Heads up, amateur historians: here’s an incredible deal on two beefy tomes for your digital bookshelf. Penguin is running $0.99 sales on the Kindle ebook version of two of its biggest history books. The latest editions of The Penguin History of the World (see at Amazon) and The Penguin History of the United States of America (see on Amazon) are both on sale for $0.99 each. The sale ends tonight, so grab ‘em if you want to learn a thing or two for super cheap.
The Penguin History of the World: 6th Edition
The Penguin History of the World is currently in its 6th edition. It’s been a landmark book ever since J.M. Roberts published the first edition in 1976. Roberts was a renowned and popular British historian who updated the book many times over the ensuing decades until his death in 2003. At that point, Penguin brought on the wonderfully named historian Odd Arne Westad to continue editing and revising the tome. In physical form, it’s a doorstopper of a book, ringing in at 1,280 pages. If you grab this deal, the math works out to roughly $0.00077 per page.
The Penguin History of the United States of America: New Edition
As for The Penguin History of the USA, it was first published in 1985 as The Longman History of the United States of America. It’s by Hugh Brogan, a British historian and biographer who, it so happens, used to correspond regularly with J.R.R. Tolkien. In fact, a number of Tokien's letters to Brogan are included in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (see at Amazon). Anyway, this book kicks off in 30,000 BCE, when it’s thought the first humans may have come over the land-bridge that’s now the Bering Strait, and runs up to the Reagan era of the 1980s.
If you’re like me and you’re not exactly a history buff, but you’re generally interested history as a concept, it can be hard to find good books to read. Most history books, after all, hone in on one time period, or one major historical event. That’s how historians (and most academics and professionals, for that matter) work: they specialize. But if you want a broad overview of all of human history? Or of the history of the United States? Decent one-volume books on those broad topics, that cover that much history, are a bit harder to find.
Penguin’s pair of history books are some of the most popular, and have been for decades. They go in chronological order, so you can follow the broad arc of history over centuries or millennia.
Again, the deals won’t last forever. There’s actually a ticking clock on the page for the USA history book; that deal ends at midnight Pacific Time. As for the History of the World, that one doesn’t have so definite an end, but you can bet it won’t be a buck forever, so add it to your Kindle library sooner than later if you’re interested.
Chris Reed is a senior commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
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