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Levitate posted:What are some good books to start with a general overview of ancient/classical history (Greek, Roman)?  quote:The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome once dominated the world, and they continue to fascinate and inspire us. Classical art and architecture, drama and epic, philosophy and politics--these are the foundations of Western civilization. In The Classical World, eminent classicist Robin Lane Fox brilliantly chronicles this vast sweep of history from Homer to the reign of Augustus. From the Peloponnesian War through the creation of Athenian democracy, from the turbulent empire of Alexander the Great to the creation of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Christianity, Robin Lane Fox serves as our witty and trenchant guide. He introduces us to extraordinary heroes and horrific villains, great thinkers and blood-thirsty tyrants. Throughout this vivid tour of two of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known, we remain in the hands of a great master.
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Apr 2, 2012 16:52
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:So I'm really on a history kick now, burning through a few of the suggestions in this thread and it has me thinking; Are there any books about native american history? Is there much about that sort of thing at all? I'm basically wholly ignorant of an entire continent's history pre-1600s. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann is very good. Here's an article Mann wrote a few years before publishing the book that talks about the things that eventually ended up in his book.
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Apr 25, 2012 19:27
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I'm not an expert in lovely history books, but I can tell you the textbooks that Loewen used for his critique (listed in the appendix of my revised edition): Social Science Staff of the Educational Research Council of America, The American Adventure 1975 Ira Peck, Steven Jantzen, and Daniel Rosen, American Adventures 1987 John A. Garraty with Aaron Singer and Michael Gallagher, American History 1982 Thomas A. Bailey and David M. Kennedy, The American Pageant 1991 Robert Green, Laura L. Becker, and Robert E. Coviello, The American Tradition 1984 Nancy Bauer, The American Way 1979 Robert Sobel, Roger LaRaus, Linda Ann De Leon, and Harry P. Morris, The Challenge of Freedom 1990 Allan O. Kownslar and Donald B. Frizzle, Discovering American History 1974 Carol Berkin and Leonard Wood, Land of Promise 1983 Philip Roden, Robynn Greer, Bruce Kraig, and Betty Bivins, Life and Liberty 1984 Paul Lewis Todd and Merle Curti, Triumph of the American Nation 1986 James West Davidson and Mark H. Lytle, The United States—A History of the Republic 1981 Joyce Appleby, Alan Brinkley, and James McPherson, The American Journey 2000 David M. Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey, The American Pageant 2006 Gerald A. Danzer et al., The Americans 2007 Andrew Cayton, Elisabeth Perry, Linda Reed, and Allan Winkler, America: Pathways to the Present 2005 Daniel Boorstin and Brooks Mather Kelley, A History of the United States 2005 Paul Boyer, Holt American Nation 2003 Basically he makes it sound as if every history textbook used in the USA had serious distortions.
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May 15, 2012 14:01
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coyo7e posted:Can anyone give recommendations for books similar to Ken Burns' PBS documentary on the prohibition? I've recently been interested in how the Depression/Prohibition era in the United States, negatively affected food quality in the nation, which I've been hearing some people such as Tyler Cowen and Michael Pollan mention (although it's probably not a new concept, it's novel to me). I can't give you any specific suggestions, but I can say that the temperance movement was much larger than just prohibition in the USA and there must be a thousand interesting stories. A friend tells me that Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia is a standard text (selling for 22 bucks at amazon). Prohibition came out of the 19th century temperance movement in England: Brian Harrison's Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England 1815-1872 is a scholarly history of this period (there is a kindle version). For me the most interesting part of Last Call was the stuff on the Anti Saloon League -- looking around at amazon, I see that they have K. Austin Kerr's Organized for Prohibition: A New History of the Anti-Saloon League for a few bucks used.
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Jun 6, 2012 18:28
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Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.
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Jul 28, 2012 02:39
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You should try the military history thread, full of people who know a lot about that stuff. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3297799
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Aug 7, 2012 19:13
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Spills the Moon posted:European history Europe: A History by Norman Davies Spills the Moon posted:South American history As far as I know there is no one standard text here, but there are a few candidates. I would suggest the Penguin book as the best combination of coverage and price. The Penguin History of Latin America by Edwin Williamson A History of Latin America by Benjamin Keen A Concise Interpretive History of Latin America by E Bradford Burns A History of Latin America: Empires and Sequels 1450-1930 by Peter Bakewell Spills the Moon posted:African history Not really my thing, but there is a good discussion of introductory African history texts here
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Aug 13, 2012 13:46
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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1491:_New_Revelations_of_the_Americas_Before_Columbus
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Aug 17, 2012 21:57
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Ferrosol posted:just finished reading Eichmann In Jerusalem which was an absolutely amazing look at one of the key figures in the Holocaust who was put on trial and arrested by the Israeli government in 1961. Eichmann comes across as a man who was neither amoral super genius or stereotypical kicks puppies and burns orphanages nazi monster but who was instead just a normal sane individual doing a job that resulted in nothing but horror and mass murder on a massive scale. Hitler's Bureaucrats: The Nazi Security Police and the Banality of Evil by Yaacov Lozowick is a explicit expansion on Arendt's "banality" thesis. You may have to look hard to find a reasonably priced copy, but I believe it's pretty much exactly what you're looking for. Only semi related is Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb, written pretty much as a real life spy story. I couldn't put it down.
