1. David Narrett, The Cherokees in War & at Peace 1670-1840.  An excellent book, one of the two best books on a single Native American tribe I have read.  The book actually aims at explaining the Cherokees and enlightening the reader – how rare.  In 1700, there were no more than 20,000 Cherokees, mostly in the southeast, so it is amazing what the author was able to come up with.  Will make the year’s best of non-fiction list.

2. Boyd van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions.  A very good look at the negotiations behind the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and just how driven by national self-interest they were, including colonial motives from the major colonial powers, who wished to retain stronger rights to put down uprisings.  The Soviets wanted strong protections against torture (!), as they thought this might limit the power of the United States to bomb their population into submission.  Yet nuclear war ended up being permitted, largely at the insistence of the U.S.  And so on.  The colonial subjects of course had not much say in any of this.

3. Jim Windolf, Where the Music Had To Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other — and the World.  An excellent and engaging book, which even serious fans can learn from.  The first time Paul McCartney heard the music of Bob Dylan he called it “folk crap,” to his brother Mike.  Dylan and McCartney grew closest in 1971, when Paul was making the Ram album in NYC.  Music from Big Pink is one of Paul’s favorite albums of all time.  Thingumybob, first composed by Paul in 1968, later received accretions from Harrison and Dylan and became an odd three-party composition, albeit never released on a recording.  And here is Paul’s account of bumping into Dylan at the airport.

If you wish to think about the Roman Empire more, there is Pliny & Co., How to Make Money: An Ancient Guide to Wealth Management.

Thomas Asbridge, The Black Death: A Global History of Humanity’s Most Devastating Pandemic is a good overview.

There is also Devon Cox, Beyond Beauty: A Portrait of John Singer Sargent.