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I'm reading Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the United States, which I'd never gotten into despite reading most of his other work. Sadly, his sense of humor does not sound as clever as it once did.
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Jun 23, 2023 06:48
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460 pages into The Making of the Atomic Bomb and only now do the scientists finally turn to the matter of how to take all the atomic physics of the first half of the book and make a bomb with it.
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Jun 28, 2023 10:04
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FPyat posted:460 pages into The Making of the Atomic Bomb and only now do the scientists finally turn to the matter of how to take all the atomic physics of the first half of the book and make a bomb with it. It’s the densest book I’ve ever read for fun
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Jun 28, 2023 17:42
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Could anyone recommend a good book on the French revolution of 1789? Always been interested, would like something informative but still fun, ideally
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Jun 30, 2023 18:59
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Jeremor posted:Could anyone recommend a good book on the French revolution of 1789? Always been interested, would like something informative but still fun, ideally Citizens is quite good, but is not exactly fun… very very in depth
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Jun 30, 2023 20:28
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Citizens is not fun, but it is informative and has an attention to detail. The author definitely does not favor the revolutionaries though and goes out his way to talk about the mistreatment of Marie Antoinette and tries to cast her in a positive light- which is like, no gently caress her. It is a good analysis of French society at the time of the Revolution. A New World Begins has a larger scope, going beyond 1792 and even mentioning Napoleon, and also looks at the French colonies and how the Revolution affected them - specifically Haiti. It's not as good as Citizens, but it's easier to read I found and it covers more ground, but it does so too quickly. Overall, I think Citizens is the better book, but as noted it is definitely not 'fun'.
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Jun 30, 2023 21:33
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Ithle01 posted:Citizens is not fun, but it is informative and has an attention to detail. The author definitely does not favor the revolutionaries though and goes out his way to talk about the mistreatment of Marie Antoinette and tries to cast her in a positive light- which is like, no gently caress her. It is a good analysis of French society at the time of the Revolution. A New World Begins has a larger scope, going beyond 1792 and even mentioning Napoleon, and also looks at the French colonies and how the Revolution affected them - specifically Haiti. It's not as good as Citizens, but it's easier to read I found and it covers more ground, but it does so too quickly. Overall, I think Citizens is the better book, but as noted it is definitely not 'fun'. Agreed on both, big fan of them, but I think it bears specific noting that Schama can _write_ very, very well. Citizens is a humongous book about mostly grim events and it’s politics are dodgy to me but I enjoyed the shirt out of reading it because dude is a hell of a non-fiction stylist. A New World Begins is super-rad because of its heavy focus on the impact of Napoleonic events on Not Europe and it’s very well-written but not quite to Schama’s level.
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Jul 2, 2023 00:42
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smr posted:Agreed on both, big fan of them, but I think it bears specific noting that Schama can _write_ very, very well. Citizens is a humongous book about mostly grim events and it’s politics are dodgy to me but I enjoyed the shirt out of reading it because dude is a hell of a non-fiction stylist. That's a good way of putting it, Schama is definitely a better writer and Citizens is the superior book. I even wrote a note to that effect inside the cover of my copy. Some of the events he describes in a very readable way and he goes out of his way to explain why this stuff matters. A New World Begins is too busy trying to get it all said so the author rushes past some events that Schama would dedicate a whole section of a chapter to.
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Jul 2, 2023 01:41
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hmm think I'm going to give Citizens a try then, I like details. I'll be prepared for the political bent of it now, too.Thanks yall.
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Jul 2, 2023 02:13
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Finished Nixonland, what a tome of profoundly cursed political knowledge.
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Jul 2, 2023 19:18
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blue squares posted:It’s the densest book I’ve ever read for fun same. but i loved it. im afraid it will make me insufferable about inaccuracies in openheimer, as there are bound to be
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Jul 2, 2023 23:23
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I would like to read a digestable (though I'm not unwilling to do some homework) book that explains the various contending theories about the causes and nature of the Great Depression, and evaluates/explains the merits of the responses of various governments. Hopefully such a thing exists. The worse reviews for Brad DeLong's economic history of the twentieth century make it sound like it may be unsatisfactory.
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Jul 4, 2023 05:05
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I'm looking for a book that focuses on Napoleon's military campaigns. I'm not too interested in the politics, more so the tactics and strategies he used. There are literally thousands of books about Napoleon, so I don't know where to start. Any suggestions?
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Jul 4, 2023 22:55
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about 90% of them are probably just cribbing from david chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon so, well, you may as well go to the source
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Jul 4, 2023 23:26
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Psamtik I posted:I'm looking for a book that focuses on Napoleon's military campaigns. I'm not too interested in the politics, more so the tactics and strategies he used. There are literally thousands of books about Napoleon, so I don't know where to start. Any suggestions? It's about a specific campaign rather than Napoleon in general, but Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven is a fantastic book.
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Jul 5, 2023 02:00
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Perhaps a bit of a long shot here but I'm willing to accept pretty much any recommendation, whether popular or academic, history, archaeology, or anthropology are all fine. I've been curious about the indigenous peoples of southern South America. Obviously there are plenty of English language sources for the major Andean cultures, and there are also a decent amount of books on Amazonian cultures as well, but I haven't seen many sources for the Southern Cone, so how about it? Any books in English about the non-Andean indigenous peoples of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil?
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Jul 10, 2023 04:19
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Are there any particularly good works on the Black experience of the New Deal, particularly in the South?
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Jul 11, 2023 03:08
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stereobreadsticks posted:Perhaps a bit of a long shot here but I'm willing to accept pretty much any recommendation, whether popular or academic, history, archaeology, or anthropology are all fine. I've been curious about the indigenous peoples of southern South America. Obviously there are plenty of English language sources for the major Andean cultures, and there are also a decent amount of books on Amazonian cultures as well, but I haven't seen many sources for the Southern Cone, so how about it? Any books in English about the non-Andean indigenous peoples of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil? 1491 is the first thing I'd think of. Not quite on point but covers some of the ground.
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Jul 11, 2023 03:33
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Chairman Capone posted:Are there any particularly good works on the Black experience of the New Deal, particularly in the South? I haven't read any of the monographs on the specific subject, but Ira Katznelson deals with the racial exclusion aspects of the New Deal well in When Affirmative Action Was White (i assume so, i haven't read it) and Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (he does well in this one for sure.) You also might find the first chapter of Toward Freedom (2020) by Toure Reed helpful. It has a discussion of the historiography of the black experience of the New Deal that might give you some places to look. He and his father, Adolph Reed (ex Reed, A. (1991). Race and the Disruption of the New Deal Coalition, https://newrepublic.com/article/155704/new-deal-wasnt-intrinsically-racist) are marxist defenders of a class first approach for politics which makes their entries to the debate a bit more interesting, in the context that a lot of the criticisms of the new deal's relationship to race comes from the left. Also maybe check out Hammer and Hoe (about black alabamians' communist organizing in the 30s) and The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the 1930s and 1940s .
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Jul 11, 2023 22:38
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plogo posted:I haven't read any of the monographs on the specific subject, but Ira Katznelson deals with the racial exclusion aspects of the New Deal well in When Affirmative Action Was White (i assume so, i haven't read it) and Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (he does well in this one for sure.) Excellent, thank you for those. I've read Hammer and Hoe but not the others, thankfully the campus library has a few of them so I can start making my way through them now.
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Jul 12, 2023 15:48
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This is more historical fiction than history but I couldn't find a more appropriate place to ask: What's the modern day opinion on James Clavell's so called "Asian Saga"? More specifically, Tai-pan and Shogun. They were very recommended by a friend but I'm afraid of venturing into a Last Samurai with Tom Cruise sorta territory.
