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Russia Without Putin is a great, focusing on the structural rather than personal forces at play.
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Mar 10, 2022 00:04
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I just finished The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, and loved it. It took me a long time to finish because of all of the footnotes/names/etc to parse through, but what an interesting take on a grand history of civilization.
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Mar 10, 2022 13:56
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Anyone got a recommendations for some books about some of the messed up stuff popes have done? Like the one who was dug up and out of trial?
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Mar 12, 2022 01:53
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sbaldrick posted:Basically ignoring the fact that most of India was ruled by invading dynasties and the East India Company was just another in a long line. Interesting perspective but I thought that the author made an ok attempt at explaining how much of a disaster late mughal governance was and why groups like the Jain bankers would switch sides to them (they actually paid things on time and knew how to work with money) but I guess you could say that the author might have glossed over details. Is there a book that you would suggest as a companion piece to get a different perspective?
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Mar 12, 2022 21:09
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has anyone here read Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China (2015) and is it good? I'm looking for a book on 21st century China that isn't academic but also not dumb and overly westernized, if possible
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Mar 14, 2022 20:43
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I don't know what "overly westernized" means but I liked it.
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Mar 14, 2022 21:06
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Is there a decent book on the Great Game, that 19th century geopolitical conflict between empires? Seems like it might be too broad as a topic for one book, but I figured I’d ask.
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Mar 19, 2022 16:38
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I read Tournament of Shadows by Meyer and Brysac over a decade ago. It seems like it's at least in part based on Hokirk's The Great Game though.
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Mar 19, 2022 18:09
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Minenfeld! posted:I read Tournament of Shadows by Meyer and Brysac over a decade ago. It seems like it's at least in part based on Hokirk's The Great Game though. I read the Hokirk book and it did a well-enough job of covering The Great Game in particular.
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Mar 19, 2022 18:55
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I haven’t read it yet myself, but Dean’s Mapping the Great Game has soldi reviews, with a particular focus on Anglo-Indian cartographer-spies along the Himalayan frontier.
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Mar 19, 2022 19:11
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Thanks all. I’ll give them a shot.
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Mar 20, 2022 21:54
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Anfauglir posted:I too would be interested in anything on post USSR Russia and the rise of Putin. Realized that I know basically nothing about it, what I remember learning at school basically ended with "and then the USSR fell and Russia became a democracy and everything was good forever." I'll check out The Man Without a Face but if there's any other good books on it I'd love a few suggestions. Nothing is True and Everything is Possible is a pretty good gonzo look at Russia's elite during the oil boom.
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Mar 21, 2022 17:06
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Biffmotron posted:I haven’t read it yet myself, but Dean’s Mapping the Great Game has soldi reviews, with a particular focus on Anglo-Indian cartographer-spies along the Himalayan frontier. I should probably pick that up considering I make maps for a living.
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Mar 24, 2022 02:32
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Dane Kennedy's The Last Blank Spaces is a good book on British efforts to map the interiors of Africa and Australia in the 19th century and how the initial attempts based on the premise that they could be mapped essentially following the naval model of charting the Pacific failed, and it involved local people and their knowledge a lot more than the British let on, but also that indigenous people could also subvert British expeditions for their own ends. It's a book I read years ago but still think back on.
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Mar 24, 2022 03:04
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LionYeti posted:Nothing is True and Everything is Possible is a pretty good gonzo look at Russia's elite during the oil boom. I can second this, it's a good book for getting a look at how bonkers Russia got when all the money flooded in.
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Mar 24, 2022 03:12
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Chairman Capone posted:Dane Kennedy's The Last Blank Spaces is a good book on British efforts to map the interiors of Africa and Australia in the 19th century and how the initial attempts based on the premise that they could be mapped essentially following the naval model of charting the Pacific failed, and it involved local people and their knowledge a lot more than the British let on, but also that indigenous people could also subvert British expeditions for their own ends. It's a book I read years ago but still think back on. Oh man that sounds awesome.
