History and Heroes: 55 Recommended Books of Biography, Autobiography, Memoir,and History

Ambrose, Stephen. Band of Brothers.
Bowen, Carolyn Drinker. Miracle at Philadelphia.
Catton, Bruce. Civil War Trilogy: The Coming Fury, Terrible Swift Sword, Never Call Retreat.
Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life.
Chesterton, G.K. The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton.
Colson, Chuck. Born Again.
Costain, Thomas. The Conquering Family, The Last Plantaganets, The Magnificent Century, The Three Edwards. A fantastic series of four books telling all the history of medieval England from
Doss, Helen. The Family Nobody Wanted. This story of international adoption made a huge impression on me when I was a teenager.
Eliot, Elisabeth. Through Gates of Splendor.
Forbes, Esther. Paul Revere and the World He Lived In.
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Bronte.
Hastings Max. Winston’s War: Churchill, 1940-1945.
Hautzig, Esther. The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia.
Hayden, Torey. One Child.
Hillenbrand, Laura. Seabiscuit: An American Legend. Semicolon review here.
Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Semicolon thoughts here.
Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains. Thoughts on the book and on parallels between slavery and abortion.
Jenkins, Peter. A Walk Across America.
Jordan, River. Praying for Strangers. Prayer adventures after reading this book.
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald. Profiles in Courage. I need to re-read this book. I remember it as inspiring and revealing in its stories of political courage.
Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine.
Kililea, Marie. Karen. Another book that captured my attention and my heart when I was a kid of a girl.
L’Amour, Lois. Education of a Wandering Man. Semicolon thoughts on education and Louis L’Amour.
L’Engle, Madeleine. Crosswicks Journals: A Circle of Quiet, Summer of the Great-Grandmother, The Irrational Season, A Two-Part Invention. Madeleine L’Engle favorites.
Lewis,C.S. Surprised by Joy.
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow. Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928 and the other volumes of Mrs. Lindbergh’s diaries.
Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra: An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia. Reading about the Romanovs.
McCullough, David. 1776. 

McCullough, David. John Adams. Semicolon thoughts here and here.
McCullough, David. Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt.
Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy. My thoughts on Bonhoeffer and his classic, The Cost of Discipleship.
Millard, Candice. River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey. Books about Teddy.
Muller, George. Autobiography of George Muller.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War.
Richardson, Don. Peace Child. Semicolon thoughts about this exciting, classic missionary story.
Saint Exupery, Antoine de. Wind, Sand and Stars.
Shapiro, James. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. Semicolon thoughts here.
Sobel, Dava. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Gulag Archipelago. A Solzhenitsyn Celebration.
Stone, Irving. Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West, 1840-1900.
Tada, Joni Eareckson. Joni: An Unforgettable Story.
Ten Boom, Corrie. The Hiding Place. Semicolon thoughts here.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, or Life in the Woods. Thoughts on Thoreau and clothing.
Tuchman, Barbara. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century. Good companion piece to the Costain books listed above on the same time period.
Turkel, Studs. Hard Times. Oral history recorded in this book of memories of the Great Depression.
Twain, Mark. Life on the Mississippi.
van der Bijl, Andrew. With John and Elizabeth Sherrill. God’s Smuggler. Another book that made a deep impression on me when I was a teen.
Vanauken, Sheldon. A Severe Mercy.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery.
Wilkerson, David. The Cross and the Switchblade. Semicolon thoughts about Pastor David Wilkerson and his book about gangs and Jesus in NYC here.
Williams, T. Harry. Huey Long. I read this twenty years ago when Engineer Husband was in college and brought it home for a class he was taking. I still remember scenes and details from the life of this larger-than-life politician.
Winner, Lauren. Girl Meets God. Semicolon review here.
Yutang, Lin. The Importance of Living. A Chinese American man writes about Chinese philosophy and life.
Zacharias, Ravi. Walking from East to West.

Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books and Me names some of her favorite biographies and autobiographies.
Ben House recommends Pulitzer prize-winning biographies.

3 thoughts on “History and Heroes: 55 Recommended Books of Biography, Autobiography, Memoir,and History

  1. I’ve read a few here: the Hiding Place, Peace Child, a biography of Joni but not sure if it was that one, The Endless Steppe, Through Gates pf Splendor (that one started off a love of missionary biographies) and one or two others. I’d like to read Surprised by Joy some day as well as Solzhenitsyn.

  2. I love book lists and this one is really different. I have read a few of these. I got on a streak for reading biographies for awhile. It is unfortunate that we don’t see more of them on blogs. Thanks for the great list. Would you mind if I posted the list in my “Reading List” section? I will give you full credit with a link, of course.

  3. Pingback: Preview of 2012 Booklists #2 » Semicolon

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