Whether you're celebrating the new year or in denial that it's already 2022, the turn of the calendar might inspire you to look back at history or forward into the future. These books, most of which consider a specific year from 1000-2140, can help you in your journey. Most are non-fiction, though there are some historical fiction and science fiction picks among them. For titles with e-books or e-audiobooks available, those resources are linked from the list. As a reminder, your local library card allows you to borrow e-books and e-audibooks from across Massachusetts! Click here to learn how.
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The year 1000 : when explorers connected the world--and globalization began
by Valerie Hansen The author of The Silk Road draws on extensive research in a groundbreaking history of the explorations and trade commissions that connected the world’s most advanced societies for the first time 1,000 years ago. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook via Boston Public Library using Libby. |
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The year 1000 : what life was like at the turn of the first millennium : an Englishman's world
by Robert Lacey A colorful, illuminating, and accurate survey of life in Christendom in 1000 AD reveals how various people viewed the close of a thousand years, how they envisioned the next millennium, and what their daily lives were like. |
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1356 : a novel
by Bernard Cornwell Bringing to life the violence, action, and heroism of the battlefield, this brilliant recreation of the Battle of the Poitiers in 1356 follows a severely outnumbered English army as they, through the ingenious planning of Edward the Black Prince, defeated the French and captured the Poitiers and French King John II. Borrow the e-book or the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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1434 : the year a magnificent Chinese fleet sailed to Italy and ignited the Renaissance
by Gavin Menzies The author of 1421 proposes a controversial argument that China initiated the Renaissance, in a painstakingly researched chronicle that cites the appearance of Chinese ambassadors in early fifteenth-century Tuscany who met with Pope Eugenius IV and shared history-influencing maps and technology. Borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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1453 : the holy war for Constantinople and the clash of Islam and the West
by Roger Crowley A comprehensive account of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 examines the end of the Byzantine Empire and of the medieval era in light of the rise of two separate worlds--the West and the Middle East--as well as the implications of the siege for the relationship between the West and Islam. Borrow the e-audiobook from partner network Minuteman using Libby. |
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Born in Blackness : Africa, Africans, and the making of the modern world, 1471 to the Second World War
by Howard W. French In a sweeping narrative that traverses 600 years, one that eloquently weaves precise historical detail with poignant personal reportage, Pulitzer Prize finalist Howard W. French retells the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in America, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's dehumanizing engagement with the "darkest" continent. Born in Blackness dramatically retrieves the lives of major African historical figures whose stories have been repeatedly etiolated and erased over centuries, from unimaginably rich medieval African emperors who traded with Asia; to Kongo sovereigns who heroically battled seventeenth-century European powers; to ex-slaves who liberated Haitians from bondage. Borrow the e-book from partner network NOBLE using Libby. |
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The 1619 Project : a new origin story
by Nikole Hannah-Jones This ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began on the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery reimagines if our national narrative actually started in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of 20-30 enslaved people from Africa. Borrow the e-book from MVLC or the e-audiobook from Boston Public Library using Libby. |
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1619 : Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy
by James P. P Horn A historian, shedding new light on the year that gave birth to both freedom and American slavery, touches upon the rise of democracy and the emergence of what would become one of the nation’s greatest challenges—racial inequality. Borrow the e-book from partner network OCLN or the e-audiobook from MVLC using Libby. |
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West of the Revolution : an uncommon history of 1776
by Claudio Saunt Details the other revolutions during 1776, including the reaction of the native residents of San Francisco in the wake of the first European settlement there and the devastation of the Aleutian Islands by the Russians' hunt for sea otters. |
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1776
by David G. McCullough The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian draws on personal correspondence and period diaries to present a landmark history of the American Revolution that ranges from the siege of Boston, to the American defeat at Brooklyn and retreat across New Jersey, to the stunning American victory at Trenton, capturing the people and events that transformed American history. Borrow the e-book using Libby or the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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1848 : year of revolution
by Michael Rapport Traces the roots of the revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848, from Paris and Milan to Krakow and Munich, and reveals how their legacy continues to shape the modern world. Borrow the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Gold! : the story of the 1848 Gold Rush and how it shaped a nation
by Fred Rosen A history of the 1848 California Gold Rush reveals how the hysteria over gold on the West Coast and the subsequent exodus of fortune seekers helped cement the "get-rich-quick" psychology within American culture. |
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1919
by Eve L Ewing An award-winning poet explores the story behind the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, which lasted 8 days and resulted in 38 deaths and almost 500 injuries, through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Savage peace : hope and fear in America, 1919
by Ann Hagedorn Explains how key events from the year 1919 are comparable to those of today's world, documenting how such problems as terrorism, governmental repression of civil liberties, and domestic surveillance were hotly debated period issues, in an account that cites the contributions of such figures as J. Edgar Hoover, Woodrow Wilson, and W. E. B. DuBois. |
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The Flood Year 1927 : A Cultural History
by Susan Scott Parrish The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which covered nearly thirty thousand square miles across seven states, was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history. Due to the speed of new media and the slow progress of the flood, this was the first environmental disaster to be experienced on a mass scale. As it moved from north to south down an environmentally and technologically altered valley, the flood provoked an intense and lasting cultural response. The Flood Year 1927 draws from newspapers, radio broadcasts, political cartoons, vaudeville, blues songs, poetry, and fiction to show how this event took on public meanings. Borrow the e-book using Hoopla. |
