Take a Deeper Dive into 5 Historical Stories

If You Loved Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly, then check out African American Women Chemists, by Jeanette Brown
Hidden Figures was a runaway success both at the bookstore and in the movie theater, offering a dramatic, entertaining story highlighting a forgotten corner of the civil rights movement. If you found that story illuminating and intriguing, African American Women Chemists offers a deeper dive: women were struggling to assert themselves in laboratories, classrooms, and offices long before the space program or the Civil Rights Act, and unlike the women in Hidden Figures, most of these pioneers in the field of chemistry worked alone, which meant they were usually the first and only African Americans in their workplace. The book will broaden your understanding of the struggle minority women—past and present—engage in to break into scientific fields and jobs.

If You Loved The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman, then check out Nazi Germany and the Jews, by Saul Friedlander
World War II and the Holocaust encompassed moments among the most horrible in mankind’s history, but also provided many stories of heroism, decency, and bravery in the face of pure evil. The Zookeeper’s Wife is one of the most powerful of these stories, and it’s a book well worth reading. If you want to get a better idea of the enormity of the Holocaust (a topic sadly resonant in a modern world where racism and fascism are reemerging from the shadows), Friedlander’s exhaustive book offers insight into exactly how a modern, educated society somehow allowed genocide to take place. Along the way, you’ll gain an even better appreciation for the heroic actions of people like Antonina Żabińska as the scale of the horror is made clear—alongside the scale of the inhumanity that infected people at all walks of life.

If You Loved American Sniper, by Chris Kyle, then check out Navy Seals: A Complete History, by Kevin Dockery
The Navy Seals are an organization only superficially understood by most Americans. If you were moved and inspired by Kyle’s incredible story of service to his country and the emotional toll it took on him and his family, you can dig a little deeper by understanding the organization that trained him—how they were formed and what their training is like. These are details few know, this is both by design, and simply because their service is outside most people’s experience. Dockery’s book was published more than a decade ago, but remains a compelling rundown of the organization from its earliest origins to the modern-day.

If You Loved The Lost City of Z, by David Grann, then check out Exploration Fawcett: Journey to the Lost City of Z, by Percy Fawcett
With the recent film adaptation of The Lost City of Z, the best-selling book by David Grann received a well-deserved second act. Although Grann is quite detailed in laying out the history of explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 while searching for the lost city he had dubbed “Z,” much of the book is taken up with Grann’s own story as he retraces Fawcett’s steps. First published in 1953, Exploration Fawcett was compiled by Fawcett’s son using original sources that belonged to his father, such as log books and diaries left behind. It’s as close to a firsthand account as we’re going to get of Fawcett’s adventures and experiences, many of which would make perfectly exciting books in their own right. If you’re inspired to learn more about the man who continues to capture the public imagination years after his disappearance, this is the deepest dive you’re going to find.

If You Loved Killing the Rising Sun, by Bill O’Reilly, then check out American Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Bill O’Reilly’s Killing books are bestsellers that offer a unique perspective on history. In Killing the Rising Sun he tackles the end of World War II and the first use of the atomic bomb. If you want to learn more about the people and the program that ushered us—for good or ill—into the age of mutually assured destruction, you can’t go wrong with Bird and Sherwin’s classic American Prometheus, a detailed biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist often described as the father of the atomic bomb. While learning about one of the most important people of the modern age, you’ll also get a detailed look at the program that produced the bomb and the science that made it possible.