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Any good books on Cardinal Mazarin? I've been doing some reading into the old regime, and the old dude seems like he lead a pretty interesting life. Preferably one that can give some insight into the inner workings of the Church at the time, because one description had him as a kind of womanizing adventurer of a clergymen, which strikes me as a bit odd.
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Sep 25, 2014 05:07
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A Dapper Walrus posted:, because one description had him as a kind of womanizing adventurer of a clergymen, which strikes me as a bit odd.
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Sep 26, 2014 03:57
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A Dapper Walrus posted:Any good books on Cardinal Mazarin? I've been doing some reading into the old regime, and the old dude seems like he lead a pretty interesting life. Preferably one that can give some insight into the inner workings of the Church at the time, because one description had him as a kind of womanizing adventurer of a clergymen, which strikes me as a bit odd. Lecherous, power-hungry clergymen? Somebody tell the pope!  But seriously, Treasure's Mazarin: The Crisis of Absolutism in France is a solid political biography of Mazarin. It focuses less on his personal life and more on his political life, if that's what you were interested in.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:43
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Abu Dave posted:Basically a overview similiar to how A World Undone does it; Chronologically I guess including the events leading up. Don't mind if it's several books, I don't like books that get too into technicals though about weapons and such. This might be a impossible request considering the source material hah. Well, I suppose one of the classics is A.J.P Taylor's The Origins of the Second World War. It is a little dated at this point, however and it certainly controversial. His thesis has drawn a lot of criticism over the years and is generally considered false at this point. Richard Overy is an alternative.
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Sep 27, 2014 01:18
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Taylor's analysis of the origins of WWII is definitely out of fashion these days but I wouldn't call it false. It has it's merits as one of the first major works in English which tried to move away from the Hitler-centric viewpoint that had dominated scholarship up until then
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Sep 27, 2014 11:47
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Seams posted:Taylor's analysis of the origins of WWII is definitely out of fashion these days but I wouldn't call it false. It has it's merits as one of the first major works in English which tried to move away from the Hitler-centric viewpoint that had dominated scholarship up until then I want to emphasize this - if you're going to read history you really need to get away from a really hard and set notion of "false vs. correct" when it comes to historical interpretations. They're best taken as being part of an ongoing discussion, and to fully understand that discussion as a whole it's generally best if you're familiar with all the contributions and the order they happen in. Think of it like this: history books are basically the super-OG version of forums posts, only they happen at what's comparatively a glacial pace when taken side by side with your average D&D thread. Think of each book as a separate, distinct post with an author either making his own argument, trying to correct someone else's argument, or just presenting something he thought was neat. Once in a while you'll get some crackpot who actually argues something that's just completely demonstrably wrong, but it's relatively uncommon. Much the same way that it's difficult to jump in at the tail end of a 25 page thread without having at least read the OP and a few key posts in-between, you can't really just grab the latest book on any given historical subject and say that it's the most definitively "right" one.
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Sep 27, 2014 14:34
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Seams posted:Taylor's analysis of the origins of WWII is definitely out of fashion these days but I wouldn't call it false. It has it's merits as one of the first major works in English which tried to move away from the Hitler-centric viewpoint that had dominated scholarship up until then The impression I've gotten from the current scholarship is that Taylor's thesis is generally considered to be false as a stand alone. But it is worth reading because both yourself and Cyrano have mentioned, it's important to get a handle on the general scholarship on a topic in the order that it's been published. A good example would be books regarding the First World War--in order to really get a handle on the topic, you have to read Fischer and understand his thesis and the controversy it stirred up. And, also, with historical works, always, always, always read the preface/introduction/forward to get a handle on the author's methodology and focus.
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Sep 28, 2014 04:08
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Roark posted:Lecherous, power-hungry clergymen? Somebody tell the pope! Haha, thanks very much for the recommendation. Trust me, I know all about the poo poo-show that is the Catholic Church, what with the lovely bribery, lechery, corruption, and general crappiness. It's just that I always felt that they tried to keep the lechery more underwraps at the higher levels, like being one of the major influences on the French monarchy. Everything else was par for the course - nothing says man of God more than having a personal army or more money than most states at the time - and all the lechery was 'under wraps' aka totally known by everybody but acceptable, within certain limits.
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Sep 28, 2014 21:43
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Could anyone recommend me some books on 20th century Korean history? Specifically about their split in the 50s and its results? I'm not really looking for any military history but it would be alright if it's pretty great. I'm also looking for books with a focus on N. Korea in recent times aswell. Thanks.
