Erik Larson's books take a slice of history, a specific story, and tell that story in an entertaining way. Larson writes stories about a specific person but does not isolate the story of that man and his accomplishments; he reveals the workings of the day, the time period, the dress, the mannerisms and language into the story.
In his book, Larson sometimes tells the story of not just one man of the time, but two men, who each alone made their individual impact but together he shows the opposing sides of the world at the time.
Larson's extensive research and writing style brings an event alive and with it, the history of that era. Larson's most popular book, Devil in the White City, for instance, stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 3 years. And that's simply because of his writing style. It's engaging and highly readable.
In an interview with identitytheory.com, he said, "Where historians go wrong, the professional, academic historians is that they leave the best stories literally in the footnotes. As if they are too frivolous to tell in the actual body of a text."
Photo by Joe Mabel Wikimedia
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Do You Enjoy Reading Historical Books Like These of Erik Larson's?
Yep - I like do read historical books with good endings.