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Look Sir Droids posted:Looking for recommendations on a book covering the War of the Roses through the Tudor ascension. I had just picked it up when you posted this and I didn't want to recommend it until I finished reading it, but I enjoyed 'The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors' by Dan Jones. It was a nice narrative history and a pretty easy read.
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Mar 25, 2015 04:09
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I think his last Decline of the Roman Republic episode was where Carlin jumped the shark. Up until then the show was some good, if shallow, history where he was a very good narrator When he started doing incredibly long single episodes he got way too indulgent with his analogies and constantly repeating himself. Robin Lane Fox said something on the History Extra podcast for their Wolfson History Prizes episode a few years ago back that made me realize why I had grown tired of Carlin - Making comparisons to the present day shows little respect toward the reader. I couldn't get through the introduction to Margaret MacMillan's The War That Ended Peace because she was doing that and I found it a little annoying. With Carlin's podcast it's obnoxious.
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Jul 21, 2018 06:32
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COOL CORN posted:I know next to 0 about the Wars of the Roses. How can I get into learning about that? Dan Jones 'The Hollow Crown'/'The Wars of the Roses' is a pretty nice narrative history.
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Jul 26, 2018 00:31
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So I started reading again in the fall (finally got a library card again), and I've mostly been reading history books. Mostly wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the recommendations in the thread. I did seek out the Penguin History of Modern Vietnam (it was good!) and King Leopold's Ghost (felt kind of meh about it in the end) because of what you've posted. I tend to like a good narrative in my history so they may not be to all your taste, but the best two books I've read so far are Dalrymple's The Anarchy and Helen Castor's Joan of Arc biography. They were both thrilling to read, and I particularly liked the way Castor structured her book.
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Jul 11, 2020 02:47
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Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture is one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year. Saw it in the new ebooks through my library and only picked it up because I remembered his name from the Revolutions podcast. If I have one complaint, and it's minor, it's that it didn't go into Toussaint's personal life much at all. I generally don't enjoy reading that sort of stuff, but I came away not knowing as much as I wanted about his relationship with his wife or the mistresses he had throughout Haiti (something the author mentions him having more than once, but nothing more than a mention). I expect there will be many people trying to write a Hamilton-style musical after reading the book.
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Oct 7, 2020 07:53
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Just finished Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs tonight and it was pretty drat great.
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Feb 19, 2021 05:27
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Loved Goldsworthy's Philip & Alexander when I read it late last year. Tying father and son together made a lot of sense to me and I found it easier to follow than Robin Lane Fox's Alexander biography, but thst might just be because I was more familiar with things now. Didn't like SPQR. Beard has a lot of interesting observations and tidbits but the book felt really scattershot to me. Maybe the narrator of the audiobook makes it a better experience? I cycle through Everitt's Rome books in audiobook form (with a side of Mike Duncan's book) as part of my nightly get-to-sleep routine. The narrator on Everitt's "Rise of Rome" book is hilariously monotone. I'm obviously not looking for anything more than getting lulled to sleep so I don't have much to say about them.
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Apr 27, 2021 08:16
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Ben Nerevarine posted:
Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs was fantastic.
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May 24, 2021 01:14
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Gripweed posted:I know Dan Carlin isn't super respected in history circles, but I find his podcast entertaining enough. So when I saw a copy of his book for cheap I picked it up. Whoo boy it is rough. His style is entertaining in podcast form but he writes in basically the exact same style and in book form it's real bad. And his shortcomings as a historian stand out way worse. I started borrowing history audiobooks from the library and haven't listened to the "Dude Narrates History" genre of podcasts since. Highly recommend it. Worth it just for no ads.
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May 15, 2022 05:59
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Haystack posted:What are some good history audiobooks? Ideally works on the less depressing side. I listened to the Philby book Fate Accomplice mentioned and enjoyed it. I think generally, a good book will make a good audiobook and it's rare you'll come across a narrator who ruins things. There's one narrator I've come across who is pretty wooden and emphasizes differently than usual, but it want enough to get me to turn things off. As for actual recommendations, I enjoyed Paul Strathern's The Medici a lot. The book does use the full name of the characters a lot which might get tiring for you. Strathern's The Borgias was also good. I've also enjoyed the Tom Holland Rome books in audio form (Rubicon/Dynasty). I guess I go for lighter fare when listening instead of reading.
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May 18, 2022 02:49
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I finished King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne tonight. Pretty great book. I haven't read another which managed to weave the competing sources into a narrative so transparently and seemlessly. There are obviously gaps and unknowns in the history which had to be worked with but Nelson said they set out to write a good chronological biography of "Charles" and they did just that.
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May 16, 2023 06:06
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Arbite posted:She think the mother killed Carloman? She demurred, mentioning whether Bertrada killed him or not is disputed by historians and says "readers should judge for themselves." But given that she also mentioned Carloman was "already a sick man" when he and Bertada travelled with Pippin and the Pope on their way back to Italy, I think not.
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May 16, 2023 18:03
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The Glumslinger posted:Anyone have recommendations for post WW2 Europe and the early cold war, late 40s and maybe early 50s? I enjoyed Applebaum's Iron Curtain but it obviously doesn't have much of anything about the West.
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Aug 17, 2023 17:37
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I read David Glantz's Operation Barbarossa over a couple of days. It's only a few hundred pages and very readable (except for the Nazi army corps all having Roman numeral names).
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Aug 21, 2023 01:26
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StrixNebulosa posted:
Books on the Napoleonic wars came up a few pages back and Alexander Mikaberidze's The Napoleonic Wars came up. I've enjoyed the audiobook of it but I listen to audiobooks to get to sleep so I'm not necessarily looking for the same thing I want in a reading book.
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Sep 14, 2023 21:12
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Rand Brittain posted:Just added the final book of Jonathan Sumption's five-volume Hundred Years War history to my e-reader. Had a buddy recommend that to me but I'm not sure I want to go so deep into a single subject.
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Sep 18, 2023 17:14
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I liked When Montezuma Met Cortes but I found Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs to be a more enjoyable read.
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Oct 5, 2023 07:07
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I finally finished The Burgundians A Vanished Empire and it's such a wonderful book. I though the prose was beautiful. I don't expect that when I seek out a book, subject is more important to me, but it sure makes the reading experience enjoyable. I had a smile on my face most of the time reading it. And now I'm tempted to load up Europa Universalist again Mr_Roke fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Feb 27, 2024 |
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Feb 27, 2024 21:01
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Mustang posted:Has anyone read The Anglo-Saxons: A History of England 400 - 1066? I read it at the end of last year and thought it was pretty good. Mostly focused on the various Kings and it did a pretty good job helping keep all the various names straight even though they can be quite similar. I particularly enjoyed the early bits about the effect of Rome's withdrawal and the Christianisation and the all-important timing of Easter.
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Mar 29, 2024 20:06
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branedotorg posted:i read it recently, it's well written but it's far more a history of christianity in the eastern empire than a history of the empire itself. entire wars are given paragraphs at most but every minor conclave is give multiple pages or more. I'm reading this too but only about a quarter of the way though. I'm all about the church poo poo so it's still right up my alley but it's still odd. At one point the author mentions how a battle is the best documented of the period but doesn't do anything more than mentioning that and who won. Even for a political/religious history I'd have expected a bit more attention to the military history side of things.
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Apr 11, 2024 00:11
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