Why I love historical non-fiction

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ho doesn’t enjoy a good novel? There can scarcely be a reader who doesn’t enjoy sitting down and enjoying a captivating story. It’s sad, then, that non-fiction isn’t appreciated the same way – my personal choice of genre, the history book, can be as engrossing as the best piece of fiction.

History has an upsetting reputation for being dry and dull, but a good history book can bring the subject alive. If you think about it, history shares a lot with fiction. A cast of interesting characters, often involved in interesting plots, and it’s arguably more engaging because everything you read actually happened. What’s more, with so many countries, historical figures and events, there is bound to be something that interests you.

It’s arguably more engaging because everything you read actually happened

I find that history is best presented as a narrative – no-one wants to read a book of bland facts for pleasure. Most of the books I’m going to recommend are written in this way.

In this paper, I have long professed my love for Andrew Marr’s A History of and The Making of Modern Britain, two books which cover Britain from 1900 to the present day. We have an in-depth look at the politics and the Prime Ministers of the day, but he also draws focus to personal and cultural matters.

For example, his analysis of Britain considers Suez and Iraq as much as it does snoek or the rise of the tower blocks. A similar book to this, one recommended to me by one of my lecturers, is Rod Kedward’s La Vie en bleu, which covers the same time period in France.

Recently, I finished reading The President’s Club (by Michael Duffy and Nancy Gibbs), a book that deals with the personal relationships of the last thirteen US presidents (from Truman and Hoover to Obama). This was one I found particularly interesting, because this is an area of history that you never truly get to see.

It is very readable, and the analysis of some of the private lives of men who quite literally shaped the world is fascinating – how Clinton became an unofficial member of the Bush family, how Reagan turned to Nixon for advice during the Cold War, how Eisenhower and his experience served to guide Kennedy through the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The analysis of some of the private lives of men who quite literally shaped the world is fascinating…

There are some many history books out there, and some are assuredly duds, but the scope of history is so encompassing, with the potential to be so humble and so grand, that I think anyone could enjoy it. To all your fiction lovers, why not put down your stories and look into the past – I think it would fire your imagination even more.

Image Credits: Flickr / Pete Prodoehl (Header)