Reddit reviews History: A Very Short Introduction
We found 5 Reddit comments about History: A Very Short Introduction. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Oxford University Press
I was pretty impressed with the Very Short Introduction series' History, but that may not really qualify as "academic". The author of that book, John Arnold, also wrote a solid book called What is Medieval History, if you're interested in a more specific look.
The last book I read was History: A Short Introduction which was assigned reading for me in college. For whatever reason I felt like re-reading it which is stupid because there are a ton of books on my shelf right now I haven't gotten around to yet. Last weekend I picked up Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and with school starting I'm not sure when I'll get around to reading it.
You should look into the [Very Short Introduction] (http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/series/VeryShortIntroductions/ series) series. About 342 books that are all in the range of 100 to 200 pages. They cover anything from [History] (http://www.amazon.com/History-Introduction-John-H-Arnold/dp/019285352X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346605671&sr=1-2&keywords=a+very+short+introduction) to [Mathematics] (http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Short-Introduction-Timothy-Gowers/dp/0192853619/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346605671&sr=1-4&keywords=a+very+short+introduction) and even really specific topics like [Relativity] (http://www.amazon.com/Relativity-Short-Introduction-Russell-Stannard/dp/0199236224/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346605803&sr=1-15&keywords=a+very+short+introduction). It's a gold mine of information and the best part is that all of the books are usually under $10.00's. They're perfect for what you're looking for.
If I absolutely had to recommend a single book to familiarize someone with what historians do and the study of history itself, I'd probably go with John Arnold's History: A Very Short Introduction. It's commonly assigned in undergraduate history programs for that purpose.
It's definitely not ideal to restrict yourself to a single book, but you've got to start somewhere and Arnold's book is a good place to begin. Beyond that, the /r/AskHistorians book list is a great resource.
History: A Very Short Introduction
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/019285352X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519248671&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=history+a+very+short+introduction&dpPl=1&dpID=514Uq4p%2Bt4L&ref=plSrch