History · Similar reads
Books like The Wretched of the Earth
The best books like The Wretched of the Earth are Between the World and Me, The Souls of Black Folk, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon is about colonialism, decolonization, violence. 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.
- Between the World and Me
01
Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir
Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son, Samori, about what it means to live in a Black body in the United States.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - The Souls of Black Folk
02
W.E.B. Du Bois · History
The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, is W.E.B.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
03
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 →
- Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
04
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson · Memoir
Isabel Wilkerson's second book proposes a reframing of American racial hierarchy: rather than thinking of racism primarily as prejudice, she argues that the United States has operated as a caste society, with Black Americans at the bottom of a rigidly maintained hierarchy similar in its structure — though different in its specific mechanisms — to the caste systems of India and Nazi Germany.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Long Walk to Freedom
05
Nelson Mandela · Memoir
Nelson Mandela's autobiography traces his life from a rural Xhosa childhood in the Transkei to his release from prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years of incarceration, and ends with his election as South Africa's first democratically chosen president in 1994.
A kindred history read.
Read the summary → - Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
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Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
James M. McPherson · History
James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom, published in 1988, is the standard one-volume history of the Civil War era and won the Pulitzer Prize in the year of its publication.
Both dig into national identity.
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 violence.
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 → - The Black Jacobins
10
C.L.R. James · History
The Black Jacobins is C.L.R.
Both dig into colonialism.
Read the summary → - The Civil War: A Narrative
11
Shelby Foote · History
Shelby Foote spent twenty years writing this three-volume, 1.5-million-word account of the American Civil War, and the result is one of the most ambitious narrative history projects ever attempted by a single author.
Both dig into national identity.
Read the summary → - The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War
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The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War
Graham Robb · History
Graham Robb's premise is audacious: France was not discovered until relatively recently, and even then, most of what was discovered was quickly erased.
Both dig into national identity.
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Books like The Wretched of the Earth: quick answers
What are the best books like The Wretched of the Earth?
The best books like The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon are Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Wretched of the Earth, such as colonialism, decolonization, violence.
What should I read after The Wretched of the Earth?
A natural next read after The Wretched of the Earth is Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. A kindred history read. Other strong choices are The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson.
What books are similar to The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon?
The Wretched of the Earth centers on colonialism, decolonization, violence. Books with a similar feel include Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
