Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blood Borders | 1957 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 2 | Paper and Iron | 1995 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 3 | Dundee and Newtyle Railway Including the Alyth and Blairgowrie Branches | 1995 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 4 | Virtual History | 1997 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 5 | The Pity of War | 1998 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 6 | 1914 | 2005 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 7 | The Ascent of Money | 2007 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 8 | Civilization | 2011 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 9 | Always Right | 2013 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
| 10 | Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe | 2021 | Niall Ferguson | Buy |
This collection gathers Niall Ferguson’s major standalone history titles, published between the 1950s and 2021. The books here cover some of his most widely read work. Virtual History (1997) introduced readers to counterfactual reasoning in historical analysis, asking “what if” questions about events from the English Civil War to the Cold War. The Pity of War (1998) challenged popular narratives about World War I, arguing that Britain’s decision to enter the war was a catastrophic error.
The Ascent of Money (2008) became Ferguson’s biggest commercial success, tracing the history of finance and its role in shaping the modern world. It was adapted into an Emmy-winning PBS documentary. Civilization (2011) examined why Western societies overtook the rest of the world after 1500. His most recent entry, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe (2021), looked at how governments and societies have handled disasters throughout history, from plagues to financial crashes. Paper and Iron (1995), his first academic book, examined the relationship between business and politics in Germany during the inflation era of the 1920s.