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Jul 12, 2023 22:44
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I enjoyed them as novels but if you're looking at them as history, they have a lot of issues. I don't know as much about Tai-pan, but Shogun in particular takes most of what it gets right about Japan from the Edo period, rather than when it's set. The basic plot about an English pilot who got stranded in Japan and became a samurai and hatamoto of Tokugawa Ieyasu was real though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(pilot)
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Jul 12, 2023 22:57
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I think there was an interesting companion book by someone that went into detail about what was surprisingly true, what was orientalist silliness, and what was somewhere in-between.
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Jul 12, 2023 23:03
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Silver2195 posted:I think there was an interesting companion book by someone that went into detail about what was surprisingly true, what was orientalist silliness, and what was somewhere in-between. Yeah it's complicated, if you want to get into it in depth there are analysis essays online too. But if you just want to read a story that has enough detail to feel right, I thought it was good. The TV miniseries is too. It doesn't have any subtitles for the Japanese until the main character learns enough to understand which was a cool detail.
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Jul 12, 2023 23:06
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Reiterpallasch posted:about 90% of them are probably just cribbing from david chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon so, well, you may as well go to the source Yeah, its really good. Also the Age of Napoleon is a good podcast, but not really what you asked for.
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Jul 14, 2023 06:28
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Reiterpallasch posted:david chandler's The Campaigns of Napoleon 
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Jul 14, 2023 07:06
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Looking to get a comprehensive understanding of non-modern Turkish history before I travel there. Basically a book on pre-islamic turkish history & then islamic. I was thinking of using The Turks: The Central Asian Civilization That Bridged the East and The West for Over Two Millennia for the pre-islamic piece by Erol I. Yorulmazoglu. There are more options and it's harder to choose for the Ottoman period. Based on what I read I was between 1.The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600 by Halil Inalcik 2. Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire by Caroline Finkel Anyone have thoughts on any of the above? Also I am absolutely open to suggestions for books that aren't these three. Thanks!
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Jul 18, 2023 20:33
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I have no thoughts on either one having read neither, but if you decide you want something on the transition of Anatolia into a Turkish dominated region I just finished and enjoyed Beihammer's Byzantium and the Emergence of Muslim-Turkish Anatolia
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Jul 19, 2023 01:55
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Yes, it's like a lava lamp.
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Can anyone recommend a book on the Meiji Restoration?
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Jul 25, 2023 22:02
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VostokProgram posted:Can anyone recommend a book on the Meiji Restoration? "Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912" is an enormous doorstopper of a biography that obviously discusses Meiji's personal life in some detail but also provides a good overview of the other personalities and socio-political forces at work during the era.
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Jul 25, 2023 23:13
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I'm almost done with Citizens by Simon Schama. I understand that a lot of people who favor the Jacobins see plenty to disagree with in it, but I've quite liked it. He concurs with most of the stances I had before opening it up.
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Jul 30, 2023 08:59
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Megasabin posted:Looking to get a comprehensive understanding of non-modern Turkish history before I travel there. Basically a book on pre-islamic turkish history & then islamic. I've read the Finkel and it was fine. So... an endorsement of some sort
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Jul 30, 2023 11:27
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Hello history book thread! Wow this is my third oldest bookmark, behind my mortgage and energy payments page. I would like to humbly ask you folks for support. I teach 7th and 8th grade social studies in a pretty rough school district. Lots of problems with gangs, violence, drugs, you name it. I recently transferred to a brand new, as in first year it is open, school in the same district. In my previous school I had a lot of books from the school. Not text books, but nifty little books about women in history, how horrible life was for people in the middle ages, etc. I would give them to kids after they finished testing, or if they were done with assignments early, or a lot of other reasons. I also had a few of my own books, mostly about the Haitian Revolution, or the French Revolution, stuff I thought kids would be interested in. Here's one quick story about giving