Best Reads of 2024 - History and Biography

Entering the New Year, I look back at my reading list from the past year.  This year, I hit a personal record 103 books read for the year, but I almost consider that number cheating.  In the summer of 2023, I started reading during my walking “coffee breaks” during days in the office.  I walk a mile in the gym and read while I do it.  Thus, I have managed to go through a few more books than I have in past years.  Of course, the books I read while gym walking are not deep, 500-page theological tomes – who wants to carry that around, plus I often read those with a note pad alongside.  That said, some of the “gym walking” books made it into my list of best books of 2024. 

One book that is not listed in any of these posts does not fit any category but was hugely impactful in my life.  As a guy who struggles with blood sugar issues, I would highly recommend Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar by Jessie Inchauspe to anyone who needs it. 

Here is a list of the best history and biography books I read this year, along with others I would recommend and a few that disappointed.

The Savage Storm:  The Battle for Italy, 1943 by James Holland.  James Holland’s books occur regularly on my “best of” lists.  He is one of my favorite military historians right now – a great blend of scholarship, insight and a writing style that drives the story in a novel-like fashion.  This book is about the American, British and Canadian invasions of Italy and the battles that followed.  I am currently reading the sequel to this book – Cassino, 1944 – which carries the story on into central Italy.  In addition, check out his informative and chatty podcast – We Have Ways of Making You Talk.

The Necessary War:  Canadians Fighting the Second World War 1939-1943, vol. 1 by Tim Cook.  Tim Cook also shows up regularly on my best list – he is one of the best Canadian military historians writing currently.  The Necessary War is the first volume of his history of the Canadian military during World War 2.  He covers it all – land, sea and air – with an interesting style, discussing both the decisions made in Ottawa as well as the experiences of the average soldier, sailor and flyer.  Volume 2 – Fight to the Finish – is in my “to read” pile for this year.

King:  A Life by Jonathon Eig.  This is a fascinating and very balanced biography of Martin Luther King Jr.  Eig does not stand him on a pedestal, but neither does he spend the whole book in character assassination.  There is much about Dr. King that is praiseworthy, like his courage and commitment to civil rights that was rooted in a biblical foundation.  That said, Dr. King was far from a paragon of personal virtue – the book makes it clear he was a serial adulterer during his lengthy marriage to his wife.

The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans.  The years between the world wars of the 20^th century were a painful, troubled time, nowhere more so in Interwar Germany.  The Coming of the Third Reich is the first volume in Evans’ trilogy on the Nazi Party prior to and during World War 2.  In this volume, Evans tells the story of how the political and economic fiasco that was the Weimar Republic ushered in circumstances that enabled Hitler to from obscurity to power in a few short years.

The Cold War:  A New History by John Lewis Gaddis.  We have achieved enough historical distance from events such as the Cold War to enable historians to write insightful books about those events.  Gaddis’ book is an example of this – this is high level history that shows the trends and decisions of those decades, whether made in Washington or Moscow, and focuses especially on the importance of individual actors (Pope John Paul II, Reagan, Thatcher, Solidarity in Poland) who made choices and took stands that finally broke the world out of the Cold War stasis.

Challenger:  A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham. I am not an engineer – I leave that to sons-in-laws and nephews – but even as a non-engineer, I was both fascinated and horrified by this book.  It reads like a gripping detective story; a cover-up of serious design flaws in the Space Shuttle and the brave people who risked their livelihood to expose them against the will of government functionaries.  Unfortunately, good people had to die before that happened.  And as Higginbotham makes clear, even after the Challenger disaster, the bureaucrats at NASA did not learn their lesson.

Revenge of the Tipping Point:  Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell.  My brother-in-law Stephen has recommended Gladwell’s books to me more than once.  When I saw this one on sale at Costco, I figured I would give it a try.  What a fascinating book.  Gladwell is the one who popularized the idea of a “tipping point” that brings about change.  But what happens when the tipping point is misused, manipulated or leads to tragedy?  What happens when people use the tipping point as an opportunity for social engineering?  Covering topics like COVID-19, gay marriage and opioid epidemic, Gladwell shows what happens when the tipping point becomes a tool in the hands of society.

The Eastern Front:  A History of the Great War, 1914-1918 by Nick Lloyd.  This is a follow-up to Lloyd’s previous book on the Western
Front in World War 1.  Lloyd covers the initial battles on the Russian front, the battles over Serbia, the Italian front, the war in the Balkans and the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917.  Especially fascinating are his discussions of the relationship between Germany and its weaker partner Austria-Hungary as well as the internal debates of the leaders of the Entente about where and how to use their military resources to bring about victory on the battlefield.

More great books, although not quite good enough to make it to my best list:

Leyte Gulf:  A New History of the World’s Largest Sea Battle by Mark E. Stille

Pax:  War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age by Tom Holland

The Blazing World:  A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 by Jonathon Healey

Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril by King Abdullah II of Jordan

Our Ancient Faith:  Lincoln, Democracy and the American Experiment by Allen C. Guelzo

There Will be Fire:  Margaret Thatcher, the IRA and Two Minutes that Changed History by Rory Caroll

The Impulse of Victory:  Ulysses S. Grant at Chattanooga by David A Powell

The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield by H. W. Brands

The Mounties March West:  The Epic Trek and Early Adventures of the Mounted Police by Tony Hollihan

President Garfield:  From Radical to Unifier by C. W. Goodyear

The Rise of the G. I. Army: 1940-41, The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor by Paul Dickson

The Wide, Wide Sea:  Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides

Throne of Grace:  A Mountain Man, An Epic Adventure and the Bloody Conquest of the American West by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

Left for Dead:  Shipwreck, Treachery and Survival at the Edge of the World by Eric Jay Dolin

Monte Cassino:  Ten Armies in Hell by Peter Caddick-Adams

Against All Odds:   The Untold Story of Canada’s Unlikely Hockey Heroes by P. J. Naworynski

Stampede:  Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike by Brian Castner

The End of Everything:  How Wars Descend into Annihilation by Victor Davis Hanson

An Unfinished Love Story:  A Personal History of the 1960’s by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Checkpoint Charlie:  The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Iain MacGregor

Snow and Steel:  The Battle of the Bulge 1944-45 by Peter Caddick-Adams

White Knights in the Black Orchestra:  The Extraordinary Story of the Germans who Resisted Hitler by Tom Dunkel

The Holy Fox:  The Life of Lord Halifax by Andrew Roberts

House of Lilies:  The Dynasty that made Medieval France by Justine Firnhaber-Baker

Henry V:  The Astonishing Triumph of England’s Greatest Warrior King by Dan Jones

The Darkest Summer: Pusan and Inchon 1950: The Battles That Saved South Korea--and the Marines--from Extinction by Bill Sloan

 

Books that disappointed on some level:

Children of Ash and Elm:  A History of the Vikings by Neil Price (he lost me when he mused extensively about “transgender Vikings…”)

Battle for the Island Kingdom:  England’s Destiny 1000-1066 by Don Hollway ( I am not sure how one can make such an interesting time filled with interesting characters such a dull read)