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Finally getting around to reading The Guns of August because this thread reminded me. Thanks! Along similar lines, if you're up for exploring the political side of pre-WWI Europe, check out Europe's Last Summer by David Fromkin. It's an engaging account of the labyrinthine politics of early-20th century Europe and a fascinating look at some of the leaders that shaped the war. Much of it focuses on the ambassadors who served the leaders of Europe, who were closer to each other than their respective leaders or even their homelands. I think someone mentioned it earlier, so I'll second Carroll's Constantine's Sword. it's a good and fairly comprehensive look at the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people through the centuries. It is a tome, though, so don't pick it up unless you're up for a marathon.
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Jul 5, 2012 03:35
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Anyone have good suggestions for books about the Thirty Years War? Thanks in advance, goons!
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Apr 21, 2013 03:31
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PittTheElder posted:There's literally dozens of them all called The Thirty Years War. I think the most modern/up-to-date/respectable version would be Peter Wilson's The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy. It's long, but it's great. Yeah, that's the problem I've been having. I want sift out the chaff before I dive into anything. Thank for the recommendation, PitttheElder and theJJ!
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Apr 24, 2013 13:01
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I just picked up The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy at the library and I want to thank the folks ITT who recommended it. I just started it and I'm only a couple chapters in, but it's already proving to be well-written, well-researched, and engaging. The preface addresses exactly the problem I had been having with research about the Thirty Years War: that it's all either old and makes incorrect assumptions, focuses on too narrow a view of the wider conflict, or is simply inpenetrable. Wilson goes out of his way to state his case for a fresher, comprehensive history of the conflict, written academically but accessibly. Thanks, goons!
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May 9, 2013 17:31
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blakout posted:If you haven't also check out King Leopolds Ghost absolutely brutal history of the Congo. Roughly half the population died possibly the worst colony ever. Yep. King Leopold's Ghost is one of the most brutal things I've ever read. It's really good, but the content is pretty rough. I know something like this came up a million pages ago, but does anyone have good recommendations about books on naval command from about 1650-1800? I'm in a mood to read some naval history, but I haven't read anything before that has focused on officers and command, specifically. Something either general or biographical would do. I'm not partial to a particular region, either. Just looking for interesting naval history.
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Nov 11, 2013 15:20
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adebisi lives posted:I checked that out on amazon and a few things kinda scared me off. First off it looks pretty short, and I'm a big fan of gigantic history books. Then it looked like some of the reviews mentioned him having stupid factual errors which usually scares me. Finally, it sounds like the tone of the book is too skewed as being apologetic for the Mongols. I'll take another gander at it since you said it was good and it seems to be the most popular book on the subject on amazon. I also enjoyed Weatherford's Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World. There are some errors, but he's honest about his sources at the beginning, some of which are from Mongol tribal texts recently opened to western scholars after the end of the Cold War. He presents his text as skewed for this reason but offers it as a sort of glimpse at Mongol thoughts on their own history (and where history and mythology meet). It's important to remember that Weatherford is a cultural anthropologist by trade, and not a strict "historian's historian." He's more interested in how tribal peoples view themselves and bringing that to western scholarship.
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Jan 23, 2014 22:51
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I scored a few good finds at a local used book store the other day. I got a copy of Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost (  ) for $4.00. (  ) It's been brought up ITT before, and I've already read it, but I couldn't pass up a good deal on a nice copy of it.Also for about $4.00, I decided to try Gwendolyn Leick's The Babylonians: an Introduction. It looked alright at a quick glance through it. My big find was Neil MacGregor's A History of the World in 100 Objects. It's obviously not an in-depth look at any period or culture, but I like the approach the book takes. It uses 100 art historical objects to discuss events and theories in human civilization. The book has an anthropological lean to it, especially since the first objects are stone age tools and art. It gets into more detail of specific events by way of later objects, but it still seems to take broad strokes, as I would expect from a survey on all of history. MacGregor is a curator at the British National Museum, and all the objects are taken from their collection, but he's pretty straightforward and honest about his perspective on things. I've been enjoying it so far and I'd recommend it if you're into art history or might want to try an art historical perspective.
