The Economist reads

The best recent books on history

Our choice of nine books includes volumes on sportswomen, Roman emperors and revolutionaries

Photograph: Getty Images

An American journalist in Jerusalem examines the events that led up to a bus crash in the West Bank in 2012 that killed six Palestinian children and one of their teachers. Part history, journalism, diatribe and lament, the book builds a relentless case that this crash and the ensuing trauma must be remembered.

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Young mother is reading a book to her two sons for a good night sleep. Night time with reading lamp.

Books for young children that you can read over and over and over

Parents will enjoy these, too

Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, the Governor of Arkansas, is surrounded by supporters of her husband at a Washington campaign rally in 1992.

Books that imagine that history took a different course

What if Hitler had won and Hillary Rodham had broken up with Bill Clinton?


A person carries a 'Stay Woke' sign during the 'Teach No Lies' march to the School Board of Miami-Dade County to protest Florida's new standards for teaching Black history, which have come under intense criticism for what they say about slavery, USA.

What to read about America’s culture wars

Four books on controversies that helped to shape the presidential election


What to read about grief and bereavement

Six books about feelings that are both universal and unique to the person experiencing them

Books that probe the secrets of the Mossad 

Seven books on Israeli intelligence agencies, which are spearheading the offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon

An introduction to Lebanon, perhaps the next front in a wider war

Four books and a film on a pivotal Middle Eastern country