The Best War and History Books of All Time

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Telegraph, 35 Books

The Telegraph selects the best war and history books ever written

This list was originally published in 2014 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
14638 The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Volume Ii Edward Gibbon 1781 British English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
2239 1066 And All That W. C. Sellar 1930 British English
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
14701 Legion Of The Damned Sven Hassel 1953 Danish Danish
14068 A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Winston Churchill 1956 British English
12078 Sword Of Honour Evelyn Waugh 1965 British English
14068 A History of the Crusades Stephen Runciman 1951 British English
14701 The Making Of The Middle Ages R. W. Southern 1953 British English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
1584 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
85 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
555 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
2384 The Face of Battle John Keegan 1976 British English
3060 Montaillou Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1975 French French
4412 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
14165 Ordinary Men Christopher R. Browning 1992 American English
5372 Longitude Dava Sobel 1995 American English
14901 The Discovery Of France Graham Robb 2007 British English
1833 Histories Cornelius Tacitus 100 Roman Latin
158 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
429 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
647 Dispatches Michael Herr 1977 American English
1083 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1932 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
848 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
14901 Europe Norman Davies 1996 British English
1383 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
13890 The Siege Helen Dunmore 2001 British English
8956 A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 2003 American English
14901 Hitler Ian Kershaw 1998 British English
14901 The Battle For Spain Antony Beevor 2006 British English
14901 Ornamentalism David Cannadine 2001 British English
6266 Citizens Simon Schama 1989 British English