “I don’t know a more complicated, original protagonist in literature than Lissa Yellow Bird, or a more dogged reporter in Ame

11.) A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain 1874-2018 written byPaul Preston

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Telegraph
• Financial Times

The culmination of a half-century of historical investigation, A People Betrayed is not only a definitive history of modern Spain but also a compelling narrative that becomes a lens for understanding the challenges that virtually all democracies have faced in the modern world.Whereas so many twentie

10.) Britain at BayThe Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941 written byAlan Allport

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Times
• Book Authority

A sweeping, groundbreaking epic that combines military with social history, to illuminate the ways in which Great Britain and its people were permanently transformed by the Second World War. Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the m

9.) Gladius: Living Fighting and Dying in the Roman Army written byGuy de la Bédoyère

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Telegraph
• The Times

The Roman army was the greatest fighting machine in the ancient world. More than that, it was the single largest organization in Western antiquity, taking in members from all classes, from senators to freed slaves. The Roman Empire depended on its army not just to win its wars, defend its frontiers,

8.) His Truth Is Marching on: John Lewis and the Power of Hope written byJon Meacham

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• Goodreads
• Amazon

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present–from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America John Lewis, who a

7.) Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980 written byRick Perlstein

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• Amazon
• The Times

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 From the bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge comes the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power. Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of co

6.) The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X written byLes Payne

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• NPR
• Smithsonian

Finalist — National Book Award for Nonfiction – Excerpted in The New Yorker – Longlisted — Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction – New Books to Watch Out for in October — New York Times – Best Books of Fall 2020 — O, the Oprah Magazine, The Week, St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Best New B

5.) The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power written byMartyn Rady

Lists It Appears On:

• The Telegraph
• The Times
• Book Authority

The definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries — from their rise to power to their eventual downfall. In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built — and then lost — over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the

4.) The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom written byH. W. Brands

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• Amazon
• Smithsonian

Gifted storyteller and bestselling historian H. W. Brands narrates the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln–two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin. John Brown was a charismatic and deeply religious man who heard the God of

3.) You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington written byAlexis Coe

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• NPR
• Smithsonian

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “In her form-shattering and myth-crushing book….Coe examines myths with mirth, and writes history with humor… [You Never Forget Your First] is an accessible look at a president who always finishes in the first ranks of our leaders.” –Boston Globe Alexis Coe

2.) Caste written byIsabel Wilkerson

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble
• Amazon
• Goodreads
• NPR
• Smithsonian

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK – LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD – “An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.”–Dwight Garner, The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The W

1.) The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz written byErik Larson

Lists It Appears On:

• The Wall Street Journal
• Barnes & Noble
• Goodreads
• Amazon
• NPR

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz–an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis One of Chicago Tribune’s Best Books of the Year So

The 150+ Additional Best History Books Released In 2020

11 Best History Book Sources/Lists