Recommended reads for university kudos

[Moosferatu]

So I'm filling out my UCAS form for a History degree and need one or two books to read, partly for interest and partly because I want to put them on my personal statement show the unis I'm applying to that I've read around the subject.

I wouldn't mind some recommendations for notable history book authors that I can check out so I'm looking to you history buffs.

N.B I'm looking at any authors that cover modern, medieval, or antiquity.

[Captain Blackadder]

What do you mean by modern? Some historians take the modern age from elightnment or do you mean 20th C?

[Stavroforos]

You need to be more specific about what history you want to read.

[Moosferatu]

I'm particularly looking for texts on the British Empire, Fall of Rome, Chinese history, and the Crusades.

[hellheaven1987]

I'm particularly looking for texts on the British Empire, Fall of Rome, Chinese history, and the Crusades.

Finish all Chinese 24 Histories and you are set; however, I never see an English edition before and even in Chinese most are in traditional Chinese format.

[motiv-8]

Fall of Rome

Adrian Goldsworthy, How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower
Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire
Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization

Chinese history

Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China

the Crusades

Zoe Oldenbourg, The Crusades
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History
Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades (multi-volume)
Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives

[Captain Blackadder]

The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by James
I can't remember the title but there is a great book on the fall of the roman empire that says 476 is an abitraty date and that it can be said the WRE lasted far longer even up to 610 if you are fairly liberal.

[MAXlMUS]

for the crusades :
Steve Runciman, A history of the Crusades (very impartial read, probably the best work on the crusades)
René Grousset, The Epic of the Crusades, 3 volumes (pro-french)
Amin Maalouf : The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (pro-arab)

one of my first year classes was about the levantine crusades, these books helped me alot

[Captain Blackadder]

Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire

That is the one I was thinking of great little book

[Stavroforos]

For the fall of Rome I too would suggest The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, and Riley-Smith for the Crusades is excellent.