Books like Catastrophe by Max Hastings

Bill Bryson turns the universe into a conversational guide, tracing science from the Big Bang through evolution, geology, chemistry, astronomy, and particle physics with humor and clarity.

Richard Preston’s nonfiction account investigates the biology, history, and global impact of African hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola and Marburg, weaving scientific analysis with the stories of outbreaks and laboratory research.

A comprehensive history of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, detailing the rise of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Third Reich during World War II.

Pulitzer‑winning account of the first month of World War I, detailing the causes and 30 days of battle that set Europe on a collision course.

Christopher Clark’s *The Sleepwalkers* traces the minute‑by‑minute chain of misunderstandings and decisions that turned the July 1914 Sarajevo crisis into a world war, revealing how Europe’s fragile alliances and leaders spiraled into conflict.

Robert Gerwarth examines how the violence that erupted after World War I—pogroms, mass expulsions, and paramilitary clashes—shaped 20th‑century Europe and set the stage for fascism.

Miranda Carter’s book explores the intertwined lives of the royal cousins—George V of Britain, Nicholas II of Russia, and William II of Germany—whose personal correspondence offers a unique window into the diplomatic currents that shaped World War I.

"A century after the outbreak of the First World War, a powerful explanation of why the war's legacy continues to shape our world. The war would make a celebrity out of Woodrow Wilson and would ratify the emergence of the US as the dominant force in the world economy"--

David Fromkin explores the overlooked complexity of July‑August 1914, arguing that two intertwined conflicts—not just the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand—drifted Europe toward the Great War, reshaping politics and setting a pattern for future conflict.

"In The Long Weekend, acclaimed historian Adrian Tinniswood tells the story of the rise and fall of the English aristocracy through the rise and fall of the great country house. Historically, these massive houses had served as the administrative and social hubs of their communities, but the fallout from World War I had wrought seismic changes on the demographics of the English countryside. In addition to the vast loss of life among the landed class, those staffers who returned to the country estates from the European theater were often horribly maimed, or eager to pursue a life beyond their employers' grounds. New and old estateholders alike clung ever more desperately to the traditions of country living, even as the means to maintain them slipped away"-- "Drawing on thousands of memoirs, unpublished letters and diaries, and the eye-witness testimonies of belted earls and bibulous butlers, historian Adrian Tinniswood brings the stately homes of England to life as never before, opening the door onto a world half-remembered, glamorous, shameful at times, and forever wrapped in myth. The Long Weekend revels in the sheer variety of country house life: from King George V poring over his stamp collection at Sandringham to fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley collecting mistresses at ancestral homes across the nation, from Edward VIII entertaining Wallis Simpson at Fort Belvedere to the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, whose wife became obsessed with her pet spaniels. Tinniswood reveals what it was really like to live and work in some of the most beautiful houses the world has ever seen during the last great golden age of the English country home"--