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Finished 1493, really good although I kinda found it started to go off the rails a little bit at the end when he's trying to connect everything to modern globalization. Also his need to end every "story" with some flowery falls pretty flat on occasion. Only stands out because the majority of the book is very good.
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Jun 28, 2016 22:14
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Hey, I'm looking for a book or two on the Soviet Afghan war. These are the two I was looking at, but I've come across quite a few others. Thoughts? The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story
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Jun 29, 2016 21:34
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The Great Gamble is excellent and a good read.
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Jun 30, 2016 02:20
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Alikchi posted:The Great Gamble is excellent and a good read. Great, thanks
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Jun 30, 2016 16:25
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Anything interesting to see about French Africa in general, or French-colonized countries in particular?
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Jul 2, 2016 05:23
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Depressio111117 posted:Can anybody recommend a book about Biblical life from a secular perspective that isn't...uh, aggressively secular? I want to learn about what the disciples ate for lunch without every paragraph ending in either, "and this is why Christianity is a LIE" or "and this is why Christ is LORD". Life in Year one is pretty much that. though its dry at times. also zealot is pretty good at least for good idea of context around jesus time.
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Jul 5, 2016 00:39
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Can anyone recommend a good introduction to Medieval warfare? Something not overly complex
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Jul 5, 2016 05:33
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Are there any good biographies of Saddam Hussein out there?
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Jul 6, 2016 08:34
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_and_the_City 
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Jul 6, 2016 08:45
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Star posted:Anyone got a recommendation on a good book concerning the Weimar Republic? Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric D. Weitz is good.
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Jul 6, 2016 17:06
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Are there translations of Caesar's commentaries that are considered definitive? Also, is there a definitive collection of Cicero's letters and speeches?
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Jul 8, 2016 14:30
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Are there any good books on the Inca or Aztecs prior to the arrival of Europeans? Maya would be fine too, or Olmecs or any of the American urban civilizations really. It's okay if the book covers the conquest but I really want something focusing on before. I've read 1491, I want to get deeper into individual cultures.
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Jul 18, 2016 14:50
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I also posted this request in the SAL book recommendation thread, but what should I read if I want the history of Christianity up to around the late middle ages?
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Jul 19, 2016 01:40
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Red Suit posted:I also posted this request in the SAL book recommendation thread, but what should I read if I want the history of Christianity up to around the late middle ages? I've not read Diarmaid MacCulloch's well-regarded Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, but his book about the reformation was great and this one probably is too. dokmo fucked around with this message at 18:07 on Jul 20, 2016 |
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Jul 19, 2016 04:14
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Red Suit posted:I also posted this request in the SAL book recommendation thread, but what should I read if I want the history of Christianity up to around the late middle ages? I always liked "The Story of Christianity" by Justo Gonzalez. It's a short two volume work. Volume one goes to the Reformation.
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Jul 20, 2016 17:29
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dokmo posted:I've not read Diarmaid MacCulloch's well-regarded Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, but his book about the reformation was great and this one probably is too. It really is great, I take the opportunity to hype it whenever possible and relevant and even sometimes when it's not relevant because it's that good. Get it.
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Jul 21, 2016 22:12
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dokmo posted:I've not read Diarmaid MacCulloch's well-regarded Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, but his book about the reformation was great and this one probably is too. I also agree that its great. He also has a documentary series made that follows the content of the books which is also pretty good, and its nice to see some actual locations.
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Jul 22, 2016 08:07
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Are there any good books about the movement of American pioneers to the West, and the subsequent colonization?
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Jul 29, 2016 12:12
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I would love a good read on Polish/Lithuanian history, or even a general Eastern European modern history. Preferably from medieval forward.
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Jul 29, 2016 17:54
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I'm woefully ignorant about African history. I was thinking about reading Africa: Biography of a Continent, but thought it might be better to read several books instead, each focusing on a different time and/or region. If possible, I'd also like there to be some focus on pre-colonial Africa as well as post-. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Bonus if available on Kindle.
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Jul 30, 2016 15:23
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Shitshow posted:I'm woefully ignorant about African history. I was thinking about reading Africa: Biography of a Continent, but thought it might be better to read several books instead, each focusing on a different time and/or region. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild is a must-read, unfortunately 
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Jul 30, 2016 15:31
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vyelkin posted:King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild is a must-read, unfortunately I'm very much aware of it, which is why I wanted there to be an equal focus on civilizations that pre-date European colonialism.
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Jul 30, 2016 16:37
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FreudianSlippers posted:Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric D. Weitz is good. I watched a doc about the films of Weimar Germany. This looks like a good follow up. Thanks.
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Jul 30, 2016 16:46
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Shitshow posted:I'm very much aware of it, which is why I wanted there to be an equal focus on civilizations that pre-date European colonialism. Can't be, as the source material for that mostly doesn't exist.
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Jul 31, 2016 06:18
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smr posted:Can't be, as the source material for that mostly doesn't exist. It is a hurdle bit not an insurmountable one. Check out "facing east from Indian country" for a good discussion of how you handle that kind of history, plus a neat take con colonial America from the Indian pov.
