A piece of rollicking historical fiction for the Cold War or Authoritarian States:
A lovely wee book I read this Christmas about Sarajevo - Some background in there for Paper 1 (Kosovo)
This is a classic novel on the evils of imperialism. It focusses on Africa. Everyone should read this, especially students doing Rwanda. And it's short!
Jung Chang writes a brilliant historical novel reflecting the lives of herself and her mother and grandmother through three phases of Chinese history in the 20th century. One woman is a concubine, the next is a Mao cadre and the third (Chang) is a product of the post-Mao era. A historian who writes in a very readable style. It's a whopper though: be prepared to commit yourself to the task!
Here are 3 Ken Follett books. Read these and you have the whole of 20th century western history covered and a goodly portion of eastern history too:
Another novel that covers a lot of the 20th century, but with a whole lot of humour:
