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Kafka Esq. posted:Any suggestions for something readable on the development of money, stock/bond markets, and more complex aspects? I've read Debt by Graeber, Money: A Biography, but now I'm drawing a blank as where to move next. I feel like reading some biographies of innovators in the markets would be the next best bet? Niall Ferguson, in his less psychotic imperial-apologist moments, wrote a book called The Ascent of Money which is pretty much exactly what you seem to be looking for, though I recall it being more about money and banking than about stocks.
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Jul 8, 2015 00:15
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IXIX posted:Niall Ferguson, in his less psychotic imperial-apologist moments, wrote a book called The Ascent of Money which is pretty much exactly what you seem to be looking for, though I recall it being more about money and banking than about stocks. He also wrote a series of reasonably well regarded journal articles: Public Finance and National Security: The Domestic Origins of the First World War Revisited The German inter-war economy: political choice versus economic determinism The Balance of Payments Question: Versailles and After Kafka Esq. posted:Stuff like that, which shed a light on how money actually works, is exactly what I'm looking for. The most influential stuff in recent times is written by the big names in economics on the inter-war years: all major theories of economics have to be able to account, on a historical basis, for the 1929 crash. See this lecture by Bernanke: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/200403022/default.htm Here it's important to understand the contribution of Keynes and then later monetarists like Friedman to understanding the underlying problems in the money supply - fed hoarding, and the gold standard. If you want to understand these events economically the best stuff is really all by economists. Tooze also touches on the broader points on inter-war economics in his enormously well-regarded book on German war economics, Wages of Destruction
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Jul 8, 2015 00:23
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TheFallenEvincar posted:As someone for whom Chinese history is an enormous blindspot, where do I start with all that Three Kingdoms stuff? Should I just read Romance of the Three Kingdoms? I've heard you need to have an existing knowledge of Chinese history to get into that and that it's more of a legendary mythos anyway. I recommend Mountain of Fame as a good starting point for cultural background, if you don't want to just dive right in.
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Jul 8, 2015 20:15
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Maybe it's not exactly history just yet since some of it was still so recent, but does anyone know of any books about the Satan Panics of the late 70s through the mid 90s?
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Jul 9, 2015 06:07
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Could anyone recommend a good history on The American Civil War? I've watched the Ken Burns documentary about a dozen times but that's about it for my knowledge of the conflict. Preferably one that dedicates the same attention to both sides and doesn't read like shampoo ingredients. Thank you.
Dr. Gene Dango MD fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Jul 9, 2015 |
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Jul 9, 2015 07:25
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:Could anyone recommend a good history on The American Civil War? I've watched the Ken Burns documentary about a dozen times but that's about it for my knowledge of the conflict. Preferably one that dedicates the same attention to both sides and doesn't read like shampoo ingredients. Thank you. If you liked Ken Burns, just read Shelby Foote.
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Jul 9, 2015 08:50
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Glatthaar's writing is really readable and he has a pretty balanced presentation.
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Jul 9, 2015 14:58
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KomradeX posted:Maybe it's not exactly history just yet since some of it was still so recent, but does anyone know of any books about the Satan Panics of the late 70s through the mid 90s? It covers stuff about Satan in America from colonial times to now instead of just the 70s and 80s, but try http://www.amazon.com/Satan-America-The-Devil-Know/dp/0742561720
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Jul 9, 2015 15:32
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:Could anyone recommend a good history on The American Civil War? I've watched the Ken Burns documentary about a dozen times but that's about it for my knowledge of the conflict. Preferably one that dedicates the same attention to both sides and doesn't read like shampoo ingredients. Thank you. http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Volumes-1-3-Box/dp/0394749138
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Jul 9, 2015 15:57
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:Could anyone recommend a good history on The American Civil War? I've watched the Ken Burns documentary about a dozen times but that's about it for my knowledge of the conflict. Preferably one that dedicates the same attention to both sides and doesn't read like shampoo ingredients. Thank you. Foote's 3-volume work is very comprehensive and uncommonly well written (some people would rate it as much as a work of literature as history), but there's a strong Southern bias, especially in the third volume. I always thought the big coffee-table book that accompanied the Burns series was really good for what it was. FMguru fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Jul 9, 2015 |
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Jul 9, 2015 16:08
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I believe I'll check out Foote's three volume set first, thanks for the suggestions.
