This month’s best new history

Don’t miss the best new history from the past month, hand-picked by our editors! This month’s history picks have something for everyone — including a riveting glimpse at ancient Rome, a fascinating new perspective on Lewis and Clark’s famed expedition, and more!

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	You’ve heard of Lewis and Clark — but this revisionist history offers a new take on the famed explorers WHY IT’S READWORTHY: “Riveting… Fehrman has done a great service to American history in this must-read” (Booklist starred review) Rediscover the fabled expedition through lesser-known figures like York, a man enslaved by Clark; John Ordway, a soldier who hauled the captains’ barge; and Wolf Calf, a Blackfeet boy caught in a skirmish with Lewis A “rigorous account” (The New York Times) based on archival research, hundreds of interviews, and centuries-old Indigenous oral histories Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers The never-before-told story of a radical political movement from a lost world WHY IT’S READWORTHY: This “superb blend of personal and social history” (Kirkus Reviews starred review) is already a New York Times bestseller Founded at the turn of the 20th century, the Jewish Bund was a secular, socialist, anti-Zionist party that fought for equality in Eastern Europe “That rarest of books: a gripping, human story of love, idealism, and betrayal — and an immense, rigorous contribution to the historical record” (New York Times bestselling author Naomi Klein) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers During her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II had a quiet influence on 13 US presidents WHY IT’S READWORTHY: Learn about how Richard Nixon sought her help amid the Watergate scandal, her surprising admission to Barack Obama, the reality of her relationship with Donald Trump, and more A must-read for fans of The Crown Penned by an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers How have the teachings of Jesus transformed Western morality? WHY IT’S READWORTHY: From a New York Times bestselling author heralded as “a humane, thoughtful, and intelligent historian” (The New York Times Book Review) Jesus’s commandment of kindness was a radical departure from ancient philosophy — and its legacy continues to shape our world today “Bart Ehrman has made a career of zeroing in on some of the most difficult questions at the intersection of faith and history” (The Boston Globe) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers In 1540, Spanish conquistadors set out to claim the American West — but few would make it home alive WHY IT’S READWORTHY: For 2,500 miles, Francisco Coronado and his men were met with unforgiving landscapes and fierce resistance from Indigenous peoples From a New York Times bestselling author hailed as “a uniquely gifted storyteller” (Pulitzer Prize–winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin) “Fresh and dramatic… A thoroughly modern take on one of history’s classic sagas of adventure and first contact” (New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers How did feathered dinosaurs evolve into the sparrows outside your window? WHY IT’S READWORTHY: “One of the stars of modern paleontology” (National Geographic) takes readers through millions of years of avian history — and it’s “even stranger than you imagined” (The Times) Meet penguins the size of gorillas, crows that outsmart most mammals, seabirds with 20-foot wingspans, and much more “Steve Brusatte has a rare gift for bringing the distant past vividly and fascinatingly to life” (Bill Bryson) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers Henry Louis Gates Jr. recommends this ‘painfully necessary autopsy of the nation’s soul’ (The Boston Globe) WHY IT’S READWORTHY: This landmark history of blackface in American entertainment is “magisterial and disturbing” (Publishers Weekly starred review) A Princeton scholar traces the practice across 200 years as it evolved from a niche performance to a cultural institution embraced at the highest levels of government “This book, I suspect, will detonate over certain corners in America… A major and thrilling work of American history” (The New York Times Book Review) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers ‘A long-overdue and important addition to our understanding of contemporary North Korea’ (Adam Johnson) WHY IT’S READWORTHY: This definitive account reveals how the powerful personality cult of the Kim dynasty came to be — and its surprising connection to American Christianity “Dazzling in its journalistic storytelling, rich in historical texture, and illuminating in its portrait of the world’s strangest dictatorship” (Ishaan Tharoor) Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Foreign Policy Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers See ancient Rome through the eyes of its legendary gladiators WHY IT’S READWORTHY: Discover what it felt like to train at a gladiator school, prepare for battle with a final supper, and fight for your life inside the Colosseum Packed with fascinating insights into Roman society and culture, from class divisions to popular beliefs about death, violence, sex, and more “A grippingly original way of making the alien world of the Roman amphitheater both accessible and comprehensible” (internationally bestselling author Tom Holland) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers How did a barely literate Siberian peasant bring about the downfall of Imperial Russia? WHY IT’S READWORTHY: This instant international bestseller chronicles the shocking life of Rasputin, the infamous mystic who seduced the Romanov family “Incisive and illuminating. This extraordinary story has never been better told” (New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz) “Rasputin emerges as even more bizarre and fascinating than the creature of popular myth” (New York Times bestselling author Sebastian Faulks) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers After defeating fascism abroad, American activists faced off against hate at home WHY IT’S READWORTHY: Meet the spies and civil rights leaders who risked everything to take down a countrywide network of antisemites and white supremacists following World War II A Pulitzer Prize finalist unearths “a startling new chapter of our history” in this “brilliant story” (Rachel Maddow) “Well-researched and at times shocking… Readers will get sucked into the story and want to know what happens next” (Library Journal starred review) Learn more... MEDIA MENTIONS: GET EBOOK ON: Amazon Other formats and retailers
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