L. J. Cheney

I blame this book for giving me my lifelong interest in history. I can't remember the first time I read it, or where it came from, but it was a long time ago and I've read it at least half a dozen times since. It is admirably written and has a grand sense of humanity. Yeah, I know, Great Men in droves and as Eurocentric as you can get, but if I had to pick a single volume to take to a desert island...

Pry it from my cold dead hands -- or those of my descendants.

Quaint.