The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

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StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I'm reading the Ghost Map by Steven Johnson and I'm two chapters in and I want to give it a mention here because it's so dang good. Informative, good at painting a picture of the time, and it's got a bunch of excerpts from first-hand accounts of this cholera outbreak.

Gruesome reading, too, but it's not out to wallow in the gore - instead it paints a horrifying picture and moves on to explain how the doctors and priests were trying to figure out why/how this was happening.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2018 19:20

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 03:44

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:

update: this series is good as hell, extremely dense, and avoids many purple prose pitfalls history authors can fall into

i left the first book with an unreasonably intricate understanding of the early 1300's in france and england

no other history comes close to this level of detail, the book goes decision by decision for every major player of the era, if there are things that aren't included in this book I highly doubt they exist. The bibliography is 47 pages long.

the book is 600 pages, it's the first in a series of 5, the fourth one just released in 2015 coinciding with the 600th anniversary of agincourt

it is fulfilling in the same way that 'the name of the rose' is fulfilling, you will have to reread sections over and over because of the density of the text. you will have to learn some basic french terminology. you will need a map of france near you at all times if you don't know where gascony or flanders is because of how frequently they're mentioned.

this is the dark souls of historical nonfiction

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.

# ¿ May 4, 2018 15:00

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

sbaldrick posted:

Which series is this?

The Hundred Years War series by Jonathan Sumption, just to confirm what cloudchamber said. Tis good!

# ¿ May 13, 2018 17:29

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Bullbar posted:

Can anybody suggest a good book (or books) about the English civil war?

I haven't read any of these, but I like listening to the Revolutions podcast and it has a bibliography of what he used to prepare for the podcast, so!

quote:

English

Adamson, John. The Noble Revolt: The Overthrow of Charles I. London: Phoenix, 2007.
Clarendon, Earl of. History of the Rebellion: A New Selection. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Gaunt, Peter ed. The English Civil War Essential Readings. Great Britain: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.
Gardiner, S.R. The Fall of the Monarchy of Charles I. 2 Volumes. London: Longmans Green and Co, 1882.
Gardiner, S.R. The Great Civil War. 4 Volumes. London: Longmans Green and Co, 1886.
Hill, Christopher. The Century of Revolution 1603-1714. Great Britain: Sphere, 1962.
Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down. England: Penguin Books, 1972.
Kenyon, John. The Civil Wars in England. Great Britain: Phoenix, 1988.
Kishlansky, Mark. A Monarchy Transformed 1603-1714. England: Penguin Books, 1997.
Morrill, John ed. Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution. 1990
Morrill, John. The Nature of the English Revolution. New York: Longman, 1993.
Reid, Stuart. All the King�s Armies. Great Britain: Spellmount, 1998.
Russell, Conrad. The Causes of the English Civil War. Malta: Clarendon Press, 1990.
Russell, Conrad. The Fall of the British Monarchies. New York: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Stone, Lawrence. The Causes of the English Revolution 1529-1642. Great Britain: Routledge, 1972.
Trevelyan, G.M. The English Revolution 1688-1689. New York: Oxford University Press, 1938.
Underdown, David. Revel, Riot and Rebellion. Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Wedgewood, C.V. The King's Peace. 1955. Reprint, New York: Book of the Month Club, 1997.
Wedgewood, C.V. The King's War. 1955. Reprint, New York: Book of the Month Club, 1997.
Woolrych, Austin. Britain in Revolution: 1625-1660. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

# ¿ May 19, 2018 15:40

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

vyelkin posted:

I haven't actually read it, but I flipped through Eric Cline's 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed once and it looked really interesting, and I hope to return to it someday.

Stop reccing books my library doesn't have :argh:

# ¿ May 22, 2018 17:09

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Aerdan posted:

Interlibrary loan is your friend.

https://catalog.ncls.org/client/en_US/nclscat

Every single one of these stupid libraries DOESN'T HAVE WHAT I WANT TO READ

# ¿ May 22, 2018 17:33

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Beef Hardcheese posted:

"Inter-library loan" where the librarians will request things from completely different library systems, sometimes even academic / university libraries. I poked around on the site you linked and didn't find anything, possibly because I don't have an account there. Try calling / emailing them and asking about it.

ExecuDork posted:

Librarians I've talked to have been super enthusiastic about interlibrary loans. Walk in to the library, talk to a librarian, tell them what you want. It will happen.

