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

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Looking for recommendations on a book covering the War of the Roses through the Tudor ascension.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2015 17:11

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:28

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

End Of Worlds posted:

I'm pretty sure this was published in the US under the much less exciting title of The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors. It shares that title with Alison Weir's, uh, The Wars of the Roses. I've only read the latter - it's good, but (iirc) oddly stops either right before or immediately after Richard III's ascension, leaving out Bosworth and Henry VII's seizure of the throne.

Jones' The Plantagenets is excellent, so his Wars is probably exactly what you're looking for.

Cool. I'll go with the Jones one. Bums me out Weir's leaves out the Tudors. Her Elizabeth I bio is great.

# ¿ Mar 30, 2015 15:49

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Raskolnikov2089 posted:

Any recommendations for a book about the Five Good Emperors of Rome? i.e. Nerva-Marcus Aurelius?

You could just read Gibbon until you hit Commodus.

Look Sir Droids fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Apr 4, 2015

# ¿ Apr 4, 2015 21:11

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Looking for a book generally on the Nazi rocket program and what the brains behind it, like von Braun, ended up doing after the war and how they largely avoided being derided as Nazis. Also looking more specifically at the V2 program and the Nordhausen facility and slave labor camp. Any suggestions along these lines?

# ¿ Aug 29, 2017 02:59

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

giogadi posted:

I'm interested in learning more about Chinese history in the past century or so. This is probably pretty vague but it's because I know so little! Thoroughness is less important than readability for me right now; even better if the scope is narrow enough to be thorough and readable. Thanks in advance!

This will only cover up until Mao, but I really enjoyed Dragon by the Tail: http://www.ebay.com/itm/DRAGON-BY-THE-TAIL-JOHN-PATON-DAVIES-JR-CHINA-/401348638116?hash=item5d723e35a4:g:lr8AAOSwYHxWP7M0

aqu posted:

While focusing on other areas as well, this book covers a lot of what you're looking for

If you're also interested in the biological and chemical weapon programs, it's a slam dunk recommendation.

Thanks!

Look Sir Droids fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Sep 1, 2017

# ¿ Sep 1, 2017 17:03

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

Good lord I just realized that Caro still hasn�t finished his LBJ biography series. I thought he�d been done for years.

From Wikipedia

He went from thinking it would be done by 2014 to it being several years away as of last December. Dude is gonna die long before he finishes at this rate.

I really hope he has a succession plan.

Also, I bet he was giving bad estimates for completion for every single volume of the LBJ series.

Writing this book is probably what keeps him alive, like coaching football is what kept Bear Bryant alive.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 21:30

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

How come LBJ gets the definitive 5,000 page biography of our time and not someone like FDR? Or any number of other more important historical figures.

Because LBJ recorded every conversation he had in the White House and his whole governing career is when thorough record keeping and retention really started. So his career is really well-documented and he really wanted it to be out there and available for people to learn about. Plus his era in government included the Great Depression, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and the hottest part of the Cold War. Pretty much most of the consequential history of the 20th Century.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 22:39

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Bilirubin posted:

That delay was probably due to his imprisonment in Syria though?

What?

Going down a rabbit hole on this,

quote:

Among sources close to the late president, Johnson's widow Lady Bird Johnson "spoke to [Caro] several times and then abruptly stopped without giving a reason, and Bill Moyers, Johnson's press secretary, has never consented to be interviewed, but most of Johnson's closest friends, including John Connally and George Christian, Johnson's last press secretary, who spoke to Caro practically on his deathbed, have gone on the record"

What's your problem, Bill Moyers?

Also

quote:

In an interview with The New York Review of Books in January 2018, Caro indicated he did not know when the book would be finished, mentioning anywhere from two to ten years.

lol. Who is the bigger tease, George RR Martin or Caro?

