Dana Snitzky

Top 10 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World Liaquat Ahamed. Penguin Press, June 2 ($32, ISBN 978-1-59420-417-3) The bursting of the first global economic bubble led to the failure of Reconstruction, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, and an explosion of antisemitism, according to the Pulitzer-winning author of Lords of Finance.

Top 10 Biological War: A Scenario Annie Jacobsen. Dutton, July 28 ($32, ISBN 979-8-217-04603-4) In the vein of her bestseller Nuclear War, Pulitzer finalist Jacobsen outlines the aftermath of a hypothetical biological attack on the U.S. Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family—and the World Gabriel Sherman. Simon & Schuster, Feb.

Top 10 Daring to Be Free: Resistance and Rebellion in the Atlantic Slave World Sudhir Hazareesingh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Dec. 2 ($32, ISBN 978-0-374-61107-1) Historian Hazareesingh spotlights the extent to which enslaved Black people took up arms to emancipate themselves, positing that they were inspired less by Enlightenment ideals than by their own African heritage. Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival Stephen Greenblatt. Norton, Sept.