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Anne Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families: A New History of the North American West, 1800-1860
Kathleen Duval, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
H.W. Brands, American Colossus
Edward Ayres, In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863
Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
Edmund Morris' biographies of Teddy Roosevelt.
Roy Jenkins' biography of Churchill.
David Halbertsam's The Fifties. (Actually probably anything by Halberstam, one of our greatest popular historians.)
Alistair Horne's books on military history.
19th and 20th century preferably. My second sentence was saying I was trying to look at my books to see what I could suggest as well.
Still...so many choices.
For Civil War I enjoyed the narrative-like Shelby Foote collection, very popular and readable, although there are literally thousands, tens of thousands, of good histories.
For European Napoleonics there is Chandler's "Campaign's of Napoleon" as the definitive account but that is very expensive and may be overwhelming.
For WW2 you will find various approachable and easy to get into "pop-histories" by Stephen Ambrose, which I enjoy. Ambrose of course touches on a variety of historical topics, I also have one on the Lewis and Clarke expedition. Once again thousands of good choices regarding WW2.
Also for WW2 I enjoy Anthony Beevor's history that gives eastern front WW2 histories that don't get much publicity, still from a western viewpoint.
Don't dismiss biographies and autobiographies. Recently discussed here was Ulysses S. Grant's biography.
The above is focused on military conflicts but don't dismiss other historical periods or more minor conflicts.
I avoid those books that give a modern revisionist view of historical events, i.e. those that try to give a moral opinion or "Monday morning quarterback" view. Avoid those like the plague. You will know them when you see them. You will only find biased history there.
I would offer Dreadnaught by Robert Massie, a story about the colossal miscalculation by Kaiser Wilhelm II to create a navy to rival Great Britain before World War I. Never more than a case of national vanity, the German shipbuilding program presented such an existential threat to the British that they formed an alliance with the French, their historical enemies. We don't think about it today, but the shift of the British from the Germans to the French was a titanic one in world affairs and ultimately prevented Germany from achieving another quick victory over France and, ultimately, led to their defeat. A classic violation of the principal of Conservation of Enemies.
So important was Britain's need for the Royal Navy's dominance in home waters, that Winston Churchill described Admiral Jellicoe as "the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon."
I'll second the recommendation of Halberstam, and add Barbara Tuchman; and for a broad=base source that could lead to more-specific works. the Oxford History of the American People.
I would offer Dreadnaught by Robert Massie, a story about the colossal miscalculation by Kaiser Wilhelm II to create a navy to rival Great Britain before World War I. Never more than a case of national vanity, the German shipbuilding program presented such an existential threat to the British that they formed an alliance with the French, their historical enemies. We don't think about it today, but the shift of the British from the Germans to the French was a titanic one in world affairs and ultimately prevented Germany from achieving another quick victory over France and, ultimately, led to their defeat. A classic violation of the principal of Conservation of Enemies.
So important was Britain's need for the Royal Navy's dominance in home waters, that Winston Churchill described Admiral Jellicoe as "the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon."
Germany's diplomatic actions before the war were very shortsighted, it seems like almost everything the Kaiser did served to diplomatically isolate Germany.
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