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Aug 28, 2012 19:05
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I spent the summer reading a bunch of histories. Usually I post them in the What Did You Just Finish thread, but I thought it may be interesting to group my posts together and put them here. Defeat of the Spanish Armada by Garrett Mattingly.  After a short scene setter, Mattingly spends the next 300 pages describing the two years leading up to and immediately following the Armada's defeat in 1588 by England's navy. He focuses mostly on the ten or so main figures involved from all sides, which gives the book a narrative coherence that isn't always present in military histories. The author gives equal time to the Spanish, English, and French players, and notably gives a sympathetic portrayal of their motives (although it seems to me like the Dutch are underrepresented in his narrative). Definitely a good book and extremely well written. The Queen's Agent: Francis Walsingham at the Court of Elizabeth I by John Cooper.  A kind-of biography of Elizabeth's principle secretary, who is maybe more well known today for his pre-modern spy network. Cooper is a real historian, and as such isn't really interested in biography for biography's sake. He uses Walsingham's life as a framework to discuss the primary issues affecting the Elizabethan state: the split from Roman Catholicism, the threat of a coup d'etat represented by Mary Queen of Scots, the direct threat posed to England by the mighty Spanish empire (culminating in the battle with the Armada), the disaster of their Irish colonial ambitions. A pretty good survey of the era. The Elizabethans by AN Wilson.  This is truly an old fashioned history: the author defines the entire era by the lives of England's most eminent people. I understand the appeal of great man histories, but you can tell the author is a professional writer (as opposed to professional historian) by the weight he places on the authors: Sidney's Arcadia is mentioned or quoted on 13 different pages, and no chapter is without a Shakespeare quote. You won't find the lives of ordinary people discussed in this type of book, which kind of lessens its usefulness as a book long description of a country over a 60 year period, at least for me. Although not the subject, the sun that these first three books orbit is the person of Queen Elizabeth. I have to mention this because it drove me a little crazy: All of these authors describe her with something approaching awe. They talk about her mercurial personality, her cunning, her intelligence, her thrift, all as positive traits for a ruler. But I can't help but interpret these same traits in a more negative light. For example, everyone comments on Elizabeth's indecisiveness, her knack for leaving her true feelings unknown, her unwillingness to make hard decisions, (eg to allow the court to go through with Mary's execution following her trial, to allow Drake to pre-emptively strike the Armada while still in harbour), and all interpret this tendency in a positive light, as a kind of Machiavellian ploy to keep her cards hidden. But I see it completely differently: have you ever heard of another great leader who was praised for being indecisive? Isn't the usual description of great leaders that they are decisive, that when under extreme pressure they seize the opportunity to mold events to their will? I get the feeling that if the Armada's invasion had succeeded, that these same traits would not be praised. The Hundred Years War, Vol. 1: Trial by Battle by Jonathan Sumption.  Covers the origins and first decade of the war, up to the siege of Calais. I don't really know a lot about this era, just what everybody knows: Crécy, the Avignon popes, John de Montfort and Charles de Blois. But the main theme that emerges is money: the King of England is virtually bankrupted before the first invasion takes place and is reduced to forcing loans from his own subjects and even hocking his loving crown, and the French king isn't in much better shape either. At the same time, horrible wastes of money as these kings, despite having a bank account showing zero dollars, despite having left their troops unpaid and defenses in disrepair, despite risking (and in some cases, causing) revolt by their own people protesting the onerous taxes, still find it necessary to stage tournaments and extravagant balls. The kings also give out extravagant gifts to their loyal friends (parcels of land, rights to collect duties, that kind of thing) but they don't do it systematically, just on a whim. To me that is another thing that stuck out from the era: the absolute arbitrariness of monarchical rule. This guy who had his lands taken away by enemy occupation is compensated by the king, but this other guy gets nothing. It's all by the king's grace, so he doesn't have to justify his decisions. It is such a weird system, I'm never not surprised it lasted in some form or another for such a long time. The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation by Ian Mortimer.  The story itself is pretty good, Edward was a fascinating dude and there's plenty of chivalry, wars, plagues, and intrigue that happened during his reign, but what stands out for me is Mortimer's writing, which is at the same time breathless with excitement yet careful of not stepping outside of what the historical evidence shows. I'm not a guy who really reads or likes a lot of biographies, but this one was pretty good. The Reformation: A History Diarmaid MacCulloch.  