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Jul 9, 2015 18:31
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:I believe I'll check out Foote's three volume set first, thanks for the suggestions. I find the reading experience greatly improved if you imagine it being read in the author's voice.
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Jul 9, 2015 18:42
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Nintendo Kid posted:It covers stuff about Satan in America from colonial times to now instead of just the 70s and 80s, but try http://www.amazon.com/Satan-America-The-Devil-Know/dp/0742561720 I read Satan in America a few years back and thought it was excellent. So I've been just looking for something like it but well slightly more contemporary. I should go and recheck out his bibliography as well for some reading suggestions
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Jul 10, 2015 04:07
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FMguru posted:McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom. Arguably the best single-volume history of anything. Seconding this. Battle Cry is amazing, and largely avoids narratives on all the battles, which makes it flow a lot better.
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Jul 10, 2015 04:32
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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I'd like an academic and huge as gently caress book on the history of the Roman republic and empire, from its foundation to its 'fall'. Any suggestions? ↓↓↓ I'd like a book on that too. Chelb fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jul 10, 2015 |
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Jul 10, 2015 17:23
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That makes me wonder if there were any good books that cover the Etruscans and Roman Kingdom/pre-republic stuff, I assume a lack of good historical sources/accounts other than mythology prevents this
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Jul 10, 2015 17:55
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Rollofthedice posted:I'd like an academic and huge as gently caress book on the history of the Roman republic and empire, from its foundation to its 'fall'. Any suggestions? Academic books usually focus on a way more narrow aspect, such as 'The Role of New Moneyed Elites in Agricultural Change 120-20BC' or some poo poo. The Cambridge Ancient History overview series has like 14 volumes, some of them in two parts. http://www.amazon.com/The-Oxford-History-Roman-World/dp/0192802038 This seems good though, though focused on the period up to the early Empire. Maybe have another similar one about the Roman Empire afterwards and you'll have a nice overview
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Jul 10, 2015 18:33
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Rollofthedice posted:I'd like an academic and huge as gently caress book on the history of the Roman republic and empire, from its foundation to its 'fall'. Any suggestions? Antwan3K posted:Academic books usually focus on a way more narrow aspect, such as 'The Role of New Moneyed Elites in Agricultural Change 120-20BC' or some poo poo. The Cambridge Ancient History overview series has like 14 volumes, some of them in two parts. The problem with the Cambridge History and the Oxford History (though the Oxford history is not as ambitious) is that neither is a monograph with a driven narrative: they're essentially collections of essays, some of which may seem esoteric. The former is also primarily intended for use as a reference text for historians. The other big problem you can encounter is some works of Roman and Greek history are built for classicists. Unfortunately you're right and there is no great unifying monograph possible. The closest thing of note is probably Gibbon's work, but its thesis is discredited even if it is regarded as a great literary achievement. The best grand histories of Rome are mostly introductory texts and social histories right now. I think I would spring for a work of social history, probably Conquerors and Slaves by Hopkins and The World of Rome by Jones and Sidwell. A slightly more hoary old classic is Brunt's book Social Conflicts in the Roman Republic but it doesn't have the breadth.
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Jul 10, 2015 18:48
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TheFallenEvincar posted:That makes me wonder if there were any good books that cover the Etruscans and Roman Kingdom/pre-republic stuff, I assume a lack of good historical sources/accounts other than mythology prevents this There is plenty of good historical information on the Etruscans, it's just all archaeological. There is tons written about them, but they tend the be the sorts of archaeology-driven books that don't make good reading for the layman.