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Oct 5, 2014 07:25
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What's a good bio of Napoleon III? I'm particularly interested in pre-Empire shenanigans (the failed coup in Boulogne etc.)
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Oct 5, 2014 10:33
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40-Degree Day posted:Could anyone recommend me some books on 20th century Korean history? Specifically about their split in the 50s and its results? I'm not really looking for any military history but it would be alright if it's pretty great. I'm also looking for books with a focus on N. Korea in recent times aswell. Nothing to Envy is a really interesting look into the lives of some ordinary North Koreans who later defected to the South. I finished it not too long ago and pretty much blew through it. It's more anecdotal than historical, though.
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Oct 5, 2014 14:02
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Jedi425 posted:Nothing to Envy is a really interesting look into the lives of some ordinary North Koreans who later defected to the South. I finished it not too long ago and pretty much blew through it. It's more anecdotal than historical, though. I can second this, this is a phenomenal book if you're curious about everyday life in North Korea, especially during the famine in the 90s. It won't tell you much about Korean history farther back than the 90s that you couldn't find on Wikipedia though.
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Oct 5, 2014 14:07
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I really like "Escape from Camp 14" for insight into modern NK.
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Oct 5, 2014 14:17
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Kuiperdolin posted:What's a good bio of Napoleon III? I'm particularly interested in pre-Empire shenanigans (the failed coup in Boulogne etc.) Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire by John Bierman and Napoleon III and His Regime: An Extravaganza are both pretty solid. Bierman's book has quite a bit on the occasional lunacy of his personal life. Roark fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Oct 6, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2014 15:56
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Does anyone have any recommendations for books dealing with politics/sociology of interwar Japan?
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Oct 7, 2014 12:46
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Roark posted:Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire by John Bierman and Napoleon III and His Regime: An Extravaganza are both pretty solid. Bierman's book has quite a bit on the occasional lunacy of his personal life. Thanks.
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Oct 7, 2014 17:57
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Does anyone have recommendations for a good overview of pre-industrial history of Ireland, and books for Savoralona and the Florentine republic at the turn of the 16th century?
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Oct 8, 2014 09:42
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Drone posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for books dealing with politics/sociology of interwar Japan? Herbert Bix's Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan might have a bit of what you're looking for. It focuses on Hirohito (obviously), but along the way it says quite a bit about the interwar period and Japan's move toward its version of fascism. It's been a while since I've read it, but I remember the cultural chaos and flux of the interwar period to be described pretty well.
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Oct 8, 2014 14:25
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Bushmeister posted:books for Savoralona and the Florentine republic at the turn of the 16th century Lauro Martines' April Blood, followed by his Fire in the City. The former covers the failed Pazzi coup against Lorenzo the Magnificent and the subsequent Medici crackdown in 1478, and the latter continues the narrative with a focus on Savonarola's life and his regime in the city. Martines is one of the big beasts of Italian Renaissance history and I've really enjoyed what I've read of his, even if his prose can be a bit stilted in places (English is not his first or second language).
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Oct 8, 2014 15:40
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Jedi425 posted:Nothing to Envy is a really interesting look into the lives of some ordinary North Koreans who later defected to the South. I finished it not too long ago and pretty much blew through it. It's more anecdotal than historical, though.
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Oct 8, 2014 18:05
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Anyone have a recommendation on the history of Druids? I'm looking at Hutton's Blood and Mistletoe but I don't particularly want to burn through 100 pages on Obern Zell-Ravenheart and the like. Something seriously scholarly on the Celts (esp. of the British Isles) would also be ideal. Or anything on sub-Roman Britain pre-Norman Conquest. chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Oct 9, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2014 07:00
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I'm interested in reading about Romania during Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime and then the Romanian revolution. Any recommendations?
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Oct 13, 2014 19:21
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Roark posted:Lauro Martines' April Blood, followed by his Fire in the City. The former covers the failed Pazzi coup against Lorenzo the Magnificent and the subsequent Medici crackdown in 1478, and the latter continues the narrative with a focus on Savonarola's life and his regime in the city. Martines is one of the big beasts of Italian Renaissance history and I've really enjoyed what I've read of his, even if his prose can be a bit stilted in places (English is not his first or second language). Thanks a lot, my books arrived today. Can see the thing about the prose after reading some ten odd pages but its nowhere near a dealbreaker.
