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iarwain1 comments on The Best Popular Books on Every Subject - Less Wrong Discussion

13 Post author: iarwain1 19 May 2015 01:02AM

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Comment author: iarwain1 20 May 2015 12:58:36AM *  4 points [-]

So now that I've relaxed my own criteria, here's my list:

World History

  • Atlas of World History by John Haywood (unfortunately out of print): Really excellent for getting a detailed balanced understanding of world history. Also excellent at pointing out causes and effects. Good coverage of political, demographic, and economic history, but very poor for cultural and intellectual history.
  • Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (LW summary): Some controversial positions presented as accepted fact, but otherwise very good overview of the social science aspects of the history of humanity.

Biology

Physics: See here

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 24 May 2015 09:22:33PM *  1 point [-]

I guess that Haywood's Atlas is out of print because there is something like a second edition, although I could be wrong in that characterization.