Beautifully written history.

A propos of this discussion on Saturday, I'm trying to come up with a list of history books -- emphatically not historical novels, but solid history books -- that are written so well that one would want to read them as great literature. I mean to set a very high standard. That is, David McCullough isn't good enough. (By the way, his blog is... not even a blog.) Anyway, offer up some suggestions for someone who wants a sublime aesthetic experience while reading history.

I'd like to do the same for some other categories of nonfiction: law, science, politics, philosophy, art.