If you liked
Books like Hecuba
Loved Hecuba by Euripides? Here are 10 books with a similar appeal — drawn mostly from history, ranked by how confidently we'd recommend them next.
10 books · ranked
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1
Sapiens
A sweeping history of humanity from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa to the present, arguing that what made humans uniquely powerful was the ability to create and believe in shared fictions — nations, religions, money — that allowed large-scale social cooperation impossible for other species. One of the bestselling non-fiction books of the 21st century.
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2
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Why some societies came to dominate others, argued from geography rather than race; sweeping and influential.
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3
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Great Migration of Black Americans told through three unforgettable lives; monumental narrative history.
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4
Tusculanae disputationes
Cicero composed these discourses while in his villa in Tusculum as he was mourning the death of his daughter, in order to convey his philosophy of how to live wisely and well. They take the form of fi
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5
The history of the Peleponnesian war
An account of the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece, fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by Athens). It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian general
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6
Cosmographia et geographia de Affrica
Escrite de nôtre tems par Jean Leon, African, premierement en langue Arabesque, puis en Toscane, & à present mise en François, etc.
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7
The principall navigations, voiages, and discoveries of the English nations
The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques & discoveries of the English nation made by sea or over-land to the remote and farthest distant quarters of the earth at any time within the compasse of
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8
A People's History of the United States
American history told from the bottom up; a deliberately partisan and hugely influential counter-narrative.
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9
The Guns of August
How Europe stumbled into the First World War over a few weeks; narrative history at its most gripping.
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10
The Devil in the White City
A world's fair and a serial killer in 1890s Chicago, braided together; history that reads like a thriller.