Best Books of 2025 - History and Biography

We have come to the end of 2025, and I have once again compiled a list of the best books I read this year, as well as a quick catalog of those which did not make the “best” list.  As in past years, I have divided these lists into three groups – history/biography, fiction and ministry-oriented books. 
  Here are the best history/biography books I read this past year.

Cassino ’44:  The Brutal Battle for Rome by James Holland.  James Holland continues to make my “best of” list year after year.  I consider him one of the best, but also one of the most prolific history writers I regularly read.  This book, as the title makes clear, is about the fighting in Italy in 1944, with a specific focus on the many ways the Allies tried to assault and out-flank the German fortress at Monte Cassino.

An Ordinary Man:  The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith.  I am not sure Gerald Ford would make anyone’s list of the “best” presidents in American history.  He wasn’t the worst president either.  Rather, as the title suggests, he was an ordinary man who, due to Richard Nixon’s scandals, was thrust into the office of President.  There in the White House, Ford brought healing to a nation and returned dignity to an office tarnished by scandal.

Stopping the Panzers:  The Untold Story of D-Day
by Marc Milner. Usually, a book that claims to have an “untold story” is one I tend to avoid, but I am glad I read this one.  Milner argues that the Allied commanders prior to D-Day deduced where the German counterattack against the D-Day beaches would fall and intentionally beefed up the Canadian 3^rd Division with extra armor and artillery to face and defeat the German attack, which is exactly what happened in the days immediately after the D-Day assault.

The Vietnam War:  A Military History by Geoffrey Wawro.  There have many books written about Vietnam since the war ended, but often they have as much content about the politics of Vietnam as the war itself.  This book focuses primarily on the military action of the war and the thing that Wawro shows most clearly is the how the US troops, often fighting bravely, were betrayed by the absolute aimlessness and futility of the American strategy during most of the war. 

The Fate of the Day - The War in America: Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson.  Atkinson is another of the best historians out there today.  This book is the second in his trilogy about the American Revolutionary War.  Atkinson is as adept at describing strategy and battlefield action as he is in portraying the debates and decisions of politicians and leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow.  Chernow is one of the best biographers writing today.  His book on Mark Twain is long, exhaustive and excellent.  But the story is so tragic, it was a difficult book to finish for me.  Twain’s continual pursuit of wealth led to him being bilked by many fraudsters.  His family life was a story of death after death, with only one daughter surviving him.  And his views of God and faith were utterly bankrupt.  All in all, it is a story of a great, but tragic man.

Shots Heard Round the World:  America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War by John Ferling.  Ferling’s book is a top-down survey of the American Revolution, with a special emphasis on how the war impacted nations around the world and especially in Europe.  Many books on the American Revolution have been written, but Ferling has focused on an angle that has seldom been fully explored.

The Killing Season: The Autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the Afternoon that Cost Germany a War by Robert Cowley.  Cowley’s book is set during the opening months of World War 1.  Trench warfare has not fully set in and both sides are racing toward the Atlantic, trying to outflank each other before the ocean was reached.  The last and greatest opportunity for German victory in 1914 was the area around the Belgian city of Ypres and it was here that the newest German army, filled with half-trained reservists, met its end. A fascinating but also grim book.

Great Books, just not quite making it to the Best list:

God’s Samurai:  Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor by Gordon Prange, Donald Goldstein and Katherine Dillon

Operation Paperclip:  The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen

To Overthrow the World:  The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism by Sean McMeekin

The Last Million:  Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War by David Nasaw

This Fierce People:  The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South by Alan Pell Crawford

Alexander at the End of the World:  The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great by Rachel Kousser

Gustavus v. Wallenstein:  Military Revolution, Rivalry & Tragedy in the Thirty Years War by John Pike

Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War, 1944-45 by Tim Cook

Watergate:  A New History by Garrett M. Graff

Deadwood:  Gold, Guns and Greed in the American West by Peter Cozzens

Canada’s Air Force:  The Royal Canadian Air Force at 100 by David J. Bercuson

Victory ’45:  The End of the War in Eight Surrenders by James Holland and Al Murray

Battle of Britain:  Canadian Airmen in Their Finest Hour by Ted Barris

The Blood in Winter:  England on the Brink of Civil War, 1642 by Jonathon Healey

The Good Allies:  How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War by Tim Cook

 

Somewhat Disappointing:

Salvation on Sand Mountain:  Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington