Post and discussion about any type of history book.>The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England by Marc Morris>The book begins with the Saxon kings, specifically Edward the Confessor, and shows how England was in constant conflict as the English fell prey to both Vikings and Normans. In the north, King Harold destroys his Viking namesake at the battle of Stamford Bridge but immediately has to hurry south to confront William of Normandy at Hastings. His defeat, and the destruction of the Anglo-Saxon warrior caste, leads inexorably to William's forceful occupation of an unwilling country. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40229197-the-norman-conquesthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Conquest
>>25234505Read this one recently.It’s insanely biased against Communism and it whines just a little too much about the Holocaust but is otherwise an excellent book on European history between 1945-2005.
Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire by Brendan Simms>In the eighteenth century, Britain became a world superpower through a series of sensational military strikes. Traditionally, the Royal Navy has been seen as Britain's key weapon, but in Three Victories and a Defeat Brendan Simms argues that Britain's true strength lay with the German aristocrats who ruled it at the time. The House of Hanover superbly managed a complex series of European alliances that enabled Britain to keep the continental balance of power in check while dramatically expanding her own empire. These alliances sustained the nation through the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, and the Seven Years' War. But in 1776, Britain lost the American continent by alienating her European allies.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3744560-three-victories-and-a-defeat
>>25234959>In the eighteenth century, Britain became a world superpower doubt.jpg
>>25234505Does the book say anything about linguistics? The Norman Conquest apparently resulted in the transition from Old English to Middle English.
>>25235595she's mine, back off bro.
>>25235804I think there's specialized books for that.
>>25234505Best book on the Korean War written by an actual historian?
Almost finished this book. just read 30 pages everyday. Today was talking about Caravel trade ships & how their mixed usage of sail types allowed them to more effectively manoeuvre compared to hanseatic & English Cog ships.Some parts about the Basque being excellent fishermen & whalers. Alongside their Whaling culture a bit & how often various fishing groups would hire Basque to give them advice & help them catch Islands around Svalbard. Alongside how some historians of the time (mostly Basque) proposed that Basque had managed to reach the islands before Columbus did.There was a section on Prince Henry the Explorer & how he financed exploration to try & find alternative routes to cut off muslim middlemen in the Silk Road & how he failed in his ambitions to make decisive & striking blows in North Africa, only managing to capture Ksar es-Seghir & Cueta in his & his fathers lifetime.Then the beginning of my reading of the Portuguese colonisation of the Azore & Madeira islands. With the inhabitants struggling to survive on Vila Baleira due to its dry environment. While succeeding on Madeira cutting hillside terraces to farm. I can remember if it was this island of Vila Baleira or madera, where they introduced rabbits & fucked the ecology for a while.Pretty fun book going over everything in a generally glossing manner to have further discussions & investigations. Only painful chapter for me had to be the chapter on Navigational objects. Since a written manner makes it hard to imagine how it works rather than a sight example.
>>25237207Will be starting this once I finish the Atlantic ocean book.Also what era of history do you prefer to read about? I prefer 19th - 21st century
Anyone read any books with the Laotian Civil War being the focus? Not like 3 chapters in a Vietnam book but the entire book being dedicated to it. It's the least spoken on the big three in SE Asia. Picrel looks like it might be the best book on the topic.I assume it's not as discussed due to the craziness of the Cambodian Civil War & it's aftermath with the Killing Fields & Third Indochina War. Not as famous as Vietnam with it's hundreds of thousands US troops (Not to mention other nations) being directly involved since 65
>>25236630so you haven't read it, got it
Mesoamerican history nerd here, as usual 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 and distorted over time and leveraged for different ideological/national interestsPlus, it gets into a lot of the personal as well as political background of both 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 important as very few sources do this despite the fact their actions and motives played as big a part of how events played out as that of the (more commonly covered) Spanish officials. This is something I get into myself (including some observations even restall doesn't get into, tho moreso in even longer posts not linked here that me/friends have posted on other sites) 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 one I 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 topic just to get an idea of how the different primary sources conflict with each other and skew detailsAlso 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
>>25237290Thats not what I said, faggot
>>25237425it was a simple yes or no question, retard
>>25237421Are you the faggot that spams his face, pictures of ducks, and lazy shitposts on /pol/?
>>25237657No, I don't post on /pol/, and I sure as hell wouldn't post images of my face online.I've thought about posting about Mesoameerica on /pol/ before though because I enjoy sharing information and like a challenge of trying to educate people who are in the least likely position to listen, but I figure even if I have the patience to deal with people there, the threads would likely die quickly since I assume it's a very fast paced board
>>25238041>who are in the least likely position to listen?
