The Book Sense Category Bestseller List: History

Based on the last four weeks of sales from over 350 independent bookstores across America.

Thanks to all the stores that report, the new expanded electronic reporting options, and the software our team here has built to sort and slice a ton of data according to BISAC categories, this is the latest of many subject category lists to run in BTW. These are intended as inventory checking tools for booksellers, alerts to publishers as to what’s selling, and lists that the media can run.

Attention Media: Please contact Kristen Gilligan at [email protected] for reprint guidelines for your newspaper or magazine.

Thank you to all who participate in this Book Sense initiative. Some neat books here, including some surprises.

Carl
[email protected]

History Bestsellers

The Top 50 for the Last Four Weeks

1. Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis, Vintage, $14, 0375705244

2. Tuxedo Park, Jennet Richards Conant, S&S, $26, 0684872870

3. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, Simon Winchester, Perennial, $13.95, 0060931809

4. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond, Norton, $15.95, 0393317552

5. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, Louis Menand, FSG, $15, 0374528497

6. Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips, Broadway, $29.95, 0767905334

7. Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission, Hampton Sides, Anchor, $14.95, 038549565X

8. Brunelleschi's Dome, Ross King, Penguin, $13, 0142000159

9. Undaunted Courage, Stephen E. Ambrose, Simon & Schuster, $17, 0684826976

10. Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen, Bob Greene, Morrow, $24.95, 0060081961

11. A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present, Howard Zinn, Perennial, $18, 0060937319

12. Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Robert A. Caro, Knopf, $35, 0394528360

13. Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45, Stephen E Ambrose, Touchstone, $14, 0743223098

14. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Michael Oren, Oxford University Press, $30, 0195151747

15. Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure, Petie & Donald Kladstrup, Broadway, $14, 0767904486

16. April 1865: The Month That Saved America, Jay Winik, Perennial, $14.95, 0060930888

17. Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History, Kati Marton, Anchor, $14, 0385721889

18. In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick, Penguin, $14, 0141001828

19. Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, Anthony Everitt, Random House, $20.01, 0375507469

20. In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, Doug Stanton, St. Martin’s, $7.99, 0312983379

21. American Colonies, Alan Taylor, Penguin USA, $16, 0142002100

22. Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage, Andre Noah Trudeau, HarperCollins, $34.95, 0060193638

23. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester, Perennial, $13, 006099486X

24. Steel My Soldiers' Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam, Col. David H. Hackworth, Rugged Land, $27.95, 1590710029

25. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency, James Bamford, Anchor, $14.95, 0385499086

26. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade, James Reston, Anchor, $15, 0385495625

27. Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, James M. McPherson, Oxford University Press, $25, 0195135210

28. American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Joseph J. Ellis, Vintage, $15, 0679764410

29. Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream, H.W. Brands, Doubleday, $29.95, 0385502168

30. Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869, Stephen E. Ambrose, Touchstone, $16, 0743203178

31. Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose, Touchstone, $16, 0743216458

32. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World It Made, Norman Cantor, Perennial, $13.95, 0060014342

33. The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw, Dell, $12.95, 0385334621

34. Profiles in Courage for Our Time, Caroline Kennedy, Hyperion, $23.95, 0786867930

35. Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History, Denise Gess, William Lutz, Holt, $26, 0805067809

36. The Myth of the Great War: A New Military History of World War I, John Mosier, Perennial, $14.95, 0060084332

37. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, James W. Loewen, Simon & Schuster, $14, 0684818868

38. How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill, Anchor, $12.95, 0385418493

39. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony, Lee Miller, Penguin USA, $15, 0142002283

40. Stonehenge, Robin Heath, Walker & Co., $10, 0802713858

41. The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd, Richard Zacks, Hyperion, $25.95, 0786865334

42. Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, James Carroll, Mariner, $24, 0618219080

43. Salt, Mark Kurlansky, Walker, $26, 0802713734

44. The U.S. Constitution: And Fascinating Facts About It, Terry L. Jordan, Oak Hill Pub., $2.95, 1891743007

45. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Mark Kurlansky, Penguin USA, $13, 0140275010

46. The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, Thomas Cahill, Anchor Books, $14, 0385482493

47. A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Portrait of an Age, William Manchester, Little Brown & Co., $16, 0316545562

48. An Album of Memories: Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw, Random House, $14.95, 0375760415

49. We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young, Harold G. Moore, Perennial, $16, 0060975768

50. Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne, David Starkey, Perennial, $14.95, 0060959517