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Recommendations based on Goodbye to All Thatby Robert Graves
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Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph
by T.E. Lawrence
A first-hand account of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during WWI.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an unusual and rich work. It encompasses an account of the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War alongside general Middle Eastern and military history, ... (Goodreads)
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
Tracing the origins of human civilizations through the lens of geography, technology, and biology.
"Diamond has written a book of remarkable scope ... one of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years." Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: ... (Goodreads)
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by Neil Sheehan
A detailed account of the Vietnam War, and one man's role in it.
This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centres on Lt Col John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America's failures & disillusionment in SE Asia. A field adviser to the army when US ... (Goodreads)
Down and Out in Paris and London
by George Orwell
An exploration of the dark side of two cities, and how life can be different for the privileged and the destitute.
This unusual fictional memoir - in good part autobiographical - narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-outs of two great ... (Goodreads)
Testament of Youth
by Vera Brittain
Recounting of a woman's experiences of WWI and its aftermath, told through a feminist lens.
Much of what we know and feel about the First World War we owe to Vera Brittain's elegiac yet unsparing book, which set a standard for memoirists from Martha Gellhorn to Lillian Hellman. Abandoning ... (Goodreads)
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East
by Scott Anderson
A biography of T.E. Lawrence, a British intelligence officer who played a key role in shaping the Middle East during World War I.
A thrilling and revelatory narrative of one of the most epic and consequential periods in 20th century history – the Arab Revolt and the secret “great game” to control the Middle East The Arab Revolt ... (Goodreads)
Black Boy
by Richard Wright
Autobiographical account of a young black man's struggle against racism and oppression.
A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author’s grandson. When it ... (Barnes & Noble)
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
by Nathaniel Philbrick
True account of a whaling ship's disastrous voyage and the survivors' struggle for survival.
"With its huge, scarred head halfway out of the water and its tail beating the ocean into a white-water wake more than forty feet across, the whale approached the ship at twice its original speed - ... (Goodreads)
Storm of Steel
by Ernst Jünger
An autobiographical account of World War I, exploring the horrors of war.
Storm of Steel begins with Jünger as a private entering the line with the 73rd Hanoverian Regiment in Champagne . His first taste of combat came at Les Éparges in April 1915 where he was first ... (Wikipedia)
Dispatches
by Michael Herr
A journalist's account of the Vietnam War, depicting the brutality, confusion and chaos of the conflict.
Written on the front lines in Vietnam, Dispatches became an immediate classic of war reportage when it was published in 1977. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches ... (Goodreads)
Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
by Stephen E. Ambrose
A compelling account of courage, determination and sacrifice shown by the US Army during World War II.
From Stephen E. Ambrose, bestselling author of, Band of Brothers, and, D-Day, the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of ... (Goodreads)
Homage to Catalonia
by George Orwell
A first-hand account of the Spanish Civil War, and the political conflicts in the 1930s.
In 1936 George Orwell travelled to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the fight against the Fascists. This famous account describes the war and Orwell’s own experiences. Introduction ... (Goodreads)
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
by Eugene B. Sledge
A soldier's harrowing account of his experiences in World War II.
In his own book, Wartime, Paul Fussell called With the Old Breed "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." John Keegan referred to it in The Second World War as "one of the most arresting ... (Goodreads)
Hiroshima
by John Hersey
Tragic account of the devastating atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.
On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atom bomb ever dropped on a city. This book, John Hersey's journalistic masterpiece, tells what happened on that day. Told through the memories ... (Goodreads)
A Moveable Feast
by Ernest Hemingway
A memoir of Hemingway's life in 1920s Paris, exploring its rich bohemian culture.
Hemingway's memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the twenties are deeply personal, warmly affectionate, and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, ... (Goodreads)
H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
A journey of grief and healing, told through the eyes of a goshawk.
Obsession, madness, memory, myth, and history combine to achieve a distinctive blend of nature writing and memoir from an outstanding literary innovator. When Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly ... (Goodreads)
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas S. Kuhn
An analysis of how scientific progress is made, and the role of paradigms and paradigmatic shifts.
A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, ... (Goodreads)
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
by Dee Brown
An in-depth account of the displacement of Native American tribes by the US government.
Now a special 30th-anniversary edition in both hardcover and paperback, the classic bestselling history The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put ... (Goodreads)
A Room of One's Own
by Virginia Woolf
Examining gender roles and societal expectations with an eye to achieving independence and creative freedom.
A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton ... (Goodreads)
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
by Christopher Hitchens
Criticism of organized religion, arguing it is the root of much suffering in the world.
With his unique brand of erudition and wit, Hitchens describes the ways in which religion is man-made. "God did not make us," he says. "We made God." He explains the ways in which religion is ... (Goodreads)
The Complete Maus
by Art Spiegelman
A graphic novel depicting a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and his son's journey to understand the past.
On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its first publication, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the ... (Goodreads)
An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
by Rick Atkinson
An account of the US Army's involvement in North Africa during WWII.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER,, In the first volume of his monumental trilogy about the liberation of Europe in WW II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the ... (Goodreads)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
A comprehensive study of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and the unique cabinet he assembled.
Winner of the Lincoln Prize Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from ... (Goodreads)
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
A study of evolutionary biology, exploring how genes act and how they impact behavior.
Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The ... (Goodreads)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
by Joan Didion
Collection of essays exploring the cultural landscape of 1960s America.
The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of ... (Goodreads)
If This Is a Man • The Truce
by Primo Levi
A memoir of Primo Levi's time in Auschwitz and his journey home. The Truce follows his travels through war-torn Europe.
'With the moral stamina and intellectual poise of a twentieth-century Titan, this slightly built, dutiful, unassuming chemist set out systematically to remember the German hell on earth, steadfastly ... (Goodreads)
D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches
by Stephen E. Ambrose
A comprehensive account of the pivotal World War II invasion of Normandy.
Now illustrated with an extraordinary collection of over 125 photos, Stephen E. Ambrose’s D-Day is the definitive history of World War II’s most pivotal battle, June 6, 1944, the day that changed the ... (Barnes & Noble)
Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin
A collection of essays exploring the complexities of race, identity, and society in America through the lens of Baldwin's personal experiences.
Since its original publication in 1955, this first nonfiction collection of essays by James Baldwin remains an American classic. His impassioned essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, ... (Goodreads)
On Liberty
by John Stuart Mill
Exploration of freedom of thought and expression, and the importance of individual rights.
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780140432077 Published in 1859, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty presented one of the most eloquent defenses of individual freedom in nineteenth-century social and ... (Goodreads)
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
by David Foster Wallace
Collection of essays and arguments, exploring the absurdities of contemporary culture.
In this exuberantly praised book — a collection of seven pieces on subjects ranging from television to tennis, from the Illinois State Fair to the films of David Lynch, from postmodern literary ... (Goodreads)