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Oct 13, 2014 20:04
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TheFallenEvincar posted:I'd also like to read more on the Korean War perhaps. I've always had an outside grasp of the whole thing, more like how the Korean War fit into the Cold War and how it affected X or Y, not the actual details of the conflict and maybe stuff about the clash between Truman and MacArthur. Having recently read Philip Roth's novel Indignation, set during the Korean War, and having read the awesome novel The Orphan Master's Son, I have been starting to think more on the Korean War and how little I know about the actual events of it (vague things about the Chinese and those POWs who ended up staying with the North Koreans/Chinese). Coldest Winter by David Halberstam is pretty good, but is focused almost entirely on the American perspective/experience. It also does a pretty good job of showing how badly MacArthur and Ned Almond botched things up (and in my opinion, how Matthew Ridgeway is one of the most underrated American commanders of the 20th century). Max Hastings's The Korean War is supposed to be pretty good as well, but is more well rounded and looks at the various UN nations that participated in the conflict rather than just the U.S. for the most part.
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Oct 14, 2014 19:54
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Juanito posted:I'm interested in reading about Romania during Nicolae Ceaușescu's regime and then the Romanian revolution. Any recommendations? The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 by Peter Siani-Davies is a pretty good read. It's been awhile since I picked it up, but I remember it doing a good job of accounting for various viewpoints and controversies that took place throughout the revolution and after.
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Oct 16, 2014 08:53
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Having just watched Fury, is anyone able to recommend a good book on tank warfare. I know it was all wrong and full of Hollywood tropes but it would be good to understand what things were really like. Anything from crew experiences to how they were used and everything in between. Preference for material focusing on WWII but doesn't need to be exclusive.
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Oct 28, 2014 23:48
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sc0tty posted:Having just watched Fury, is anyone able to recommend a good book on tank warfare. I know it was all wrong and full of Hollywood tropes but it would be good to understand what things were really like. Go to the military history thread and ask there. Those guys know their stuff and love tankchat. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3585027
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Oct 29, 2014 15:57
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Anyone know any good book about Philip II and he made Macedon dominant in Greece?
Pump it up! Do it! fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Oct 31, 2014 |
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Oct 31, 2014 09:12
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Any recommendations for space program history? Any for the history of egyptology or of egypt?
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Nov 12, 2014 02:26
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What sort of thing are you looking for for space history? Apollo by Catherine Bly Cox and Charles Murray is the best book on that particular program, general histories are harder to come by. The astronauts of course have released biographies galore.
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Nov 12, 2014 02:56
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Any recommendations on Ottoman history? Just finished Norwich's magnificent Byz trilogy and would like something from the other side of things now, preferrably with writing as enjoyable as his.
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Nov 12, 2014 20:44
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What I'm looking for is an accessible book on Nasser/Pan-Arabism. Preferably something that isn't dominated by Suez.
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Nov 12, 2014 23:32
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FYI the Kindle version of Furies: War in Europe 1450-1700 is currently US $3 on Amazon - had it on my reading list from previous recommendations in the Military History thread: http://www.amazon.com/Furies-Europe-1450-1700-Lauro-Martines-ebook/dp/B009K4Z37W/ref=tmm_kin_title_0 KoldPT posted:Any recommendations on Ottoman history? Just finished Norwich's magnificent Byz trilogy and would like something from the other side of things now, preferrably with writing as enjoyable as his. Osman's Dream by Caroline Finkel is a pretty good overview of the empire from its foundation to the collapse after WWI. And if you want to keep going past that, A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin goes into great detail on the politics and backroom dealings that resulted in the Middle East partition after WWI.
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Nov 13, 2014 02:23
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What would be The One book abouf fascism? I'm looking to read up on it after my semester is over.
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Nov 15, 2014 13:41
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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. The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O Paxton
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Nov 15, 2014 14:47
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dokmo posted:The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert O Paxton Thanks a bunch.
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Nov 15, 2014 15:03
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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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"In the book, Goldberg argues that fascist movements were and are left-wing." Wow, what a remarkably original idea that no right-wing nutjob has ever thought up before. This sounds like groundbreaking work with a solid academic research behind it.
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Nov 15, 2014 22:19
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Terrifying Effigies posted:
I read the first half of that Fromkin book. I can't really recommend it. It gets bogged down in the minutia of who wrote what report, and "this guy talked to this guy and said this, but he didn't talk to this other guy".
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Nov 15, 2014 23:28
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I'm looking for a good book about The Korean War. Preferably something that goes into the background and the politics of it. I'm currently most of the way through Peter the Great by Robert K Massie and I'm loving it. I like the way Charles XII kinda comes in and takes over the book for a while.
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Nov 16, 2014 14:32
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