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Apr 1, 2014 16:51
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Seams posted:Nixonland is great but I would call it more a cultural/political history of the period with Nixon as the centrepiece than a straight-up biography of the man. "Before the Storm" just went on my list. Thanks! Not an enemies list. A book list. I just realized how ominous that sounded right after a conversation about Nixon. 
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Apr 17, 2014 13:32
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Lee Harvey Oswald posted:Speaking of Perlstein, part 3 of his right-wing trilogy comes out this summer. The bad guys win in the end. Spoiler: the present and future suck. 
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Apr 17, 2014 17:40
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vyelkin posted:Have you ever done King Leopold's Ghost? It's historical and also a hugely important book for its impact on how people think of colonialism. It's depressing as poo poo though. Seconding this. I also happened to pick up a nice copy at my local used book story for $4. 
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Apr 29, 2014 15:10
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Vogler posted:Today I learned that the black death caused the renaissance and I would very much like to read a book about the subject. If you're interested in the renaissance era, you should figure out what aspect of it and what region you're interested in. The concept of a European renaissance is tough to study because it isn't limited to one time, place, or field of study. You could read a half dozen books on just the Italian art renaissance and still barely touch the western and northern art renaissances, let alone the scientific and cultural renaissances everywhere else. My point is, your best bet is to approach studying "the renaissance" by studying a place or subject area you're interested in, and focusing in on a book that covers that area from about 1400 to 1600 AD. Railing Kill fucked around with this message at 18:32 on May 3, 2014 |
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May 3, 2014 18:09
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PlushCow posted:Author Dee Brown has many good nonfiction books on the American West, the closest to what you'd want is probably Wondrous Times on the Frontier, or maybe The American West (haven't read that one) for a general history, but his most important work is Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee about the destruction of American Indian tribes from their point of view, from extensive research by primary source materials such as transcripts from meetings between tribal leaders and government officials. 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. Seconding Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. It's one of the books that got me into seriously studying history, and I think it's a masterpiece.
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May 15, 2014 13:09
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InequalityGodzilla posted:Also I guess while I'm here I should give my own recommendation of something I finished recently: By The Sword by Richard Cohen. It's a (mostly) complete history of swordsmanship and dueling/fencing in particular, mostly focusing on the western world but occasionally covering the east, written by a retired olympic fencer. For a guy who as far as I know didn't really have much writing experience when he first wrote it the book is extremely readable and never even approaches any sort of dry, overly academic tone. It's obvious that Cohen is hugely passionate about the subject matter and that's really reflected in the writing. Reading it kind of felt like sitting down in front of an old expert to listen to them tell you all they know, if that makes any sense. If you're looking for an entertaining and educational look at sword fighting I highly recommend it. Thanks for this recommendation. I've been doing a bunch of revision work on a tabletop RPG that uses fencing/dueling quite a bit, so this sounds like good inspiration and supplemental reading.
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Jun 7, 2014 09:38
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I just finished re-reading King Leopold's Ghost and I kind of
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Jun 12, 2014 16:36
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Drone posted:Does anyone have any recommendations for books dealing with politics/sociology of interwar Japan? Herbert Bix's Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan might have a bit of what you're looking for. It focuses on Hirohito (obviously), but along the way it says quite a bit about the interwar period and Japan's move toward its version of fascism. It's been a while since I've read it, but I remember the cultural chaos and flux of the interwar period to be described pretty well.
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Oct 8, 2014 14:25
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The Belgian posted:How about A song of ice and fire by Geore R.R. Martin? Haha. Noice. Not to pick on The Belgian (it's a coincidence, I swear), but I also recently read Kind Leopold's Ghost and it made me want to read (or watch) Shake Hands with the Devil again. It's a hundred years later, but having read a detailed account of the turn-of-the-century Belgian occupation of central Africa sheds a lot of light on more modern conflicts like the Rwandan genocide. I definitely understood Dallaire's outrage at the situation, but at the time I found it hard to really understand his admitted hatred of the Belgians until I read King Leopold's Ghost. I still don't hate Belgians, obviously, but Dallaire's problem with them went from bizarre to disturbingly understandable.
