Highly regarded non-fiction historical books published in 2006

[rusty_halo]

I'm trying to pick a Christmas present for my dad.

I never worried about getting him a present before, because he's a humorless and generally miserable person who hates receiving gifts and always complains that you shouldn't have wasted the money. However, last year, for the first time ever, he liked the present I got him. It was Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln, Team of Rivals. He's been talking about it all year, and now he's trying to get me to read it.

So now I want to get him something he'll like again. But I don't want to just copy what I did before.

I was thinking maybe another nonfiction or history type book, published this year so that it's not something he's already read. Nothing too current, and nothing too partisan (he's very middle of the road), and nothing too obscure. He likes to read about Lincoln (obviously), and I'm always seeing him with books about the Third Reich, and he watches the history channel, but I don't think he's actually pro-war or a military buff. And he's very, very critical, so it has to be something highly regarded. And it can't be too fun, because he hates fiction and anything at all imaginative or fanciful.

So um, any highly regarded non-fiction history type books come out this year? Any recommendations? Please help!

(I was thinking maybe 1776 by David McCullough, mainly because it's on Amazon's "People who bought Team of Rivals also bought..." thingy. Although it came out in 2005; I'd prefer something more recent.)


PS: I WANT MY WEBSITES BACK. *sob*

Comments

[chase820.livejournal.com]

I'm currently reading Tom Holland's Rubicon, about the last years of the Roman Republic, and am utterly slayed by it. Lots of military and social history, so your dad might enjoy that. Assuming he likes ancient world stuff at all.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That does look interesting. And maybe it's different enough that it won't just seem like I'm copying what I got him last year.

I don't know if I've seen him reading anything about the ancient world, but I've probably seen him watching it on the history channel. I really have so little clue what he likes; it sucks how little he lets us know him.

[chase820.livejournal.com]

Well, there are lots of interesting parallels between ancient empires and modern ones, so he should enjoy that aspect of it, at least.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Nifty. I ended up getting him that and 1777 since they're both in paperback. Hopefully he's bound to like (or at least not have read) at least one of them.

Thank you again for the rec. :)