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I don't think it has been mentioned in this thread, but a personal favorite of mine is Matthew White's The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities. As the title suggests, White lists the 100 events in human that killed the most people, giving both a short factual listing of the event (death toll, rank, who gets the blame, etc.) and a summary of the history of the event. Obviously since the events the book covers run from the Second Persian War(480-479 BCE) to the Second Congo War (1998-2002) he doesn't go too in depth about any of these events and I wouldn't use this book for a history report. Still this makes for an interesting read, especially White's analysis at the end were he tries to find a common theme to these events. It's a big book at about 670 pages, but you can easily skip around in it.
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Sep 14, 2015 01:38
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chernobyl kinsman posted:any recommendations for books on everyday life in the USSR? You might also want to try Red Plenty by Francis Spufford, although it is more historical fiction. From my post in the What Did You Finish thread: The_Other posted:Red Plenty by Francis Spufford, a sort of historical fiction about the Soviet Union during the Khrushchev era, it uses both real-life and fictional characters. The book is divided into several parts with each part starting with an introduction written in an expository style, followed by three or four stories written in the narrative style. Essentially a prehistory of Perestroika.
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Oct 27, 2018 15:55
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Something I've been meaning to post here. Matthew White, author of The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities (a book I like probably more than I should) is currently working on a history of democracy and has been posting the chapters he's written online. I thought this might be of interest to the people in this thread. I'm posting the direct links to each chapter in this list since White's site can be a little hard to navigate.
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May 24, 2019 02:02
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clam the gently caress down posted:Can anyone recommend me a book on the history of Suicide or other mental health/behavioral history? I am currently reading History of Suicide by Minois, and it's fascinating. I have also come to adore Madness and Civilization by Foucault (though, less historical) Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves by Jesse Bering is a fairly recent (2018) work on the subject. It's been about a year since I read it however so I'm a little hazy on the details, I think it is a more psychological look at the subject than historical. There is also Geo Stone's book Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, but that book is a) out of print so you might have trouble finding a copy, and b) more of a how-to book, although he does spend some time on the history / philosophy of suicide through the ages.
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Dec 30, 2019 03:29
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Just finished Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland. He goes though key events in the development of Christianity and Christendom and argues that the ideas that developed from said events led to Christian values becoming so ubiquitous to Western thought that we don't even consider them Christian anymore (IE when atheists condemn Christian institutions, they still do so from a framework of Christian morals).
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Jan 28, 2020 16:57
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Chuck Buried Treasure posted:Would you recommend it? I’ve greatly enjoyed Tom Holland’s other history works that I’ve read, and I love religious history, but I was a little leery about how the two would mix I would recommend it. This is the first book by Holland that I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like I said it is more about the development of Christian philosophy than a straight history of Christianity. Holland focuses on various points of Christian/European history to show how they influenced ideas that we might not think of as Christian (the abolition movement, the concept of human rights, the division of the religious and the secular, etc)
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Feb 1, 2020 01:30
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Strange Cares posted:Haha that’s actually the book that led me here. I’d love to read it, but the only copy I can find is $200, and my local library doesn’t have it, so I’m looking for alternatives Did you try asking the reference desk if they can get it on inter-library loan? They might be able to get a copy from an academic library.
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Feb 13, 2020 23:02
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roomtone posted:Just read 'nothing to envy', oral history from north korean defectors which goes up until about 2008. A few years ago I was going though my library system reading every book I could on North Korea, but looking back I seem to have lost interest a few years after the death of Kim Jong-il. That said here are a few recent books that I might have missed or read and then forgot that deal with NK history; North Korea undercover : inside the world's most secret state By John Sweeney came out in 2015 See you again in Pyongyang : a journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea by Travis Jeppesen was published in 2018. North Korea confidential : private markets, fashion trends, prison camps, dissenters and defectors by Daniel Tudor, also 2018 The great successor : the divinely perfect destiny of brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield came out in 2019 I hope that's helpful. Chairman Capone posted:This isn't that, but I'll take the opportunity to say that I read A Kim Jong-Il Production a few years ago thinking it would be an interesting look at either the Kim regime or the North Korean film industry, and it was really disappointingly light, and came across like a very clear attempt to promote Shin Sang-ok, up to trying to depict the 3 Ninjas sequel he directed as some kind of cinematic masterpiece. I actually liked A Kim Jong-Il Production, although as you mentioned it's more of a non-fiction thriller than an in-depth history book. That said while going through my library systems catalog I did spot Aim high in creation! : a one-of-a-kind journey inside North Korea's propaganda machine by Anna Broinowski, which might be more what your looking for (although i haven't read it yet).
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Apr 15, 2022 02:17
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sbaldrick posted:Does anyone have a good book(s) on the history and culture of the Mormons Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer is a good place to start, although it mainly covers the early history of the Mormons / Latter Day Saints (LDS) to provide a background for the history of some of the fundamentalist groups that split from the church, which in turn provides a basis for understanding the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her daughter by her fundamentalist brothers-in-law. The book is more true crime than straight history.
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May 3, 2022 00:28
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dokmo posted:Just finished The White War by Mark Thompson, about the 432 Battles of the Isonzo. I know it's cliche to refer to the futility and waste of life during the 1st world war, but it's difficult to think of anything more futile and wasteful than Cadorna's strategy and tactics on the Italian-Austrian front. This is a book I've read before, but Russia's performance in the war over the last couple of months put my in the mood to read about the mother of all ill-conceived and -executed invasions. Luigi Cadorna Was The Worst
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May 3, 2022 01:49
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