You can find the complete literature below on Blinkist, where you can hear or read all the key messages within 15 minutes.
1. A People Betrayed - Linda Melvern
The events in Rwanda in 1994 mark a milestone in the history of modern genocide. Up to a million people were killed in a planned public and political campaign. The United Nations Security Council failed to respond in the face of incontrovertible evidence.
In this classic of investigative journalism, Linda Melvern tells the compelling story of what really happened, exposing both the scale, speed and intensity of the unfolding genocide and the governments and individuals who could have prevented it if it had happened they had decided to act. The book also tells of the unrecognized heroism of those who remained during the genocide - from volunteer peacekeepers to brave NGO workers.
2. The Lessons of History - Will Durant and Ariel Durant
In this insightful and thoughtful book, Will and Ariel Durant have managed to distill for readers the collective knowledge and experience of their four decades of work on the ten monumental volumes of “The Story of Civilization.” The result is a survey of human history, full of dazzling insights into the nature of human experience, the development of civilization, and human culture. Finally, the authors ask about the meaning of man's long journey through war, conquest and creation - and about the big themes that help us understand our time.
3. Auschwitz never left me - Susanne Beyer & Martin Doerry (eds.)
On January 27, 1945, Soviet soldiers liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp, where more than a million people were murdered. Only a few survived this terrible place. The indignity and traumatic experiences meant that most were unable or unwilling to talk about the experiences. They also receive little attention from the world.
In this book, the last survivors of Auschwitz were asked about their stories and compiled into impressive descriptions. A book that future generations should and will read in order to counteract forgetting.
4. When Women Ruled The World - Kara Cooney
The appearance of gender equality today closes many doors for us as a society. This is best seen in the most important people in the world - the heads of state - who are mainly male.
The book describes Ancient Egypt, where women ruled the country more often than in any other culture. This anomaly shows what lessons they - Merneith, Neferusobek, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tawosret and Cleopatra - have for us today about women leaders.
5. The Sleepwalkers - Christopher Clark
How can conflicts escalate into a world war? In The Sleepwalkers the author deals with the causes and blame for the First World War. This comprehensive insight into historical events goes far deeper than what is found in history books.
Clark captivatingly describes the beginning of the 20th century, in which mutual mistrust, misjudgments, arrogance, expansion plans and nationalistic aspirations prevailed and triggered a war with devastating consequences that no one could yet estimate.
6. Civilization - Niall Ferguson
How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And is the zenith of Western power now over?
The rise to global dominance of Western civilization is the most important historical phenomenon of the last five hundred years.
In Civilization: The West and the Rest, best-selling author Niall Ferguson argues that since the 15th century, the West has developed six new concepts that the rest lacked: competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and work ethic. Civilization shows how fewer than a dozen Western empires controlled over half of humanity and four-fifths of the world economy.
7. Elements and origins of total domination - Hannah Arendt
This masterpiece by Hannah Arendt analyzes and describes how rulers like Hitler and Stalin were able to gain power, commit bastial crimes and still unite the masses behind them. She writes a history and a theory of totalitarianism and raises the question of what goes on in people who allow themselves to be carried away by totalitarian propaganda?
8. The Future is History - Masha Gessen
In keeping with the previous book, this book is about how totalitarianism retook Russia. The author understands Russia, whose forces shook the country, like no other. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born in a time that promised the dawn of democracy. Each of them grew up with unprecedented expectations, some as children and grandchildren of the architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own - as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, writers, sexual and social beings.
The Future Is History is a cautionary tale for our time and for all times
9. The Great Influenza - John M. Barry
A book about a pandemic that has killed over 100 million people. It took place during the First World War and was therefore in the context of scientifically, politically and socially uncertain times. Against this background, the author analyzes in a comprehensible and captivating manner the extent to which such a pandemic is caused by human errors.
This book particularly helps us to better understand the current situation and learn from the past.
10. Legacy - Jared Diamond
This book makes it clear how the life of earlier civilizations is so important for today's society. The author shows how people - right back to hunters and gatherers - lived. His decades of research enable the author to write the story in a multifaceted and entertaining way. He presents the strangeness of other cultures in a fascinating way, so that you can learn from them how to deal with private and social problems.
A great book about the different cultures of world history and, surprisingly, modern self-image.
What we have to learn from history
