History · Similar reads
Books like The Black Jacobins
The best books like The Black Jacobins are A People's History of the United States, 1776, and Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James is about revolution, colonialism, race and class. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- A People's History of the United States
01
A People's History of the United States
Howard Zinn · History
Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, first published in 1980, retells American history from the perspective of those who rarely appear in conventional textbooks: Native Americans, enslaved people, industrial workers, women, immigrants, and dissidents of various kinds.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - 1776
02
David McCullough · History
David McCullough's 1776, published in 2005, covers a single year of the American Revolution — from the winter siege of Boston through Washington's crossing of the Delaware and the surprise victory at Trenton.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Guns, Germs, and Steel
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Jared Diamond · Science
Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - The Wretched of the Earth
04
Frantz Fanon · History
The Wretched of the Earth, published in 1961 shortly before Fanon's death from leukemia, is a political and psychiatric analysis of colonialism and the conditions required for genuine decolonization.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Common Sense
05
Thomas Paine · History
Common Sense, published in January 1776, is a forty-seven-page pamphlet that argued for American independence from Britain with a directness and reach that no previous colonial publication had achieved.
Shares revolution and independence with The Black Jacobins.
Read the summary → - Lenin
06
Victor Sebestyen · Biography
Victor Sebestyen's Lenin is a biography that aims to restore the man behind the mythology — both the Soviet mythology that made him a saint and the anti-communist one that made him a simple monster.
Shares revolution and leadership with The Black Jacobins.
Read the summary → - Washington: A Life
07
Ron Chernow · Biography
Ron Chernow's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George Washington is the most comprehensive single-volume life of the first president, tracing his formation as a Virginia planter, his military career in the French and Indian War and the Revolution, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his eight years as the first executive of an untested republic.
Shares revolution and leadership with The Black Jacobins.
Read the summary → - American Moonshot
08
Douglas Brinkley · History
Douglas Brinkley's American Moonshot focuses less on the engineering triumph of Apollo 11 than on the political decision that made it possible: John F.
Both dig into leadership.
Read the summary → - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Dee Brown · History
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, published in 1970, is Dee Brown's account of the systematic dispossession of Native American peoples across the American West between 1860 and 1890.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
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Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
Simon Schama · History
Simon Schama's Citizens was published to mark the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989 and immediately became one of the most controversial histories of the event in decades.
Both dig into revolution.
Read the summary → - Empire of Cotton: A Global History
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Empire of Cotton: A Global History
Sven Beckert · History
Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton argues that cotton was not just the raw material of the Industrial Revolution but the commodity through which modern capitalism was invented.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches
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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches
S. C. Gwynne · History
Empire of the Summer Moon, published in 2010, follows the rise of the Comanche empire on the southern Great Plains and the long, brutal conflict between the Comanches and the expanding United States.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary →
Books like The Black Jacobins: quick answers
What are the best books like The Black Jacobins?
The best books like The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James are A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, 1776 by David McCullough, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Black Jacobins, such as revolution, colonialism, race and class.
What should I read after The Black Jacobins?
A natural next read after The Black Jacobins is A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. A kindred history read. Other strong choices are 1776 by David McCullough, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon.
What books are similar to The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James?
The Black Jacobins centers on revolution, colonialism, race and class. Books with a similar feel include A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, 1776 by David McCullough, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, Lenin by Victor Sebestyen — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
