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MRC48B posted:I may get flamed for this, but Horrible Histories? I remeber that series. I loved those books when i was younger.
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# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 04:35 |
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# ¿ Apr 17, 2024 19:35 |
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Are there any good books about the Crimean war? especially from the ottoman prospective or people who were there. I found a collection of William H Russell dispatchers from Crimea. that is pretty good.
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# ¿ Feb 20, 2015 21:46 |
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Argali posted:Yeah 1434 is horrendously bad. isnt idea of that book was the chinese visit started the renaissance?
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# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 03:12 |
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Silver2195 posted:Zinn is crap. Read Foner instead. why is that? I have various issues with zinn. but i am curious what your reasons are? also how is foner?
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# ¿ Dec 18, 2015 16:11 |
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fishmech posted:Howard Zinn himself once said that what he did with People's History was nowhere near the best, it was just one of the first and other people had done it better than him by the 1990s. The People's History has a lot of inaccuracies and misinterpretations, and it's all down to the fact that he was kinda pioneering the field, and there's been like over 40 years of better research done. i like it enough, it has issues but its a good starting point for a alternative historical perspective look. I think he is too harsh sometimes and makes every rebel in south america a magical hero who can do no wrong,(i am not defending of the right wing "backyard policies" of propping up every dictator who shoot "commies", i just dont believe everyone is a magic hero) but he is pretty good. Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Dec 19, 2015 |
# ¿ Dec 19, 2015 20:18 |
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Bushmeister posted:I am trying to track down a book I read an excerpt from some time ago and now have completely forgotten about. It was purpotedly a comprehensive description of jobs found in London in the 19th century, and the bit I read had the author interview people in charge of cleaning up the sewers and their trade. The whole book got a passing nod in the article, and I would like to get my hands on a copy. Does anyone know what book I am talking about? yeah that. i found it in a penguin classics edition in a used book store. its good stuff.
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# ¿ Dec 19, 2015 20:20 |
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:Half the shelf from which picked up Mao's Great Famine was about Nazis. It's always Nazis. I can believe that poo poo. Most people who served/survived world war 2 are dying out. in another 20 years their will be none left. and once awful poo poo goes out of living memory, people start saying it wasnt so bad. examples people defending stalin and other long dead autocrats both left and right. Hitler is one of the few who is still taboo and even that is slowing going away. Tekopo posted:Read the Myth of the Eastern Front. One of the chapters is how there is an entire industry of small publishers that print out tracts eulogizing and lionizing the SS. that book was published and written by holocaust deniers. then they talk endlessly about the real "holocaust" like Dresden and the soviets march through Germany in 1945. because the german didnt do nothing wrong.
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# ¿ Apr 13, 2016 21:42 |
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Grand Fromage posted:That always happens with distance though. It's fresh because it's so recent, but you can read any history of Alexander or Caesar's conquest or the Mongols or Tamerlane or hundreds of other dudes who are now looked at dispassionately and project back that people who were actually affected by it had the same disgust we feel about the idea of an account of Hitler that isn't purely negative. It's inevitable. I guarantee you centuries from now there'll be a history book talking about how Hitler was instrumental in bringing peace to the historically war-torn European nations. That's just how it works. true, but those people actually either conquered a hell of lot and kept it for long time, and or started long lasting empires. Hitler didnt do either. he held on to most of europe for 4-5 years, hosed up bad with Russia, killed 12 million people because they were the wrong religion/ethinicity and then blew his brains out cursing everyone. He didnt enact any long lasting moral laws or codes. He might be treated "softer" but not by much. they only way he will get fully redeemed is if europe falls under the far right.
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# ¿ Apr 22, 2016 18:17 |
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Cyrano4747 posted:The same could be said of the confederacy and there is no end to their apologists. true, but they wernt put to the sword like the nazis were. yeah a bunch of lower SS got away, but most of the higher ups died or got executed. In the civil war, we didnt purge the poo poo out of the south or their leadership. we didnt hang davis. therefore all those fuckheads could write their bullshit. the Nazis had a few but not enough to fully change the narrative.
