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Does anyone have any recommendations for a book about Soviet History, more precisely about the NKVD?
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Jul 13, 2012 22:57
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I just realized that my knowledge of British history is pretty terrible. Can anyone recommend some good books about it? I'm interested in the monarchy and peerage and especially Henry VIII.
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Jul 15, 2012 17:58
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Namirsolo posted:I just realized that my knowledge of British history is pretty terrible. Can anyone recommend some good books about it? I'm interested in the monarchy and peerage and especially Henry VIII. Alison Weir has written lots of books about 15th and 16th Century British figures, including Henry VIII and his wives. I'm particularly partial to Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses which is about the feud between the Yorkists and Lancastrians which eventually became a civil war over the rights to the throne of England. The Princes in the Tower covers the later period of the wars, when Henry VII (Henry VIII's father) ascended to the throne.
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Jul 15, 2012 20:02
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Namirsolo posted:I just realized that my knowledge of British history is pretty terrible. Can anyone recommend some good books about it? I'm interested in the monarchy and peerage and especially Henry VIII. To Rule the Waves (Arthur Herman) is a pretty good summary of the Royal Navy's history. Lots of stuff on Francis Drake. King Edward VIII: A Life (Philip Zeigler). Considering the subject, it's pretty balanced.
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Jul 16, 2012 03:30
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Tupping Liberty posted:Thank you - I like that project suggestion. I agree that primary sources should be the basis of history classes. My aunt recently gave me some Life magazines from the late 30s, just paging through the ads was fascinating.  The Wages of Whiteness by David Roedigger: Looks at how diverse European ethnic groups became white in the late 19th century by creating and excluding an "other" group (blacks). Includes a lot of labor history.  A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki: Brief histories of many different ethnic groups in the U.S. and their interactions with each other from the colonial era to today.
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Jul 19, 2012 19:37
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Tupping Liberty posted:I am going to be teaching US history 1860s-Modern day, for the first time, next year (11th graders). I really want to teach it from the essential question, "what does it mean to be American, and how does that change?". I especially want to focus on cultural - even pop-cultural things like movies, music, art, theatre, dance, etc. John Higham's Stranger's in the Land is a good examination of the roots of American Nativism, and one of the few comprehensive works on the subject I've been able to find. Supposedly he recanted on this work 30 years after the fact, but it doesn't stop it from being well researched.
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Jul 20, 2012 20:31
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Does anyone know of any good books about the Industrial Revolution? Preferably one that can be purchased on the Kindle store.
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Jul 27, 2012 06:56
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Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 is a history of what he calls the 'twin revolutions' - France's political one, and Britain's industrial one. Very readable and easy to follow, although if you're looking for a history of specific events it's not much use. It kind of presumes a basic familiarity of the period and talks more about causes and effects. It's on Kindle, too, and the Kindle version is pretty much fine except for the very few maps that the book contains (they're basically unreadable).
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Jul 27, 2012 09:28
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1Q84 posted:Does anyone know of any good books about the Industrial Revolution? Preferably one that can be purchased on the Kindle store. The Most Powerful Idea In The World http://www.amazon.com/Most-Powerful...ea+in+the+world I'm partway through it and it's quite good. It's much more about the technical side of the revolution than the social side though, but interesting for someone technically minded like me. It would make a good companion to Hobsbawn's book.
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Jul 27, 2012 17:15
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I like roman history a lot, and because of that I dig the Punic wars a lot, because really, who doesn't? Some of history's best characters emerge in those conflicts. I'm wondering now if there are any good Books on the Carthaginian side of affairs, just for this war, but for their society as a whole? I know there are tons of books on Hannibal, and of course there would be, but I'm looking for something that could shed some light on the culture of Carthage: their society, beliefs, customs, and history.
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Jul 28, 2012 01:00
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Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.
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Jul 28, 2012 02:39
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Thanks for the quick reply, I ordered it for my kindle. Can't wait to read it.