>"The information density is fairly high, and it's quite readable. I recommend A Distant Mirror to anyone interested in learning more about the middle ages."
>>25238053My assumption is most anons on /pol/ would be dismissive, do you think otherwise?
>>25238128Why do you think they would be dismissive of Mesoamerican history? There is at least one faggot on there that has mentioned it, the guy I mentioned who spams his face and pictures of ducks.
Just started this. No impressions yet.
Any good readings on bronze age general history of Anatolia and Greece?
Any good books on the comprehensive histories (e.g. ancient to modern) on this region. Both including the histories of states, people & cultures of the region? It doesn't have to be central Asia specifically but can be about the history & cultures of Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan.All I know on the history of the region is that muslims expanded to here, Ghengis Khan & the following leaders took over the region. Then Russia took it over during it's empire & they became SSR of the SU before gaining independence of the 90's
>>25237652>retard, faggotEternal war
>>25234505Just got this. Thoughts?
Any opinion on this? Or anything about the Wars of the Diadochi?>>25238703This pops up often in these threads and its mostly regarded as the best general history of the HRE
>>25238880Any other good historians who do good military-constitutional history like him?
>>25238880Diadochi always sounds Japanese to me
>>25238703It is very good, but it's also very dense and non-linear
>>25238703I only read The Thirty Years War by the same author and while the book was incredibly informative, it was a complete drag to read and power through. Wilson's style is extremely dry and the narrative is not easy to follow. It took me like 10 months to finish because I would put it down to read other easy to read books. The Thirty Years War book started with a summary (long ass one) of the inner workings of the HRE, just to understand why the conflict even happened, and there were many times I got stuck rereading the same paragraph just to know what I read. Some of the negative comments from Wilson's books pretty much have the same complaint, so just be prepared to learn a lot but it's going to challenge your attention and understanding. This and his newest book are on my to read list.
>>25239350Wilson seems so legit, though. I do want to read that Iron And Blood too.
>>25239350also, forgot to add, how does Geoffrey Parker stack up to him?
>>25238694The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
>>25239377I recommend you read Clark's Iron Kingdom, which is a focused history of Prussia, which goes from it's start to its dissolution in 1945. I think this would help understand the dominance of Prussia in the region and will help once you jump to Iron and Blood. Clark at the very least, is much more easier to read than Wilson.
>>25241259Akshully if we’re being strictly technical Prussia ceased to exist 2 years later, in 1947 *adjusts glasses* *takes a puff from inhaler*
>>25241358Lol
>>25237421I want fewer suggestions. Give me three books tops that will cover everything.
>>25238694Read Christopher Beckwith - Empires of the Silk Road
>>25241618That's difficult for me because, even putting aside the fact I am an obsessive autist who can't help but to be in depth, I don't actually read many generalist overviews: I went directly from reading posts from researchers and other hobbyists, to then reading scholarly papers in journals and watching academic conferences on hyperspecific subtopics, without ever reading the typical introductory overview books. If you had to press me for overview sources, then one of the best I've seen is ironically a paper published by someone at a Mormon institute called "The Cultural Tapestry of Mesoamerica" (https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1519&context=jbms), it's around 20 papers and is a great introduction, aside from not touching on West Mexico, especially the Purepecha, as much as I would have liked. I also can't vouch for other publications from the same source, since a lot of stuff on Mesoamerica by Mormons goes into nonsense /x/ territory.Beyond that for generalist overviews, i'd defer to what /r/askhistorians's booklist has (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/americas/latinamerica#wiki_general), despite being reddit, the Mesoamerican content there is generally very high quality. I also helped make the summarized timeline in pic related.One day I'll probably force myself to go through a bunch of intro, generalist books on Mesoamerica just so I know what to recommend, but suffering through a bunch of books intended for non-specialists isn't exactly high on my priority list.
YAAAAAY, Aztec schizo is here!
>>25241621I just looked up his Buddha book the other day
>>25239350>President McKinleyIs that book a good read? Margaret Leech's book about the life and times of McKinley was pretty great, but it was published in 1959 and I wouldn't mind trying something newer.
>>25234505
>>25234505This book, despite the niche subject matter, is turning out to be really interesting. Even if it's clearly written from a bit of an implicitly mormon POV and feels overly apologetic at times. But I guess that only makes sense.As an aside, can some of you recommend some good books on the industrial revolution? Economic, Social, Scientific, Political, Technical histories and Biographies from the eighteenth century to the turn of the twentieth all very much welcome. I'm already eyeing "The Republic for Which It Stands" and I found an online copy of "The Industrial Revolution in World History" but I'd like other recommendations.
Alternatively historically speaking could it work in real life?Like in post apocalyptic America united in a series of wars into natsoc/ big state conservative Mormon led superstate?