Covers the three hundred years of (mostly) European history where the Latin church fractured under the strain of its own theological faults and fissures. I was raised a catholic, which of course means I know almost nothing about the church and its history. I can see why they don't stress that history: it's not inherently exciting, except for the parts that are morally dubious. But the author's writing is great, and made the abstract theological issues come to life for me: now I know what a Protestant is and why they are Protestants. One of the backdrops to this story that I never really knew was the millennial fever that consumed Europe between 1500-1600: since people assumed they were living in the last days, this gave theological issues much more urgency, and really amped up the differences between people on what seem to me to be incredibly minor theological points (one result is the re-admittance of Jews into England, since the Protestants there believed in the prophesy that the second coming was preceded by the conversion of the Jews—this makes Pat Robertson slightly more intelligible to me). The differences between Rome and the Protestants came down to the question of ultimate authority: church or bible. But the manifestations of this difference were strange, particularly to a modern areligious reader: quote:Few people in modern Europe now understand how urgent these arguments were in the sixteenth century. That urgency gave rise to what has been called 'theological road rage,' and we have viewed many of the dire consequences. Europeans were prepared to burn and torture each other because they disagreed on whether, or how, bread and wine were transformed into God, or about the sense in which Jesus Christ could be both divine and human. We have no right to adopt an attitude of intellectual or emotional superiority, especially in the light of the atrocities that twentieth-century Europe produced because of its faith in newer, secular ideologies. Anxiety and a sense of imperfection seem to be basic components of being human, for those of no religion as well as the religious. Some continue to call the answer to these miseries by the name of God. God's War: A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman  Something like a thousand pages covering the 500 years when some Europeans felt the need to go and fight heretics, not just in the Levant, but also Spain, the Balkans, Poland, Scandinavia, and wherever these heathens threatened the Latin church by their very existence. The author stresses that these Catholics were probably driven mostly by sincere religious piety (not just avarice and the desire for excitement), contradicting some historians who claim that crusades were driven by laterborn sons in search of land and treasure and bloodthirst. What a difference the author's writing style makes. The canvas of both this book and the previous one about the Reformation span centuries and continents and generations of people, but if you had to choose one whose subject alone was more likely to produce the more exciting narrative, you'd have to go with the book about the crusades, right? Knights, pilgrimages, sieges, huge battles, what could be better? Unfortunately, the author just cannot commit to a good narrative style: he insists on shooting himself in the foot by giving a summary of the upcoming action before going into the description, thereby robbing it of any suspense as to the outcome. I have no idea why he does this, but it drove me insane. Contrast that to The Reformation, a book about potentially boring poo poo that was made into a great read through the author's use of dry humor and irony and commitment to a clear narrative, even though the story itself is not based on people but ideas. This was 800 pages of people discussing antinomianism and transubstantiation and it just flew by. Sir Francis Drake by John Sugden.  I actually started this a while ago, but put it down when I realized that Drake's puritanism and hatred of catholicism would be a central motivating factor in his adventures—so I read MacCulloch's The Reformation in the meantime, to get a feel for the religious controversies and atmosphere of the day. Drake emerges from this book as a intensely pious adventurer with a love of plunder. I'm not sure any one person could have a more diverse set of mixed motives. I knew something about Drake's voyages before reading this book, but come away even more impressed by his courage, his eye for fortunate circumstances, and his unbelievable luck. Books like this make me want to read more biographies, but then I realize that few people have ever had a life 1/10th as interesting as Drake.  Don't let the ruffle collar fool you, this man was a badass. The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom by Jonathan Phillips.  I was unsatisfied with the account of the crusades in Tyerman's God's War so I picked up some other books about individual crusades that hopefully are more committed to a pleasing narrative style. This book emphasizes the broad aims of the 2nd crusade, which not only featured a (failed) mission to Jerusalem, but a (mildly-successful) effort to get rid of the Wendish heathens in northern Europe and a (successful) mission in the Iberian peninsula. These people were fueled by the memory of the first crusade, whose success depended ultimately on the unprepared and deeply divided Muslim forces in the middle east. The Muslims were not caught napping and squabbling this time (and never would be again) and the western European crusaders (known universally as Franks) would find every successive crusade more difficult and less productive. At the time of the 2nd crusade, however, it wasn't really understood how tough it was going to be, and the ultimate failure of the enterprise was a deep shock to the self image of Christendom. It wouldn't be the last time. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade by James Reston.  In 1099, the First Crusade climaxed in the Siege of Jerusalem: after five weeks, the city fell to the crusaders, who proceeded to slaughter the Jewish and Muslim defenders, all of them. Less than 100 years later, the Christians living in Jerusalem were themselves besieged by Saladin's Muslim army—this time the city fell in two weeks. Nobody lost their life. I know it's a fool's game to judge the actions of the past who were operating under completely different standards, but it's hard not to see Saladin's generosity here (and even more later in the crusade, particularly after the battle of Hattin) in contrast to the conduct of the Christian crusaders, who, having been given carte blanche by the pope, were able to massacre infidels without incurring god's wrath. Pros
