Best History Books

George Orwell's first book: a memoir of destitution — months spent penniless in Paris, working as a plongeur in restaurant kitchens, and then weeks tramping between workhouses in England — written with the observational precision that would define everything that followed.

In Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet 'A' for adultery — but it is the hidden guilt of her lover, the Reverend Dimmesdale, that slowly destroys him.

Twenty-one meditations on pressing questions of our time — from artificial intelligence and political disillusionment to terrorism, nationalism, and the challenge of staying sane in the information age.