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FishFood posted:
What problems did he have with Anthony Beevor?
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# ¿ Apr 16, 2012 20:28 |
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:49 |
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Is the Ian Kershaw two part biography the best place to start reading about Hitler?
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# ¿ May 8, 2012 21:19 |
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Are there any great books covering the the general time period of early modern warfare in Europe? Basically from the period just prior to the 30 years war to the Napoleonic Wars. I know there are tons of books on each subject individually but I'm looking for something larger.
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2013 00:41 |
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Anyone read Kill Anything that Moves yet?
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# ¿ Apr 15, 2013 18:15 |
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Is there nice one or two volume book covering the Napoleonic period including the French Revolutionary Wars?
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# ¿ Jun 5, 2013 19:57 |
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Mr Crucial posted:As a counterpoint to how 'good' the Germans were, you could try reading The Blitzkrieg Myth: How Hitler and the Allies Misread the Strategic Lessons of World War II by John Mosier. The reviews are mixed and he largely ignores the Eastern Front for some reason, but his primary point is that the idea of tank armies winning wars thanks to lightning breakthroughs was, uh, a myth. He points out how the Allies attempted to emulate the German breakthroughs on various occasions (Normandy, Market-Garden, Metz) but failed every time, and that the war was eventually won by broad fronted attritional advances. I'm more of an air combat buff (which he also goes into) so I'm not sure how valid his thesis is but it was quite interesting nonetheless. I don't know much about John Mosier but his book on World War I basically white knights the "undefeated" German Army so ehhh I'd take his thoughts with a grain of salt.
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# ¿ Jun 24, 2013 19:48 |
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Lead Psychiatry posted:I haven't read it yet, but I do plan on one day checking out Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity from my local library. The author of Hitler's Willing Executioners would be the last person I would regard as an authority on genocide.
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# ¿ Jun 20, 2014 06:52 |
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ulvir posted:What would be The One book abouf fascism? I'm looking to read up on it after my semester is over. Liberal Facism by Seriously don't ever touch that book. Ever.
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# ¿ Nov 15, 2014 22:11 |
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Yeah it'll basically be the definitive book on Stalin, similar to Ian Kershaw's book on Hitler.
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# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 07:35 |
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Wait, besides being an rear end in a top hat on Amazon what has Figes done that is so bad? I only really know of him through his wikipedia article which obviously doesn't say much
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# ¿ Feb 22, 2015 09:51 |
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It's not like you need to look hard to find tons of evidence that Stalin was a tyrannical rear end in a top hat, why make something up?
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# ¿ Feb 23, 2015 06:24 |
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What’s a good detailed book on the history of modern China? I’m talking from the 1800s decaying of the Qing, the fall of the dynasty and the established of the Republic, the warlord era, the civil war, and then since the establishment of the PRC. Is there such a detailed single volume book for this?
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# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 00:21 |
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Search for Modern China looks great. Any opinions on the Frank Dikötter trilogy that covers the reign of Mao? I know it has a controversial reputation. How about Mao The Unknown Story for a bio?
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# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 18:49 |
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Commissar Canuck posted:Anyone have recommendations on the First Indochina War? Is Street Without Joy still the go to single volume or is there something more recent? Embers of War without a doubt. Came out in 2012 and won the Pulitzer.
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# ¿ Jul 8, 2018 20:31 |
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Meridian posted:Found a copy of Landmark Herodotus in really good shape for $15 at a local book store today. Excited to dive into that. Alexander of Macedon by Peter Green is probably the best bio. There is a distinct lack of non academic books on early Rome but I’d recommend giving The Rise of Rome: From the Iron Age to the Punic Wars by Kathryn Lomas a look. It’s new, published just last February and I haven’t yet read it yet but it covers the period and looks extremely promising. Keep in mind that this is NOT the similarly named Rise of Rome by Anthony Everett which is fine but really feels like little more than Livy packaged for a modern audience. It’s straight forward and mostly uncritical. SPQR by Mary Beard covers early Rome for the first quarter or so of the book but I can’t say I’m a huge fan because in my opinion she goes too far the other way and brushes off most of the early history as “we can’t know how much truth is in the accounts of Roman history pre 280BC so gently caress it were gonna assume it’s all bullshit.” Shimrra Jamaane fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Aug 5, 2018 |
# ¿ Aug 5, 2018 05:00 |
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Richard Pipes son somehow ended up being even worse than he was.
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# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 05:22 |
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Dapper_Swindler posted:how does that even work? like how is he worse. Let’s take a look at his Wikipedia page! quote:Pipes has long expressed alarm about what he believes to be the dangers of "radical" or "militant Islam" to the Western world. In 1985, he wrote in Middle East Insight that "[t]he scope of the radical fundamentalist's ambition poses novel problems; and the intensity of his onslaught against the United States makes solutions urgent."[21] In the fall 1995 issue of National Interest, he wrote: "Unnoticed by most Westerners, war has been unilaterally declared on Europe and the United States."[22] Shimrra Jamaane fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Sep 11, 2018 |
# ¿ Sep 11, 2018 22:08 |
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I know size isn’t everything but Figes book on the Russian Revolution is like 700 pages long excluding the index and bibliography while most other books on the subject top out at like 300 which to me just seems too short to be an exhaustive account of the subject. Just don’t read anything by Pipes.
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# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 00:40 |
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He may have made up a Soviet anecdote in The Whisperers.