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Jul 31, 2016 16:03
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Cyrano4747 posted:It is a hurdle bit not an insurmountable one. Check out "facing east from Indian country" for a good discussion of how you handle that kind of history, plus a neat take con colonial America from the Indian pov. In a few years get ready for a couple of really great books on West African history due to the sad fact the libraries of Timbuktu had to be evacuated out of the country or be destroyed. Luckily they got some 28,000 books out which have been moved to Oxford for safe keeping and research.
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Jul 31, 2016 17:14
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vyelkin posted:King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild is a must-read, unfortunately I've had this in my kindle for two months but refuse to read it during pre-vacation crunch time. I expect to be thoroughly depressed during my holidays.
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Aug 1, 2016 13:53
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It's a good book, and will also make you wonder why the gently caress Belgium gets no poo poo about colonialism today. I've been looking for older Africa histories for a while and there just don't seem to be many. There's a lot of really exciting archaeology going on right now, so hopefully there will be books coming in the next few years. There's a BBC documentary series called Lost Kingdoms of Africa which is all on youtube and is really good.
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Aug 1, 2016 13:57
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That book man, that book made me glad I'm not a drinking man. If there's one glimmer of hope in that torrid time, its was that I learned of the actions of Roger Casement, E. D. Morel, and George Washington Williams.
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Aug 1, 2016 14:28
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Grand Fromage posted:It's a good book, and will also make you wonder why the gently caress Belgium gets no poo poo about colonialism today. I've been looking for older Africa histories for a while and there just don't seem to be many. There's a lot of really exciting archaeology going on right now, so hopefully there will be books coming in the next few years. To be fair to the Belgians, the Congo Free State was unique in that it was the sole possession of a single man. They should get flak for having a lovely monarch, sure, but they can't really be blamed for what happened in the Congo during the ivory and rubber booms.
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Aug 1, 2016 16:45
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The Congo Free State just shows the power of privatization. The invisible hand of the free market is just far more efficient at chopping off the visible hands of Africans than the government could ever hope to be.
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Aug 1, 2016 21:39
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Quixotic1 posted:That book man, that book made me glad I'm not a drinking man. If there's one glimmer of hope in that torrid time, its was that I learned of the actions of Roger Casement, E. D. Morel, and George Washington Williams. I'm surprised there hasn't been a Oscar-winning Hollywood movie about it yet.
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Aug 2, 2016 17:45
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Quixotic1 posted:That book man, that book made me glad I'm not a drinking man. If there's one glimmer of hope in that torrid time, its was that I learned of the actions of Roger Casement, E. D. Morel, and George Washington Williams. I read King Leopold's Ghost, The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence, and Dancing In The Glory of Monsters all in the same year. I haven't had a shred of hope for this species since.
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Aug 2, 2016 20:35
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smr posted:I read King Leopold's Ghost, The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence, and Dancing In The Glory of Monsters all in the same year. I haven't had a shred of hope for this species since. Eh. Grade the species on a curve. We're probably always going to suck but there's been improvements by degrees since ancient Sumerian times. Anyway, here's my non-solicited recommendation. Robin Waterfield's translation of The Anabasis by Xenophon owns. Even if you're not all that interested in ancient Greek history , it's one of the coolest eyewitness accounts we have from that era. It's great because you get lulled into a sense of how modern a lot of it seems and then Xenophon is like "so then we sacrificed a wolf and a boar and let their blood run into a shield. We dipped all our blades into the blood to solidify our oath."  It also really drives it home that the vast majority of your life as a soldier in the ancient world would have been spent marching.
MeatwadIsGod fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Aug 3, 2016 |
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Aug 3, 2016 03:01
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Does anyone have recommendations for a book on the history of the yakuza? I've read autobiographies like Yakuza Moon and Tokyo Vice, but I'm curious to read more historical background than just personal experiences in the modern day.
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Aug 4, 2016 07:02
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I don't have anything to recommend on the subject matter, but I've read Tokyo Vice and I'm like 90% sure Jake Adelstein is a bullshit artist and made most of it up.
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Aug 4, 2016 09:54
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Megazver posted:I don't have anything to recommend on the subject matter, but I've read Tokyo Vice and I'm like 90% sure Jake Adelstein is a bullshit artist and made most of it up. Probably, which is why I'm interested in an actual history on the groups rather than one American talking about how he put his nose in the wrong place.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:44
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I want to learn more about Victorian Europe. Not so much the geopolitics side of things, which I already have a background of, but more the everyday culture, economics, art, and so forth. Any recommendations?
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Aug 5, 2016 21:29
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Fray posted:I want to learn more about Victorian Europe. Not so much the geopolitics side of things, which I already have a background of, but more the everyday culture, economics, art, and so forth. Any recommendations? Hobsbawm's big 'Age of -' series would be a good starting point if you haven't gone there for a sort of ground-up general history.
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Aug 5, 2016 21:37
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Fray posted:I want to learn more about Victorian Europe. Not so much the geopolitics side of things, which I already have a background of, but more the everyday culture, economics, art, and so forth. Any recommendations? That's a pretty broad field! Can you narrow it down at all? Are there certain countries, cities, years, topics, that you find particularly interesting?
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Aug 5, 2016 21:37
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