Hey guys, I must admit. My understanding of history is pretty bad up around the time of world war I and on. Hell pretty much from all along but I am mostly interested in the history leading up to world war I and to the present.

Sure, I took some history classes and stuff that covered wwI and wwII but back then I wasnt all that interested and now while I am not doing too much in the summer I am looking for a good history book to kinda bring me up to speed.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I rather fun read is Don't Know Much About History by Kenneth C Davis. It focuses on a lot of the interesting events in American History without getting slowed down with dates and less important information. Its also a very fair and unbiased look unlike many of the textbooks we had in high school that glossed over things like slavery and the subjugation of the Indians.
http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog...sbn=0060083816

It gives a nice overview of American History. I learned a lot of things in the book I never learned in my American History class in High School. From there you can branch out to specific parts of History that interest you. I really enjoyed The History of Britain by Simon Schama.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...71215?v=glance

Thanks, that looks interesting. I will pick that up....

Robert Leckie's "Delivered From Evil: The Saga of World War II" is a great one volume history of the second world war. It also includes a nice chapter of the events that lead up to the war starting w/ the Treaty of Versailles that put an end to World War I.

Amazon link

Leckie is the author of several history books. Some really great stuff.

Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States

I recommend staying away from Zinn -- unless, of course, you're an unreconstructed leftist.

Ken Davis' "You Don't Know Much..." books are well done and accurate. They make a good intro to the subject and are very entertaining. I recommend them.

Some historians who write books that are accessible for laypersons and well written are: Garry Wills, Stephen Ambrose, James MacPherson, William E. Leuchtenburg, Doris Kearns-Goodwin, Richard Reeves, Herbert Parmet, Arthur M. Schlesinger

And here's a few books that come to mind...

Good book on American West: Ray Allen Billington -- The Far Western Frontier
Good book on 60s: Allen J. Matusow -- The Unraveling of America
Good book on latter half of 20th century: James T. Patterson -- Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974
Good book on African American History: John Hope Franklin -- From Slavery to Freedom

(My area was U.S. History, so that's where these recommendations are focused.)

Happy reading!

Amazing book - one of the few from college that I was thankful to have read. I recommend to anyone who asks about the subject.