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Jul 10, 2015 18:52
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Problem with a lot of preroman italian penisula stuff is that the romans after taking over the areas (through conquest or other means of assimilation) they would start to either claim that certain things were actually roman all along or even worse would outright censor (taking chisel to records/destroying monuments etc.) the history of those cultures that were there. So all we really have to go on is what archeological finds survived not only that but the ravages of time.
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Jul 10, 2015 20:05
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Hell if we were are just talking roman "first hand" written sources you could put that on a family dinner table and still have room to spare however you could fill a stadium with a million pot shards that will never match with each other. To give an idea of how dire the whole idea of having a "definitive" history on that stuff is
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Jul 10, 2015 20:13
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Disinterested posted:Unfortunately you're right and there is no great unifying monograph possible. The closest thing of note is probably Gibbon's work, but its thesis is discredited even if it is regarded as a great literary achievement. That's a bit unfortunate. Thanks for the recommendations regardless, I'll check them out. On a similar tack, are there histories that I was looking for for Rome but with other ancient civilizations? That is, are there monographs or grand academic histories of ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient Mesopotamia, ancient Greece, etc? Or am I similarly screwed on those fronts?
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Jul 10, 2015 20:48
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Rollofthedice posted:That's a bit unfortunate. Thanks for the recommendations regardless, I'll check them out. You're doing the history equivalent of saying "I want a book about biology, all of it." Any broad history is going to be little more than a narrative textbook. If you're looking to pick up info on that level I'd actually just start with wikipedia. Once you have a grasp on what you're interested in you can pursue books that make more interesting arguments.
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Jul 10, 2015 21:16
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Most of the Etruscan histories are simply lost works, its not that the Romans didn't record them.
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Jul 11, 2015 02:25
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Wrong thread, sorry.
Dr. Gene Dango MD fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jul 11, 2015 |
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Jul 11, 2015 20:41
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Rollofthedice posted:That's a bit unfortunate. Thanks for the recommendations regardless, I'll check them out. As other people have said, there aren't great overviews of quite that scope because that's basically impossible, but if you want to dig in the Landmark series of books are great, very well footnoted/translated/introduced primaries with big old maps to help you follow along and nicely curated essays in the back. It helps to have some background but if you're willing to get up and run with it they can be very good. http://www.amazon.com/The-Landmark-Thucydides-Comprehensive-Peloponnesian/dp/0684827905
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Jul 13, 2015 05:04
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Does anyone have a recommendation for a general book about WWII PTO, covering the entire campaign? Ideally something on the more detailed/complex end.
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Jul 13, 2015 10:29
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Rollofthedice posted:I'd like an academic and huge as gently caress book on the history of the Roman republic and empire, from its foundation to its 'fall'. Any suggestions? As the other posters have said, a single monograph on something like that doesn't really exist. However, there's been some good, readable work on the Late Empire that's come out in the past decade or so. Peter Heather's books are academic but readable, and in particular I'd go with The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians and The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders, which form a single (more or less) narrative of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the immediate aftermath.
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Jul 13, 2015 16:22
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Although that narrative is certainly not without it's critics. I much prefer Guy Halsall's Barbarian Migrations, which asserts that it's not that the barbarians eventually outsmarted the Romans, but instead that they had been closely related to it for centuries, and it was weakening Roman authority that brought them in the first place, often by invitation. The 'barbarians' weren't trying to destroy the Empire, they were just trying to carve themselves a powerful spot within it, and were going out of their way to be as Roman as possible. But a century of internecine conflict, giving rise to regional power blocks, proved so damaging to central authority that the whole empire never got put back together. It's academic as gently caress (it's basically a textbook), but that probably shouldn't bother you in this case. Lots of talk about archaeological evidence and ethnogenesis.
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Jul 13, 2015 21:22
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Is there any definite book on, specifically, ancient roman battle tactics with examples of specific battles and movements of the battles? Not the empire/republic as a whole or certain roman eras (I'm starting with Adrian Goldsworthy for that), but strategy, weapons, tactics, formations, etc etc. Roman Battle Tactics: 109BC - 313AD by Ross Cowan is where I am going to start on the subject; just wondering if there are any other specific recommendations. Books on ancient warfare in general would be welcomed as well, not just ancient rome.