Huh, thanks for the heads up! I'll give it a go next time I'm in the library.

# ¿ May 23, 2018 16:33

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Lewd Mangabey posted:

That said, half the fun of reading GG&S is arguing with it while you read it, so it can be stimulating in that respect. Just don't accept it as scientific truth, like some folks did when it was first released.

B-but it won a pulitzer, surely it must be 100% factual?

(between Guns Germs and Steel and the Guns of August teenage me had a harsh lesson in learning to doubt books even if they won major prizes.)

# ¿ Aug 25, 2018 12:01

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

add voices from chernobyl to that list

..?! Whaaaaat? Could I have a source on this, please?

# ¿ Aug 25, 2018 17:49

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

vyelkin posted:

https://newrepublic.com/article/135719/witness-tampering

All of Alexievich's work is basically literature based on interviews, rather than history.

That sucks. They're great books/reads, still, but...

# ¿ Aug 26, 2018 00:43

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Drone posted:

What are some go-to, accessible mass-market-ish books on the French revolution? My grandpa has always been huge into one specific niche of history (the US civil war), but lately he's expanded a bit... first going into the time period around American independence, and now I'd like to try to nudge him into some extremely important Euro history.

Once again - I haven't read up on this, but I am enjoying the Revolutions podcast and there's a massive bibliography that Duncan used.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 17:25

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn � The History Book Rec Thread!

# ¿ Jan 2, 2019 14:29

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Beef Hardcheese posted:

I think a lot of times discussion about the content would gravitate towards the relevant thread elsewhere on the forums (mainly D&D).

Yeah. I read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote last year (doesn't really fit this thread unless you count a portrait of Kansas in the early 1900s to be history) but any talk about it fit better in the PYF unnerving article thread. As for stuff like reading about WWI, there's the Military history thread in Ask/Tell, and so on.

Not that I don't like this thread - it's just that I get a bit annoyed when there's three new posts! And it's three people asking for different book recs.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2019 16:47

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Lewd Mangabey posted:

Glad you found a recommendation that fits what you were looking for, but let me add another vote for 1491 as an eye-opening, accessible popular history book for a young person looking to read about cool history poo poo and hopefully spark an interest in further reading.

Who's the author?

# ¿ Jan 16, 2019 23:10

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

# ¿ Jan 16, 2019 23:45

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

As I'm really enjoying the Making of the Atomic Bomb (Richard Rhodes) and the Great Deluge (Brinkley) and feeling awful about humanity, I've decided that I should go on a nonfiction book shopping spree for my birthday in a couple days.

Here is my list so far - please critique it or add suggestions, please!

Napoleon A Life
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music
The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt
A Grand Delusion: America's Descent into Vietnam
Thirty Year's War: Europe's Tragedy
Hundred Year's War: Trial By Battle
Blues People: Negro Music in White America
Showdown at Shepherd's Bush
Vampires, Burial and Death
Religion and the Decline of Magic
The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Sa'ud

...phew! Culled a phew from the list as I was typing it up, so that's good. Still a ton of books, but I figure that if I can read 60 books in the first half of this year, I can devote some time in the second half to educating myself further in a variety of topics. (i mean I'm gonna keep reading genre stuff, and nothing can take terrible PNRs away from me, but hey! Gotta try to branch out more, it's good for me!)

# ¿ Jul 28, 2019 20:26

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Neurosis posted:

Trial by Battle is excellent. I'm halfway through it now and fully intend to read the remaining volumes. Lord Sumption's speeches and articles on matters of legal history are also quite interesting - he ties them into broader history which adds interest for people who aren't law nerds (or at least I think so but may not be a good judge as a law nerd myself).

Yeah, I saw that one recced in this thread, read some of it from the local college library and now I must own it myself. To own it, and so I can finish reading the first volume - I have a bad habit with library books where I never finish them before I return them, so, well, time to buy stuff.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2019 03:29

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Meyers-Briggs Testicle posted:

update: this series is good as hell, extremely dense, and avoids many purple prose pitfalls history authors can fall into

i left the first book with an unreasonably intricate understanding of the early 1300's in france and england

no other history comes close to this level of detail, the book goes decision by decision for every major player of the era, if there are things that aren't included in this book I highly doubt they exist. The bibliography is 47 pages long.

the book is 600 pages, it's the first in a series of 5, the fourth one just released in 2015 coinciding with the 600th anniversary of agincourt

it is fulfilling in the same way that 'the name of the rose' is fulfilling, you will have to reread sections over and over because of the density of the text. you will have to learn some basic french terminology. you will need a map of france near you at all times if you don't know where gascony or flanders is because of how frequently they're mentioned.

this is the dark souls of historical nonfiction

Bringing this post back because it's one of my favorite book reviews. Also I finally snapped and bought the first volume, what can go wrong?