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One summer : America, 1927
by Bill Bryson The award-winning author of A Short History of Nearly Everything recounts the story of a pivotal cultural year in the United States when mainstream pursuits and historical events were marked by contributions by such figures as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and Al Capone. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook using Libby. |
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China 1945 : Mao's revolution and America's fateful choice
by Richard Bernstein The award-winning author of Ultimate Journey analyzes the pivotal events of 1945 that transitioned relations between America and China from relative amiability to instability, challenging familiar assumptions about modern Sino-American paradigms. Borrow the e-book from partner network SAILS using Libby. |
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Year zero : a history of 1945
by Ian Buruma A global history of the pivotal year 1945 as a new world emerged from the ruins of World War II. Regime change had come on a global scale: across Asia (including China, Korea, Indochina, and the Philippines, and of course Japan) and all of continental Europe. Out of the often vicious power struggles that ensued emerged the modern world as we know it. In human terms, the scale of transformation is almost impossible to imagine. Borrow the e-audiobook from partner network OCLN using Libby. |
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The shattering : America in the 1960s
by Kevin Boyle A National Book Award winner, covering the late 1950s through the early 1970s, focuses on the period’s fierce conflicts over race, sex, and war, capturing the inspiring and brutal events of this passionate time with a remarkable empathy that restores the humanity in those making this history. Borrow the e-book from Boston Public Library using Libby or the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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11/22/63 : a novel
by Stephen King Receiving a horrific essay from a GED student with a traumatic past, high-school English teacher Jake Epping is enlisted by a friend to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a mission for which he must reacclimate to 1960s culture and befriend troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook from Boston Public Library using Libby. |
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Summer of '69
by Elin Hilderbrand A pregnant eldest sibling confined to Boston, a middle-sister civil rights activist on Martha's Vineyard, an infantry soldier brother deployed to Vietnam, and a lonely 13-year-old youngest child stuck with her grandmother on Nantucket find their lives upended by troubling family secrets. Borrow the e-book from MVLC or the e-audiobook from partner network OCLN using Libby. |
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Rock me on the water : 1974 : the year Los Angeles transformed movies, music, television, and politics
by Ronald Brownstein The Pulitzer finalist documents the kaleidoscopic year during which transformative talents from Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard, and Beverly Hills heavily influenced pop culture, politics and social movements. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook from Boston Public Library using Libby. |
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Muhammad Ali, Kinshasa 1974
by Jean David Morvan Award-winning writer JD Morvan and renowned photographer Abbas' stunning graphic novel masterpiece uses iconic photos to uniquely illustrate the historical 'Rumble in the Jungle' boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Abbas immortalizes this legendary meeting, having kept his photos in his personal archives for 36 years before unveiling them to the world. In a cross between a documentary, photo report, and graphic novel, this book reveals the context of the most powerful photographs taken by one of the greatest photographers of the Magnum Photos agency. |
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The next 100 years : a forecast for the 21st century
by George Friedman The founder of one of the world's leading private intelligence companies offers a thought-provoking analysis of current trends and events, as well as historical and geopolitical patterns, to speculate about the changes that will unfold over the course of the next century. Borrow the e-book from Boston Public Library using Libby or the e-audiobook using Hoopla. |
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Year of plagues : a memoir of 2020
by Fred D'Aguiar Drawing from two cultural perspectives, an acclaimed British-Guyanese writer and award-winning poet combines personal reminiscence and philosophy to reflect on a year of personal and global crisis. |
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The raging 2020s : companies, countries, people--and the fight for our future
by Alec Ross Through interviews with influential thinkers and stories of corporate activism and malfeasance, government failure and renewal, and innovative economic and political models, one of the world’s leading experts on innovation proposes a new social contract to restore the balance of power between government, citizens and business. Borrow the e-audiobook from Boston Public Library using Libby. |
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AI 2041 : ten visions for our future
by Kai-Fu Lee In a groundbreaking blend of science and imagination, the former president of Google China and a leading writer of speculative fiction join forces to answer an urgent question: How will artificial intelligence change our world over the next twenty years? In this provocative work that juxtaposes speculative storytelling and science, Lee, one of the world's leading AI experts, has teamed up with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to reveal how AI will trickle down into every aspect of our world by 2041. In ten gripping short stories that crisscross the globe, coupled with incisive analysis, Lee and Chen explore AI's challenges and its potential. Borrow the e-book or e-audiobook from Boston Public Library using Libby. |
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Antarctica 2041 : my quest to save the earth's last wilderness
by Robert Swan Making predictions about imminent environmental dangers associated with the 2041 expiration of an international treaty protecting Antarctica, an activist and adventurer describes his witness to environmental threats and what he believes can be done to prevent specific problems. |
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Moscow 2042
by Vladimir Vonovich The year is 1982, just two years before that made famous by Orwell. An exiled Soviet writer discovers that a German travel agency is booking flights through a time warp to a variety of tempting sites and dates in the future. Moscow? The year 2042? How can he resist? |
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Paris 2119
by Zep Celebrated author Zep and illustrator Dominique Bertail weave a mystery borne from humanity's addiction to convenience and technology and the dangers such addiction can propose. This gorgeously illustrated, poignant sci-fi tale aims a spotlight on current social trends such as over-consumption, climate change, identity theft, and transhumanism. |
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New York 2140
by Kim Stanley Robinson When a New York City of the near future is submerged by rising waters, the residents rapidly adapt the thriving metropolis until it becomes a vibrant, though permanently changed, canal region of island skyscrapers and remarkable inhabitants. Borrow the e-book from MVLC or the e-audiobook from partner network CW MARS using Libby. |