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The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia by Peter Hopkirk  Describing the 100 years of British/Russian political and military maneuvering in central asia. This is a great story of mountain explorers of incredible courage and politicians of unbelievable imperialistic hubris--there are tons of great characters who appear here (like Francis Younghusband). I first read this the a long time ago, and the story holds up, especially now that you can read it with a tab open to google maps, which really helps.
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Sep 26, 2012 17:33
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:I'm looking for a World War I book that focuses on the political/cultural aspects of the war. It seems like most basic overviews spend a disproportionate amount of time on the battles and military startegies. Not so much cultural, but Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan sums up the political repercussions of the great war pretty well.
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Nov 30, 2012 18:58
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RaceyBucket posted:I've been on a bit of a boat binge lately. Just finished "To Rule The Waves" and "Six Frigates". Looking for any other good books about that time period. On the rise of the Royal Navy, I just read Sir Francis Drake by John Sugden, which was great. Also from the Elizabethan era, Garrett Mattingly's The Armada (AKA The Defeat Of The Spanish Armada) focuses on maybe the most famous naval battle ever and the politics and personalities involved. Peter Earle's Pirate Wars, kind of an anti-pirate book, about how the navy policed and finally defeated the Caribbean pirates. (Speaking of pirates, which maybe you're not, the best introduction I've read is David Cordingly's Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates.) Not a narrative history, but a technical breakdown of the RN at its height: The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy by N.A.M. Rodger. There is also an annotated list of naval classics at this site: http://www.sea-room.com/series/cnl-series.html
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Dec 25, 2012 20:22
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Ambulocetus posted:So, how about the War of 1812? I'm looking for some kind of an overview. Which war? The big one or the sideshow? Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace by Dominic Lieven Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne (1812-1813) by Sergeant Bourgogne, a diary by a witness to this horrific retreat. The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov by Alexander Mikaberidze, an excellent technical military history of the great battle. Moscow: Moscow 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March by Adam Zamoyski or 1812: War with America by Jon Latimer, a narrative history, focusing mostly on the Canadian perspective. Pierre Berton's War of 1812 by Pierre Berton, a cheap re-issue of the Canadian historian's 2 volume work. More of a narrative account than scholarly, but splitting the narrative between Canadian (and British) and Yankee perspectives. The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent by J. C. A. Stagg, more of a general history of the total experience, maybe the best intro to the topic aside from Berton's. The Incredible War of 1812: A Military History by J.M. Hitsman. A technical military history from the Canadian perspective. I've found that the best books on this war are Canadian.
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Jan 23, 2013 04:52
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Boondock Saint posted:Any books on the Korean War that someone can recommend to me other than The Coldest Winter? Korean War by Max Hastings Shimrra Jamaane posted:Are there any great books covering the the general time period of early modern warfare in Europe? Basically from the period just prior to the 30 years war to the Napoleonic Wars. I know there are tons of books on each subject individually but I'm looking for something larger. There isn't a lot of single volume texts, probably because the subject is so diverse. That said, here are two books--I've read and can recommend the Black book, and heard good things about Hall. European Warfare 1494-1660 and the Military Revolution by Jeremy Black Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics by Bert S. Hall
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Feb 3, 2013 06:52
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Tekopo posted:I'm also looking for a book on the French & Indian Wars, any suggestions? I think the most well-known and respected recent history is Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 by Fred Anderson, but my favorite is Empires at War: The Seven Years' War and the Struggle for North America by William Fowler
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Mar 4, 2013 18:58
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Stravinsky posted:Edit: Any one have an recommendations for books covering the East India Companies? How about south american indepindence? 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.