# ¿ Sep 7, 2019 16:21

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Okay, weird request but I need something uplifting as I trudge through King Leopold's Ghost: are there any uplifting nonfiction books? I understand human history is a long train of people screwing each other over but surely there must be something cool to read about besides the space race.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 14:56

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

That's a tough one.

A few options:

1) 1066 And All That -- funny history

2) The Burglary by Betty Mesdger -- the story of the burglary of FBI offices by private activists which revealed the COINTELPRO program; they were never caught, but Medsger was the journalist they talked to

3) The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe -- story of Ken Kesey and the birth of the hippie movement in the 1960's

Other good options might be something like histories of the French Resistance in ww2, etc.

I'll look the first two up - I haven't clicked with any Tom Wolfe books yet, sadly. As for the French Resistance in WW2 I can't, I recently looked at A Train in Winter and :negative:

Also I'd say the Vintage Guide to Classical Music is uplifting, but it's slow reading because I keep stopping to listen to the music the author mentions.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 15:18

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Cyrano4747 posted:

It�s worth noting that all the historians I know read trashy pulp fiction to reset their brains.

I've been reading a literal boatload of trashy Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance lately to cope with college courses + my nonfiction reading so this checks out.

e: Just looked up Making of the English Working Class and I really appreciate how this thread respects me enough to rec a 800+ page chonker that does a deep dive on a subject. No pop history in here, no siree!

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 15:42

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Cyrano4747 posted:

It�s actually really well written. There�s a lot of it but it�s not dry.

Edit: it�s also a classic so you should be able to get a copy cheap used if you want to give it a shot but aren�t sure. Also every university library will have at least one copy and most good public libraries will have one in their system or be able to order it ILL.

I actually just bought it used for 6$ on ebay so it'll be here in a week or two!

I've also been finding that more chonk histories are readable than you'd expect - Making of the Atomic Bomb, Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle, Religion and the Decline of Magic - these things are super dense and thick but they're not dry, you can read them without instantly falling asleep. I mean they're taking me ages to get through, but that's what you get with dense chonkers.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 15:55

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Strange Cares posted:

What is libgen? I�m afraid I�m unfamiliar

It's a pirate website. Maybe don't talk about it here.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2020 20:02

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

chernobyl kinsman posted:

people drop links to it and sci-hub all the time on SAL. its essential for academic work. calling it "a pirate website" is taking Elsevier's side lol

Wait, really? I had no idea, and I have no idea who elsevier is. I just want to be sure you don't get folks in trouble here with SA's no piracy rule.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2020 23:27

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

vyelkin posted:

Elsevier is a predatory academic publisher (but I repeat myself) that makes tons of money off monopolizing research that should be freely available to the public.

They're the reason if you go to a random academic journal page it wants you to pay $35 to read a four-page PDF.

gently caress them then. Thanks for the info.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2020 03:17

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Fighting Trousers posted:

Any recs for good books on the French Resistance, or any of the anti-Nazi resistance movements during WW2?

from Jo Walton's Reading List

quote:

A Train in Winter, Caroline Moorehead, 2011.
First of four books about resistance to fascism in WWII. This one is about women in the French Resistance, underground newspapers, smuggling people across the border, all fun and games until suddenly these women we�ve been following are all on a train to Auschwitz and the whole tone of the book becomes unbearably grim. And terrible as what happened to them was, as political prisoners it was less awful than what happened to the Jews. However, a ray of light and a thing that will stay with me�news was sent back to the parents of one young woman who was killed, telling them that she was dead. The parents made a fuss, wrote to papers, visited the mayor, demonstrated, and the result was that the surviving French women were moved to Ravensbr�ck. Not that Ravensbr�ck was a picnic, but there was a tap for each barracks, not one tap per 5000 people as at Auschwitz. The fact that any of them survived is because of this. And this was a protest by ordinary people to the Nazis in Occupied France in 1943. Protest, stand up and be counted�you never know what lever will move the world, or if not move the world then at least make a tiny difference that is the whole world for others you may never meet or know about. This is a vivid, well-written book, but you should be braced for it.