Look Sir Droids fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Feb 18, 2019

# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 22:47

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

RC and Moon Pie posted:

Caro wrote this for the New Yorker about research. As someone who loves digging into documents and is powered by the thought of uncovering something little known and realizing its place, this is beautiful. I'd totally read a book about his research technique and securing interviews.

You�re in luck: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Robert-Caro/dp/0525656340/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=robert+caro&qid=1550634417&s=gateway&sr=8-1

# ¿ Feb 20, 2019 04:47

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Silver2195 posted:

I mean, it was more of a democracy under Yeltsin, I guess.

Russia really doesn't have much of a democratic tradition, does it? They've had, what, one actually fair election ever?

Russia was basically immune to the Enlightenment so yeah, no democratic tradition whatsoever.

# ¿ May 25, 2019 18:19

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Midnight in Chernobyl.

# ¿ May 26, 2019 15:35

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

I was being overly glib. Probably more accurate to say Russia was the European power least influenced by the Enlightenment.

# ¿ May 26, 2019 22:27

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Are there any good biographies of Sam Rayburn?

# ¿ Jun 23, 2019 04:16

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

HannibalBarca posted:

Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson series manages to accidentally contain a really good biography of Rayburn, among other people who aren't Lyndon Johnson.

I am reading the Rayburn chapter in Path to Power right now. That�s what got me interested.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2019 13:27

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Those two nuclear bomb books are great adds for me. I�m reading Midnight in Chernobyl right now and it�s getting me on a horrifying non-fiction kick.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2019 04:19

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Grand Fromage posted:

Also tbh King Leopold's Ghost is one of the most depressing history books I can think of and it's normal to be bummed out after reading that. The Congo Free State is top level

Is it more or less depressing than Ordinary Men?

Someone mentioned earlier the Third Reich trilogy by Richard Evans. How does it compare to Shirer�s Rise and Fall of?

# ¿ Nov 17, 2019 04:22

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

I read Shirer about 20 years ago. I only recall it as a log of what happened, not why it happened.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2019 16:54

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Got the first volume of the Evans Third Reich trilogy and a Hans Scharf biography for Xmas. Now worried I put off Nazi weeb vibes.

# ¿ Dec 26, 2019 19:10

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

What's a good book for the history of the Byzantine Empire? Prefer a single volume, but it's like 1000 years of history so I'm open to multi-volume.

# ¿ May 20, 2020 01:02

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Grand Fromage posted:

Norwich is the main narrative, but if you read it keep in mind it's an old book by the field's standards and the scholarship has changed quite a bit.

History of Byzantium is good and uses modern scholarship.

For a modern book on a more narrow time period, Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood by Anthony Kaldellis is good.

Yeah, if the scholarship is outdated I�d like something more recent. It also looks like Norwich is hard/expensive to get.

Who is the author for History of Byzantium?

# ¿ May 20, 2020 03:40

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

I asked about the Byzantine Empire because of Crusader Kings 2.

# ¿ May 20, 2020 19:42

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Pick posted:

I'd like to have a strong argument to combat views like these:

You'll never be able to combat views like that because that person is impervious to reason and likely knows less than you do about monarchy as a form of government or in practice.

As for your original question, what do you mean by bad monarch? Bad as in a murderous tyrant? Bad as in a poor steward of the country? What do you need them to be bad at for your arguments with people that refuse to be convinced?

# ¿ May 28, 2020 01:36

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Biography question: Has anyone read George Marshall: Defender of the Republic?

I've read General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (Cray), which Amazon says was published in 2000 but that may be the reprint publishing date. Just wondering if the newer Marshall bio has anything to add or meaningfully updates the scholarship on him or his era.

# ¿ May 29, 2020 15:18

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Any good books on the Tulsa massacre?

# ¿ Jun 2, 2020 17:12

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Any recommendations for a book on the French Revolution? Covering like the decade before it and the aftermath up until the Napoleonic era.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2020 02:35

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Epicurius posted:

The second one? Try Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas Ricks. He wrote the book in 2006, so obviously it ends there, but it's still a good look at the problems in planning and then, after the conquest, in occupation and administration.

