The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman

The book is an account of the events leading to the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 and of the early days of the war.  If your exposure to history had been limited to textbooks and other academic writings, then you are in for a surprise and a treat.  Barbara Tuchman was not a professional, academic historian, but rather a writer, a storyteller who preferred to tell true stories rather than fictional ones.  In some academic circles, Tuchman was looked down on, since she lacked some of the academic credentials of the professional historian.  This did not bother her readers, though.  (Her book, A Distant Mirror, was on best-seller lists for weeks.  It is a story centered around a French family in the disastrous 14th century.  This book on medieval history became a best-seller because readers knew what a fine storyteller Tuchman was).  Her books were written for the layman, and not written in obfuscator academic jargon intended to impress other people with Ph.D.s.
 

The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind’s Greatest Invention by Guy Deutscher (check Ocean State Libraries for availability)

Languages are very, very complex (and fascinating).  How did they get to be that way?  It almost seems as though someone must have designed them, but we know that tens of thousands of years ago there was no Congressional sub-committee on language and grammar.  The author offers some explanations in a very enjoyable, witty and understandable way.  Since we have no records of language from the time before writing was invented, Deutscher uses examples from recorded and modern languages to illustrate his points.  He shows (or speculates) how principles of economy (some might say laziness), efficiency, analogy, erosion and desire for increased expressiveness (among other things) have propelled the evolution of language.  Besides the relaxed style and humor of this book, its attention to Semitic languages is unusual in a linguistics book written for English speakers.  Those who are not familiar with a Semitic language such as Arabic or Hebrew will be amazed and fascinated by his description.
 

The Meaning of Hitler by Sebastian Haffner

There have been thousands of books written about Hitler, and they seem to keep coming.  (Ian Kershaw’s two-volume biography was published about 50 years after Hitler’s death, for example.)  Haffner’s book is the best I have ever read about Hitler.  It is not a biography.  The English title of the book helps explain why.  This isn’t just an account of what Hitler did and when and to whom and with whom, etc.  It explains, in a very succinct way (176 pages in English, 191 pages in German), why people followed and supported him, where and why he was successful and why, in the end, he was a total failure and a disaster for the world and Germany.  Haffner was born in Germany in 1907 and so had first-hand experience of Nazism.  (An anti-Nazi, he left Germany in 1938 and went to England.  He returned to Germany after the war and had a long and successful career as a journalist.)  Perhaps because of this experience, the book contains many valuable and illuminating insights about Hitler.
 

Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann

This could be called a historical novel, because it deals with two geniuses of history: the mathematician and astronomer Carl Friedrich Gauss and his contemporary, the explorer, geographer and natural scientist, Alexander von Humboldt.  (Humboldt discovered what is now called the Humboldt Current off the west coast of South America while he was investigating why the interior of Peru was so dry.  Gauss’ law and the gauss unit – a measurement of electromagnetic density – are named after Gauss.)  What distinguishes this book is its quirkiness, wit and humor.  Although about two great scientists, and with references to number theory and isothermal lines, it is, as one review put it, “more zany than brainy”.  Humboldt’s experiences in South America provide lots of opportunity for humor – his experiences with electric eels, his oxygen starved and exhausted companion’s bizarre thoughts (or hallucinations?) while climbing the Chimborazo peak in Ecuador.
 

Decisive Moments in History: 12 Historical Miniatures by Stefan Zweig

These are not historical analyses, but novel-like, dramatically told stories with one person at the centers.  Events include the battle of Waterloo, the conquest of Byzantium, the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa, the death of Leo Tolstoy, Rouget de Lisle composes the Marseillaise, Lenin’s return to Russia in 1917, and others.  These miniatures are illustrative, rousing, vivid, realistic and (mostly) easy to read.  The miniature titled “The Resurrection of Georg Friedrich Handel”, which tells the story of the creation of Handel’s oratorio, “The Messiah” is especially inspirational.  (The first edition of this book appeared in 1927, containing only 5 miniatures.  In December 2000 the 47th edition was published with 14 miniatures.)