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Jul 28, 2012 15:33
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John Charity Spring posted:Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 is a history of what he calls the 'twin revolutions' - France's political one, and Britain's industrial one. Very readable and easy to follow, although if you're looking for a history of specific events it's not much use. It kind of presumes a basic familiarity of the period and talks more about causes and effects. It's on Kindle, too, and the Kindle version is pretty much fine except for the very few maps that the book contains (they're basically unreadable). Mr Crucial posted:The Most Powerful Idea In The World Thanks guys! I'll check both of these out.
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Jul 28, 2012 22:04
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I've been rereading Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle and am almost done. I'd really like to get further into a couple of topics and would love any recommendations. I saw the one from earlier about Isaac Newton as the head of the mint, and I'm definitely going to pick that one up. I'm also interested in the Royal Society of London's history and members, or just 17th-18th Century science in general. Anything about the rebuilding or architecture of London after the fire would be great as well. Essentially, if you've read The Baroque Cycle, you kind of know what I'm looking for: 17th-18th century science, banking, coinage, piracy. Oh, and syphilis. I am always interested in learning about diseases, and would really like to read a book not just about famous poxy historical figures, but specifically how the disease changed and evolved with the human race over the course of history.
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Jul 30, 2012 21:47
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I'm looking for some good books on Incan History, Last days of the Incans was a pretty sweet read and I'm hungry for more. I'm maybe a third of the way through Guns, Germs and Steel and it is very interesting and very slow.
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Jul 30, 2012 22:14
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I finished reading The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe a little while ago, and felt it was a concise, if a little disjointed, introduction to the great siege of Vienna and the events leading up to it. 'Course, I love depictions of sieges, so once it got to the showdown itself, I was hooked, and it was well worth hanging in there during the slow buildup. On a slightly different note, can anyone recommend some books on medieval/renaissance mercenaries? It seems like a fascinating era of warfare, from what little I gleaned from wikipedia. The condottieri in Italy especially.
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Jul 31, 2012 00:49
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:I'm looking for some good books on Incan History, Last days of the Incans was a pretty sweet read and I'm hungry for more. If you don't mind reading primary sources, try The Royal Commentaries of the Incas by El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega or An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru by Titu Cusi Yapunqui or Narrative of the Incas by Juan de Betanzos.
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Jul 31, 2012 03:30
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Found Sound posted:On a slightly different note, can anyone recommend some books on medieval/renaissance mercenaries? It seems like a fascinating era of warfare, from what little I gleaned from wikipedia. The condottieri in Italy especially.
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Jul 31, 2012 23:35
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Thanks, I'll check that out!
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Aug 1, 2012 00:26
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What books on "barbarian" civilizations can you recommend? Vikings, Goths, Vandals, all are welcome, though I have a particular interest in the vikings.
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Aug 4, 2012 03:58
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I'm looking for some reading about England during the Victorian era. Especially about life in London and in the colonies. It doesn't matter if it's slighty romanticised, aslong as it's not completely inaccurate. I don't know if that makes any sense 
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Aug 4, 2012 07:31
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Sad Mammal posted:What books on "barbarian" civilizations can you recommend? Vikings, Goths, Vandals, all are welcome, though I have a particular interest in the vikings. Ibn Fadlan's reports on his time with the Rus (probably vikings) are a great read: http://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Fadlan-Land-Darkness-Travellers/dp/0140455078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344061926&sr=8-1&keywords=ibn+fadlan He provides some of the only eyewitness accounts of viking culture and custom that we have today.
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Aug 4, 2012 07:34
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Trump posted:I'm looking for some reading about England during the Victorian era. Especially about life in London and in the colonies. It doesn't matter if it's slighty romanticised, aslong as it's not completely inaccurate. Jack London's People of the Abyss is a record of the time he spent living with the homeless in London around the turn of the century. He rented an apartment, then left all his money there, put on old clothes, and lived as a homeless person for a while. It's a fascinating account, and it's also free as an ebook or audiobook through Project Gutenberg, etc.