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Mar 5, 2013 05:03
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McCloud24 posted:Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates is pretty good for this, and it's the sort of thing you can find in almost any Barnes & Noble. Came here to post this. Excellent intro. Other good pirate books: Frank Sherry - Raiders and Rebels: The Golden Age of Piracy Richard Sanders - If A Pirate I Must Be: The True Story Of Bartholomew Roberts, King Of The Caribbean Peter Earle - Pirate Wars (takes the anti-romantic view of piracy to its logical extreme, and is a detailed history of attempts to fight and end piracy)
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Apr 1, 2013 02:10
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Roadside_Picnic posted:Can anybody recommend a good general history of New York City for the 19th and 20th centuries? Some focus on immigration and neighborhoods would be great but it's by no means a must. What you want is Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace. A warning: it is huge, but it won't be surpassed for a long time.
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Apr 3, 2013 23:52
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Drone posted:Anyone know of anything good on Canada's contribution to both World Wars? More interested in 2 right now, but 1 is great too. See if you can find a cheap used copy of Desmond Morton's dated but still interesting A Military History of Canada. Vimy Ridge is regarded as the symbolic battle in Canadian military history--a quick search shows that there are dozens of books on the battle, ranging from sentimental to revisionist. Vimy by Pierre Berton probably isn't the best book on the battle, but it isn't bad. Terry Copp's No Price Too High: Canadians and the Second World War is a well regarded overview for the general public. Mark Zuehlke is a Canadian military historian who writes technical histories of battles that Canadians fought in. Not sure if you're interested in this level of detail, but his books are pretty good, espcially Breakout from Juno: First Canadian Army and the Normandy Campaign, July 4–August 21, 1944 and Ortona: Canada's Epic World War II Battle.
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Apr 21, 2013 21:59
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Dunbar posted:Has anyone read the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson? The third book is due out next month and I'm thinking of starting it. Looking for some thoughts/recommendations because I'm trying to decide between reading that or something in the Beevor/Hastings mold. I've read the first two and am looking forward to the third. Thing is, it is a fairly detailed study on a pretty narrow aspect of the war in which nothing interesting happens, narrative-wise. But the North Africa -> Italy operations are relatively neglected, so I got a lot out of them. Hastings' books have a lot more narrative drive, if that's the kind of thing you're after.
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Apr 24, 2013 07:26
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I don't remember too much discussion of Kentucky's neutrality. Flipping through the 1st volume quickly, I see a few paragraphs scattered here and there, talking about it in connection to other events. I may be missing something, though.
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May 5, 2013 15:26
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English Social History: A Survey of Six Centuries, Chaucer to Queen Victoria by George Macaulay Trevelyan, a tremendous prose stylist, is one of my favorites. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman. Tuchman usually writes about more narrowly focused events, but her account of the events surrounding the hundred years war is epic. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe may be too narrowly focused to meet your criteria, but it is exceptionally well written.
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Jun 8, 2013 15:12
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Keeper Garrett posted:Taken me a month, but I'm nearly finished with this. Been a great read, however the kindle version is very poorly set out. Many of the words are mistyped (Protestant as protest ant) and so forth. A dampener on an enlightening tome! Bummer about the typos. You might want to give amazon a heads up about that, word is that they're very responsive to stuff like that. I still have MacCullough's A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years sitting on my bookshelf, dusty and forlorn and only partially read. I need to get back to that as soon as work dies down.
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Jun 19, 2013 18:09
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End Of Worlds posted:I'm looking for some English history. I've just gone through Dan Jones' The Plantagenets, which was great and Alison Weir's The Wars of the Roses. I'm working on Thomas Penn's Winter King which is a hell of a slog. Dude is just a dry writer. All the King's Armies - A Military History of the English Civil War 1642-51 by Stuart Reid
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Jul 11, 2013 20:29
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Starks posted:That definitely sounds very interesting and I'm gonna put it on my to-read list, but yeah I'm still looking for something that goes into more detail about the party itself. There are a couple of recent, well-regarded general histories of BPP (I haven't read either). Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom (Goodreads Author), Waldo E. Martin Jr. (here's a q&a with the authors) Survival Pending Revolution: The History of the Black Panther Party by Paul Alkebulan, a bottom-up history focusing on the party's grass roots activism (review here).