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Mar 4, 2015 15:38
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I haven't read 1177 BC yet, but it's on my list. Robert Drews' The End of the Bronze Age is pretty good. It's limited by its hypotheses about why everything went tits-up at the end of the Bronze Age, and I'm sure there's more current research since 1995, but it's pretty good for what it is.
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Mar 12, 2015 16:41
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Samog posted:this is important: do not confuse 1491 (good) with 1421 (bad) Yeah. 1421 is about a Chinese fleet that visited Italy, and is so speculative that it is basically historical science fiction in some spots. 1491 is great, though.
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Oct 7, 2015 12:00
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dublish posted:Nah, you're thinking 1434. 1421 is the one where China discovers California. Huh. Man, people need to use something besides a year for the titles of their books. The 1400's are getting pretty crowded.
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Oct 8, 2015 12:37
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Dapper_Swindler posted:isnt idea of that book was the chinese visit started the renaissance? It sure was! It's really bad, and is less historically sound than some speculative fiction that I have read. It misunderstands: China in 1434 Italy in 1434 The rest of Europe in 1434 That "The Renaissance" wasn't one thing, and didn't start first or solely in Italy That one event couldn't possibly start a phenomenon like the Italian Renaissance
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Oct 13, 2015 15:02
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BravestOfTheLamps posted:That is a very persuasive recommendation, I'll be on the lookout for 1434. Maybe I should clarify: 1434 doesn't understand that "The Renaissance" was a widespread thing and that it wasn't started by one event. It claims that "The Renaissance" was one thing, and that a visit from China started it. My post was a bit muddled by too many negatives. That's what I meant by "misunderstands."
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Oct 14, 2015 20:33
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kalthir posted:Same here. His book on the Thirty Years' War was really dry and tended to just pile on names and locations, but I enjoyed it all the same. Agreed. Europe's Tragedy is really good, but it's hard to approach a topic like the Thirty Years War without at least some of it turning into a pile of names and dates. Things get so complicated so fast that minutiae accumulate in a hurry. I thought Wilson handled it well and I enjoyed it enough that I've been thinking about checking out Heart of Europe when it comes out.
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Oct 31, 2015 16:47
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This might be too broad to be a worthwhile question, but I'll try it anyway: I just finished a big tome (James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, not that it matters) and I'm looking to dive into a new topic. I don't really care what it is, so I'm looking for a suggestion of anything interesting, about any era or topic. I'm up for anything, so let me know if you've been itching to suggest something weird or interesting.
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Nov 24, 2015 02:58
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geegee posted:Don't remember the post but it could have been 1177 B.C. the Year Civilisation Collapsed by Eric Cline. I read this a while back, so it may have been me that recommended it. Or not. I don't remember, but it was really good! I just caught up with the thread after a while away, and I'm digging a lot of the maritime history recommendations people made a little while back. I'm writing a piece of fiction that needs a lot of research about 18th century sailing tech, so this has been great.
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Dec 15, 2016 21:58
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Random recommendation: I got John Man's Marco Polo: the Journey That Changed the World for Christmas and I flew through it in a couple of days. It was good and easy to read, but I'm of two minds about Man's style. He writes it alternating between Polo's journey and his own to retrace the steps. There's parts of Man's own travelogue that are charming and clever, but there's parts that are cringe-worthy. I think that his own travels do add something to the information, but they take something away at times. In general, though, it's a good intro to Polo's expedition, and to the apex (arguably) of the Mongol Empire. There's some good stuff about central Asia and it's people and geography that was new to me.
