Books like Shi ji

Shi ji by Sima Qian reads as scholarly, epic. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.

History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides · 1526

Both explore power & human nature

76% genome match

-- Annales

P. Cornelius Tacitus · 1600

Both explore power & empire

80% genome match

History

Herodotus · 1494

Both explore empire & human nature

58% genome match

The histories

Polybius · 1542

Both explore empire & power

71% genome match

Description of Greece

Pausanias · 1613

Both explore history

66% genome match

History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, And Assyria

Gaston Maspero · 1901

Same nonfiction feel

62% genome match

Dell'Arte della Guerra

Niccolò Machiavelli · 1540

Both explore history

60% genome match

The history of the great plague in London in the year 1665

Daniel Defoe · 1722

Same classic feel

60% genome match

Geographia

Ptolemy · 1478

Same nonfiction feel

62% genome match

De bello judaico

Flavius Josephus · 1481

Same classic feel

59% genome match

Geography

Strabo · 1480

Both explore history

62% genome match

Pliny

Pliny the Elder · 1938

Both explore history

62% genome match