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# ¿ Apr 23, 2016 07:08 |
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A human heart posted:Actually most Nazi officials weren't purged at all after the war, assuming you mean West Germany, the bureaucrats and mid level officials and so on were basically the same people as during the war and they continued running things. And lots of ex Nazis and other fascists ended up working with NATO anyway, either in Europe itself or in other places like South America. true. but it was pushed into the younger generations brains (at least in west germany) that the nazis were evil and they were culpable in their crimes. the Union never did that in the south. partly because lincoln had wanted a binding of wounds and partly because johnson was a sack of poo poo.
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# ¿ Apr 24, 2016 22:23 |
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vyelkin posted:The Sword and the Shield is an enormous book (700+ pages) but it's a fascinating look at the KGB. Alexander Mitrokhin, one of the authors, was a KGB archivist who smuggled documents out of his office every day for 12 years before defecting to the West and this is the first book written based on those documents, so it's an amazing inside look at the usually very secretive Soviet intelligence services. Be aware when reading it though that KGB defectors have a bad habit of overestimating the influence of KGB operations and taking credit for things like filling American universities with Marxist professors who corrupt American youth to turn them into communists. I can't remember how much of that there is in Mitrokhin's telling and it's moderated by the writing of the academic historian who serves as the book's primary author anyway, but be warned. I think i have heard of this guy before because of that. Some right wingers use him as source to prove the leftist/sjws/communist/whatever they dont like agenda in schools. that it all came from commies.
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# ¿ May 3, 2016 00:37 |
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vyelkin posted:It may have been him or another high-profile KGB defector. Some of the defectors swung as far to the right as they could possibly get after leaving the Soviet Union because they really, really hated it and wanted to side with whoever would oppose it the most. There are some really funny interviews out there with guys like Yuri Bezmenov, who claimed that literally every left-wing thing in America was a plot by the KGB to undermine America. Feminists, gay people, and hippies? All useful idiots for the KGB masterminds who orchestrated the entire cultural Marxist takeover of America. It's pretty goofy. yeah it was Bezmenov.
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# ¿ May 3, 2016 03:26 |
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Depressio111117 posted:Can anybody recommend a book about Biblical life from a secular perspective that isn't...uh, aggressively secular? I want to learn about what the disciples ate for lunch without every paragraph ending in either, "and this is why Christianity is a LIE" or "and this is why Christ is LORD". Life in Year one is pretty much that. though its dry at times. also zealot is pretty good at least for good idea of context around jesus time.
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# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 00:39 |
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kalthir posted:Just finished Mary Beard's SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. It was...pretty bad. The first 150 pages were a horrible slog, and after that the book just kinda meanders for 400 pages and fails to coalesce into a coherent narrative. yeah, i didnt hate it. but it feel like there was no real purpose to the book, it feels like a weird history stream of consciousnesses.
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# ¿ Nov 26, 2016 21:43 |
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I just got WORST. PRESIDENT. EVER. and its a pretty good book. its a good summery and reasoning why Buchanan was the worst of our current presidents. he also makes a point saying the dude had every right at being a good president since he was a life long politician and diplomat for two countries and could have maybe been able to keep the war off a little longer but basically made the worst choices every time for stupid or short sited reasons. its not perfect, the author goes on tangents at times and some of the facts about other stuff are kinda fudged. but its pretty solid. http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-worst-president-james-buchanan-214252 Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Dec 31, 2016 |
# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 01:40 |
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So i am look for a book about the history of natural history or at least natural history during the gilded age. not like forest conversation but like animal conversation, like zoos and natural history museums becoming a trend with the growth of Darwinism, plus the darker aspects like it playing into racial science and "human" zoos and social darwinsim.
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# ¿ Feb 22, 2017 03:09 |
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Cythereal posted:I read it from my local library out of curiosity. It's... not completely terrible, until you get to the discussion of the bombing campaigns against Japan and the atomic bomb. There's lurid celebration of Japanese war crimes and no mention of American war crimes, but all in all I'd say it's no worse than a typical American high school textbook. sounds better then expected sadly. i heard he argues stanton(or another cabinet member) was behind the killing of Lincoln and stalin killed patton because patton was a loud dickhead who jerked off about wanting to push all the way to moscow with the German remnant(which is true but stalin didnt murder him over it)
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# ¿ Feb 26, 2017 23:23 |
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CharlestheHammer posted:Depends, do you want to know how much a late 18 century Englishman hated Greeks? i always thought they liked the greeks because of the whole greek revolution against the ottomans thing and it was romanticized?
