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rantAK posted:Picked this up by chance on holiday. An excellent narrative history on the end days of the Roman Republic, this one got me started on reading about Rome. For anyone who might be unaware, Tom Holland has written two other history books in the same style that are just as good: Persian fire about the persian invasion of Greece and Millenium about medieval Europe around the turn of the millenium. He also has In The Shadow Of The Sword, a book about the rise of the Arabian empire, coming out early in April.
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Mar 13, 2012 22:33
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Global Disorder posted:Can anyone recommend a history of the Spanish empire? I'm specially interested in the Pacific Ocean - the Philippines, Manila galleons, trade with Asians and so on. If you haven't read it yet Mann's follow up to 1491, 1493, is about how contact with the Americas changed global trade patterns and although it isn't specifically about the Spanish it does have sections on their Asian trade that you would be interested in.
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Jan 16, 2020 01:59
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dokmo posted:I just finished the first volume of Jonathan Sumption's hundred years war books. And man if you want to get a feeling for how expensive war is, this is the book for you, as pretty much 50% of the book is some king or another begging for money from anyone who would lend it to them to pay for the war. Also get a good sense of how much more efficient modern governments are at extracting taxes from people in comparison to their medieval counterparts. I'm currently on book three, I think the wildest thing is that no-one ever seems to learn from their mistakes when it comes to logistics. "This year we'll be able to requisition all the ships we need on time, and the taxes will bring in the amount we expect. I know it didn't work out the last twenty years, but I've got a good feeling this time."
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Dec 15, 2023 09:26
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