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Jul 18, 2013 03:28
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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? A friend tells me there aren't that many good general histories, most of which seem to be written in the 1980s for some reason. He suggests Quebec: A History 1867-1929 by Paul-André Linteau, Quebec: Social Change and Political Crisis by Kenneth McRoberts, and for a history focused on the nationalist aspirations of Quebec, The Dream of Nation: A Social and Intellectual History of Quebec by Susan Mann. I'll add that Mason Wade's 1955 scholarly monograph The French Canadians, 1760-1945 may be a little too dry for what you're looking for, but it seems to be in the public domain (available at archive.org).
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Jul 23, 2013 16:05
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escape artist posted:I just started and finished A Song of Ice and Fire, and as a result, I'm now fascinated by medieval history. Specifically, the Hundred Years War, the Crusades, the War of the Roses, and medieval weaponry: siege towers, trebuchets, all that good stuff. The starting place for 100 years war should always be Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. I read it again last year and it still holds up as one of the greatest history books I've ever read. I've yet to find a decent single-volume history of the Crusades that satisfied me. I like narrative histories that revolve around people, so James Reston Jr's Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade and Jonathan Phillips's The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople are two books that I really enjoyed, although they hardly touch on the grand scope of the Crusades in their global context. In a more interpretive vein, Jay Rubenstein's Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse did more to help me make sense of the crusaders' aims than any other book. Early modern Great Britain isn't really my thing, but I found Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses by David Santiuste to be a useful introduction. Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc's Annals of a Fortress: Twenty-Two Centuries of Siege Warfare is the history of an imaginary fort, told from the perspective of the fort. That description makes it sound crazy, but it's one of the best books on military history I've read.
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Jul 30, 2013 04:41
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poisonpill posted:What are the go-to books on the Treaty of Westphalia? I'm mainly looking for how it influenced legal and political traditions going forward. A friend says that there isn't really much in book form, but suggests these two possibilities. There is Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806 by Joachim Whaley, which seems to exists only as an expensive academic edition. quote:Germany and the Holy Roman Empire offers a striking new interpretation of a crucial era in German and European history, from the great reforms of 1495-1500 to the dissolution of the Reich in 1806. Over two volumes, Joachim Whaley rejects the notion that this was a long period of decline, and shows instead how imperial institutions developed in response to the crises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably the Reformation and Thirty Years War. The impact of international developments on the Reich is also examined. Volume II begins with the Peace of Westphalia and concludes with the dissolution of the Reich. Whaley analyses the remarkable resurgence of the Reich after the Thirty Years War, which saw the Habsburg emperors achieve a new position of power and influence and which enabled the Reich to withstand the military threats posed by France and the Turks in the later seventeenth century. He gives a rich account of topics such as Pietism and baroque Catholicism, the German enlightenment, and the impact on the Empire and its territories of the French Revolution and Napolean. Whaley emphasizes the continuing viability of the Reich's institutions to the end, and the vitality of a political culture of freedom that has been routinely underestimated by historians of modern Germany. More generally, Exorcising the Ghost of Westphalia: Building World Order in the New Millennium by Charles W. Kegley and Gregory A. Raymond quote:The authors of this groundbreaking book take as a point of departure the precedent-setting agreements established by the Treaties of Westphalia to illuminate the options for maintaining peace. The book describes the system of world order established by the Peace of Westphalia and offers readers an evaluation of its relevance for the increasingly globalized world of the early twenty-fist century, as well as proposing an alternative system of global governance. Provides comprehensive coverage of the causes of great-powers war, the evolutionary course of the Thirty Years' War, durable peace settlements, the relevance of Thirty Years' War to today's environment, and offers an alternative model of world order. For individuals interested in international relations and global issues.
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Sep 4, 2013 00:08
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thehoodie posted:Anyone know of a good book on Canadian history? I have never really read anything at all, and feel like I should know more about my country. So general overviews are perhaps better, but I'll read anything as long as it is interesting and informative. Robert Bothwell's The Penguin History of Canada is widely regarded as the best single volume history out there, although I prefer Roger Riendeau's A Brief History of Canada. You can't go wrong with either of these.
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Sep 15, 2013 15:35
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TheFallenEvincar posted:Just finished Crucible of War, that was great. I'm reading through a few books right now, I have the habit of juggling stuff. How Rome Fell, The Fatal Shore, The Devil's Gentleman... withak posted:My "to read" stack has a book in it called "Absolute Monarchs" which I'm pretty sure is about popes. I think maybe someone here recommended it? It was a pleasant enough read, although not a serious history. An excellent book covering the history of Christianity (not just the popes) is A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch It seems to me that it would be hard to write something like a history of popes considering the sheer span of time and changing contexts. You can probably find much better books that concentrate on more specific periods (eg the long chapter on the disastrous Renaissance popes in Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly).
