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Any recommendations for books on the early history of Christianity? The first couple centuries or so. Or even something on that time period more generally. I've read Bart D. Ehrman's Lost Christianities, which is about heterodox groups (particularly Gnostics) and it was really excellent. But it was so focused on that particular topic that I was a bit lost on the broader context. I also have Ehrman's How Jesus Became God on order from the library, but again, it's probably going to be quite narrow.
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Nov 7, 2022 06:26
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Sailor Viy posted:Any recommendations for books on the early history of Christianity? The first couple centuries or so. Or even something on that time period more generally. Are you willing to wait a few months? If so Peter Heathers upcoming book on early Christianity is a tome that is likely going to be great. https://www.amazon.com/Christendom-...ps%2C108&sr=8-7 If you’re in the UK it’s actually out now. If you’re not obviously international shipping or faking the location of your kindle can take care of that now.
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Nov 7, 2022 16:04
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Grand Fromage posted:Yang Jisheng's work is equally good. But it's not like there's a fundamentally different take or anything. All that stuff happened, it's well documented, plenty of living people remember it. Even the Party eventually admitted it happened during reform and opening in the 80s, though I wouldn't go talking about it today. There's not really a moral position you can arrive at other than disdain for the people who were responsible for tens of millions of deaths. Anything else would be denialism. That it happened, yes, but there is a lot one can find questionable with the book (Felix Wemheuer has a good review essay on the book). Often his accounts of the view and experience of ordinary people relies on exile accounts due to the lack of memoirs, which however have severe limitations which he does not sufficiently account for, furthermore at times his characterisation of the broader conditions of the peasantry (beyond the famine period) are questionable, with his languages of them being in a kind of neo-serfdom not really according to the broader reality of farmers in the PRC and discounts the process of collectivisation having significant initiative from below(cf the essay on the topic in "Eating Bitterness New Perspectives on China’s Great Leap Forward and Famine" ). For what's it worth, he actually owns the archival researche he cites from but does not share it with anyone but professional historians. Since people asked for other reads on the topic, Chris Bramall's "In Praise of Maoist Economic Planning: Living Standards and Economic Development in Sichuan Since 1931" is very good and gives a broader view on it with a good command of sources (the title is not great), the "Eating Bitterness" book as well as "Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union" are all excellent in understanding the GLP and its subsequent fallout more.
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Nov 7, 2022 19:02
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Are you willing to wait a few months? If so Peter Heathers upcoming book on early Christianity is a tome that is likely going to be great. That sounds good but starting at 300 is a bit later than I'm looking for.
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Nov 8, 2022 01:58
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Sailor Viy posted:That sounds good but starting at 300 is a bit later than I'm looking for. Have you read A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch?
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Nov 8, 2022 02:11
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Sailor Viy posted:That sounds good but starting at 300 is a bit later than I'm looking for. I suppose it's fundamentally difficult to have a strong historical record of a faith that was suppressed for hundreds of years.
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Nov 8, 2022 06:29
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Sailor Viy posted:Any recommendations for books on the early history of Christianity? The first couple centuries or so. Or even something on that time period more generally. StrixNebulosa posted:Have you read A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch?
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Nov 8, 2022 08:00
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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StrixNebulosa posted:Have you read A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch? This sounds like what I'm after, thanks!
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Nov 8, 2022 08:53
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Looking for a book on Romanian history round WW2 if anyone has a decent recco??? I’m reading the first of Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy and realise I know nothing about Romania.
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Nov 9, 2022 21:19
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Idaholy Roller posted:Looking for a book on Romanian history round WW2 if anyone has a decent recco??? I’m reading the first of Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy and realise I know nothing about Romania. It's broader than WW2 and not academic or anything but I found this at the library and enjoyed it Children of the Night: The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania by Paul Kenyon
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Nov 10, 2022 01:13
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Anyone have a recommendation for a good book on the iran contra affair and all the poo poo around it?
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Nov 10, 2022 17:22
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Idaholy Roller posted:Looking for a book on Romanian history round WW2 if anyone has a decent recco??? I’m reading the first of Olivia Manning’s Balkan trilogy and realise I know nothing about Romania. If you just want Romania's history in WW2 "Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and his Regime, Romania, 1940 -1944" is good. "The Green Shirts and the Others: A History of Fascism in Hungary and Romania" is good for a history of fascism in Romania specifically.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:56
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I’m looking for a good general introduction to the history of Scotland. Particularly interested in medieval and early modern, but something with a broader sweep would be fine as well. Any suggestions? Also, can anyone recommend a good history of prohibition in the US?