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# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 22:00 |
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Jedi425 posted:Hey history goons, want to get madly depressed for just $2? Boy, does Amazon have the deal for you today! thats a amazing book, depressing a gently caress though, it has some "happier" parts(like that the world turning against Leopold slowly and forcing him to give it all up and the birth of international activist movements).
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# ¿ May 6, 2017 21:08 |
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Has anyone read his recent one, The Doomsday Machine? seconding this. i have been tempted to read it. So i am doing my final term paper on the histography of richard nixon, mostly about his legacy and how it changed because of how the history was taught. so what are some of the landmark books about him. i already have all of the woodward and bernstein books as well as the 2 pearlstein books. i was just wondering what other landmark and academic books their are on nixon.
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# ¿ Feb 25, 2018 21:48 |
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HannibalBarca posted:There was a pretty good one-volume biography of Nixon out last year by a guy named Farrell. I enjoyed it; dunno what the scholarly consensus was though. yeah thats on my list to pick up, honestly i am not sure how i am gonna pull it off but its to late to switch topics at this point. thanks for the recommend.
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# ¿ Feb 26, 2018 02:30 |
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Strange Cares posted:I'm looking for a good biography of Casanove and a good micro history about tea. Does anyone have reccomendations? https://www.amazon.com/Casanova-Sed...ywords=Casanova its pretty good.
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# ¿ Jul 15, 2018 05:44 |
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Solaris 2.0 posted:He can be infuriating if you know anything more than HS knowledge of the subject he is talking about. However for your every day Joe who isn’t going to read and just wants the broad strokes you can do far worse. what did he gently caress up with the WW1 stuff. as someone said up thread, he cribs off guns of august and gets redundant.
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# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 23:56 |
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CharlestheHammer posted:Yeah Dan Carlin is very History channel in that regard. A lot of their shows didn’t look very critically at their sources in order to create a rather uncomplicated narrative. true. as people have said up thread and as a history major, I think he is good as a primer for most people, but just know he uses dated and biased sources. i still like his stuff, though i prefer the dollop because i like microhistory and they are funny. also i'll take carlins world war stuff over loving history channels the WORLD WARS mini movie.
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# ¿ Jul 22, 2018 16:17 |
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whats a good book on guy fawkes and the gunpowder plot and just that era in general.
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# ¿ Aug 22, 2018 22:05 |
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Cervixalot posted:Thanks again for the vote of confidence on Nixonland a few pages back. It’s fantastic. read nixonland first. it explains a ton how nixon took a ton from Reagan and the southern strategy and stuff.
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# ¿ Sep 4, 2018 02:44 |
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Richard Pipes son somehow ended up being even worse than he was. how does that even work? like how is he worse. also how bad is Goldhagan when it comes to history books. i remeber my professors loving hating his guts.
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# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 19:13 |
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Cessna posted:I will probably regret making this post, but here goes. And keep in mind that this is an oversimplification based on what I learned in courses taken years ago... yeah pretty much. i took a bunch of nazi/holocaust classes in college(just graduated) and most of the teachers called him a simplistic moron(in the best times, i heard one call him a "loving idiot") i am kinda of synthesis type between the Functionalism versus intentionalism camps. also browning's book Ordinary Men was more about a resever police unit that basicaly did a ton of shootings and how most of them wernt even die hard nazis and just did it because group mentality and because "dirty job" stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Browning#Ordinary_Men also reading wikipeidia, Goldhagan seems like a giant dumbass in general. like he isn't David Barton bad but he seems like he really loves simplistic bullshit. Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Sep 11, 2018 |
# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 21:11 |
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Minenfeld! posted:You're spot on--but I'm biased because I fall into the synthesis camp as well. Having read both books, I recommend Browning's. The new edition of the book also has an afterword that addresses Goldhagen. Cessna posted:Same here. i feel like alot of people. like i get why goldhagan wants to believe his stuff, because it makes history much easier/black&white. you have to research history books before you buy them which is kinda sad but thats the way it is. i have gotten burned a few times, mostly on "click baity" topics/titles. making the story sound much better/interesting/etc then it is.
