Books Set at Pivotal Turning Points in History

Lusitania disaster, 1915

With World War I reaching the end of its first year, the luxury liner Lusitania set sail, believing that, despite it being wartime, maritime law and honor would allow the ship a peaceful voyage. Instead, its torpedoing and sinking by a German U-boat would take over a thousand lives and eventually push America into joining the war on the side of the Allies. Larson’s thrilling retelling highlights new details and makes each character—from the boat’s architect to President Woodrow Wilson to its passengers—stand out in their impact on the voyage and the ensuing disaster.

WWII air raids, 1941

By moving back through time, Waters highlights three fierce, tenacious women staying alive during World War II. Whether bravely driving ambulances and sorting through homes reduced to rubble, or exploring their sexuality with one another, these characters represent the larger female population, who were granted freedom and agency in the war, but then forced to abandon that new independence once the men returned home.

Puritan era, 1642

No other book sums up the Puritans’ toxic blend of private sin and public shame like Hawthorne’s classic. The bold red “A” borne by Hester Prynne has become an unforgettable trope; the novel was one of the first to tackle the taboo themes of adultery through a literary lens.

Attempted assassination of Bob Marley, 1976
New York City crack wars, 1980s
Redefining Jamaica, 1990s

Just as James’ Man Booker Prize-winning novel has seven (really, many more) killings, it also straddles more than one turning point. Starting with gunmen storming “the singer’s” home just days before the Smile Jamaica Concert, the novel carries these motifs of violence and invasion through the next two decades—especially where the CIA’s involvement in Jamaica changes the course of history more than once.

The Salem witch trials, 1692
Second Red Scare, 1953

Miller wrote his classic play about a few girls’ hysteria snowballing into the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for another turning point in history: the 1950s’ McCarthyism, during which the House Un-American Activities Committee helped to blacklist prominent members of the entertainment industry, including Miller himself.

Taiping Rebellion, 1850-1864

Plenty of friendships can’t survive the misunderstandings and betrayals that weaken Lily and Snow Flower’s laotong bond. But few are as resilient as these “old sames,” who weather not only the aforementioned petty squabbles, but also literally keep each other alive during the bloody civil war that forces them to escape into the mountains during a savage winter.

Croatian War of Independence, 1991

In Nović’s debut novel, it is 2001 and 20-year-old college student Ana is haunted—not by the fresh terror of 9/11, but by the wars of her childhood in Croatia a decade earlier. While Ana is in denial to her friends and boyfriend, flashbacks reveal how she lost her family in the war and was forced to become a child soldier as the only means of survival. Just as the Yugoslav Wars broke up Yugoslavia into independent nations, so too does this novel follow a girl’s brutal coming-of-age.

100 turning points in history

Perhaps it’s cheating to include MacGregor’s massive book (inspired by his landmark radio program with the BBC), but this collection brings both quantity and quality. By examining objects ranging from friezes to figurines to flagons, MacGregor asks questions about how competing regimes shape their citizens, the movement of goods and ideas, and how we first started identifying as humans.