Ask HN: Good “History from the perspective of a private individual” books?

Books that immerse you in the zeitgeist of an era through the lens of a private individual's life. Books that don't describe historical events from outside, or from above, but from the perspective of an ordinary person whose life was shaped or touched by them and who saw and felt them as they were happening at the time.

I'm thinking here primarily of memoirs of real people. But if there's a well-researched novel that did this for you, please do share it as well!

Some examples I have loved so far:

- Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday (Vienna in the 1890s, Europe pre-WWI and during the wars)

- Albert Ellis, All Out! (life in New York in the 1920s - electric cars, subway sexual encounters)

- M. Mitchell Waldrop, The Dream Machine (the history of computing, as well as its intersections with the Cold War, with behaviorism in psychology, and other things, through the life of J.C.R. Licklider)

- Sebastian Haffner, Defying Hitler (life in Berlin during the rise of Hitler and during WWII, written in such a plain and clear language that my 6-year-old can vividly picture much of what he's describing)