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Mar 25, 2022 02:17
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Biffmotron posted:I haven’t read it yet myself, but Dean’s Mapping the Great Game has soldi reviews, with a particular focus on Anglo-Indian cartographer-spies along the Himalayan frontier. Chairman Capone posted:Dane Kennedy's The Last Blank Spaces is a good book on British efforts to map the interiors of Africa and Australia in the 19th century Thanks for these recs, I bought both of them.
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Mar 25, 2022 12:15
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I remember reading somewhere that the Russian government didn't want peasants to brew alcohol because it reduced food production. Is there anything that mentions this?
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Mar 27, 2022 01:02
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FPyat posted:I remember reading somewhere that the Russian government didn't want peasants to brew alcohol because it reduced food production. Is there anything that mentions this? It does come up from time to time but you'll probably have to get more specific about a time period if you want a book that discusses it. Basically multiple times throughout history when grain prices got too low, peasants would stop selling grain and start using it to make alcohol instead because it was more valuable and could be stored longer. It was a way to defer selling grain until higher prices by using it to make a higher-value product, or to get shitfaced, depending on the quality of the alcohol. The state, which often had a need for grain (to feed armies and cities, to sell abroad, etc.), did try to crack down on this in different ways at different times. I'm not sure if she discusses this specific thing in the book, but the closest book that comes to mind that's likely to talk about it is Patricia Herlihy's The Alcoholic Empire: Vodka and Politics in Late Imperial Russia, which is obviously about the late imperial period. Some books on NEP and collectivization in the 20s and 30s probably discuss it as well, but I couldn't say which ones with confidence.
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Mar 27, 2022 01:20
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Lawman 0 posted:Interesting perspective but I thought that the author made an ok attempt at explaining how much of a disaster late mughal governance was and why groups like the Jain bankers would switch sides to them (they actually paid things on time and knew how to work with money) but I guess you could say that the author might have glossed over details. Basically anything about Nader Shah invasion deals with it plus anything about Aurangzeb attempt to force convert the Hindus of India.
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Mar 27, 2022 17:24
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sbaldrick posted:Basically anything about Nader Shah invasion deals with it plus anything about Aurangzeb attempt to force convert the Hindus of India. I would absolutely love a book about Nader Shah and the history of Iran during that period do you have suggestions?
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Mar 30, 2022 18:39
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I'm interested in the cattle herding cultures of South Sudan like the Dinka and Nuer, does anyone know of any books? I guess it could fall more under anthropology than history but asking anyway. Histories that deal with the region or surrounding ones would also be cool.
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Mar 31, 2022 22:49
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Grevling posted:I'm interested in the cattle herding cultures of South Sudan like the Dinka and Nuer, does anyone know of any books? I guess it could fall more under anthropology than history but asking anyway. Histories that deal with the region or surrounding ones would also be cool. I don't know specific titles but the Nuer had a lot written about them from a cultural anthropology perspective.
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Mar 31, 2022 23:32
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Telsa Cola posted:I don't know specific titles but the Nuer had a lot written about them from a cultural anthropology perspective. Yeah I should probably just look for those I guess.
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Apr 1, 2022 08:02
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I am currently reading A World Undone by G. J. Meyer about WW1. I am looking for a couple of book recommendations: * About the mutiny in the French army in 1917. He mentions that the French archives would be opened in 2017 (after he wrote the book). Are there any books in English about the mutiny that use the archives? * About general Ottoman Empire/Turkey stuff ca. 1914-1924. Any good books about that?
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Apr 3, 2022 19:57
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Per posted:* About the mutiny in the French army in 1917. He mentions that the French archives would be opened in 2017 (after he wrote the book). Are there any books in English about the mutiny that use the archives? Short answer: No. If those archival records were indeed even opened it will take many years to compile enough good research through it to publish an entire book on it. Especially in English. And Covid put a hard stop into most archival research for like a year so that doesn’t help.