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# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 22:17 |
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Let’s take a look at his Wikipedia page! oh. just not really surprised. like i can atleast understand the senior pipes because the russian revolution did go to poo poo but holy gently caress whats up with these history types and being weird xenophobes. if you learn anything, its that everyone/culture/country/etc has done awful loving poo poo and great amazing good stuff.
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# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 22:19 |
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is there a good book on nicky the 2nd and the end of the romanovs that isnt trying to paint them as sad romantics or some poo poo. like i don't mind painting them as some what tragic, but i want a book that shows nicky 2 as the failson dipshit that he was.
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# ¿ Jan 6, 2019 02:22 |
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Look Sir Droids posted:I was being overly glib. Probably more accurate to say Russia was the European power least influenced by the Enlightenment. i mean its one of those great what if's. Alexander Ist could have followed previous examples but went reactionary when poo poo went bad for monarchs after the french revolution and napoleon. his grandson could have possibly reformed more but he got blown up and russia just kinda went backwards until the revolution. EDIT ^ what they said. Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 05:37 on May 27, 2019 |
# ¿ May 27, 2019 05:34 |
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Megasabin posted:Interested in two very different types of books: The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad by Lesley Hazleton as well as its sequel After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam . they are both a good intro to the early history of islam and the contexts to various parts of the quran and the time period it all happend it.
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# ¿ Jun 29, 2019 23:52 |
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ulmont posted:Read anything by Mary Roach: https://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Life-Aristotle-Strange-Discover/dp/0465082955 i wanted to add this one to the list.
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# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 20:05 |
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Look Sir Droids posted:Is it more or less depressing than Ordinary Men? different types of depressing. parts of king leopold cover the same ground as ordinary men(how hosed up systems turn people into monsters) but its also more on colonialism and its horrors.
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# ¿ Nov 17, 2019 17:10 |
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Picked up Armageddon by Max Hastings and have been enjoying it. Helped make sense of Market Garden, and it was interesting how different the war was in the west. Had no idea Germans appreciated that the Western Allies didn’t do many night attacks or infiltration. he leans conservatish and times but he hates brexit and its pretty moderate. nothing that bad, i heard his vietnam book is good though depressing.
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# ¿ Dec 26, 2019 20:55 |
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from reading his vietnam one. he basicaly paints it as war of indipendence that became a brutal civil war that america stupidly stuck its dick into and that pretty much everyone did horrible poo poo to civilians and that when the war was over alot of the NVA soldiers felt hosed over because the government didnt give two fucks about most of them.
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# ¿ Dec 27, 2019 02:19 |
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Take the plunge! Okay! posted:That’s a very hosed up reading of the Vietnam war. There wouldn’t have been a civil war hadn’t the colonial powers created an opposition to the liberation movement. Even most American historians agree on that. Seems like a big attempt to justify atrocities committed by the colonial powers (US and France). he doesnt though. he talks about how france and america and the ARVN do tons of horrible poo poo but also how the NVA pissed away alot of the moral high ground they had. he doesnt justify poo poo, surprisingly. Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Dec 27, 2019 |
# ¿ Dec 27, 2019 19:38 |
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HamsterPolice posted:I'm reading about the Taiping Rebellion and its crazy how violent it was and the confluence of events that guided the war's outcome. I had never even heard of the war before reading this book. whats some good books on it? i have the johnathan spence one on it and thats it.
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# ¿ Dec 30, 2019 19:22 |
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# ¿ Apr 17, 2024 19:35 |
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Mantis42 posted:Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom by Stephen Platt is the other good one. i have heard that. its pretty cheap on amazon and i may pick it up on audible at some point. i got some good books for christmas. one was about the shinning path of peru which is interesting so far. https://www.amazon.com/Shining-Path-Madness-Revolution-Andes/dp/0393292800/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=shining+path&qid=1577737947&sr=8-1 another was a book on the 1948 election. https://www.amazon.com/1948-Trumans-Improbable-Victory-Transformed/dp/1635764483/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=1948&qid=1577737980&sr=8-8 than i bought the new SC gwynn book about the last year of the civil war and some weird book about Frank Lloyd Wright which is interesting but alittle to prosy at times. Dapper_Swindler fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Dec 30, 2019 |
# ¿ Dec 30, 2019 21:30 |