out these books: There was a 7th grader, we'll call him Adam. He was always in trouble, would get mad at teachers often, walked out of classes a bunch, troubled homelife, all the red flags on his roster page, etc. He wasn't my student, he was on another team, but he was in my team's hallway once a day for a reading intervention class. He hated that teacher, I don't really blame her, she wasn't a pleasant person. One day he was cursing in the hall, super pissed at her, and I came out and gave him a book about Lafayette. It was my book, it was a little comic book thing. He looked at me kind of confused, it was our first real interaction. I went back into my room without saying a word to him. He was quiet, though, and he looked at the book once or twice. One of his friends walked by him and he said "Yo that motherfucker gave me a book." Throughout the rest of the hour I'd look out in the hallway, sometimes he was glancing at the book, sometimes not, it didn't really matter to me. But he kept the book. I'm not going to lie to you, or myself, and tell you I sparked a love for history in this kid, but it did create a connection between the two of us, and every time he was heated in the hallway, I'd go talk to him. Not about history or anything, but the act of giving that book was an opening to let the kid know that I do care about him, so when he was cursing and yelling and I'd ask him "Adam, what's the deal?" he'd calm down and tell me what was upsetting him. Whether it was valid reason or not, I felt like he was at least honest with him and willing to talk to me like I wasn't an enemy. At the end of the year I usually give out all of the books that were in my classroom that were mine, not the school's. So every year I'd start with a decent amount of books but would replenish my own throughout the year. I did the same last year, not knowing I'd be taking this new job. So I left all the books that belonged to the school behind. I got into my classroom for the first time this last Friday. I have no books. I put my only remaining book from my own collection from last year, a book about Robespierre (that Amazon says is worth $94, wtf?!). I asked my admin for some history books, and because we're in contract negotiations (a confounding reason), I was told no, only literacy classes would get books supplied by the school. I asked my district's social studies coordinator, she said all social studies resources would be online. So I have two bookshelves in my room, and one lonely book. My funds are extremely limited (I'm a teacher, single dad, and two kids, ya know?) So here I am humbly asking for help. If anyone would be willing to donate a history book, ANY history book, I would be eternally grateful. I have no reading level restrictions, as I'll be teaching kids with everything from kindergarten to 8th grade reading levels, and the kids with higher reading levels generally enjoy challenging themselves with big fat intimidating books. If you would be willing to help with any used book that you've loved in the past, please PM me, and I will provide you with my address for shipping. I'm not expecting miracles, but a single book can be so important to some of these kids that I'm willing to try anything.
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Jul 31, 2023 04:41
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Grem posted:Hello history book thread! Wow this is my third oldest bookmark, behind my mortgage and energy payments page.
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Jul 31, 2023 06:08
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I regret that I no longer have access to my collection of Terry Deary's Horrible Histories that I could have donated.
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Aug 3, 2023 06:42
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Can I just send you money? I don’t have PMs but if you post a venmo or something I will contribute!
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Aug 3, 2023 11:40
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blue squares posted:Can I just send you money? I don’t have PMs but if you post a venmo or something I will contribute! Um, sure, I suppose, I don't see why not. @Gremmie E: oh wow if that was you who sent me the venmo today, or whoever it was, thanks a ton! Got 6 awesome books on ancient history! Grem fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Aug 4, 2023 |
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Aug 3, 2023 23:23
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Can I get a book recommendation about Finnish-Soviet diplomacy, the Winter and Continuation Wars, and Finnish social cohesion and unrest throughout?
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Aug 5, 2023 17:55
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I read and loved Caro’s LBJ series, and just recently started The Power Broker, which is also fantastic. I enjoy the focus on how both men used unconventional or underutilized levers/means to accumulate power. Any other biographies that focus on similar types of stories?
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Aug 5, 2023 18:06
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Quarterroys posted:I read and loved Caro’s LBJ series, and just recently started The Power Broker, which is also fantastic. T. Harry Williams' biography of Huey Long fits the bill pretty well, both with how Long was an early adopter of, like, sound amplification systems at public speeches, radio broadcasts, etc. and also how the Long political machine was built in Louisiana. MeatwadIsGod fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Aug 6, 2023 |
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Aug 5, 2023 19:59
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