FQ, I'm disappointed, I learned far more reading about James J. Curly,Big Bill Thompson, and William M. Tweed. Herodotus, Tuchmann and Keegan helped.

As may be apparent I'm more a student of Machiavelli, than the more Utopian thinkers.
Actually I was surprised to see Hunter S Thompson on your list, Never could figure out if he was a genius who occasionally, (OK frequently ) did acid, or just a nut case who was occasionally right

but his style is much easier to read than most of those other guys.
Style is why I could never get through Shakespeare but enjoyed Virgil and Homer.
Thank God you didn't include any Russians, those guys ALL take 200 pages to say "it was a pretty sunset over the little craphole village, so we beat up some Jews"