Can we get a thread with some interesting book recommendations? I am particularly interested in the age of exploration period. Initial European expansion and contact with the Americas, Oceania, and Asia is fascinating to me. I really liked "Over the Edge of the World" by Laurence Bergreen and "The Great Siege of Malta" is great too. Would love to see if you guys know of any similarly excellent books.
I recently read Charles Boxer's "The Portuguese seaborne empire, 1415-1825". It's outdated (written before Angolan/Mozambiquan independence, and I'm sure there have been research advances in the past 50 years too) but a solid narrative and probably the kind of thing you're looking for.
>>18461242It is an underrated part of history, the only treatment of it is Horatio Hornblower or age of sail media, there aren't many books there but something like the Odyssey changed to match the early modern period would fit well.
Mesoamerica anon here, as I'll shill "When Montezuma Met Cortes"It's a fascinating historiography and comparison of different accounts of the Cortes expedition/the fall of the Aztec, examining what the biases of each account is and how different tellings contradict one another, and how they have been retold over time to push different ideological/national interestsPlus, it gets into a lot of the personal and political background of various Spanish and Aztec historical figures: It's one of the better books I've seen that tackle the political dynamics and motives of other Mesoamerican kings and officials like like Xicomecoatl, Ixtlilxochitl II, Xicotencatl II, etc, which is something very few books do, despite them playing a huge role in how events played out. This is something I get into myself (including some observations even restall doesn't get into) here: pastebin.com/h18M28BR and arch.b4k.dev/v/thread/640670498/#640679139 and desuarchive.org/his/thread/16781148/#16781964 and desuarchive.org/int/thread/220614413/#220624574 and desuarchive.org/k/thread/64935126/#64961571 and desuarchive.org/k/thread/64434397/#64469714 + the other posts I link to within that /k/ post and the two posts of mine directly preceding that oneI don't agree with absolutely every conclusion Restall makes but it and his prior work "7 Myths of the Spanish Conquest", are pretty much mandatory reading for a decent understanding of the topicAlso pic related is WIP reading chart me and some friends are working on. I'll probably end up removing Broken Spears from the Conquest section for Collision of Worlds and/or maybe add a few books on the conquests of West Mexico and the Maya regions since currently this is very Central Mexico/Aztec focused, when in reality there were centuries of campaigns and expeditions against Mesoamerican states in other areas: The last Maya kingdoms didn't fall to 1697If people want more suggestions on Mesoamerican stuff let me know
>>18461266Also forgot to reply to >>18461257>>18461257Gun Germs and Steel is shit. It has tons of issues and as it related to my area of interest, gets a variety of basic, fundamental, and important things wrong about the Spanish conquest over Prehispanic civilizations.It's >plebbit but see https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/2bv2yf/guns_germs_and_steel_chapter_3_collision_at/ ; this isn't even everything with the Americas since this is just about the Andes/Inca, not how it fucks up with Mesoamerica etc
>>18461267Agreed, notice my image completely destroys the smallpox crap as well. Me shitposting a book cover is not endorsement.
It's entry-level, but I really like Kershaw's work on the Nazis. Autistically well researched and doesn't shy away from the horrors of war.
Gonna shill some audiobooks here.
>>18461339
>>18461242You might like Felipe-Fernandez Armesto's Pathfinders. I might pick it up this week.Does anyone have any good South American history? I checked out Open Veins and Forgotten Continent but its not exactly what I'm looking for. I want empirical longue duree stuff.
>>18461340
>>18461343
>>18461340The Mesoamerican stuff in this book is mostly pretty solid, I can vouch for, though I also know of some researchers who have issues less with the factual information it provides and moreso with the book's overall thesis and lack of empirical methodology/falsifiability to argue it's message
>>18461344don't respond to me with fiction(I read it and didn't like it)1491 and 1493(two books)
>>18461345
>>18461422
>>18461242
Patterns of Empire by Julian Go, discussing the anglo establishment. Side by side comparison of how British empire develops from the 1600s and how American empire worked as well. >>18461735Caro is so exhaustively autistic, it’s very impressive but I will never ever ever read this unfortunately. >>18461353They’re good >>18461340My beloved>>18461266Ty for effortpost
>>18462783
>>18461735How did Caro eat and breath with Johnson's Johnson firmly lodged in his esophagus?
>>18461242I liked this one a lot. It was short, sweet, and to the point for scratching that exploration itch.
its funny how many things start fitting together when you swallow Velikovsky pill
>>18462783I enjoyed the Powerbroker, the LBJ books shouldn't be much worse I guess?>>18462808Did you read them? Is he really only glazing him for 4 volumes?
