A history book was a book that described and explained the history of a country, area, or subject, like a textbook.
In 2151, Charles Tucker III responded to T'Pol's information by saying, "just how I always wanted to get in the history books." (ENT: "Unexpected")
In 2378, Captain Kathryn Janeway told Lieutenant Reginald Barclay that he earned a place in the history books for establishing the first trans-galactic com-link during Operation Watson. Barclay claimed he couldn't take all the credit since Harry Kim and Seven of Nine suggested bouncing a tachyon beam off of a quantum singularity to make it work. (VOY: "Author, Author")