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I recently listened to A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne, and it was tremendous although quite long from an audio perspective! No regrets, though. Highly recommended! I went from knowing zilch about Algeria and France during this time period to feeling very well informed. It provides a really intense, reflective study of the Algerian revolution against France, the turmoil and systemic abuses of France's colonial establishment, and the struggles between the native and French populations of Algeria. The book jacket sets the stakes well: quote:The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict and as many European settlers were driven into exile. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture. What I may have liked most about this history is that it is very much concerned with telling the Algerian side of the story, and it is very even handed in how it treats both the French and the Algerians. For anyone else interested in listening to long rear end histories, Postwar by Tony Judt is another great and long read (as someone already mentioned). I should add that the readers for both of these book are quite skilled and professional, if you want to go that route.
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Apr 20, 2012 17:04
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Just started (listening to) Tim Weiner's Enemies: A History of the FBI, and it promises to be very interesting. I really enjoyed his Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. I'm not usually a fan of single topic histories. Perhaps it's the intrigue-laden subject matter, but Weiner has a way of making a history of a government agency a real page turner. His journalistic training comes through in a good way, in that he knows how to tell a fast moving story with contemporary interest. I'm usually wary of books written by journalists because they can be superficial and light on in-depth research. At the same time, some scholarly histories can be a total drag and kill any innate interest in the topic. Weiner does a good job spanning this gap. With that said, I'm not shedding any tears that Enemies, at 560 pages, is about 300 pages shorter than Legacy of Ashes... For anyone interested in more history of the CIA and its recent shenanigans, I can highly recommend Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Ahmed Rashid's Descent into Chaos: The US and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia more or less picks up where Ghost Wars leaves off, and it's an interesting and detailed read, although a bit less compelling and more sprawling than that book. Any Steven Kinzer fans? For those interested in learning about all of the crappy stuff the US has done abroad in the last 100 or so years, I advise you to check him out. Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq is a lot of fun and a good overview of American coups. It includes quick accounts of incidents that he covers in more depth in his other books, especially in his most excellent coverage of Iran, All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror. One of my favorite books. I'd love to read his Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua and Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, but I haven't gotten around to them because they aren't available in audiobooks and I've gotten lazy these days. Kinzer's books on contemporary issues are interesting and very well written (all of his books read like novels), but I think they are more open to criticism than his historical accounts. I really enjoyed A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It and learned a lot from it about Rwanda, especially the genocide. To a lesser extent I would recommend Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future and Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds. You'd probably be better off going with a more contemporary book about Turkey (2002). "Reset" synthesizes a lot of material from "Cresecent and Star" and "All the Shahs Men" and then makes some less substantiated policy recommendations, but it's an interesting read in its own right. Christ, in retrospect I've read a lot of this guy's books. Overall, he does an excellent job of making his books interesting, compelling, and well researched. Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:Finished The Last Days of the Incas the other day. I really enjoyed the fifty or so years it spent in Peru, less so the tales of Twentieth century exploring that bookend it. I would still really recommend it, Manco Inca is the coolest guy who ever married his sister. Definitely a great book, although for some reason I never finished it after getting about 2/3 the way through. I read it while travelling through Peru last summer and it added a lot to the experience. Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Jun 5, 2012 |
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Jun 5, 2012 20:21
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Argali posted:To contribute, one of my favorites besides 1491 is King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, which concerns the Belgian rape of the Congo in the late 19th century. Amazingly disturbing stuff and very well-written. Seconding this. This is another example of a history that could have been boring in the wrong hands, but it reads like a thriller instead. If you're interested in learning more about the Congo and specifically why it is one of the worst countries in the world now (using the term "country" loosely), I can't recommend highly enough Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns. It's a vivid account of Africa's own "World War" that started in the 1990s and has killed over five million people in about a decade. Probably a more depressing read than "King Leopold's Ghost" because there isn't really a bad guy here, just complete societal collapse and anarchy in the midst of many competing groups. Stearns also explores why it is that the rest of the world doesn't give a poo poo about the Congo and hasn't attempted to understand it on its own terms. One of the smartest and most interesting history books I've read in a long time. As a sort of followup to this book for those interested in learning more about Africa, check out The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence for a run down on all of the colonial fallout and other lovely stuff that happened after the Europeans packed their bags and left. Masterly, comprehensive, and gripping account of how basically all of Africa has slowly slipped into chaos. Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jul 2, 2012 |
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Jul 2, 2012 18:43
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Spills the Moon posted:African history Check out The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence for a great overview of the continent that starts right when nations first start breaking away from colonial rule. Well written and impressive. I second Judt's Postwar for a history of modern Europe.
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Aug 13, 2012 20:17
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Can anyone recommend any books regarding the Dominican Republic or the Caribbean more generally? I'm going there in March with the Peace Corps and I want to be as well informed as possible. My current knowledge is basically limited to wikipedia.
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Nov 6, 2012 22:14
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