# ¿ Apr 10, 2020 14:13

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

https://twitter.com/NotBrunoAgain/status/1262888892241494016?s=19

# ¿ May 20, 2020 13:51

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Dapper_Swindler posted:

i mean lol, but honestly same. if some series i like does a event/time period thats interesting. i will read about it.

hell one of the reasons i like games/media with deep lore is because i am a history nerd.

I know about Egypt now specifically because of AssCreed Origins. The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson was the tome I tackled because of that game.

# ¿ May 20, 2020 19:48

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Epicurius posted:

Simon Sebag Montefiore's "The Romanovs 1613-1918" is primarily about the dynasty, but I found it a fun read.

I thought I read somewhere that his scholarship wasn't very good, especially with his work on Stalin? Can someone confirm/deny?

# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 18:43

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Alright, so it sounds like it's in the Guns of August camp. Good for enjoying history (so to speak) but trust the academic takes on the subject more than those books. I'm down with that.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2020 19:20

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I'd actually be down for more textbook recs, prices be damned. Knowing which ones are the recommended ones is extremely valuable as a layperson who isn't likely to take history classes anytime soon. Also they make for fun xmas gifts to put on my wishlist!

# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 17:10

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

ketchup vs catsup posted:

If I want to read 1-5 books about the history of labor unions / the labor movement, what should I read?

The Making of the English Working Class
by E.P. Thompson

Recced in this very thread to me as a "feel good book if you have a long view", and it's a chonker but worth the effort.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2020 02:20

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Has anyone in here read Britain's Gulag by Caroline Elkins? It seems like another book in the vein of King Leopold's Ghost, but focused on Kenya. I'm...afraid to read it.

e: wait a minute it's also called Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. Still, question stands!

# ¿ Oct 6, 2020 22:57

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

vyelkin posted:

I read it in grad school, by which I mean I read the most important 10% of it. Your impression is pretty accurate, though the story itself isn't quite as horrifying as what happened in the Congo (1.5 million people tortured in concentration camps to try and maintain colonial rule isn't quite as bad as 10 million people brutally murdered to extract rubber, but it's still really bad!) so I didn't find it quite as overwhelming as King Leopold's Ghost.

I can't find it in myself to be sad that it's not as horrifying as King Leopold's Ghost. Thank you, it's on my list and I'll give it a gander when I'm ready to be mad at Europe again.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2020 14:58

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

I'm stressed and looking for more history books to put on my to-read list and so I'm googling "best history books all time" and stuff like that and google wants to make fun of me

https://bookauthority.org/books/best-history-books

# ¿ Oct 7, 2020 21:28

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Aerdan posted:

My personal go-to, outside of this thread, is /r/askahistorian's wiki.

I'd never heard of this list and now I have a giant to-read list, my god. Thank you.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2020 01:22

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Right-o, what's a good overview book on the Gulf War? I realized tonight that I hadn't really heard of it, and I don't know where to start (aside from the wiki page.)

# ¿ Oct 10, 2020 04:15

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Looking up Procopius and wikipedia has this:

Procopius, The Secret History, translated by G. A. Williamson. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966. A readable and accessible English translation of the Anecdota. Recently re-issued by Penguin (2007) with an updated and livelier translation by Peter Sarris, who has also provided a new commentary and notes.

Prokopios, The Secret History, translated by Anthony Kaldellis. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2010. This edition includes related texts, an introductory essay, notes, maps, a timeline, a guide to the main sources from the period and a guide to scholarship in English. The translator uses blunt and precise English prose in order to adhere to the style of the original text.

Which one is the better?

# ¿ Dec 7, 2020 16:43

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Rommel1896 posted:

I've read lots of stuff about the ancient Roman and Greek civilizations, but I know almost nothing about ancient Egypt. I'm particularly interested in the period from the Neolithic Era until Alexander's conquest. Obviously lots of books have been written about it, but if I could read say one or two that provide a general overview that would be great.

IIRC the best book on Egyptian History as an overview is The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson. I've had it on my to-read for ages.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2021 00:37

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# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 03:44

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Grand Fromage posted:

The Dik�tter books are some of the best scholarship on the period you can get in English. It's all from research done in the brief window when it was possible to get access to CCP archives and such. Any tankie moron telling you his work is trash is best ignored.

Pardon my ignorance: what is a tankie and why would they hate a historian? I know nothing about Dik�tter and only a little about Mao.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2021 19:13

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

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