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Oct 18, 2013 05:20
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TheFallenEvincar posted:Anyone know any good books about the Diadochi and that whole post-Alexander situation? Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire by Robin Waterfield is a well-regarded recent single-volume history.
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Nov 11, 2013 07:45
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Hannibal Rex posted:I'm going to read Albert Speer's memoirs, and I'm looking for a good biography of him as a companion piece that'll point out the omissions and misdirections he made. There are a few books like this. Two that I've read are Speer: The Final Verdict by Joachim Fest and Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny.
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Nov 22, 2013 01:41
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Hand Row posted:I just finished Bill Bryson's latest book 1927. Are there any similar authors or books you guys would recommend? If you have never read him, he writes light and narrative history with a comic/tragic bent. He tends to write about forgotten people and events. I never even knew about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927! The best parts of his books though tend to be about inventors who die penniless and without credit, but had huge contributions to the world. Sarah Vowell is a good recommendation. Simon Winchester and Mark Kurlansky both have a bunch a well-written books about odd, specific events and people. My recent favorite book is Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British by Jeremy Paxman, a tour of Victorian colonialism written with deadpan self-sarcasm. Another: Eric Jager wrote The Last Duel about the last legal duel in medieval France between a knight who raped a woman and her husband, another knight. The Black Count by Tom Reiss, about the only black officer In Napoleons army, and an extraordinary dude in general. David Cordingly's Cochrane the Dauntless, about a fierce and unstoppable ship captain for England during the Napoleonic wars who was a total fuckup on dry land, and served as the model for the character in O'Brian's Master And Commander books. dokmo fucked around with this message at 16:15 on Dec 7, 2013 |
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Dec 7, 2013 15:56
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TipTow posted:Read the last few pages, didn't see any relevant posts, sorry if this has been done: I don't know if anyone has written a good general history of the entire area. You may want to start with The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia. Other common suggestions that I haven't read: Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy by Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal Southeast Asia: An Introductory History by Milton Osborne Southeast Asia: A Concise History by Mary Somers Heidhues A longer list of books here: http://www.questia.com/library/history/asian-history/southeast-asian-history/southeast-asian-history Here are some good books about specific regions that I have read: India After Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha Midnight's Descendants: A History of South Asia since Partition Hardcover by John Keay India: A History by John Keay A History of Modern Burma by Michael Charney
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Mar 23, 2014 21:51
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Rumda posted:If got a spare audible credit and I was wondering if people had a recommendation for a unique, interesting and/or entertaining look at something, I would prefer nothing that focuses too much on military matters or 20th century history but neither is a deal-breaker. Some thoroughly entertaining books I've read over the last year or so: Naples '44: A World War II Diary Of Occupied Italy by Norman Lewis (not really about the war at all) quote:As a young intelligence officer stationed in Naples following its liberation from Nazi forces, Norman Lewis recorded the lives of a proud and vibrant people forced to survive on prostitution, thievery, and a desperate belief in miracles and cures. The most popular of Lewis's twenty-seven books, Naples '44 is a landmark poetic study of the agony of wartime occupation and its ability to bring out the worst, and often the best, in human nature. In prose both heartrending and comic, Lewis describes an era of disillusionment, escapism, and hysteria in which the Allied occupiers mete out justice unfairly and fail to provide basic necessities to the populace while Neapolitan citizens accuse each other of being Nazi spies, women offer their bodies to the same Allied soldiers whose supplies they steal for sale on the black market, and angry young men organize militias to oppose "temporary" foreign rule. Yet over the chaotic din, Lewis sings intimately of the essential dignity of the Neapolitan people, whose traditions of civility, courage, and generosity of spirit shine through daily. The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager quote:In 1386, a few days after Christmas, a huge crowd gathers at a Parisian monastery to witness what will become the nation's final "trial by combat"—a court-ordered duel intended to let God determine which of the two men was telling the truth. The dramatic true story of the knight, the squire, and the lady unfolds during the devastating Hundred Years' War between France and England, as enemy troops pillage the land, madness haunts the French court, the Great Schism splits the Church, Muslim armies threaten Christendom, and rebellion, treachery, and plague turn the lives of all into toys of Fortune. Bringing to life a colorful, turbulent age and three unforgettable characters caught in a fatal triangle of crime, scandal, and revenge, The Last Duel is at once a moving human drama, a captivating detective story, and an engrossing work of historical intrigue. Florence Nightingale by Mark Bostridge quote:Bostridge's portrait of Florence herself is also even-handed and sympathetic. She emerges as a lover of humanity rather than a lover of individual humans, with a mind that could scythe