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I'm just finishing up Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom which is about the taiping rebellion. While it's really more a light generally study on the subject, it is rather interesting. Especially in the fact he tries to cover great power politics at the same time about their interventions in the war.
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Aug 19, 2012 20:01
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MadRhetoric posted:Any recommendations for books on the Opium War/Boxer Rebellion/Shanghai in the 1930s? Anything within that century of Chinese history would be great. There isn't a lot available anymore about these topics in English. I would recommend however Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom which is about the Taiping Rebellion. It also lays out the reason the British didn't just conquer China (they figured it would cost too much to run)
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Dec 1, 2012 16:04
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Ambulocetus posted:So, how about the War of 1812? I'm looking for some kind of an overview. Pierre Berton's War of 1812, that's all you need
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Jan 23, 2013 04:51
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dokmo posted:I've only read The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company by John Keay, which was pretty boring but thorough and apparently accurate and well received by historians. It seems like there should be a more general study of the whole history including the Portuguese and Dutch and French companies, but I don't know what that would be. I was going to second this. It's not complete by any means but it is a decent layman's look the British Company. Merchant Kings is poo poo however, don't read it. Peter Newman's Empire of the Bay is pretty interesting if you would want to read about the Hudson's Bay Company and it's various rivals in North America.
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Mar 6, 2013 00:41
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TheBandersnatch posted:Does anyone have suggestions for books about Quebec history? I have A People's History of Quebec but am finding it a bit of a slog. Perhaps a more targeted book, if any exist? Can you read French at a college level?
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Aug 25, 2013 17:55
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I would also recommend The World Crisis by Churchill. Honestly it's not a great book but given he is the only leader to real sit down and write about both wars it's worth a read.
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Oct 27, 2013 05:14
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FingersMaloy posted:I would steer clear from Churchill's writings unless you're more interested in Churchill than his topic. He's a windbag, egotistic, and his views were even dated when he was writing them. I haven't read the Crisis but I've read several volumes of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Marlborough, The Second World War and a couple of his other books for the purpose of a historiography paper. I"m pretty sure you got a big fat F on that paper if you wrote it from that point of view. They aren't academic works by any means but they are pretty much the only meaningful first person accounts of both world wars on a full leadership level where he would have known everything. Lloyd George's books on WWI are way more self-serving and out of print at this point so it's hard to read them. You are never going to have the kind of access Churchill had writing those books, and you won't in our lifetime. Therefore basic historiography says they are worth-wild.
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Nov 2, 2013 19:56
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Stravinsky posted:I actually like Davies as he never really hides his biases. I would love it if the first chapter of every history book just stated boldly what angle/idea will be pushed so that I know exactly what to disregarded. I love academic histories as they all pretty much start like this. On another note I'm reading the most recent biography of Edward VII and it pulls no punches on anyone.
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Dec 18, 2013 00:19
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Does anyone know of an English language history of the South-East Asian Kingdoms
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Aug 22, 2014 15:55
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CNN Sports Ticker posted:
Has anyone ever seen the mini-series based on this book?
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Nov 23, 2014 17:19
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Riosan posted:His book on Reagan, The Invisible Bridge, came out last year. I haven't read it yet, been meaning to start Nixonland. He wrote in a Reddit AMA that his fourth one (presumably on HW Bush) would be the last one in the series. I just picked this up for a trip next week, the only thing I can say for sure is its a bit shorter then Nixonland and has received less press due to Reagan's status. I'd say a 4th one would have to be about W. And the rise of the religious right more.
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Apr 19, 2015 21:15
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I finished the Invisible Bridge while as I was on vacation. While it was interesting (not as good as Nixonland or the one on Goldwater) it just didn't cover a long enough time period.
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May 6, 2015 19:57
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Most of the Etruscan histories are simply lost works, its not that the Romans didn't record them.
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Jul 11, 2015 02:25
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Buggalo posted:What are some good books on pre-European contact sub-Saharan Africa? I figure it may be scarce pickings due to records being lost/destroyed/nonexistent, but I would love to learn what I can about the people and empires and culture. How good is your French?
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Jul 26, 2015 22:27
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Does anyone know a good book on the early years of Hollywood and the golden age.
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Aug 1, 2015 01:08
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Tulalip Tulips posted:I'm looking for some good stuff about the Gilded Age. I just finished reading Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage by Hugh Brewster (it's a pretty good and really easy read on the first class passengers who lived and died on the Titanic) and it's given me an urge to read more about the time frame since I'm not really very familiar it. I'd suggest the House of Morgan, Carnige and the Commodore which is about the Vanderbilt s to start. They will give you a good read on the three great titans of the Gilded Age.
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Oct 1, 2015 03:42
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Railing Kill posted:It sure was! It's really bad, and is less historically sound than some speculative fiction that I have read. It misunderstands: This is a theory that really annoys me as their really is just one thing that kind of jumpstarted the Italian Renaissance.
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Oct 14, 2015 16:28
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Railing Kill posted:Maybe I should clarify: 1434 doesn't understand that "The Renaissance" was a widespread thing and that it wasn't started by one event. It claims that "The Renaissance" was one thing, and that a visit from China started it. My post was a bit muddled by too many negatives. I personally follow the Sack and Follow theory of the Renaissance as the major kickstarter but that's justme
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Oct 23, 2015 18:20
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Jive One posted:http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Europe-History-Roman-Empire/dp/0674058097 There is a very good book on the House of Hapsburg with the same name which covers the HRE pretty well, even if it's the dryest book I've ever read.
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Oct 31, 2015 20:45
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vyelkin posted:
This is going way up my to-read list.
