Historian and bestselling author Dan Jones has listed his top five history books, reflecting his extensive experience in bringing historical narratives to life, reports BritPanorama.
A history of western philosophy by Bertrand Russell
“A big, bold, all-encompassing narrative history, which takes a clear, easily comprehensible thesis and then uses it to parse three thousand years of human civilisation, is basically the one history book that all ordinary people want. And it was published in 1946.
“The philosopher Bertrand Russell’s masterpiece is still as acute in its judgments as it was 80 years ago, and as pithy in its turns of phrase. Never mind Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: Russell carves a far grander path through three millennia of human thought, and shows how ideas as disparate (or not) as mathematics and theology have translated to political realities since the time of the Minoans. The introduction alone is the best and clearest-eyed historical survey I’ve ever read. Glorious.”
Taylor & Francis, £24.99
Life photographers: What they saw by John Loengard
“Maybe no mainstream publication did quite so much consciously to create a historical record of the twentieth century as Life magazine. The picture-led periodical was published between 1936 and 1972 and showcased the work of some of the greatest photographers alive, including Margaret Bourke-White, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Robert Capa and Gordon Parks.
“In the late Nineties, the one-time Life staffer John Loengard tracked down most of the then-living photographers and recorded interviews with them. The transcripts, published alongside their iconic images, are a composite history of the modern world emerging. I’ve bought this book countless times as a gift for would-be historians, and I go back to it all the time.”
Little, Brown, £25
The eagle and the hart by Helen Castor
“History can be a tribal discipline, and scholars often fall into schools. When I went up to Cambridge in 1999, I had chosen to study medieval history more or less at random. But when I was sent to be supervised by Helen Castor, I became utterly fascinated by the period. Helen taught me everything that is still at the core of the way I think about medieval England.
“Her books are also the model of how to write serious popular history – elegant, incisive, gripping and underpinned by an extraordinary political and human intelligence. The Eagle and the Hart tells the story of the fated cousins Richard II and Henry IV – it is a modern classic of royal biography.”
Penguin, £12.99
Frederick the second by Ernst Kantorowicz
“I am always saddened when people say they find history books boring. Of course, many history books are boring, because for some reason it became fashionable in the later twentieth century for historians to eschew the duty to entertain as well as to inform. If you want to restore your belief in epic history, then please read Kantorowicz on the medieval emperor Frederick II.
“It is a morally complicated book, and in many ways reprehensible: a celebration of Teutonic supremacy written by a man who once stated that the highest goal of German foreign policy ought to be the obliteration of France. But it is also a staggeringly great piece of writing. Neither consideration should overshadow the other.”
Bloomsbury, £30
Into the silence by Wade Davis
“This wonderful book describes the attempts to survey and summit Mount Everest in the 1920s by a group of men numbed by the brutality of their experiences during the First World War. It is a gripping adventure and its tragic-heroic end loses nothing from being notorious.
“But it is also a terrific psychological portrait of a world traumatised beyond healing by the catastrophes of 1914-18. This is another book I have pressed on countless friends over the years, and no one who has read it has ever been disappointed.”
Vintage, £18.99
Dan Jones is a National Year of Reading 2026 ambassador, supporting the Go All In campaign to help more people discover the joy of reading. For further information, visit goallin.org.uk. Castles: A Fortified History of the World by Dan Jones is out 8th October (Head of Zeus, £30)
