5 Best Historical Books You Must Read Online

Good history books are hard to find, especially in physical form. In this blog, we shall help you with five historical books that will help you with the best historical books out there. These books are rare to find in physical form and can be easily found on online bookstores.

Here Are The 5 Best Historical books

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Both the books are written by Israeli author and professor at Hebrew University at Jerusalem, Yuval Noah Harari.

In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Harari chronicles the history of modern man “Homo Sapiens” from archaic evolution from the ape to the Stone Age and up until the 21^st Century. He chronicles the development in four epochs:

• The Cognitive Revolution: Circa 70,000 BCE, when Homo sapiens developed imagination.
• The Agricultural Revolution: Circa 12,000 BCE, the development of farming
• The unification of the humankind: the gradual development of world order to create a global empire.
• The Scientific Revolution: Circa 1500 CE to present, the emergence of objective science.

In Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, Harari tries to question the technological advancements and the future it holds for Homo sapiens. In this one of the best historical books, the author speculates various possibilities in three parts:

• Homo Sapiens Conquer the World: The race to become the dominant species on Earth.
• Homo Sapiens give meaning to the World: The evolution of language and creation of ideas such as religion, politics, money, etc. The ability to find and give meaning to everything enabling many achievements. The author puts forth the idea of “Humanism”, where humanity evolves to reject the concept of GOD and establish the fact that the moral compass of every individual comes from the person themselves rather than influence or consequences or doctrinarian influence. This may push for the search for immortality, happiness, and power.
• Homo Sapiens lose control: Technological advancement has made it impossible for humanity or humanism to exist. As it means and may lead to the evolution of a new kind of human species called “Homo Deus” endowed with capabilities such as eternal life. Humanity is degraded to algorithms and technology becomes powerful and sentient.

The Story of Civilization (Volume 1 to 11) by Will and Ariel Durant

This 11 volume series has the following books:

• Our Oriental Heritage
• The Life of Greece
• Caesar and Christ
• The Age of Faith
• The Renaissance
• The Reformation
• The Age of Reason Begins
• The Age of Louis XIV
• The Age of Voltaire
• Rousseau and Revolution
• The Age of Napoleon

These volumes talk extensively about European history. This series is incomplete because the authors died midway.

Glimpses of World History by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

Written in an informal format of personal letters to his daughter Priyadarshini Indira, later Indira Gandhi, Nehru as a father and a global statesman and a person of immense knowledge tried to explain the reasons that led them to do what they did.

The Knowledge Trilogy (The Discoverers, The Seekers, The Creators) by Daniel Boorstin

The author tries to put together the development of the human kind through discoveries, development of creativity and questions beliefs and traditions.

The Discoverers is divided into four books:

Book One - Time

• "The Heavenly Empire"
• "From Sun Time to Clock Time"
• "The Missionary Clock"

Book Two - The Earth and the Seas

• "The Geography of the Imagination"
• "Doubling the World"
• "The American Surprise"
• "Sea Paths to Everywhere"

Book Three - Nature

• "Seeing the Invisible"
• "Inside Ourselves”
• "Science Goes Public"
• "Cataloguing the Whole Creation"

Book Four - Society

• "Widening the Communities of Knowledge"
• "Opening the Past"
• "Surveying the Present"

The Creators is divided into three books:

The Riddle of Creation: Prologue

• "Worlds Without Beginning"
• "A Creator God"

Book One: Creator Man

• "The Power of the Stone"
• "The Magic of Images"
• "The Immortal Word"

Book Two: Re-creating the World

• "Otherworldly Elements"
• "The Human Comedy: A Composite Work"
• "From Craftsman to Artist"
• "Composing for the Community"
• "Conjuring with Time and Space"

Book Three: Creating the Self

• "The Vanguard Word"
• "The Wilderness Within"

The Seekers is divided into three books:

Book One: An Ancient Heritage

• The Way of Prophets: A Higher Authority
• The Way of Philosophers: A Wondrous Instrument Within
• The Christian Way: Experiments in Community

Book Two: Communal Search

• Ways of Discovery: In Search of Experience
• The Liberal Way

Book Three: Paths To The Future

• The Momentum of History: Ways of Social Science
• The Sanctuaries of Doubt
• A World In Process: The Meaning In The Seeking

The Great Transformation by Karen Armstrong

This book takes a look at the four great cradles of the world’s most widespread religions and civilizations – India, China, Israel, and Greece.

Each of these regions saw the rise of new religions:

• India – Hinduism and Buddhism
• China – Confucianism and Taoism
• Israel – Monotheism
• Greece – Philosophical Rationalism

Conclusion

Which other world history books have you read online? Have you read any of the mentioned best historical books online? If yes, then please comment as to what do you think about them.

We have a large collection of history books on our online history bookstore. Go give them a try.