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Aug 6, 2012 02:34
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Trump posted:I'm looking for some reading about England during the Victorian era. Especially about life in London and in the colonies. It doesn't matter if it's slighty romanticised, aslong as it's not completely inaccurate. Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor is a really excellent primary text on day-to-day life of Victorian Londoners. Wikipedia describes it, apparently, as almost pedantic in its detail, but that is... ironic, coming from a Wikipedia article. When I was studying for my Victorian lit comps, there were a few history books assigned as "suggested readings," and of those I liked Richard Altick's Victorian People and Ideas the best, followed closely by Robin Gilmour's The Victorian Period: The Intellectual and Cultural Context of English Literature, 1830-1890. Some goons recommended The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire by John Newsinger, which, judging by its TOC, spends the first half in the 19th century. I haven't started it yet, but it came highly recommended in this thread or another. I'll also throw out that I think a lot of the primary texts are really good, too, especially Darwin and (certain things) from Marx, to give you an insight into their thinking and the ideas they wrestled with. Plus oodles of fiction, of course. EDIT: E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class is also a classic. I've only just started it... it's like 800 pages. It's excellent so far, but I'm not sure it'll get much into "day-to-day life." DirtyRobot fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Aug 7, 2012 |
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Aug 6, 2012 03:09
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This thread is amazing and has easily tripled the size of my Amazon wishlist. Can anyone recommend anything more contemporary on the revolutions of 1848, or (a bit more specifically) the Austro-Hungarian Empire (anything K.u.K-related from 1867-1918 really would be great). The last few books I read on both were pretty dated, Revolutions of 1848 (1968) by Priscilla Smith Robertson and The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918 : A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary (1976) by A.J.P. Taylor (much love for ol' A.J.P., though his view on German historiography is a bit outdated).
Drone fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Aug 6, 2012 |
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Aug 6, 2012 20:41
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Great thread, I've been wanting to read more about the Mongol invasions/wars specifically in Persia and the Middle East, any recommendations? Hell, any recommendations about Mamluks also?
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Aug 6, 2012 23:08
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Any good books about the Age of Discovery? I wouldn't mind different perspectives(natives/explorers). Would also like the expedition part to be included and not only the discovery. One about Cortes and Mexico would be specially great but all others are welcome too. Like Drone said earlier, this thread has been great, thanks to all.
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Aug 7, 2012 05:09
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Ulio posted:Any good books about the Age of Discovery? I wouldn't mind different perspectives(natives/explorers). Would also like the expedition part to be included and not only the discovery. One about Cortes and Mexico would be specially great but all others are welcome too. Charles C. Mann wrote both 1492 and 1493, the former about pre-Colombian cultures and the latter about how quickly things changed. The latter has a lot on the silver trade and the beginnings of the slave trade. A pair of books on British attempts to find the Northwest Passage, from the 1500s-1800s: Arctic Labyrinth: The Quest for the Northwest Passage (Glyn Williams) The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage (Anthony Brandt) The two complement each other well, covering the same ground but with different perspectives and different degrees of detail. Williams's focuses most on the early stuff. Both have incredible stuff on the lost Franklin expedition, which is 1800s, but ... yikes. I just finished Toby Lester's The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name. It does not get into cultures Europeans found, as it's mainly about how the maps changed. That sounds vague and it is. It's not really focused, but there are some interesting stories, particularly about Columbus.
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Aug 7, 2012 07:04
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 I've finished 'The Arms of Krupp' by William Manchester. Great book, highly readable, and a must-read for anyone who is eager to flesh out their knowledge of early modern Germany. And Krupp too of course. I want to mention how I really enjoyed the frequent inclusions of German-phrases and words by the author, I've actually come out of reading this book with a boosted German vocabulary. It's really quite wunderbar. Manchester obviously attempted to pull the reader into the era the book deals with, and it works well. Knowledge also granted to me was the personality traits of the head Krupp men. Simply put, nearly every head Kruppanier of die firma was an extremely narcissistic & selfish human-being. These men would go to extreme lengths to achieve a high-profit margin and maximum efficiency. Even to the point of one day employing "untermensch" to work in Krupp foundries. Nearly all of these guys were neglected emotionally by their parents, with most of their childhoods being spent participating in rigorous tutoring for the eventual running of the firm in their adulthood. A sort of vicious cycle if you ask me, one emotionally-damaged Krupp poisoning the next. Frankly though, this did create one extremely well-run business. But nonetheless, one really bad Krupp would end up damaging the reputation of the entire firm by going much too far. Highly readable and informative, definitely worth a look.
