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Books like War and Peace and War
A sweeping, interdisciplinary exploration of the cyclical forces that build and destroy human empires. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with War and Peace and War.
- intellectually stimulating
- expansive
- contemplative
- 01
War! What is it good for?
Ian Morris
A sweeping, provocative exploration of how humanity's most destructive impulse paradoxically paved the way for modern peace and prosperity.
- 02
Why the West Rules - For Now
Ian Morris
A sweeping, God's-eye view of human history that turns millennia of data into a gripping puzzle about geography, power, and our collective future.
- 03
The collapse of complex societies
Tainter, Joseph
A rigorous, sobering exploration of how the very complexity we build to solve our problems eventually becomes the weight that crushes us.
- 04
Scale
Geoffrey B. West
A mind-expanding journey that reveals the hidden mathematical scaffolding holding up the natural and human-made world.
- 05
Day of Empire
Amy Chua
A sweeping, macro-historical lens on the mechanics of global dominance and the surprising role of tolerance in building empires.
- 06
Carnage and culture
Victor Davis Hanson
A sweeping, accessible synthesis of 2,500 years of military history that examines the cultural roots of Western lethality.
- 07
The Next 100 Years
George Friedman · 2008
A sweeping, provocative thought experiment that treats the future of global power as a grand, predictable chessboard.
- 08
Guns, germs, and steel
Jared M. Diamond · 1998
A sweeping, structural lens that reframes the entire history of human civilization through the unforgiving realities of geography and environment.
- 09
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
Chris Hedges
A haunting, erudite dismantling of the myths we tell ourselves about the glory of combat and the intoxicating poison of nationalism.
- 10
Collapse
Jared M. Diamond · 2004
A sweeping, sobering autopsy of fallen civilizations that holds a mirror up to our own precarious future.
- 11
Natasha's Dance
Orlando Figes
A sweeping, deeply textured journey into the soul of a nation, told through the artists, peasants, and dreamers who shaped it.
- 12
Energy in world history
Vaclav Smil · 1994
A sweeping, deeply pragmatic lens on human history that reveals the hidden physical forces shaping our world.