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Jul 14, 2015 19:56
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Anyone have any recommendations for books about the British Empire? I've read or will read in the future John Darwin and William Dalrymple's books, and already have a pretty extensive working knowledge of 20th century wars (although info specifically on how WW1 and 2 affected the Empire would be interesting) More specific topics of interest: British naval power pre and post Trafalgar (most books seem to focus on the Napoleonic Wars) The Raj/The East India Company/The Indian Mutiny The Anglo-Dutch Wars The Great Game Also, any recommendations on the 100 Years War
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Jul 14, 2015 21:18
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DeceasedHorse posted:Anyone have any recommendations for books about the British Empire? I've read or will read in the future John Darwin and William Dalrymple's books, and already have a pretty extensive working knowledge of 20th century wars (although info specifically on how WW1 and 2 affected the Empire would be interesting) Darwin's The Empire Project and Unfinished Empire (although it sounds as if you might have read those) for broader overviews. William Rogers Lewis' Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization is a series of essays on various parts of the Empire, ranging from the later 19th century to the 1960s. Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game is a readable intro to the, well, the Great Game, and he makes a good use of Russian sources to build a better picture. I'd also recommend John Bew's Castlereagh: A Life and David Brown's biography of Palmerston, Palmerston, if you have any interest in biography. The biographies are more on the academic end, but they're the most recent comprehensive works on two of the most dominant figures in 19th century British foreign policy from the Napoleonic Wars to the 1870s.
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Jul 14, 2015 21:53
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DeceasedHorse posted:Anyone have any recommendations for books about the British Empire? I've read or will read in the future John Darwin and William Dalrymple's books, and already have a pretty extensive working knowledge of 20th century wars (although info specifically on how WW1 and 2 affected the Empire would be interesting) More approachable and general books in bold, more detailed ones not: British Domestic Politics (Overview) A Mad, Bad and Dangerous People by Boyd Hilton, and The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain by Jon Parry Imperial Britain, Thompson The Empire Strikes Back, ibid These are old standards on the subject of British politics in the 19th century, with the focus being the end of the long 18th century and early 19th century, and the mid-late 19th century respectively. Virtually nobody studying Victorian England didn't start here. But note, this will only give you background for understanding the Empire, which to try to do involves piecing together a lot of disparate things. Almost no historian of empire is an impeccable historian of British domestic politics and visa versa, just like in any other area of history. British Empire In Overview Britain's Imperial Century: 1815-1914, Ronald Hyam The Oxford History of the British Empire The Cambridge Histories of South-East Asia and Africa Imperial meridian: the British empire and the world 1780-1830 by Chris Bayly The Lion's Share: Short History of British Imperialism, 1850-1983, Bernard Porter Themes in The British Imperial Experience: Victorian Attitudes to Race, Christine Bolt Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire, David Cannadine Orientalism, Edward Said (sections of) - note, this book more or less helped invent subaltern and post-colonial studies The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000, Colin Kidd The Birth of the Modern World, Chris Bayly Raj/Mutiny: The Indian Mutiny and the British Imagination, Chakravaty The Great Mutiny, Christopher Hibbert The Aftermath of Revolt: India, 1857-1870. Tom Metcalf Ideologies of the Raj, Ibid Land, Landlords and the British Raj, Ibid Indian Society and the making of the British Empire, Chris Bayly The Last Mughal, Dalrymple I strongly recommend as an addendum: Christian Responses to the Indian mutiny, Brian Stanley, in Studies in Church History 1983 if you get the chance and the Mutiny piques your interest, in terms of the British psychology about its aftermath. You should also read Empire by Niall Ferguson after you've read a bunch as a provocation to yourself and because it's a book casual people are likely to ask you about. I don't know that much about decolonisation but you should prolly read about that too.
