"Serious nonfiction" is usually the sort of nonfiction books that would be comfortable in, but not sold exclusively in, a large university bookstore. It's easier to say what it excludes than what it is. It isn't:
- Inspirational
- How-to or instructional
- With rare exceptions, autobiographical or memoirish
- With rare exceptions, concerned with contemporary popular culture
- Written with the expectation that non-college-educated readers will be interested in it
Some examples of "serious nonfiction" include Stephen Hawking's
A Brief History of Time, David Landes's
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Daniel Boorstin's
The Discoverers, Richard Clarke's
Against All Enemies, Randy Shilts's
Conduct Unbecoming, and Norman Cantor's
The Civilization of the Middle Ages. Although all of these examples are somewhat "historical" in scope, that's just coincidence (they're all on bookshelves in this room); there is a lot of "serious nonfiction" out there that makes no pretensions of historical scope.