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Nov 25, 2015 18:19
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Grand Fromage posted:Thanks for the computer suggestions, I'm checking a few out now. I was also reading a random Wikipedia article and therefore want to read something about the Victorian era Royal Navy. Preferably about Asian stations but I'm okay with anything good. I second this
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Apr 26, 2016 23:55
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Jamwad Hilder posted:didn't get any responses in the milotary history thread so I thought I'd try here. Could anyone recommend me some good books on the Napoleonic Wars? I'd specifically be interested in a biography of Arthur Wellesley or Horatio Nelson, or the Peninsular campaign, but I'm open to any suggestions if there's something you think is really great. I think the Longford bio is still the best modern one on Wellington.
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May 11, 2016 18:14
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tumor looking batty posted:Are there any good books on the Agricultural Revolution? Which one?
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May 16, 2016 04:43
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tumor looking batty posted:There's more than one? Well right how we are in the middle of a biotech Agricultural Revolution where we are updating what our plants can do pretty much on the fly. Before that we and the industrial one which started in lets say the 30's and killed the family farm and before that we and the creation of the steel plow which opened grasslands up to farming.
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May 16, 2016 21:30
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learnincurve posted:Lot of historians know how to write academic papers but not how to write in an entertaining way. I tend to read the reviews and if Mr I'm a real Historian don't you know, shows up and bitches about the narrative style then I know they have tried to make it readable for people wanting to learn, rather than being a book for people who already know. Historians writing for public consumption is a pretty new field in history. It will more then likely be another 20 or so years before a generation of historians raised to write public histories really starts publishing.
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May 27, 2016 04:13
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FMguru posted:John Julius Norwich (the guy who did that epic three-volume history of Byzantium) did a single-volume history of Venice. I've not read it, but based on his other work, it's probably worth investigating. He also has a single-volume general history of the Mediterranean. It's pretty good, not super detailed but will give you a really good overview.
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May 29, 2016 23:05
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Grand Fromage posted:Are there any histories in English of the Khmer empire? The only Cambodia books I can find are Khmer Rouge stuff and I want to know about the people who built Angkor. I read a history of south east Asia whose name I will look up for you. Its the best I've found on the region
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Jun 23, 2016 06:18
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Grand Fromage posted:Are there any histories in English of the Khmer empire? The only Cambodia books I can find are Khmer Rouge stuff and I want to know about the people who built Angkor. Here's the name of the book for you A History of Southeast Asia by Arthur Cotterell
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Jun 24, 2016 16:34
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Cyrano4747 posted:It is a hurdle bit not an insurmountable one. Check out "facing east from Indian country" for a good discussion of how you handle that kind of history, plus a neat take con colonial America from the Indian pov. In a few years get ready for a couple of really great books on West African history due to the sad fact the libraries of Timbuktu had to be evacuated out of the country or be destroyed. Luckily they got some 28,000 books out which have been moved to Oxford for safe keeping and research.
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Jul 31, 2016 17:14
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ExecuDork posted:There's already a book about that evacuation, The Bad-rear end Librarians of Timbuktu. That looks like an awesome book, but I meant more that people are going to read what's in those books.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:30
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the_homemaster posted:So I'm going to Tulsa, New York and Boston. Read Gotham, which is a history of the early part of New York City.
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Aug 17, 2016 21:01
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smr posted:Seconded. That book was fantastic, though the never-appearance of the promised Volume 2 makes me sad. It could still be being worked on.
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Aug 19, 2016 23:25
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fantasy zone posted:yeah. realise every work of history is putting out an argument and is not necessarily true or right and will get argued against and for until new discoveries are made or a cultural viewpoints shift. Pretty much every history since Gibbon has be having an argument with him.
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Sep 25, 2016 17:42
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Does anyone know any books on the history of aviation up to about WW2.
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Jan 15, 2018 18:10
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StrixNebulosa posted:Hey, this post sold me on checking out the first volume and drat, this is some fine writing and a lot of information. I've now got a strong image of what France was like to govern and live in in 1328 just from the first chapter, and it's surprisingly easy to read? For once, a history book that is dense and actually interesting instead of being dry. Which series is this?
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May 13, 2018 16:01
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team overhead smash posted:Is The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple any good? No, it's so bad it caused me to create a new personal idea of pre-colonial nostalgia. Which is basically the idea that pre colonial societies weren't brutal Empires or states in their own right.
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Jan 13, 2020 03:14
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Mr_Roke posted:Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture is one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year. Saw it in the new ebooks through my library and only picked it up because I remembered his name from the Revolutions podcast. I think the brutality of that revolution puts the breaks on any musical or film...sorry Danny Glover. Does anyone know of any good books on the Indian Rebellion of 1857
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Oct 7, 2020 15:06
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Lawman 0 posted:Picked up "The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company" and I'm pretty stoked to read it and get incredibly mad. I’ve had an honest to god argument with the author about this book.
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Feb 27, 2022 04:43
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:What about? Cant just drop this and leave lol Basically ignoring the fact that most of India was ruled by invading dynasties and the East India Company was just another in a long line. Also the fact that a lot of modern historians tend to long back on pre European colonial society with kids gloves, not seeing any of their faults.
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Feb 27, 2022 16:40
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Strange Cares posted:Dalrymple talks about that more in Koh-I-Noor, if I recall correctly. I haven't cracked open The Anarchy yet, so I don't know if he just hand-waves it or what in there, but I can understand not including it if he felt like he talked about it enough in a previous book. It’s been a few years since I read the Anarchy but one arguments that Dalrymple makes is while the Mughal Empire was basically continual civil war after Aurangzeb is was a time of great artistic achievement so it doesn’t really matter. I at least believe it’s a legitimate issue in post-colonial history that we are washing away the pre-colonial states.
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Mar 3, 2022 03:22
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