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Aug 7, 2012 09:55
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That looks interesting, but drat if that isn't one of the ugliest covers I've ever seen. On to more serious discussion, could anyone recommend any books on the Yugoslav wars?
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Aug 7, 2012 12:07
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Oh yeah, that cover is terrible. The new one is good, I just didn't think the image was large enough.
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Aug 7, 2012 14:32
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I'm thinking about doing a thesis on the intended aims and actual results on the general war effort of the various strategic aerial bombartments in the Second World War. I'm looking for a good book on the battle of Britain, the air wars for Germany and Japan, and possibly a book on the bombartment of Warsaw. So far I've found a couple of interesting books but perhaps I've missed a very topical book that someone here's read.
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Aug 7, 2012 19:03
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You should try the military history thread, full of people who know a lot about that stuff. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3297799
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Aug 7, 2012 19:13
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Ulio posted:Any good books about the Age of Discovery? I wouldn't mind different perspectives(natives/explorers). Would also like the expedition part to be included and not only the discovery. One about Cortes and Mexico would be specially great but all others are welcome too. If you don't mind reading a primary source, Bernal Diaz's The Conquest of New Spain is a good first-hand account from one of the conquistadors who overthrew the Aztec empire and served under Cortes.
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Aug 7, 2012 22:59
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So I've got a great list going for my 11th grade modern US history class. I am really strong at the moment in the Gilded Age and the 20s-40s. Looking for more recommendations (again, for myself, not necessarily for my students); primary docs awesome; contemporary literature great as well; for the following areas: 1. Western expansion after the Civil War; end of the frontier; Indian wars, Populism, etc. 2. The '50s - back from the War, baby boom, consumerism 3. The '60s, '70s - especially protest movements and the Vietnam War 4. The '80s-2000s - this gets hard for me to teach as I lived it; but stuff about the role of computers in our lives, or the role of the internet; or stuff about movements in popular culture in the last 30 years or looking at singular decades; globalization and modern politics Thanks in advance! Nerdpony, I've been reading History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History. Pretty interesting, it seems like the kind of research I would have liked to do had I not gone into k-12 ed. After I started reading it, someone posted this interesting blog post on Facebook, http://postmasculine.com/america , which links in rather well, I think. I'm trying to work up some sort of lesson around the question "How do we think other countries define "American"?"
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Aug 8, 2012 16:33
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oscarthewilde posted:I'm looking for a good book on the battle of Britain, the air wars for Germany and Japan, and possibly a book on the bombartment of Warsaw. Try Bomber Command by Max Hastings. Each chapter looks at a different phase of the bombing of Germany, and there's one about the experience of the Germans in Darmstadt which suffered a terrible raid not long before Dresden. There's plenty of discussion about the politics and strategy of the whole thing too.
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Aug 8, 2012 21:24
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I'm looking for any good recommendations for books on Eastern Europe, especially Hungary and Romania in the last 100-150 years or so.
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Aug 8, 2012 22:42
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Thanks for the recommendations, gonna check them out. Would be interested in one by Magellan also.
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Aug 8, 2012 22:46
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The Erland posted:
Do you mean the most recent which reduced the former Yugoslavia to its component parts?
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Aug 10, 2012 12:09
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I'm looking for some Roman history type books. I really enjoy the legion/war type books the most. Anyone have some recommendations? I prefer kindle/ebook versions since work travel keeps me from carrying a lot of books with me and I finish them too fast usually that I run out of material on trips.
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Aug 10, 2012 20:51
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