The official Book-of-the-Month Club, founded in 1926, set off a trend in publishing and reading that lasts into the present day, 85 years later. BOMC delivers a single book, chosen by its editorial staff, to millions of subscribers each month. Quickly gaining popularity, even through the Great Depression and WWII, the BOMC spawned many copycats, including the Doubleday Book Club. History lovers may be surprised to find that non-fiction options are available with these monthly programs.
History Book Club
An obvious first choice for History book lovers, the official History Book Club offers a new membership teaser that sounds enticing: 4 books for $1 each, plus shipping. Hardcovers and paperbacks are among the selections, but readers whose tastes run more toward university press offerings may be disappointed. In-depth monographs and scholarly history rarely appear as BOMC selections for this popular option.
On the other hand, more mainstream crossover historian authors, such as David McCullough, Richard North Patterson, Eric Foner, Doris Kearnes Goodwin, and Susan Bauer appear as author options, giving hardcore history readers with more scholarly tastes the ability to buy books that are the Holy Grail of history writing: impeccably researched and engagingly written.
Doubleday Book Club
Unlike the History Book Club, the Doubleday history catalog is just part of a much wider publisher's offerings. The authors represented in this monthly mailing include Sebastian Junger, Alison Weir, Ken Burns, Joe Ellis and Hugh Ambrose. Once again, engaging prose prevails for insatiable history buffs.
Doubleday's book selection includes fewer works by traditional historians, and more choices by journalists or writers with strong research skills. These works tend to be more focused on storytelling and less centered on historiography, periodization, and original research.
Book-of-the-Month Club
The least scholarly of options for history lovers, the BOMC provides a more mainstream set of choices, well-suited to readers who are fairly new to reading history or those who prefer to focus on narrative and the emotional "oomph" of a historical scenario. BOMC is the parent company for History Book Club, and although there is some overlap, by and large the offerings are different, as the selections target different types of readers.
Regardless of readers' tastes, a history BOMC makes a perfect gift, to a fellow reader or to yourself, as a way to collect favorite authors' works, to brush up on new research and understandings about history, or to stay up to date on the latest controversy.
Melanie Zoltan - Melanie Zoltan is a former college professor and administrator who has written for About.com, PCWorld, Brain Child, Thomson Gale, and ...
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