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Nov 12, 2022 11:31
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firstyear posted:Also, can anyone recommend a good history of prohibition in the US? I recently read and liked Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Pretty comprehensive look at the time period.
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Nov 12, 2022 13:17
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Shivers posted:I recently read and liked Daniel Okrent's Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Pretty comprehensive look at the time period. Thanks very much, I’ll check it out.
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Nov 12, 2022 19:34
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firstyear posted:I’m looking for a good general introduction to the history of Scotland. Particularly interested in medieval and early modern, but something with a broader sweep would be fine as well. Any suggestions? For a book on Prohibition: Lisa McGirr's The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State. For Scotland, while these might not be exactly what you're looking for, I have two suggestions that I read in grad school that might be of interest. Linda Colley's Britons: Forging of a Nation 1707-1837 is a major work on British identity that (very roughly) that it's by a shared notion of Protestantism at war against Catholic superpowers that turns both Scots and English into feeling themselves British. She wrote a 2014 sequel of sorts, Acts of Union and Disunion, which was a response to the Scottish independence referendum but I haven't read that (I do recall that she was anti-independence). The other Scotland one I'd recommend is Neil Davidson's The Origins of Scottish Nationhood, which argues there was no significant popular "Scottish" identity prior to the Treaty of Union and that the real creation of widespread Scottishness was due to the effects of the Industrial Revolution, and Scottishness was therefore developed alongside and not in competition with a notion of Britishness.
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Nov 12, 2022 22:05
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Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan, among many other things, does an immense amount to explain the sheer derision attached to the term "fact-finding mission."
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Nov 18, 2022 22:45
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Can anyone recommend a good book about Frederick II?
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Nov 19, 2022 20:13
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Gripweed posted:Can anyone recommend a good book about Frederick II? Tim Blanning’s biography.
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Nov 19, 2022 21:12
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Shimrra Jamaane posted:Tim Blanning’s biography. Wrong Frederick II
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Nov 19, 2022 21:24
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Any recommendations on the revolutions of 1848? Even better if it’s available on audible. It seems like a hugely important event that I don’t really know much about.
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Nov 20, 2022 19:29
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If you're good with audio, the Revolutions podcast did an 1848 series. And here's his bibliography: https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/bibliography.html
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Nov 20, 2022 19:33
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Any recommendations on the revolutions of 1848? Even better if it’s available on audible. It seems like a hugely important event that I don’t really know much about. I have the audiobook of 1848 by Mike Rapport, but it's hard for me to recommend. He jumps fairly rapidly from place to place - probably unavoidable if you're trying to cover all the countries concerned - but I found myself drifting off over and over, and it took a long time to get through. If someone has good 1848 books dedicated to particular countries I'd love some recommendations too.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:43
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Looking over my PhD orals reading list, I read and could recommend: Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851, Second Edition (2005) - this is probably the best general and accessible overview of the revolutions, at least as of about a decade ago Pieter Judson, Exclusive Revolutionaries: Liberal Politics, Social Experience, and National Identify in the Austrian Empire, 1848-1914 (1996) Brian Vick, Defining Germany: The 1848 Frankfurt Parliamentarians and National Identity (2002) Margot C. Finn, After Chartism: Class and Nation in English Radical Politics, 1848-1874 (1993)
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Nov 21, 2022 00:46
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Anyone have some good books about Korea? Both the Korean economic miracle and also more general history?
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Nov 21, 2022 08:29
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Christopher Clark has a book on 1848 coming out next year.
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Nov 21, 2022 16:06
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plogo posted:Christopher Clark has a book on 1848 coming out next year. Oh gently caress he does? I somehow missed that and I actively try to keep upcoming releases within a year on my radar. Yeah, this should be a great book.
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Nov 21, 2022 17:34
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Does anyone have a good history of the Korean War? I've read Max Hastings and it was very broad strokes, so I'm wondering if there is something else I can read, especially if it incorporates views from both the UN and chinese/korean side.
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Nov 21, 2022 20:38
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Since it's very relevant to understanding the political goings on of the world wars, is there anything I can read to have a drat clue about the exact nature of the division of powers between the president and the prime minister/chancellor in Germany and France?
