
The 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Past 25 Years - smacktoward
https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/11/50-best-nonfiction-books.html?via=taps_top
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tasubotadas
To be honest, it's a really crappy list, because most of them focus on some
kind of historical/documentary-like drama and/or injustice. Also, most of them
cover topics and history from the US.

These books might be fine (I just skimmed the descriptions and I haven't read
them) but this definitely doesn't look like the best NONFICTION books.

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happytoexplain
>most of them focus on some kind of historical/documentary-like drama and/or
injustice. Also, most of them cover topics and history from the US.

Why on earth does this make the list crappy?

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tasubotadas
Non-fiction has a lot more to offer than drama.

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happytoexplain
Oh, sorry - I agree. But it sounds more like you're criticising the _title_ of
the list.

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jhbadger
I'm pleased to see that one of my favorite books, Richard Holmes' "The Age of
Wonder" was there. This is a book that describes how in the 1700s and early
1800s the cultures of science and literature were much more merged than they
are today -- you had poets like Wordsworth writing poems about Newton and
actually reading the Principia themselves, and you had scientists like
Humphrey Davy writing poems.

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purephase
Agreed. It's a great book.

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mikece
I would have expected more biographies (one or more from Walter Isaacson?) or
historical books. One I would put on the list fors sure is Mike Duncan's "The
Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic" which
is as much a history book as it is a reflection of human nature. To study the
history of the Roman Republic and Empire is to realize that even if an
enlightened genius sets up a perfect system today that it will unravel within
three generations due to greed, laziness, excessive luxury, etc. I wonder how
many parallels between the construction of an empire and the construction of
an enterprise software system are valid an unavoidable and what the antidotes
to counter them would be.

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pge
A couple additions I would suggest (keeping with the theme of non-fiction
interesting to the general reader, not industry-specific works):

* Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling - Ross King

* The Invention of Air - Steven Johnson

* The Silk Roads: A New History of the World - Peter Frankopan

Other suggestions?

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ianleeclark
"Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life"

Is an interesting book which covers the creation and maintenance of a concept
of "race" in the United States.

> Most people assume that racism grows from a perception of human difference:
> the fact of race gives rise to the practice of racism. Sociologist Karen E.
> Fields and historian Barbara J. Fields argue otherwise: the practice of
> racism produces the illusion of race, through what they call “racecraft.”

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sn41
The best non-fiction I have read in the past 25 years is

* Longitude, by Dava Sobel.

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gomijacogeo
I preferred this to the Sobel book. More academic, but a lot more technical
detail.

The Quest for Longitude: The Proceedings of the Longitude Symposium Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts November 4-6, 1993 Hardcover – November,
1996 by William J. H. Andrewes [http://www.amazon.com/The-Quest-Longitude-
Proceedings-Massac...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Quest-Longitude-Proceedings-
Massachusetts/dp/0964432900)

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tokai
I have never understood the appeal of Into the Wild. Dying in the wilderness
due to hubris and a lack of skill is so unnoteworthy to me.

Is it a +upper middle-class metropolis dweller thing?

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happytoexplain
>+upper middle-class metropolis dweller

This looks like an unnecessary dig (disclaimer: I am not defending any
identity).

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tokai
How? Non of those word are slurs.

It was a genuine question. I was surprised to see a book I have a low opinion
of on a best-of list. I'm trying to understand who the book appeals to.

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baruchel
May I add my two cents? I really enjoyed reading "Exact thinking in demented
times" by Karl Sigmund. One of my favorite non-fiction books.

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achow
Hmm.. discovered couple of books, but not sure whether everyone would agree to
this list.

Just as an example, 'Guns Germs and Steel' (1997) is absent.

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purephase
I like "Guns, Germs and Steel" but the book has received quite a bit of
criticism over the years which may account for not including it in the list.

Don't know for sure! Just my theory on why it might be excluded.

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woodandsteel
Yes, it has received a lot of criticism, but I haven't seen any that really
refutes it. In fact, much of it is based on misrepresenting the book's thesis.

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tasubotadas
What's the selection criteria?

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happytoexplain
Aside from non-fiction and, perhaps, available in English - I don't think
there is a well defined criteria. Personally, I wouldn't want one for this
kind of list. The pure subjectivity of one or a few individuals can be a
valuable resource.

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tasubotadas
I would really like that this would be pointed out. Something like "judged by
the opinion of Mary Kate, John Smith and X Y".

Then I could look up those people and take a look if there is a chance of
having an overlapping taste.