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Jan 11, 2017 21:26
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Hyrax Attack! posted:This is a great thread, I got these ordered: A Writer at War is fantastic. If you're interested enough in that era of the Soviet Union enough to branch out into essay and fiction, I recommend Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, and his collected essays in A Soviet Heretic. We directly influenced 1984 and Brave New World (Orwell gave it credit in his own writings, but Huxley didn't because Huxley was kind of a dickhead). It was banned by Stalin and Zamyatin himself was jailed. He did a lot of his essay writing during his imprisonment and afterward in exile, and it shows another writer's perspective on the era. We is fiction and the essays are what they are, so none of this is reportage like A Writer at War, but it's all great stuff to get a more nuanced view of Stalin's Soviet Union. Also: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is excellent, and one of my favorite pieces of writing on that topic, if not any historical topic.
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Jan 28, 2017 18:43
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It's not an obscure pick but Bix's Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan spends a lot of time on the 1940's but also spends a lot on the Taisho Emperor and the rise of Hirohito in the 1930's leading up to the Pacific War.
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Sep 17, 2022 14:50
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God Hole posted:I've found myself falling down some wikipedia rabbit holes lately and realized I know almost nothing about history pre-Ancient Greece and how human societies emerged and organized themselves I'm reading David Graeber & David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything right now and it's excellent. It attempts to reexamine early history with fresh eyes (and modern science), casting aside old assumptions like Hobbes' "life was nasty, brutish, and short" and Rousseau's "noble savages." It is about upending old, ahistorical assumptions about ancient cultures, how they communicated, how they were organized, and how they did or did not influence more modern societies. I'm only 1/3 of the way through it, but I feel confident recommending it already.
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Oct 6, 2022 15:06
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Lawman 0 posted:I'm like halfway through and enjoying it but it is clearly something that should be understood critically. 
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Oct 18, 2022 01:46
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Anyone have a good recommendation on a comprehensive history of the Roma? It could be specific to region or time period, but I'm more interested in the history prior to 1900.
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Apr 22, 2023 16:18
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Nth'ing 1491. It's rul gud.
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Jun 3, 2023 21:05
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Grem posted:So many books are on the way (placed a huge Amazon order last night) but I already feel better about this. With everything I ordered it should triple in size at least. Thank you so much goons! My books are going out tomorrow. The last few days since I got back from my trip have been bananas and I haven't had a chance to get to the post office yet. You'll hopefully receive them next week. Good to hear things are coming together for your effort!
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Aug 9, 2023 23:38
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Grem posted:I think I got all the shipments, including the stuff I got myself from the venmo donations. I really cannot express how grateful I am! Yesterday a kid asked if there were any black cowboys, and I showed him The Black West. He didn't have time to read it in my class, but in his language arts test they're testing, and they can read when they're done. He came by my room to grab the book before testing. Really you guys have made my year already, thank you so much! 
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Aug 16, 2023 23:06
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Lawman 0 posted:I read both shattered sword and the twilight of the gods and man were they heavy I just read Shattered Sword and loved it.
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Apr 2, 2024 22:55
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Jeremor posted:Is there a bible of historical text on the bronze age collapse? A large subject, I understand, but maybe just something to get started with? Robert Drews' The End of the Bronze Age is a good overview, although I think there's a couple other more recent books that might use some of the more recent scholarship. Drews' book is from the 1990's but I think there's a more recent pop-historical book that might include more recent stuff. But I don't think there's one volume that's totally comprehensive without picking sides in the eternal slapfight of historians/archaeologists yelling at each other about who the fucken Sea People are or how they were a cause or effect of systemic collapse. Although this is a book thread, I'd also recommend the podcast Tides of History. It's well-researched and every other episode is an interview with a historian or archaeologist, so you get a broad range of takes on recent scholarship. His last season covered the Bronze Age and ended with a dozen or so eps about the systems collapse circa 1200 BCE. The guest list and citations in that stretch might give you good places to look.
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Apr 22, 2024 23:50
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BigglesSWE posted:I will second this. I used Sleepwalkers as a source for my WWI Twitter account, and it’s wild the way the European diplomatic channels worked essentially independently of their respective governments a lot of the times. The July Crisis was the perfect storm of insanity. Fromkin's Europe's Last Summer has a pretty good description of this too. I find spring through autumn 1914 to be the most interesting part of the war.
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Apr 28, 2024 13:56
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