Hill states, "For a short time, ordinary people were freer from the authority of church and social superiors than they had ever been before, or were for a long time to be again." Hill's excellent book tells the story of how such an event came to be and how the lords and gentry regained power and smashed the radicals.

A largely sympathetic portrayal of Huey Long, warts and all. And there was a lot of 'all' - a real populist.

As a teenager, Fussell served in the infantry in World War Two. The horrific and brutal experiences of frontline warfare shaped his writing. A much needed corrective to the sappiness of Stephen Ambrose (and I have read and enjoyed a lot of Ambrose's works).

The barking nuns of Loudon. Yes, barking. Curious now?

Fascinating study by the great historian B.H. Liddell Hart who interviewed numerous German generals in confinement after World War Two.

Edmund Morgan was a very fine writer and even better historian of the colonial era. He wrote many books much better recognized than this one, such as American Slavery, American Freedom, but this one is my favorite. Morgan is the sole of brevity; concise without sacrificing necessary detail or accuracy.

An excellent summary of an absolutely critical era in American history. You cannot begin to grasp race relations in the US without a knowledge of this era when democracy and legal equality was taken away from African Americans by whites while the North watched.

Pepys wrote an especially detailed, observant, and brutally honest diary during the first nine years of the Restoration. Tomalin does an admirable job of stitching together the pre- and post-diary years with nine precious years of almost living Pepys' lively life. Pepys also provides some of the most detailed information about the lives of 17th century English working women.

What a pair. They really deserved each other.

C.V. Wedgwood was another wonderful writer of history. This book collects essays and lectures over a period of years. If not this book, then try her short bio of Cromwell, her book on the trial of charles I, or her now-standard history of the 30 Years War.

Are memoirs really a history book? Who cares. Grant's memoirs are a must read.

Now almost forgotten, William Shirer ranked with Edward R. Murrow in his day.

A necessary antidote to the standard histories.

Seminal book on how it is that men came to dominate women. Necessarily speculative, but brilliantly so. Yet another UW-Madison scholar.