Gordon Thomas Non-Fiction books in order

Gordon Thomas's non-fiction covers espionage, disasters, World War II history, and the Catholic Church across 32 books published between 1969 and 2019.

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 1902 1969 Gordon Thomas Buy
2 The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster 1971 Gordon Thomas Buy
3 Shipwreck: The Strange Fate of the Morro Castle 1972 Gordon Thomas Buy
4 Voyage of the Damned 1974 Gordon Thomas Buy
5 Issels: The Biography of a Doctor 1975 Gordon Thomas Buy
6 The Day Guernica Died 1975 Gordon Thomas Buy
7 Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima 1977 Gordon Thomas Buy
8 The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 1979 Gordon Thomas Buy
9 Bed of Nails: The Story of the Amazing Blondini 1981 Gordon Thomas Buy
10 Anatomy of an Epidemic 1981 Gordon Thomas Buy
11 Pontiff 1983 Gordon Thomas Buy
12 The Operation 1984 Gordon Thomas Buy
13 The Year of Armageddon: The Pope and the Bomb 1984 Gordon Thomas Buy
14 Desire and Denial: Celibacy and the Church 1986 Gordon Thomas Buy
15 The Jesus Conspiracy: An Investigative Reporter’s Look at an Extraordinary Life & Death 1987 Gordon Thomas Buy
16 The Trial 1987 Gordon Thomas Buy
17 Journey into Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control & Medical Abuse 1987 Gordon Thomas Buy
18 Enslaved 1989 Gordon Thomas Buy
19 Chaos Under Heaven: The Shocking Story of China’s Search for Democracy 1991 Gordon Thomas Buy
20 Trespass into Temptation 1997 Gordon Thomas Buy
21 Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad 1999 Gordon Thomas Buy
22 Seeds of Fire: China and the Story Behind the Attack on America 2001 Gordon Thomas Buy
23 Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy 2003 Gordon Thomas Buy
24 Human Beings: The Weird and the Wonderful 2005 Gordon Thomas Buy
25 Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence Inside MI5 and MI6 2009 Gordon Thomas Buy
26 Operation Exodus: From the Nazi Death Camps to the Promised Land: A Perilous Journey That Shaped Israel’s Fate 2009 Gordon Thomas Buy
27 Secret Wars / Inside British Intelligence 2009 Gordon Thomas Buy
28 Prisoners in Rabaul: Civilians Surviving Japanese Captivity, 1942-1945 2012 Gordon Thomas Buy
29 The Pope’s Jews: The Vatican’s Secret Plan to Save Jews from the Nazis 2012 Gordon Thomas Buy
30 Magdalene: Jesus and the Woman Who Loved Him 2014 Gordon Thomas Buy
31 Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE 2017 Gordon Thomas Buy
32 Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule 2019 Gordon Thomas Buy

Gordon Thomas’s non-fiction career spanned five decades, from The Day the World Ended in 1969 to Defying Hitler in 2019. His early work focused on disaster narratives, recreating events like the Mount Pelee eruption, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the sinking of the Morro Castle in vivid detail. Voyage of the Damned (1974) told the story of Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis, and was adapted into a film.

His focus shifted toward intelligence and espionage in the 1980s and beyond. Journey into Madness (1987) exposed CIA mind control experiments, while Gideon’s Spies (1999) became the standard popular account of the Mossad. Later works like Secret Wars (2009) covered a century of British intelligence, and The Pope’s Jews (2012) examined Vatican efforts to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. His last books addressed World War II resistance, including Shadow Warriors (2017) and Defying Hitler (2019).

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Gordon Thomas Non-Fiction series?

There are 32 books in the Gordon Thomas Non-Fiction series, published between 1969 and 2019.

What is the first book in the Gordon Thomas Non-Fiction series?

The first book in the Gordon Thomas Non-Fiction series is The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 1902, published in 1969.

Which Gordon Thomas non-fiction book should I read first?

Gideon’s Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad (1999) is his most popular and accessible work. For readers interested in disaster history, Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima (1977) or Voyage of the Damned (1974) are strong starting points.

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