through obfuscating bureaucratic reports on hospital conditions or the iniquitously inefficient Poor Laws, which had rotted deep into the 19th-century social psyche. She bore long grudges, enjoyed intrigue and, despite her lamplit patrols among the wounded at Scutari, had, as her friend the poet Arthur Clough put it, 'a high, steady benevolence' rather than the warmth of human empathy. Though her prodigious cleverness and engagement had dazzled when she was young, in celebrated middle-age she was formidable rather than charming - even her loyal Aunt Mai described her as 'often cold and dry, some might say cross'. Craze: Gin and Debauchery in an Age of Reason by Jessica Warner quote:Rotgut gin—cheap, widely available, and remarkably potent—was the overwhelming drug of choice among London’s working poor in the early 1700s. Sold for pennies in taverns and squalid gin shops, on street corners and even in jails, gin was the original opiate of the masses, plunging England’s capital into chaos and giving rise to the first modern drug scare. Craze is an engaging social history of gin and the men and women whose lives it touched: the poor who drank it, the distillers who made it, the members of Parliament who feared it, and the prime minister who relied on its tax revenues to line his pockets. Offering a rich political, social, and economic history of gin and the London of Hogarth and Dr. Johnson, Craze will intoxicate you with its blend of erudition, style, and wit. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss quote:Born to a black slave mother and a fugitive white French nobleman in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), Alex Dumas was briefly sold into bondage but then made his way to Paris where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy.
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Apr 3, 2014 22:27
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TheFallenEvincar posted:Any good books on the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and maybe the rise of fascism in Europe in general? I'm more interested in German history, German perspective, and politics rather than yet another random book about the world war. Like, more of a heavy focus on the pre-war events. There are two parts to this, the rise of german fascism in the form of the Nazi party and the rise of Hitler himself. The two were not synonymous, as Hitler enjoyed far wider support than the Nazi party. Ian Kershaw's The "Hitler Myth": Image and Reality in the Third Reich is probably a good introduction to Hitler's cult of personality, Laurence Rees's Hitler's Charisma: Leading Millions into the Abyss is a good look at the things people actually admired about Hitler. A more general look at the rise of the Nazi party and the conditions in Germany that allowed this to happen, Richard J Evans' The Coming of the Third Reich is one of my favorite history books of all time—one of its themes is the contingent nature of the Nazis coming to power, and the numerous times when, if things had just taken a slightly different turn, there would have been no Nazis in power at all. Homemaster posted:On that note, what would be the best books to read on WW1? The usual answers are Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August and Robert Massie's Dreadnought. This isn't an area I've read a lot about, but both of these are excellent.
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Apr 11, 2014 22:47
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Does anyone have good suggestions for a history-related Book of the Month selection? Right now I'm thinking of including People's History of the United States in next month's poll but other suggestions would be good, especially since the ones I've been suggesting on my own (1491, etc.) don't seem to get many votes. I love biographies of people who lived lives that sound like movies. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss. Biography of a black French revolution hero, who happened to be the father of the guy who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. Good writing, but the actual story carries the weight: it is a terrific tale. Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 1775-1860 by David Cordingly. Biography of a napoleonic Wars-era captain who eventually became the real life inspiration for the Aubrey/Maturin books. He was an unbelievable character who made enemies out of friends, whose chaotic personal life was the opposite of his naval career: he ended up being a decorated captain for not just the Royal navy, but also led the navies of Chile, Brazil, and Greece.
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Apr 17, 2014 19:28
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Railing Kill posted:I just finished re-reading King Leopold's Ghost and I kind of Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre. Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British by Jeremy Paxman. Not necessarily funny or lighthearted, but I read Janet Browne's two-volume bio of Charles Darwin last year, and if you're ever in the mood for a story about a normal, pleasant guy who changes the world—and nobody dies—you might want to look into these. I just finished a book about the Italian front in world war one, and might revisit Darwin bios just to clean my palate.
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Jun 13, 2014 21:48
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sc0tty posted:Having just watched Fury, is anyone able to recommend a good book on tank warfare. I know it was all wrong and full of Hollywood tropes but it would be good to understand what things were really like. Go to the military history thread and ask there. Those guys know their stuff and love tankchat. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3585027
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Oct 29, 2014 15:57
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ulvir posted:What would be The One book abouf fascism? I'm looking to read up on it after my semester is over. The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O Paxton
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Nov 15, 2014 14:47
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