Short history books
The shortest good history books, from eyewitness accounts to micro-histories: Hiroshima, Longitude, On Tyranny. A genuinely small field, which is why this list is honest about its size. Last verified 29 August 2026.
Page counts are for standard UK paperbacks and vary by edition. Where a book sits close to the line we say so.
Short history is a genuinely small field, and this is close to all of it: the discipline rewards completeness, so the definitive works run long and live elsewhere on the site rather than on a list with a page cap.
Describe the short history you’re after
Eyewitness and primary narrative
- Hiroshima, John Hersey, 1946, about 152 pages
- Night, Elie Wiesel, 1960, about 120 pages. Holocaust memoir, assigned here rather than to the non-fiction list
- If This Is a Man, also published as Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi, 1947, about 187 pages. Assigned here rather than to the non-fiction list
- Homage to Catalonia, Orwell, 1938, about 230 pages
Micro-histories, one subject each
- Longitude, Dava Sobel, 1995, about 184 pages
- How the Irish Saved Civilization, Cahill, 1995, about 245 pages
- The Professor and the Madman, Winchester, 1998, about 260 pages
Lessons from history
- On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder, 2017, about 128 pages. Routed here rather than to the non-fiction list
Graphic history
Format flagged, because it changes the reading experience entirely.
- Persepolis Volume 1, Satrapi, about 150 pages. Graphic memoir.
- Maus, Spiegelman, about 296 pages in the complete edition. Graphic memoir (just under 300 in the right edition, check before you buy).
On the line
These sit close enough to 300 that the edition decides it (just under 300 in the right edition, check before you buy).
- Endurance, Alfred Lansing, 1959, about 282 pages
- A Little History of the World, Gombrich, 2005, about 284 pages
- The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank, about 283 in the abridged edition pages. The definitive edition runs to about 330, so pick the edition carefully
The gateway: Very Short Introductions
Oxford’s Very Short Introductions run about 120 to 160 pages each and cover a whole shelf of subjects, which makes them the reliable way into a period rather than a single book about it. Three worth starting with: The First World War, The Roman Empire, and The Russian Revolution.
Highstreett is a book search engine: describe what you want in your own words, built so your money reaches independent bookshops.
More by length: short books under 300 pages, sorted by how you want to read.
Questions
Why are there so few short history books?
Because the discipline rewards completeness, and completeness costs pages. The short ones tend to be eyewitness accounts or single-subject stories rather than surveys: Hiroshima is about 152 pages, Longitude about 184, On Tyranny about 128. That is most of the field, not a sample of it.
What is the best short history book to start with?
Hiroshima, at about 152 pages, which is reporting rather than survey history and has not aged. Longitude is the best of the micro-histories at about 184 pages. If you want something to argue with, On Tyranny is about 128 and is built to be read in a sitting.