>Waterloo: The True Story of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwell
>>25244552>industrial revolution in world history I had to study that in college last semester. Lemme google that.
>>25244552Also>The Republic For Which It StandsThanks for the rec!
>>25246070Fucking BASED. I've read it three or four times. Hope you enjoy it.
Is the Gilded Age worth exploring or no?
Embracing Defeat, very very good.
What do you do when you struggle with a book? I'm currently reading Anthony Beevors book on the invasion of Italy & i'm struggling to remember stuff brought up from the day I had read before.Should I just power through or throw in the towel?
Can anybody recommend a really good history book about South Africa?
I hate how these threads get so little traction.
>>25247015
>>25247356me too, but I asked if the Gilded Age was worth exploring and no replies yet.
>>25246317>>25247432It absolutely is, especially today when we are living during the Gilded Age 2.0.The period saw the American economy dominated by monopolies like Standard Oil and robber barons like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie.As you might have guessed the period was rife with corruption, political machines centered on figures like Boss Tweed were the order of the day.America was quasi-fascist during this period, with the US gov sending hired thugs known as the Pinkertons to break strikes on behalf of private companies. One can’t help but think of the “corporatism” of Fascist Italy.Xenophobia was at an all-time high as elites turned immigrants into scapegoats with movements like the Know-Nothing Party.Does all of this sound familiar? It should.Fortunately the story has a happy ending.Progressives like Teddy Roosevelt arose and campaigned fiercely to overturn the status quo, passing antitrust legislation that buckbroke monopolies like the aforementioned Standard Oil. They’re also the reason why we have (or used to have) 5 day workweeks and paid vacation at all.In hindsight this was obviously an imperfect solution and a stopgap measure to prevent the devastation of the nation at the hands of capitalism, it would have been much better if America had had its own second revolution and turned communist.That’s why you should read about the Gilded Age, it teaches important lessons for the present.
>>25247493I'm not a communist though. should I still read about it?
>>25246906you can put it down and read something else, then come back. I'm >>25239350 and >>25241259 and had that same issue with reading Wilson. I don't see an issue with even dropping a book if you can't even power through it. Sometimes it helps to read another book by a different author who has a better prose and better explains things, so you can come back to the original book better prepared. I agree, some authors have a dry/academic writing style that is hard to read.>>25242554I read Merry's A Country of Vast Designs which is about James Polk and his time as president. I thought it was a good read, but I haven't gotten to his McKinley book yet.
>>25246101It was at the bottom of the first page as a pdf on a Thai website.
>>252355861815 was the culmination of British foreign policy success, not the beginning of it.
>>25234505bizzzzzump
>>25239380any answers for this?
>>25237211Are James Holland’s books any good? Or are they just boomer slop?
>>25246125Started this. Borrowed the book from the library.
>>25237211NTA but I'm a 16-18th century early modern freak
>>25247356I would post more, but it takes time to read through some of the doorstoppers that get recommended here
>>25248547I just realized the rec i borrowed today is 800 pages. Sheesh. And I just finished something that was 1,100 pages
Just curious, how do you guys approach dense history books? Do you take rigorous notes or highlight? My memory is terrible so I often times have trouble keeping up with names, political factions, minor (but notable) events, etc. which results in me spending 5 minutes on a single page trying to recall everything or re-googling terms. My goal, ultimately, was to get a broad overview of Western History but I fear I'm too stupid to complete this endeavor. Ps fuck the spam filter
>>25237207Now this is kino. I will be reading this. I wonder how in depth he will get Re: The Portuguese in Africa.
>>25248261I'll be completely honest & tell you I only got into reading properly this year. So far about 100 pages in (less than 1/5 of the total book) we have only just got onto the actual invasion of Italy. I am really struggling with this book in reading, taking me roughly 25 minutes to read 10 pages compared to around or just below 20 minutes to read 10 pages of the previous book. Not exactly sure as to why. Whether it's the writing style or actual substance of the book.>>25247432Honestly wish I could help you but just got into reading proper & don't want to give you a shitty answer & you waste your hard earned money on a shitty book.>>25247679Thanks I'll take note of this. >>25248407Solid period. I want to try & expand my horizons however. i don't think I'll ever be a big Ancient history guy however.>>25249282I keep telling myself I'll write down in a notepad I have but never end up doing so. Will probably have to with this book.
>>25249688Yeah its a fun book. Talks about a variety of groups on the atlantic & their relation to that sea. It's only an overview of these topics & not super in depth. Toughest part for me was learning about insruments of navigation. I found that bit rather tough
Greatly enjoying Dan Jones's The Plantagenets. English history has always been a shameful blindspot for me so this has been a great way to get into it. It was very funny to learn more about the whole Becket/Henry II debacle and discover that Becket was just completely in the wrong, despite the popular imagination around the matter. Looking forward to reading Jones's War of the Roses next.
