The Best History Books and Biographies to Gift This Year

For the reader craving a high-stakes legal conflict, this book is one of the year's most compelling historical narratives. A catastrophic shipwreck and 19 agonizing days adrift forced Captain Thomas Dudley and his crew to sacrifice one life to save three, a desperate choice that ignited a firestorm of controversy. 

This meticulously researched history recounts the true legal drama that followed, culminating in Regina v. Dudley and Stephens, a landmark murder trial that definitively established the boundaries between survival and justified homicide—a principle that still defines Anglo-American law today and makes this an unforgettable addition to any history lover's shelf.

For the reader who loves untold stories of social change, this is an incredibly inspiring historical biography. Before October was pink and research was funded, three courageous women—Shirley Temple Black, Rose Kushner, and Evelyn Lauder—refused to let breast cancer remain a marginalized, taboo subject. 

This meticulously researched account chronicles how these "radical sisters," empowered by their own diagnoses, became trailblazing advocates who ignited a movement that forever changed women's health and established a new era of breast cancer advocacy.

This definitive biography is the year's most monumental portrait of an American icon. Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Clemens, a steamboat pilot turned ambitious, brilliant literary celebrity who embodied the American spirit of westward expansion and reinvention. 

Drawing on bountiful, often unpublished archives, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow masterfully captures the full, complex life—from his hilarious rise as a journalist and satirist to the political punditry, madcap business ventures, and deep personal heartaches that marked his final years.

For the reader seeking critical contemporary commentary, this book is an outstanding, raw, vulnerable nonfiction debut. Inspired by his viral tweet, acclaimed novelist Omar El Akkad chronicles his painful realization that the promise of justice and freedom in the West is a lie for entire groups of human beings. This moving memoir is a moral grappling with recent history—from the War on Terror and Ferguson to the unmitigated carnage in Gaza.

For readers fascinated by global systems and sustainability, this book offers an indispensable analysis of our most essential resource. With rigorous research and myth-busting data, renowned scientist Vaclav Smil investigates the burning questions facing humanity today, from why major food producers often harbor undernourished populations to the true viability of a global vegan diet. 

Exploring the complete history of food production, consumption, and waste, this book offers data-based solutions for our broken global food system.

For the history buff seeking critical insights into American democracy, this book details an essential dive into one of our most defining documents. Harvard professor Jill Lepore, relying on pioneering research from the Amendments Project, provides a wholly new history of the U.S. Constitution, arguing that its foundational purpose was not preservation but orderly change. 

Challenging "originalism" and the Supreme Court's monopoly on interpretation, this gripping and timely work reveals how the framers expected future generations to be forever "tinkering" with the Constitution.

For the reader who loves language and modern culture, this illuminating journey into the world of words is one of the year's most vibrant non-fiction releases. Bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embeds as a lexicographer-in-training at Merriam-Webster to reveal the fascinating history and arcane process of how words—from doomscrolling to rizz—get into the dictionary. 

He uncovers how this essential American institution is adapting to the hyper-speed of digital slang and the threat of AI, while also examining how language is weaponized in today's polarized political culture. This book celebrates the sheer thrill of words while exploring their slippery, mutable nature, making it a perfect, insightful gift for any lover of literature or linguistics.

This powerful new book upends the romanticized American orphan narrative. Journalist Kristen Martin combines cultural critique—challenging everything from Annie to the Boxcar Children—with searing archival research and personal memoir to explore the real history of U.S. orphanhood from the 1800s to today. 

This compelling history uncovers the mission of religious indoctrination in early orphanages, the exploitative use of orphan trains, and the inherent racism and classism still driving the current child welfare system, making it an essential, compassionate gift for anyone interested in social justice and American history.

This masterful book is a definitive account of the atomic age's terrifying birth and is perfect for commemorating the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombings in Japan. Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff powerfully weaves an oral history of the Manhattan Project, using the voices of hundreds of scientists, generals, airmen, and the Japanese civilians to trace the breakneck pace of development from Hitler's Europe to the skies over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

This profoundly human drama captures the events that transformed the course of history and ushered in the new global age, making it a powerful and essential gift.

The new, definitive, portrait of America’s most consequential and enigmatic president, John F. Kennedy, from the New York Times bestselling historian J. Randy Taraborrelli. Drawing on two decades of research, including rare Secret Service files and candid oral histories, this biography moves beyond the presidency to offer an intimate, balanced study of the man whose public triumphs were constantly shadowed by the complexities of his private world. 

This book delivers groundbreaking revelations, making it an unputdownable volume that defines JFK’s human, flawed, and enduring legacy.

Gift the history lover a thrilling entrance into Elizabethan England with this biography of Christopher Marlowe, the daring literary contemporary who inspired and rivaled Shakespeare. 

In this meticulous work, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stephen Greenblatt reconstructs Marlowe's brief, subversive life, detailing his uncanny genius for poetry, his secret involvement with the queen's spy service, and the explosive cultural impact of plays like Tamburlaine and Faustus. 

For the reader who loves science adventure and ancient history, this book offers a vibrant, illuminating romp through the entire history of humankind that uses all five senses. Beloved author Sam Kean joins a new generation of scientists—experimental archaeologists—who are investigating the past by living it, from building Roman roads and trying ancient surgery to tasting Roman fish sauce and firing medieval catapults. 

Traveling from the Andes to the South Seas, this book sheds light on days long gone with stunning, lifelike detail, resurrecting the smells, sounds, and textures of our ancestors' lives with signature wit and meticulous research, making it a delightfully unforgettable gift.

For anyone who loves provocative cultural criticism, this timely and witty book is an essential interrogation of Western ideas about success and achievement. Acclaimed Atlantic staff writer Helen Lewis dissects the persistent myth of "genius" and reveals how this single concept has both shaped and distorted our understanding of creativity. 

Lewis unearths the forgotten wives and collaborators, confronts the vexing puzzle of modern figures like Elon Musk, and ultimately offers a far more interesting picture of human ingenuity, making this a smart, funny, and utterly compelling gift.