The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

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Phi230: Feb 2, 2016; by Fluffdaddy

The Black Blood of New Spain by Martinez

# ? Nov 4, 2016 01:02

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# ? May 15, 2024 23:50

Empress Brosephine: Mar 31, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

You guys have any good suggestions for books about the American frontier?

# ? Nov 7, 2016 03:16

Phi230: Feb 2, 2016; by Fluffdaddy

Empress Brosephine posted:

You guys have any good suggestions for books about the American frontier?

The Revenant

# ? Nov 7, 2016 03:19

Empress Brosephine: Mar 31, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Isn't that fiction though

# ? Nov 7, 2016 03:27

Phi230: Feb 2, 2016; by Fluffdaddy

Empress Brosephine posted:

Isn't that fiction though

reads like history,

# ? Nov 7, 2016 05:07

PlushCow: Oct 19, 2005; The cow eats the grass

The Revenant's Hugh Glass was a real guy who was really mauled by a bear and left for dead, really! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Glass

And anyone wanting to know about the American frontier should have Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown on their to-read list.

Stuff I wrote earlier in the thread:

PlushCow posted:

You want to read Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, it's essential.

quote:
First published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee generated shockwaves with its frank and heartbreaking depiction of the systematic annihilation of American Indian tribes across the western frontier. In this nonfiction account, Dee Brown focuses on the betrayals, battles, and massacres suffered by American Indians between 1860 and 1890. He tells of the many tribes and their renowned chiefs�from Geronimo to Red Cloud, Sitting Bull to Crazy Horse�who struggled to combat the destruction of their people and culture.

Forcefully written and meticulously researched, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee inspired a generation to take a second look at how the West was won.

One of his research sources are the own words of tribal leaders, taken from US government transcripts of meetings between the tribal leaders and government officials. It's a disturbing, depressing read of the various tribes' destruction from their own viewpoint. There's a lot of romanticism about the American West and this book really shows a sad and disturbing look at the tragedy of it from those who paid the price of westward expansion, from a viewpoint you don't often get elsewhere. It's not a distant and objective history book, you won't read much about violence on settlers or between tribes, but it's important to read to get a more complete picture of the history of the American West.

Another one I thought was good was Empire of the Summer Moon by S. C. Gwynne

quote:
S. C. Gwynne�s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
It covers about a 100-year history of the Comanches from the 1800s, focusing on Quanah Parker and his mother Cynthia Ann Parker, whose life the book/film The Searchers was loosely based on. It can get very graphic with the violence between the Comanches and settlers, but it's an interesting history from around the beginning of recorded contact with the tribe to their displacement to a reservation. One complaint was that the focus on Quanah and Cynthia Ann sometimes feels like you aren't getting the bigger picture, but that limitation is probably from a limitation of source material from the era.

PlushCow fucked around with this message at 06:08 on Nov 7, 2016

# ? Nov 7, 2016 06:03

Empress Brosephine: Mar 31, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Cool thanks ill check out both, I think I already own both anyways

# ? Nov 7, 2016 14:13

Vivian Darkbloom: Jul 14, 2004

Hi, any recommendations for books about the US security state since 2001? Like, going over all the various leaks and revelations that we've seen?

# ? Nov 9, 2016 23:55

MRC48B: Apr 2, 2012

There is James Bamfords series on the :nsa:

, which goes from the 1980s onwards.

Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets, and The Shadow Factory

# ? Nov 10, 2016 06:21

Kanine: Aug 5, 2014; by Nyc_Tattoo

I'm sorry if this isn't exactly the right thread for this (if there's a better thread to ask this question could someone point me in the right direction?) Does anyone have good book recommendations on books with first hand accounts from the protest movements in the 60's in the U.S.?

# ? Nov 12, 2016 02:16

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

Any recommendations on the Napoleonic Wars?

# ? Nov 12, 2016 17:19

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

chernobyl kinsman posted:

Any recommendations on the Napoleonic Wars?

My standard recommendation is Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven, which is understandably focused on Russian involvement and the Russian campaign, but you really can't understand the Napoleonic Wars without understanding especially the 1812 campaign that ended Napoleon's empire.

# ? Nov 12, 2016 18:10

Meta-Mollusk: May 2, 2013; by FactsAreUseless; Grimey Drawer

Any suggestions on books about radical Anabaptism? False Prophets and Preachers: Henry Gresbeck�s Account of the Anabaptist Kingdom of M�nster by Christopher S. Mackay seems like an excellent place to start, but I'd love to learn more about what was going on in the Netherlands with people like the Batenburgers and their splinter groups as well.

# ? Nov 12, 2016 20:31

MeatwadIsGod: Sep 30, 2004; Foretold by Gyromancy

Anybody have good recommendations for nonfiction on gang activity in the mid-to-late 1800s? For my money, the best film of the 21st century is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I know that's based on a book, just curious if there's other stuff in the same vein.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 02:13

withak: Jan 15, 2003; Fun Shoe

Gangs of New York

The book, not the movie. The movie is good too tho.

withak fucked around with this message at 02:51 on Nov 13, 2016

# ? Nov 13, 2016 02:48

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

withak posted:

Gangs of New York

The book, not the movie. The movie is good too tho.

The author (Herbert Asbury) had a whole series of books about the history of America's seamy underbelly

Qikipedia posted:

The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1933
All Around the Town: Murder, Scandal, Riot and Mayhem in Old New York 1934. (reissued as a "Sequel to Gangs of New York).
The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld 1936
Sucker's Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America 1938.
Gem of the Prairie: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld 1940. Reissued in 1986 by Northern Illinois University Press with a preface by Perry R. Duis; reissued again as The Gangs of Chicago
The Golden Flood: An Informal History of America's First Oil Field Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1941 (often dated 1942).
The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition 1950.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 02:59

MeatwadIsGod: Sep 30, 2004; Foretold by Gyromancy

drat, that was fast. Thanks.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 03:01

EoinCannon: Aug 29, 2008; Grimey Drawer

Satan's Circus by Mike Dash is good. New York Tammany Hall and political corruption and cops and gangsters and stuff.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 09:05

Remulak: Jun 8, 2001; I can't count to four.; Yams Fan

Low Life, the Lures and Snares of Old New York is the single best work in/introduction to the genre. By Luc Sante.

# ? Nov 13, 2016 20:03

left_unattended: Apr 13, 2009; "The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another's keeping."
Dale Carnegie

MeatwadIsGod posted:

transcripts of recordings from the Oval Office during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Edit: I have asked but no one knew.

# ? Nov 14, 2016 15:18

Boomer The Cannon: Oct 27, 2011; Gotta see it live!

EricD posted:

Second, Alistair Horne's To Lose A Battle. This is the authoritative book on the Battle of France in 1940. It starts long before 1940, beginning in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles and France victorious over a broken Germany. It traces how the French Army stagnated and declined from the superb weapon of 1918 into the rusty implement of 1940, and traces how the German Army recovered from its collapse in the interwar period and laid the foundations for its future military success. When war finally comes, Horne covers the conflict from the quarrels in high command all the way down to the experiences of private soldiers on a day by day, sometimes hour by hour account of the Fall of France. Horne does not just address the how's but digs into the why's of French failure and German success. Anyone who wishes to understand that Fall, perhaps the most decisive of German victories and crushing of Allied defeats in the Second World War, would do well to read this book.

Late to the party, but To Lose A Battle is an amazing book.

EDIT: I totally forgot about Keegan's Intelligence in War, got it for 5 bucks at Borders (RIP) and couldn't put it down.

Boomer The Cannon fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Nov 15, 2016

# ? Nov 15, 2016 02:14

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Boomer The Cannon posted:

Borders (RIP)

# ? Nov 15, 2016 04:16

Suplex Liberace: Jan 18, 2012

Any good books on art or architecture history. Either a broad one or one focused on a specific movement would do.

# ? Nov 16, 2016 20:31

MeatwadIsGod: Sep 30, 2004; Foretold by Gyromancy

Basically all of Will Durant's Story of Civilization stuff covers art and architecture history, along with lots of political and social history.

# ? Nov 16, 2016 22:16

FingersMaloy: Dec 23, 2004; Fuck! That's Delicious.

MeatwadIsGod posted:

Basically all of Will Durant's Story of Civilization stuff covers art and architecture history, along with lots of political and social history.

Will Durant is good.

Semi related: his Story of Philosophy is excellent

# ? Nov 17, 2016 00:29

9-Volt Assault: Jan 27, 2007; Beter twee tetten in de hand dan tien op de vlucht.

Suplex Liberace posted:

Any good books on art or architecture history. Either a broad one or one focused on a specific movement would do.

Emile Male - The Gothic Image: Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century

Ramage & Ramage - Roman Art

Neer - Art & Archaeology of the Greek World

H.W. Janson, Anthony F. Janson - History of Art

# ? Nov 17, 2016 08:58

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

I'm interested in a good history of the War of the Roses and would appreciate your recommendations.

# ? Nov 19, 2016 23:52

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

Bilirubin posted:

I'm interested in a good history of the War of the Roses and would appreciate your recommendations.

Allison Weir and Dan Jones both wrote good popular histories on the subject, each titled The Wars of the Roses. Of the two, I prefer Weir's - she includes a lot of the little anecdotes that make the wars fun to read about - but hers has the odd downside of cutting off before Richard III bites it at Bosworth, whereas Jones' goes all the way to the accession of Henry Tudor.

Having a halfway decent background in English history post-Conquest is, imo, pretty vital to understanding what the hell is going on in the Wars of the Roses, so if you don't feel strong in that area I'd recommend Dan Jones' The Plantagenets to start with.

e: if you're in the UK, Dan Jones' book has the much more exciting title The Hollow Crown

chernobyl kinsman fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Nov 20, 2016

# ? Nov 20, 2016 01:04

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

chernobyl kinsman posted:

Allison Weir and Dan Jones both wrote good popular histories on the subject, each titled The Wars of the Roses. Of the two, I prefer Weir's - she includes a lot of the little anecdotes that make the wars fun to read about - but hers has the odd downside of cutting off before Richard III bites it at Bosworth, whereas Jones' goes all the way to the accession of Henry Tudor.