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Apr 3, 2022 20:04
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Does anyone have any recommendations for general overviews that aren't too academic of - the Crimean War - the Russian occupation of Afghaistan in the 80s? I just read Dalrymple's Return of A King and I want to know more about what happened next between England and Russia and more about ill conceived invasions of Afghanistan
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Apr 4, 2022 00:05
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The Bear Went Over the Mountain and Zinky Boys are two books you frequently hear about, regarding the Soviet-Afghanistan war.
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Apr 4, 2022 00:17
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What are the best books that haven't been translated into English? I wonder what I'm missing out on. There's an 800-page biography of Willy Brandt by Peter Merseberger that I'd read if I knew German.
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Apr 4, 2022 06:04
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Hannibal Rex posted:The Bear Went Over the Mountain and Zinky Boys are two books you frequently hear about, regarding the Soviet-Afghanistan war. Thank you, added to my list. They both seem a bit like oral histories though, I don't know much about the period so I was hoping for a general overview to get an idea of the political landscape and a narrative of the whole conflict. If there isn't such a book that isn't really biased I'll check those 2 out first
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Apr 4, 2022 09:30
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EoinCannon posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for general overviews that aren't too academic of I recently read and enjoyed Crimea by Orlando Figes, so I'd recommend that on the subject of the Crimean War.
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Apr 5, 2022 02:10
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Shivers posted:I recently read and enjoyed Crimea by Orlando Figes, so I'd recommend that on the subject of the Crimean War. Can also recommend.
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Apr 5, 2022 16:03
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Did Figes ever recover from exploding his divorce out in public and the review sockpuppet thing? I liked People's Tragedy and it'd be nice to be able to recommend it to folks again.
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Apr 5, 2022 16:17
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grassy gnoll posted:Did Figes ever recover from exploding his divorce out in public and the review sockpuppet thing? I liked People's Tragedy and it'd be nice to be able to recommend it to folks again. Short answer, no. But People’s Tragedy is still an amazingly readable history of the Russian revolutions. Crimea is pretty solid, even though some sources are dubious. The Whisperers contains outright fabrications, so you should probably avoid that one. He was also right about Putin, so there’s that.
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Apr 5, 2022 17:53
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grassy gnoll posted:Did Figes ever recover from exploding his divorce out in public and the review sockpuppet thing? I liked People's Tragedy and it'd be nice to be able to recommend it to folks again. His professional reputation hasn’t but if you keep what happened in mind he still writes good books. Like, if you’re working on your Master’s Thesis you probably can’t use him as a source. But you just want to read and learn history? Yeah he puts out good stuff. Shimrra Jamaane fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Apr 5, 2022 |
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Apr 5, 2022 19:32
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grassy gnoll posted:Did Figes ever recover from exploding his divorce out in public and the review sockpuppet thing? I liked People's Tragedy and it'd be nice to be able to recommend it to folks again. What happened???
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Apr 6, 2022 03:13
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Lawman 0 posted:What happened??? He posted Amazon reviews trashing books written by his academic rivals and saying everyone should read books written by Orlando Figes instead, and when caught (very easily, turns out his Amazon username was something about as subtle as "OrlandoF") he claimed his wife did it before coming clean that actually he wrote them. Later he was accused of some kind of academic misconduct (at best being sloppy with his citations, at worst fabricating sources) for a different book.
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Apr 6, 2022 03:37
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That owns tbh. Todd Howard used to go on Usenet groups and tell people they should be playing Elder Scrolls over whatever game they were discussing. It's a pro move that winners make.
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Apr 6, 2022 05:16
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quote:And lastly there’s Orlando Figes, described by the Guardian as a prominent British historian at the University of London. Figes used the sockpuppets “orlando-birkbeck “ and “historian” to trash some of his rivals on Amazon. (Who knew academics were so viciously competitive?) And he wasn’t beyond posting a review that put in a good word or two for his own work, such as “a fascinating book…leaves the reader awed, humbled, and yet uplifted.”
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Apr 6, 2022 07:11
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Thank you for the Figes recommendation, thread. I'm enjoying it so far After this and the Russian Afghan war I can tell I'm going to want to learn about the Balkans
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Apr 6, 2022 10:56
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