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Jul 14, 2015 22:38
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Roark posted:I'd also recommend John Bew's Castlereagh: A Life and David Brown's biography of Palmerston, Palmerston, if you have any interest in biography. The biographies are more on the academic end, but they're the most recent comprehensive works on two of the most dominant figures in 19th century British foreign policy from the Napoleonic Wars to the 1870s. There's a lot of really strong biography of British 19th century leaders, as it happens, if that's your thing.Matthew's biography of Gladstone also comes to mind, as do Gaunt and Gash's respective biographies of Peel. Someone even wrote a good biography of Derby, lord knows why. Bew's book on Castlereagh is the only really trustworthy book on the subject, too, imo, although be mindful that John is also a foreign policy talking head so there's always an axe to be ground somewhere.
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Jul 14, 2015 22:46
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Does anyone know of any good books on American prison camps during WW2? Not looking for the internment camps of Japanese-Americans, but the facilities POWs were held in.
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Jul 15, 2015 01:50
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Disinterested posted:There's a lot of really strong biography of British 19th century leaders, as it happens, if that's your thing.Matthew's biography of Gladstone also comes to mind, as do Gaunt and Gash's respective biographies of Peel. Someone even wrote a good biography of Derby, lord knows why. The two volume Derby bio, Hawkins' The Forgotten Prime Minister, was excellent, if very, very detailed and heavy (which Hawkins justifies on the grounds that there really hasn't been much work on Lord Derby since the war). It really sheds a lot of light on his role in forging the modern Conservative Party from the post-split non-Peelite Tories and anti-Russell Whigs, and how his twenty years as leader presaged Salisbury's post-Dizzy leadership/late-Victorian reaction. I read it as part of background reading/research for thesis work. Really worth a read if Tory history/early to mid-Victorian politics are your thing and you don't mind an occasional slog.
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Jul 15, 2015 02:36
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Fantastic, thanks guys-I hadn't considered the biography angle and it looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy
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Jul 15, 2015 04:16
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Roark posted:The two volume Derby bio, Hawkins' The Forgotten Prime Minister, was excellent, if very, very detailed and heavy (which Hawkins justifies on the grounds that there really hasn't been much work on Lord Derby since the war). It really sheds a lot of light on his role in forging the modern Conservative Party from the post-split non-Peelite Tories and anti-Russell Whigs, and how his twenty years as leader presaged Salisbury's post-Dizzy leadership/late-Victorian reaction. Oh don't get me wrong, it's good, and Derby was a great place to look to write a book in an otherwise pretty well-turned over field. DeceasedHorse posted:Fantastic, thanks guys-I hadn't considered the biography angle and it looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy If you have access to it you can consult the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for key imperial figures and that'll put you on a track for them.
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Jul 15, 2015 12:11
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Roark posted:As the other posters have said, a single monograph on something like that doesn't really exist. However, there's been some good, readable work on the Late Empire that's come out in the past decade or so. Peter Heather's books are academic but readable, and in particular I'd go with The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians and The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders, which form a single (more or less) narrative of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the immediate aftermath. I have to second this recommendation. Both books are wonderfully readable and as up-to-date on the scholarship as a printed book can be. His bias is towards the continuity/very slow decline/no dark ages per se side of the conversation, but that's what the evidence seems mostly to confirm at this point vs. the "Hard Break in 476AD" side that has dominated since Gibbons. He makes his argument quite well. The second volume gets way more weedy as far as religion goes, but out of necessity, just to note that.
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Jul 16, 2015 14:55
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Roark posted:Darwin's The Empire Project and Unfinished Empire (although it sounds as if you might have read those) for broader overviews. If you've read both of these, can you explain the difference between the two? I have Unfinished Empire in the queue but looking at The Empire Project, they seem similar. Wondering which I should read first, if either. I also have his After Tamerlane, which seems like it should come last of them all. As for the fall of the empire, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Piers Brendon was a good narrative/chronological walkthrough of the slow then fast then lingering dissolution of Britain's overseas empire.
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Jul 16, 2015 15:04
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