Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Spills the Moon posted:

European history
Tony Judt - Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945


quote:

Middle Eastern history
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Christoff posted:

I also love books about the other sides of history in general. Like "Lies my teacher told me." Things that we're led to believe or how things get watered down, the losers side, etc
Liberalism: a counter-history, which shows how closely linked liberalism as an ideology was with nasty stuff like slavery, colonialism, genocide and racism, instead of the force of good its usually made out to be. There are two excellent reviews of the book on the Amazon page, worth reading to get an idea of the arguments of the book.

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Panda So Panda posted:

Good recommendations on any of the following topics?

• ancient Mesopotamia -- history of the city-states, mythology (Sumerian alien stuff need not apply), wars & political interactions


Marc van den Mieroop - The Ancient Mesopotamian City and A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000 - 323 BC

or Amelie Kuhrt - The Ancient Near East, c. 3000-330 BC, but thats written more for a scholarly audience, so it might be a bit dry.

Panda So Panda posted:

• history of hauntings, witch hunts, and demonic possession throughout Europe and America
Kors & Peters - Witchcraft in Europe, 400-1700: A Documentary History is a book full of primary sources about witches and witchcraft. It might be an interesting companion to the other books that got recommended.

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

radlum posted:

Any recommendations about the last years of the Roman Empire or the early Middle Ages? I love the chaos and the way the empire finally fell with no bang.

Chris Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 is pretty cool, although be prepared for dozens of names to be thrown at you.

Or perhaos Guy Halsall's Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376 - 568 for a more focussed book.

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Hadaka Apron posted:

Oh, and something about the Byzantine Empire would be nice.
The Oxford history of Byzantium is a good, short, general history. John Julius Norwich' Short History of Byzantium would be a decent alternative, which is a condensed edition of three of his books: Byzantium: The Early Centuries, Byzantium: the Apogee and Byzantium: Decline and Fall.

Judith Herrin's Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire is a nice book, organized thematically around subjects like eunuchs or icons or women. Its a good compliment with either of the books i mentioned above.

For primary sources, the Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library has published Greek/English editions of some important Byzantine works, like Michael Attaleiates' History, which describes the years 1034 to 1079, or the works of Laonikos Chalkokondyles, who describes the last 150 years of the empire, including the fall of Constantinople, which he witnessed.

Penguin has published translations of some works like the Alexiad, describing the reign of Alexius I (+- 1080 to 1120) and written by his daughter so you know its trustworthy, and Prokopius' Secret History, describing all kinds of shenanigans during the reign of Justinian (sixth century) which are great fun to read. Cant vouch for the quality of the translations though.



Also, a general tip for people looking for books: a lot of universities place the lists of books read by people who've earned their PhD in recent years online. Just googling for 'history phd reading list' is enough to find them.

9-Volt Assault fucked around with this message at 13:49 on Aug 24, 2015

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

hobbez posted:

Can anyone recommend any other books on religious figures? Allah, Jesus, or religions in general? Not after too specific of a topic, just an interesting read.
For Jesus there is the A Marginal Jew series by John P. Meier. While most books in the series are probably way too much for what you are after, the first book, Rethinking the Historical Jesus: The Roots of the Problem and the Person deals with the question of the historical Jesus and might be of interest.

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Endman posted:

Speaking of which, is there a go-to book for a narrative history of the First Crusade?

I enjoy the writing style of Christopher Clark, Helen Castor and Tom Holland if that helps in any way.

Take a look at Thomas Asbridge's The First Crusade: A New History: The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam or Jonathan Riley-Smith's The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading .

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

dokmo posted:

I've not read Diarmaid MacCulloch's well-regarded Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, but his book about the reformation was great and this one probably is too.

I also agree that its great. He also has a documentary series made that follows the content of the books which is also pretty good, and its nice to see some actual locations.

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Minenfeld! posted:

Are there any good books out there that give a general history of the black death?

An open access medieval journal, the Medieval Globe, had a recent theme issue about the black death: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/tmg/vol1/iss1/ It has some cool things like an article about bioarcheological evidence from 14th century London, one about how historians can help immunologists better understand spreading of diseases in current times and vice versa, and a look at the devastating effects of the plague on Egypts irrigation system due to depopulation. I can imagine it might be a bit too scholarly for most people though. :shobon:

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Suplex Liberace posted:

Any good books on art or architecture history. Either a broad one or one focused on a specific movement would do.

Emile Male - The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century

Ramage & Ramage - Roman Art

Neer - Art & Archaeology of the Greek World

H.W. Janson, Anthony F. Janson - History of Art

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

InequalityGodzilla posted:

Can anyone recommend me a good book about the history of Islam? Preferably something that covers everything up until roughly the present day but I'd settle for something that mostly sticks to its first few centuries.

Ira Lapidus - A history of Islamic societies (3th edition is the most recent one).

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

a7m2 posted:

Does anyone have any good recommendations for books on the Byzantine Empire?

Judith Herrin has written a couple of books about female emperors. Also Cyril Mango's The Oxford History of Byzantium is good for an overview.

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Chas McGill posted:

I'm after a book about really early civilisations. I don't have a specific place in the world in mind, just the earlier the better. I know "civilisations" is a vague word, but I guess peoples who had something resembling cities, agriculture etc. An easy to read history of the cities by the Euphrates maybe?

Marc Van De Mieroop - A History of the Ancient Near East is good, although perhaps a bit too textbooky?

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Drone posted:

Any fairly comprehensive but also approachable Chinese history? I don't really want to dive deeply into a specific event or period, just looking for something a bit more general and, well, centuries-spanning.

For ancient China i like Major & Cook - Ancient China. It spans plenty of centuries, starting in the Neolithic up to the end of the Three Kingdoms (roughly 300 AD), so plenty of centuries at least.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

9-Volt Assault
Jan 27, 2007

Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Koramei posted:

my hot take is that all scholarship done before 1980 is bad

e: whoops I thought this was the Military History thread but the point stands

The rule of thumb I got taught in university is that anything older than 20 years is to be read with caution. It’s not that older books are necessarily wrong or bad, they’re just outdated more often than not (depending on the field).

For example, I wouldn’t read a book about the Etruscans that was written in the 1980s because they had absolutely no clue besides “they were really mysterious and obsessed with the dead”, but in Roman history there are plenty of good books written in that same decade.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply