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Jive One posted:http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Europe-History-Roman-Empire/dp/0674058097 There is a very good book on the House of Hapsburg with the same name which covers the HRE pretty well, even if it's the dryest book I've ever read.
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Oct 31, 2015 20:45
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Anyone have recommendations for first person non-fiction war books? WW1 era onward to the Vietnam war. Books written by or with lots of input and experiences and thoughts from guys who were on the front lines and saw lots of action sort of thing, not strategic books or ones that look at the broad politics and strategies and battles and stuff. I enjoyed Guarnere and Heffron's book Brothers in Battle: Best of Friends, but didn't like Parachute Infantry by David Webster, and thought With the Old Breed by Sledge was ok. Also read Kill Anything That Moves and enjoyed it. A Riflemen Went to War was good too. Also ones that don't shy away from allied atrocities and stuff would be a plus. Gringo Heisenberg fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Nov 2, 2015 |
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Nov 2, 2015 00:33
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You definitely want to read Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger.
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Nov 2, 2015 00:38
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Gringo Heisenberg posted:Anyone have recommendations for first person non-fiction war books? WW1 era onward to the Vietnam war. Books written by or with lots of input and experiences and thoughts from guys who were on the front lines and saw lots of action sort of thing, not strategic books or ones that look at the broad politics and strategies and battles and stuff. I enjoyed Guarnere and Heffron's book Brothers in Battle: Best of Friends, but didn't like Parachute Infantry by David Webster, and thought With the Old Breed by Sledge was ok. Also read Kill Anything That Moves and enjoyed it. A Riflemen Went to War was good too. Also ones that don't shy away from allied atrocities and stuff would be a plus. A Writer at War by Vasily Grossman
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Nov 2, 2015 01:33
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George MacDonald Fraser (who you may recognize as the author of the Flashman novels) served in Burma in WWII and wrote a terrific memoir about it (Quartered Safe Out Here).
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Nov 2, 2015 02:28
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If you don't mind a female perspective, Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. She served as a nurse during WWI. Of course, there is also Robert Graves' Good-bye to All That.
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Nov 2, 2015 04:01
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Gringo Heisenberg posted:Anyone have recommendations for first person non-fiction war books? WW1 era onward to the Vietnam war. Books written by or with lots of input and experiences and thoughts from guys who were on the front lines and saw lots of action sort of thing The comedian Spike Milligan wrote an extensive set of memoirs about being called up for the Second World War, where he was in the Royal Artillery. The ratio of combat to rear life reflects the old military saying that 95% of service is killing time, and the other 5% is the killing time, but there's plenty of life under fire from North Africa and Italy. At first it reads like nothing more than a light, comedic set of stories about a bunch of crazy young blokes on an overgrown boys' adventure weekend, but it's very important to follow John Cleese's example and not confuse "solemnity" with "seriousness". Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (Training in England) Rommel? Gunner Who? (Action in North Africa) Monty: His Part in My Victory (Arsing around between battles in North Africa) Mussolini: His Part in My Downfall (Action in Italy from the beaches to Monte Cassino) Where Have All The Bullets Gone? (Life as a pyschiatric casualty) If you're in the mood for something a bit less outwardly silly, then my recommendation can be nothing other than Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, the definitive French memoir of the First World War; in which a raving Socialist gets called up in 1914 and spends four years in the trenches complaining about everything and trying not to die. I could write an entire essay about how great it is and what an antidote it is to even the most strident anti-war memoirists who usually can't help finding something to be positive about (usually individual bravery, camaraderie within an individual unit, or something like that) despite all the hell going on around them. Instead, here is the tale of Corporal Cathala, which encapsulates everything you need to know about the book. It's late 1915, shortly after the end of the Third Battle of Artois. quote:The next day, October 12, at 9 p.m. we went back to the front line, relieving the 281st Regiment. Arriving at the firing line, we noticed assault ladders placed every ten meters along the parapet. This sight made us shiver, just as if we were walking past the gallows. In our trench were the remnants of a German heavy artillery battery, completely wiped out by our own artillery: shells, equipment, and German corpses, all buried together. Night and day, they put us to work excavating the dugouts in this strong-point. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 18:31 on Nov 2, 2015 |
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Nov 2, 2015 18:25
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RC and Moon Pie posted:there is also Robert Graves' Good-bye to All That. This is probably the best book about ww1 in English, IMO.
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Nov 2, 2015 18:58
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Any good books on the Aztecs/Mexica? I've got my Native fix thanks to this thread and am now moving down south.
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Nov 4, 2015 06:20
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Just got done reading The Crusades by Thomas Asbridge, thought it was really good although (and this might sound really stupid) I don't know how trustworthy it all is, which I guess comes with the territory when you think about those narrative driven accounts from hundreds of years ago. Kind of like the Aslan stuff. Entertaining but ultimately who knows how accurate it is - even if it is all perfectly researched you're still trusting translations from centuries ago. Anyway, anyone know of any good books on the Wars of the Diadochi?
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Nov 11, 2015 02:40
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These books about the Rhodesian Bush War are on sale today, are they any good?
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Nov 11, 2015 16:00
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BravestOfTheLamps fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Aug 31, 2018 |
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Nov 12, 2015 06:24
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I was reading "The nazi Doctors" and jesus christ was it disturbing. Eyewitness accounts of people getting every bone in their body broken, kids getting injections that killed them and all told with emotion. Their was a very great chapter on how the doctors dealt with the fact they were murders. All you have to do is spread propaganda, blow a building up and blame it on the jews and you get a population who can massacre men, women and children.
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Nov 12, 2015 14:19
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walgreenslatino posted:I'm looking for a book on Allied treatment of Axis combatants and POWs. Specifically about retaliation for Malmedy, summary execution of prisoners, that sort of thing. I once read a portion of a really excellent book dealing with the subject, but now I can't find it for the life of me From pages back but this book was recommended to me awhile ago. Not sure how it is but I trust the person's judgement who recommended it to me. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0700617175/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2KA85VB2Y77BV&coliid=I3RM9MQNOSHHKU
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Nov 12, 2015 17:08
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Ultimates2 posted:Anyway, anyone know of any good books on the Wars of the Diadochi? quote:Yeah, this was a pretty nice read, just finished it since I'd been looking for books on the Diadochi (gonna read Dividing the Spoils next). I was a little disappointed at how short and quick it seemed though, it feels like the book just sort of cut off and ended when things were starting to get really juicy. Antigonus and Demetrius were a really amusing father-son team. Also, this is historical fiction, but I really should mention Mary Renault's stuff. Her Alexander trilogy is masterfully written (like all of her historical fiction) and the final book Funeral Games is a really great fictionalization of the Diadochi stuff. Anyway I'm still reading Tony Judt's big post-war Europe book. It's pretty great.
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Nov 14, 2015 07:53
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Ghost on the throne is good. It blends multiple sources and romme is pretty unapologetic in his approach of hey some of this is obviously bullshit propaganda but its all we have at the moment. My main issue is his stance on the whole what was Alexander's goal issue which I'm firmly in the camp of him being a war junkie and not the uniter that romme thinks of him as but that does not detract from the work at all and is a minor point that is largely mute and meaningless post Alexander anyway.
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Nov 15, 2015 01:52
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Trin Tragula posted:If you're in the mood for something a bit less outwardly silly, then my recommendation can be nothing other than Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, the definitive French memoir of the First World War; in which a raving Socialist gets called up in 1914 and spends four years in the trenches complaining about everything and trying not to die. Thanks for this. I picked it up and I'm really enjoying it.
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Nov 15, 2015 09:59
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I'm currently reading The Blackest Streets by Sarah Wise It's a pretty fascinating insight into the shittier aspects of the Victorian era, definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the period or poverty in general. I'm curious for more, though, and I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions for books on the era? I'm particularly interested in Victorian asylums, as I have a bit of personal and family history regarding the subject, but any suggestion's welcome.
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Nov 21, 2015 01:49
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Trier posted:I'm currently reading The Blackest Streets by Sarah Wise Well if you already like her writing style, there's Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise Though it primarily focuses on the phenomenon of falsely accusing people of being insane to get them locked up in the asylums.
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Nov 21, 2015 02:00
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fishmech posted:Well if you already like her writing style, there's Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise Oh that sounds great, thanks a lot. I guess I should've started out looking into Sarah Wise before I posted, in hindsight.
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Nov 21, 2015 02:14
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Trier posted:I'm currently reading The Blackest Streets by Sarah Wise The Victorian Underworld, by Donald Thomas, covers the existence that more than a few of those asylum inmates would have come from, or at least been adjacent to.
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Nov 21, 2015 03:09
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Trier posted:I'm currently reading The Blackest Streets by Sarah Wise I quite liked Judith Walkowitz's City of Dreadful Delight when I read it recently because my adviser wanted me to. It's about women in 1880s London, bookended by Jack the Ripper and the "Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" which was a newspaper expose on child prostitution in the city.
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Nov 21, 2015 15:07
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Trier posted:I'm currently reading The Blackest Streets by Sarah Wise I've been meaning to read these two books because someone I can't remember recommended them: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006C0D72/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=19HZY9DR8MKGA&coliid=I2VGFFGDVB38J1 http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568525753/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=19HZY9DR8MKGA&coliid=I1X17T2TBAE9DJ
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Nov 21, 2015 15:37
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These all sound fascinating, especially the one about the women and prostitution. Thanks a lot, making a list of these.
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Nov 21, 2015 18:28
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JUST COMPLETED Stephen Kotkins Stalin: Volume I, Paradoxes of Power and can't recommend it enough. It's crisply written with a disciplined focus on the social forces and geopolitical realities undergirding Soviet decision-making in the post-Revolutionary era. No bullshit pseudo-psychological speculation or ideological moralizing. It ends with the full assumption of one-man rule in 1928 as the gears of forced collectivization in the countryside begin to turn. Instead of banging on about Stalin's childhood, Kotkin point of departure are studies into the policies and deliberations of Tsarist-era ministers Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin, couching later Soviet policies in the context of the geopolitical considerations driving Russian foreign policy for decades. The book also devotes considerable space to Stalin's ideological and intellectual discussions with other members of the Politburo, specifically his relationships with Bukharin, Trotsky, and of course Lenin. He pretty sternly rejects the Trotskyist line of Stalin as a traitor to the Bolshevik revolution, instead demonstrating some pretty clear continuities in the Lenin-Stalin succession. He's exceptionally harsh on the topics of forced collectivization, Comintern bumbling with respect to the German Revolution and the Kuomintang - Chinese Communist Party conflicts, and of course the early show trials. I'm eagerly waiting for Volume II. NEED A RECOMMENDATION For a great biography on Marshal Tito or a history of Yugoslavia in the Tito era. I'd like a good mix of domestic policy and Yugoslav international relations.
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Nov 22, 2015 21:02
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Is there a suggested overview book of World War 1 akin to the multitude of WW2 ones? (e.g. Anthony Beevor's The Second World War)
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Nov 23, 2015 17:17
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I'd go with Peter Hart's The Great War: A Combat History. It's a bit dry, heavily focused on the fighting at the expense of the politics, and a bit dismissive of Entente efforts outwith the Western Front, but it'll do what you're looking for. If you wanted something with a bit more colour to the prose, analysis of geopolitics, or opinionated profiles of key players, there's Meyer with A World Undone; I found his prose a bit grating and overly-amused by repeating the same joke, but that could just be me. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Nov 23, 2015 |
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Nov 23, 2015 18:30
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GalacticAcid posted:For a great biography on Marshal Tito or a history of Yugoslavia in the Tito era. I'd like a good mix of domestic policy and Yugoslav international relations. As far as Yugoslavia goes: check out John R. Lampe's Yugoslavia As History: Twice There Was A Country which covers both Yugoslavias (and you can't really look at Tito's Yugoslavia without having first had a rudimentary look at the first Yugoslavia and how it came about, plus the WWII period) and looks at the second Yugoslavia on about 130 of its 400 pages. I haven't fully read it but it is fairly dry so be warned. If you speak German I can also recommend Marie-Janine Calic's Geschichte Jugoslawiens im 20. Jahrhundert (History of Yugoslavia in the 20th Century). The second Yugoslavia covers about 120 out of 330 pages in my edition and it is a pretty good mix of domestic policy and international relations, touching also on culture, everyday life and including a fairly detailed look at the unravelling of the state after Tito's death.
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Nov 23, 2015 20:06
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Following on from the Yugoslavia suggestions, which good books look specifically at the conflicts, and the fall of Yugoslavia in detail?
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Nov 24, 2015 02:24
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This might be too broad to be a worthwhile question, but I'll try it anyway: I just finished a big tome (James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, not that it matters) and I'm looking to dive into a new topic. I don't really care what it is, so I'm looking for a suggestion of anything interesting, about any era or topic. I'm up for anything, so let me know if you've been itching to suggest something weird or interesting.
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Nov 24, 2015 02:58
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Railing Kill posted:This might be too broad to be a worthwhile question, but I'll try it anyway: I just finished a big tome (James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, not that it matters) and I'm looking to dive into a new topic. I don't really care what it is, so I'm looking for a suggestion of anything interesting, about any era or topic. I'm up for anything, so let me know if you've been itching to suggest something weird or interesting. I'm a Russia guy so I'm going to suggest some Russian books that I like. If you want something pop-y (i.e. well written) but written by a guy who has some academic cred and uses academic sources and extensive footnoting, I highly recommend Douglas Smith's Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy which is about the upper echelons of the Russian nobility in the war and early Soviet Period (until roughly the end of the 30s). If you want something more military oriented, I recommend Dominic Lieven's Russia Against Napoleon which is about exactly what you would think. Written by a famous academic who's renowned for writing very good books that have academic levels of rigour and research but are highly readable. If you're more interested in Stalinism and the Gulag, I recommend the memoir Gulag Boss by Fyodor Mochulsky which is as far as I know the first memoir published in English by someone who was on the other side of the Gulag's prisoner-guard relationship. It's a fascinating look at how the Gulag was often dreaded and seen as a prison sentence by its guards as well as its prisoners. Alternately, if you want to go with history's #1 book topic (World War II), Catherine Merridale's Ivan's War is a very good academic book about the Red Army in World War II, but is more of a social history of the soldiers who fought (with loads of interview from old Red Army veterans) than it is a military history about battles and manoeuvres. And as usual, I will highly, highly recommend A Writer At War by Vasily Grossman which is in my opinion the best personal account of the Eastern Front and probably one of the best personal accounts of the entire war in any theatre.
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Nov 24, 2015 03:25
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Railing Kill posted:This might be too broad to be a worthwhile question, but I'll try it anyway: I just finished a big tome (James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, not that it matters) and I'm looking to dive into a new topic. I don't really care what it is, so I'm looking for a suggestion of anything interesting, about any era or topic. I'm up for anything, so let me know if you've been itching to suggest something weird or interesting. Heian era Japan fascinates me. The crowning literary achievement was, of course, The Tale of Genji, but there's a lot of other good stories, plus all the memoirs and diaries. I started with Ivan Morris' The World of the Shining Prince and The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon and went a bit crazy from there.
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Nov 24, 2015 03:54
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Thanks schoenfelder for the recommendations! and I'd like to second vyelkin's recommendation of A Writer at War, which is excellent. In fact I just encouraged my cousin to pick it up last weekend.
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Nov 24, 2015 04:15
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Ianiniho posted:Following on from the Yugoslavia suggestions, which good books look specifically at the conflicts, and the fall of Yugoslavia in detail? schoenfelder fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Nov 24, 2015 |
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Nov 24, 2015 18:31
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vyelkin posted:
This is going way up my to-read list.
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Nov 25, 2015 18:19
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Just a PSA that Audible is having a sale through December 2nd where some of the books mentioned in this thread are under $5, including: Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty The War of the Roses and The Plantagenets by Dan Jones The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War by Stephen Kinzer I already have a couple of these, but I'll probably get the Dan Jones offerings since I know nothing about that period in history. I would highly recommend Lawrence in Arabia and especially Capital in the 21st Century to anyone who doesn't have them yet. I have the audiobook versions of both and the narration is great, especially for Lawrence in Arabia
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Nov 27, 2015 18:48
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Does anyone have a good for an overview of Prussian culture and history? I read about the Junker system and the university dueling clubs and found it very interesting.
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Nov 29, 2015 21:17
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Pinball posted:Does anyone have a good for an overview of Prussian culture and history? I read about the Junker system and the university dueling clubs and found it very interesting. Not so much about Prussian culture in general, but an excellent book about dueling culture in Prussia and how it differed from other dueling cultures is Kevin McAleer's Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany, entertaining not just because of the inherent fascination of its topic but also because of the dry mockery the author sprinkles on the topic, the kind you normally don't get in an academic text.
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Nov 29, 2015 23:25
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I enjoyed IRON KINGDOM but it's much more political history focused on the monarchs than it is anything cultural or etc
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Nov 30, 2015 00:20
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Anything about transgender people and the conceptualization of transgenderism through Western history?
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Dec 2, 2015 02:26
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