The 16 Best Autobiographies To Change Your View of History

These unbelievable stories stretch beyond the pages of your average history book.

By Sarah Mangiola | Updated Mar 19, 2020 | Published Dec 25, 2018

best biographies changed history

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Marita: The Spy Who Loved Castro

By Marita Lorenz

Fragments of Isabella

By Isabella Leitner

Among the White Moon Faces

By Shirley Geok-lin Lim

Hitler's Last Secretary

By Traudl Junge

12, 20 & 5

By John A. Parrish

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

By Frederick Douglass

The White Album

By Joan Didion

How I Became Hettie Jones

By Hettie Jones

A Moment of War

By Laurie Lee

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England to Me

By Emily Hahn

historical autobiographies

A Long Way Gone

By Ishmael Beah

Man Enough to Be a Woman cover, best autobiographies

Man Enough to Be a Woman

By Jayne County

historical autobiographies

Brown Girl Dreaming

By Jacqueline Woodson

Spirit Run cover, best autobiographies

Spirit Run

By Noé Álvarez

historical autobiographies

All But My Life

By Gerda Weissmann Klein

Cover of First They Killed My Father, best autobiographies

First They Killed My Father

By Loung Ung

Cover of Born a Crime, best autobioraphies

Born a Crime

By Trevor Noah