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Nov 22, 2022 04:07
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Tekopo posted:Does anyone have a good history of the Korean War? I've read Max Hastings and it was very broad strokes, so I'm wondering if there is something else I can read, especially if it incorporates views from both the UN and chinese/korean side. I liked Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-War-Unending-Conflict-Korea/dp/0393348857 Not really an expert in the subject though.
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Nov 22, 2022 04:54
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Does anyone have a book about how Thailand modernized?
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Nov 27, 2022 20:34
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Peter Ackroyd's History of England is detailed enough that I can know the highlights of the reign of every monarch after Alfred. Thing is, I can't find any similar books for France that will familiarize me with everyone between Charlemagne and Louis XVI.
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Nov 30, 2022 02:46
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Actually I'll just take a good book about Thailand until the modern era.
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Nov 30, 2022 03:24
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FPyat posted:Peter Ackroyd's History of England is detailed enough that I can know the highlights of the reign of every monarch after Alfred. Thing is, I can't find any similar books for France that will familiarize me with everyone between Charlemagne and Louis XVI. You are 100% correct and it’s a giant pain in the rear end. I believe that there are Ackroyd like french history volumes published in French but that’s not very helpful to most. In English you’re basically looking at academic volumes published by Blackwell or Routledge covering different eras of French history but it’s an entirely different kind of book.
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Nov 30, 2022 16:31
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This is sort of history-adjacent, but has anyone read all of Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series set in Second Empire France? I was interested in reading Debacle and Germinal but didn't know whether it's necessary to read the series up to that point first.
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Dec 12, 2022 15:29
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MeatwadIsGod posted:This is sort of history-adjacent, but has anyone read all of Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series set in Second Empire France? I was interested in reading Debacle and Germinal but didn't know whether it's necessary to read the series up to that point first. They're all independent works and the connections between them are usually laboured, tenuous and improvised. Haven't read Debacle yet, 11 down 9 to go, but Germinal is fantastic
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Dec 12, 2022 15:52
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Hello, I can read again. My studies are done until the next round in fall 2023, so I am going to read until my eyes bleed. Mostly I'm gonna read history, with a little historical fiction thrown in. and one YA fantasy I guess. History: Age of Agade (1/3rd done) World of Elam The Sumerians Ur, City of the Moon God Early Egypt The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt Biblical: Holy Resiliency (ch. 1 finished--really loving this) A History of the Bible (John Barton) The Origins of Biblical Monotheism The Historicity of the Patriarchal Narratives Atheist's Handbook to the OT " to the NT Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective Alt-History, critiques and in earnest (I hate alt-history and I love to hate-read so I can know what my enemies are up to): Archaeological Fantasies (talks about alt-hist. as a phenomenon) Fingerprints of the w/e Chariots of the etc That one by Ignatius Donnelly I need to fill in more here, help Languages: Sumerian by Joshua Bowen Sumerian by that other dood Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Hoch (on last chapter, stopped a looong time ago) Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Allen Akkadian Elamite Empires of the World German Language books: Ollie Richards beginner German stories Harry Potter 5, but, like, in German A Feast for Crows Elamite Dictionary by Walter Hinz Literature: Oliver Twist (i really don't like dickens's prose, but i want the street urchin schtick) The Crimson Petal and the White Notre Dame de Paris In the Company of the Courtesan The Queen's Thief
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Dec 22, 2022 02:27
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I think the usual term is pseudohistory, not alt-history. Alt-history makes me think of Harry Turtledove.
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Dec 22, 2022 02:43
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Lottie posted:Alt-History, critiques and in earnest (I hate alt-history and I love to hate-read so I can know what my enemies are up to): Meet Me in Atlantis is a pleasant read about the author meeting some more, some less kooky Atlantis theorists and investigating the basis of their claims, if any. 1421(?) - The one about the Chinese discovering America There's some German guy who writes about how the Middle Ages didn't actually exist. Herbert Illig. Is the Finno-Korean Hyperwar just an internet thing?
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Dec 22, 2022 03:33
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Been a long time since I read it, but iirc Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki was about him sailing from Peru across the Pacific in a primitive boat in order to prove his theory that white people (maybe they were gods?) were the first settlers of Polynesia, by sailing from South America. The man had some weird pseudohistorical ideas.
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Dec 22, 2022 04:05
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man