Having a halfway decent background in English history post-Conquest is, imo, pretty vital to understanding what the hell is going on in the Wars of the Roses, so if you don't feel strong in that area I'd recommend Dan Jones' The Plantagenets to start with.

e: if you're in the UK, Dan Jones' book has the much more exciting title The Hollow Crown

Awesome, thanks for the recommendations. My knowledge of English history is decent until around Stamford Bridge, other than what I recall from exhibits at the Tower of London, so I will start with the Plantagenets as you suggest.

# ? Nov 20, 2016 01:15

chernobyl kinsman: Mar 18, 2007; a friend of the friendly atom; Soiled Meat

it's a fun book. jones is a good writer and a great popular historian; he gives you the fun bits without dumbing down or making you feel like you're being pandered to. and, in between the wars and parliamentary revolts and whatnot, he really drives home what a dysfunctional soap opera the royal family was (is).

# ? Nov 20, 2016 01:23

FingersMaloy: Dec 23, 2004; Fuck! That's Delicious.

Haven't read War of the Roses, but I've liked other stuff by Weir.

# ? Nov 20, 2016 02:38

Vivian Darkbloom: Jul 14, 2004

I've been researching the Soviet-Afghan War. I'm sure some of the best stuff is in journal articles and state archives, but for now I'm just looking at English language books on the war. So far I have:

- 3 books translated by Lester Grau: The Bear Went Over the Mountain, The Other Side of the Mountain, and The Soviet-Afghan War
- Afgantsy by British diplomat Rodric Braithwaite
- The Hidden War by Russian journalist Artyom Borovik

So these 5 offer a look at the war from the Soviet side and often from the perspective of Soviet grunts fighting heroic, often useless operations against the mujahideen. Is there anything out there that brings in some other perspectives on the war and its effect on Afghanistan?

# ? Nov 20, 2016 03:53

Stairmaster: Jun 8, 2012

What's a good book on the air war in world war 1?

# ? Nov 20, 2016 04:49

vyelkin: Jan 2, 2011

Suplex Liberace posted:

Any good books on art or architecture history. Either a broad one or one focused on a specific movement would do.

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but Spiro Kostof's The City Assembled is a really cool book on the history of urban architecture--that is, the features of cities rather than of specific buildings, though Kostof was an architectural historian so his book also talks a lot about how specific building features affected urban developments. It's also beautifully printed and illustrated with literally hundreds of visual examples to demonstrate what he's talking about.

# ? Nov 21, 2016 20:41

Trin Tragula: Apr 22, 2005

Stairmaster posted:

What's a good book on the air war in world war 1?

Are you looking for colour or dry facts?

# ? Nov 21, 2016 22:13

Suplex Liberace: Jan 18, 2012

vyelkin posted:

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but Spiro Kostof's The City Assembled is a really cool book on the history of urban architecture--that is, the features of cities rather than of specific buildings, though Kostof was an architectural historian so his book also talks a lot about how specific building features affected urban developments. It's also beautifully printed and illustrated with literally hundreds of visual examples to demonstrate what he's talking about.

Its not what I was asking for but its extremely my poo poo so thank you.

# ? Nov 21, 2016 23:16

Stairmaster: Jun 8, 2012

Trin Tragula posted:

Are you looking for colour or dry facts?

Leaning towards colour

# ? Nov 22, 2016 03:33

Trin Tragula: Apr 22, 2005

Peter Hart (the bloke at the Imperial War Museum whose job is to look after the poo poo-tons of oral history they get given) has written four books about British fliers; his stuff all tells a general high-level narrative, and then keeps dropping down to the memories of people who were on the ground (or in the air, hahaha) participating in it, so you've got context and can see what they were trying to achieve even if the blokes themselves don't have much of an idea.

Tumult in the Clouds (general 1914-1918, no ebook, with Nigel Steel)
Somme Success (the air effort over the Somme as they applied lessons learned and developed tactics invented in 1915)
Bloody April (the kicking the RFC took at the Battle of Arras in 1917 after German innovation lapped them)
Aces Falling (how air warfare came of age in 1918 with the development of All Arms Battle, and ended the days when fighter aces would string together 50 kills or more and fly until they died or were shot down).

Pick any one of those and you'll have a good time.

# ? Nov 22, 2016 14:29

smr: Dec 18, 2002

Is there a good, single-volume history of The Netherlands?

# ? Nov 22, 2016 19:25

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# ? May 15, 2024 23:50

Cyrano4747: Sep 25, 2006; Yes, I know I'm old, get off my fucking lawn so I can yell at these clouds.

Eddy Rickenbacker's autobiography is also really readable if you're looking for color. All the standard caveats about autobios written in the 20s apply but it holds up pretty well.

# ? Nov 24, 2016 16:34

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The History Book Thread! looks like I need to set up space for a Nazi shelf

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