Fiasco is 2003 to 2005. He wrote a follow-up, The Gamble, that covers probably through the end of the Bush Admin, but is more focused on Petraeus. It was published in December 2009.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2020 14:31

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

I finished The Splendid and the Vile yesterday. It's so hard for me to read any book dealing with Nazis now. Too much of it rhymes with the present day.

Book is good, if a bit unfocused, though.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2020 17:25

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Mantis42 posted:

I'm trying to pace out the LBJ books because I have the deranged notion that the series might actually be finished in the next couple of years so if I only do one every half year it will all work out.

Yeah, about that.

quote:

In November 2011, Caro estimated that the fifth and final volume would require another two to three years to write.[11] In March 2013, he affirmed a commitment to completing the series with a fifth volume.[12] As of April 2014, he was continuing to research the book.[13] In a televised interview with C-SPAN in May 2017, Caro confirmed over 400 typed pages as being complete, covering the period 1964�65; and that once he completes the section on Johnson's 1965 legislative achievements, he intends to move to Vietnam to continue the writing process.[14]

In an interview with The New York Review of Books in January 2018, Caro said that he was writing about 1965 and 1966 and a non-chronological section about the relationship between Johnson and Bobby Kennedy. Asked if he still planned to visit Vietnam soon, Caro replied: "Not yet, no. This is a very long book. And there's a lot to do before that's necessary. I'm getting close to it now."[15] In December 2018, it was reported that Caro is still "several years from finishing" the volume.[16] In January 2020, Caro said he had "typed 604 manuscript pages so far" and is "currently on a section relating to the creation of Medicare in 1965".[17] Due to the/b]impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Caro postponed his research trip to Vietnam and a visit to the Johnson Presidential Library, but continued work on the book from his home in Manhattan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Years_of_Lyndon_Johnson#Book_Five

Not sure if Vietnam is even letting Americans in right now, but at best he won't do that until Summer 2021.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2020 16:50

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

vyelkin posted:

The other four books came out in 1982, 1990, 2002, and 2012, so that tells you something about how long it takes him to write each one.

Yeah, 8-12 years between books. We�re at 8 since the last one now. If it�s not out 4 years from now or he dies, I�ll agree it�s not coming out.

Hopefully he has a backup plan if he dies. His wife is his researcher, but I think she�s the same age as him.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2020 18:49

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Cyrano4747 posted:

I'd love to see his research and writing process, because 8-12 years between books is nuts.

Now, if his process is that it's like 2 years of preliminary puttering (aka not doing much but you've told your department and publisher you're writing), 2 years of solid research, 2 years of solid writing, and 2 years of fiddling around the edges and working with your editor to get the manuscript publishable, then that's understandable. But that's a pretty leisurely timeline and not exactly working full time on the manuscript.

At least in the last 8 years, he was working on another book. ABOUT his process.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L2F9S6H/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

It's 200 pages lol.

I think the gist of it is he's just an absurdly thorough researcher and Lyndon Johnson's career and especially his Presidency was both extensively documented (LBJ wanted it that way and that was the purpose of his presidential library) and, at least when he started these books, had most of the primary players still alive and he interviewed them.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2020 17:50

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

Dapper_Swindler posted:

because of the current political climate. whats a good book on hitlers last days?

If you�re getting hopeful just watch Downfall.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2020 21:59

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

I still have people I know, that are around my age, argue the States� Rights angle (I live in Tennessee). My response is always, �But what state right exactly? Hmm, what could it be?�

# ¿ Jan 31, 2021 17:33

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 22:28

Look Sir Droids: Jan 27, 2015; The tracks go off in this direction.

I�m finishing up Ghost on the Throne and really enjoying it. I read Peter Green�s bio of Alexander about a decade ago. Classical history owns but I don�t know where to go from here. Maybe a book on Ptolemaic Egypt? Or the history of Athens?

# ¿ Jun 10, 2021 18:45

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