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# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 03:23 |
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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. The Oxford History of the French Revolution is a complete historical account and the 3rd edition just came out. Citizens is usually recommended BUT it’s definitely narrative history telling a specific story, and that story doesn’t cover everything and it ends before the Revolution does. It ends after Thermidor and doesn’t cover the Directory at all. Which is bad if you want a complete account of the Revolution.
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# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 18:02 |
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Minenfeld! posted:I think it's ok. Though, I've also heard it described as a "catalog of atrocities." Well I mean, that’s kind of what happened.
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# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 19:55 |
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Hey Hey Guns how good is Peter Wilson’s book on the HRE?
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2019 23:58 |
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HEY GUNS posted:good but somewhat of a simplified overview. Try Joachim Whaley as well. He only has books on the HRE starting from the Reformation though.
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# ¿ Feb 17, 2019 00:09 |
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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 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] 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. Shimrra Jamaane fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Feb 18, 2019 |
# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 21:07 |
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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.
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 22:35 |
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Bilirubin posted:That delay was probably due to his imprisonment in Syria though? Took me a second. Nice.
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 22:50 |
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Caro the Goon could be the subject of a really fascinating book. Honesty surprised no ones hooked him up with a publisher and a ghost writer.
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2019 23:09 |
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You’d get a more accurate portrayal of Medieval Life from reading a Dan Brown novel.
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# ¿ Feb 19, 2019 00:38 |
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Holland has done some excellent work as a pop historian with ancient history with Rubicon and Persian Fire but his book on the rise of Islam was not at all well received by academics in the field so I’m a bit wary of how he’s addressed the rise and spread of Christianity.
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# ¿ Feb 1, 2020 17:19 |
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Pick posted:Hello, history book thread. Currently, monarchism has become a popular political stance in the doomsday economics thread. But I don't agree with the monarchy or the divine right of kings and I would like it to not be re-instituted. Can anyone give me some good recommendations for books that cover particularly bad monarchs, so that I can approach their perspective from a more informed place? Come again?
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# ¿ May 28, 2020 00:55 |
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The Glumslinger posted:So, any suggestions on the French Revolution? Asking for a friend Good question. There’s a brand new book out called A New Word Begins: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin. I think it’s the new definitive non academic account of the Revolution. https://www.amazon.com/New-World-Begins-History-Revolution/dp/0465096662
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# ¿ May 29, 2020 16:13 |
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smr posted:Reading this now and it's quite good. Previously, I did greatly enjoy Schama's work because a) guy can write and b) he really gives a good "on the ground" flavor in his description of things, a feel for what life and society were like that most historians fail to provide or provide badly. But you have to go into it aware that Schama thought the Revolution was a mistake, a bad thing, that violence is never allowed as a means of effecting change... he's a pretty strong apologist for the nobility as well. I really like A New World Begins because while it doesn’t shy away from the excesses of the Terror and the atrocities in the Vendee it’s also very clear about the positives that occurred during the Revolution and the ideological underpinnings of the good motivations behind many of the actions of those in charge. It’s not dismissed as some cascading decent into an orgy of violence like Citizens does. I also really value how it covers the pre-Revolutionary years all the way to the establishment of the First Empire. It doesn’t just end at Thermidor like Citizens which I find stupid.
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# ¿ Jun 1, 2020 01:28 |
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smr posted:Agreed, I was quite jolted at how early Citizens cut off, it felt arbitrary. I don't think there's one good volume that covers Revolutionary France AND The Empire even though it's all really one epoch that can be discussed under one cover. I’m actually reading The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History right now and it’s quite good! It’s light on the military details though which is fine for me since I’m just coming off reading Chandler’s Campaigns of Napoleon so I have plenty of context to work with but might be an issue for others. Unfortunately it appears that the best historical accounts of the Empire in a holistic sense and not just its military accomplishments are in French and remain untranslated.
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# ¿ Jun 1, 2020 14:38 |
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Conversely are there any books that cover an overview of Post Napoleonic 19th century France that aren’t just some 200 page textbook that costs $70?
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# ¿ Jun 6, 2020 23:39 |
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HannibalBarca posted:cosign, although make sure you're getting the newest edition. the audible version I listened to earlier this year stopped around tiananmen. Yeah do search out the newer edition. The first one is great but it ends with Tiananmen and the author positing that this could be the start of a democratic awakening in China as seen in the revolutions occurring in Eastern Europe at the time and well, whoops on that one.
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# ¿ Dec 13, 2020 02:09 |
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Man I wasn’t aware of those comments by Foote in the 90s. Yikes.
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2021 03:26 |
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A New World Begins is the new definitive account. But if for whatever reason you want a solely Marxist interpretation of the Revolution I would hope it’s just for historiography reasons because scholarship has moved beyond that.
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# ¿ Feb 5, 2021 18:14 |
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I can personally recommend literally anything that Goldsworthy has written. On the other hand I thought SPQR was decidedly mediocre. Stay away from Anthony Everett imo.
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# ¿ Apr 24, 2021 19:45 |
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LeeMajors posted:Crossposting because this feels like a better home for it If you want a more in-depth overall history of WWI read Pandora’s Box by Jörn Leonhard and Cataclysm by David Stevenson.
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# ¿ Apr 27, 2021 18:52 |
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:49 |
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ToxicAcne posted:How trustworthy is Trotsky's account of the Revolution? And does anyone have any good overview books on Russian History? I asked the CSPAM commie thread but I wanted a different perspective as well. Ughh Anyway People’s Tragedy by Figes is great. Stay the gently caress away from Richard Pipes.
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# ¿ May 1, 2021 16:32 |