>>25249910scrolling down the catalog I see someone else just made a post about this book. Must be something in the air.
How many books have you guys read so far? I've only managed 3.
>>25234505Halo anon-samas, how do we synthesize history and literature once again?
>>25249893>I'll be completely honest & tell you I only got into reading properly this year NTA, just wanted to say don't get discouraged friend. Keep reading and it does get easier as you'll become more skilled at it.
>>25249910I read it and it's not bad, though pic related was better (albeit covering a specific period).Where are you from btw? And why did you want to learn more about English history?
>>25247429Does this cover up to the modern era? I'm looking for a general history of the country I guess. Something that would eventually include a section on the border war if you get what I mean. Thanks for the recommendation though, I'll probably check this one out.
>Recommend a book in one of these threads a couple months ago >See multiple stack threads afterwards that include the book I recommended Feels good.
>>25250189>Where are you from btw? And why did you want to learn more about English history?I'm a WASPy American, so this sort of thing has always been in the background of my life. My family can trace its lineage back to Henry IV, which is cool since it means I'm technically reading about my actual ancestors. Obviously there's no small pool of modern descendants and it doesn't really matter irl but it adds an interesting element that I don't get with, say, Livy.
>>25250189oh and thank you for the rec, adding it to the list
>>25249932Man I wish I could bookmark this post.>>25250200Yes it does.
>>25250224Nta but that’s pretty neat. I’m really big to genealogy and I can trace my family back to Scottish kings. What path gets you back to Henry IV? I feel that’s a fairly rare one, whereas a lot of people can go back to Edward III, if it can be traced at all. Do you have a particular gateway ancestor in your tree?
>>25250381I'm not sure who the "gateway" would be, I'd have to ask my grandfather since I just checked the two volumes he wrote on our family history and they don't go back far enough, but I do know that it's via Antigone of Gloucester. A cursory search shows that if your family is from England and descended from Henry IV it's through her, so that makes sense. Which Scottish kings can you trace to?
>>25250189>perfect king Not to diss my boy Edward, but in the end he lost practically all his possessions that he had gained during the earlier Hundred Years War, his claim to the French Throne wasnt even taken seriously at home anymore, he lost dominion over Flanders and Scotland that was arguable vastly more important and achievable then pointless french wars, and he left some deep structural problems in his own kingdom. He was a good king, obviously, but i would rate the first Edward higher as a 'perfect' ruler and the originator of an English nation
>>25249893Ancient history is okay but a tad overrated. On the inverse, I got loads of American wild west stuff i picked up on whim, like Walter Prescott Webb and T.R. Fehrenbach, whose history of Mexico I picked up an hour or so ago.
>>25250381From what I know I'm a descendant of Charles I but thats all speculation. That's why I became interested in the early modern period to begin with.
>>25250487You should look into it more and make a connection. Maybe make a supplemental work that confirms that connection. I’m currently creating a multi-volume work on my own family history.As for the kings I can connect to, if you can connect to basically any low level Scottish noble living in the 1600s will connect you to Robert II. I’ve spent years researching and exhausting ever branch of my family tree as far back as it’ll go with a mix of records and secondary sources, and I’ve found 20ish lines out of thousands that solidly or probably connect to nobility (gateway ancestors, of which only like two are English to Edward I and one is Welsh to no one in particular), but that number trends down as I bump some off that don’t have enough evidence to confidently put in the volumes. Some connect to James I, James II, and James IV, but there are several that connect to James V through his illegitimate son, Earl Robert of Orkney. Robert had a lot of daughters that married into the Sinclairs of Orkney and Caithness. I’ve got two or three lines that go back to Sutherland, Caithness, and Orkney that married into low level Sinclairs and thus are descendants of that Robert and James V. It’s surprising just how many people in that area are descended from James V because of this. I give those lines a 7/10 in how solid they are. They need a final review.>>25250819A Charles I descent would require some very recent noble ancestry, like 1800s. If that connect were true, there should be good documentation of that descent. What’s the speculation and what’s it based on?
>>25247656NTA but yes. >>25247493 is correct that our current era shares a lot of similarities (though I feel his description is far too colored by his ideology). With bitter political rivalries, populist movements, rampant crime, ossified and inneffecual government, and rampant corruption plaguing society along side great leaps in technological progress and innovative business practices and society adjusting to deal with them. Such as the build outs of the American Telegraph and Railroad networks.For instance this was around the time period where the Sears catalog was invented which can be described as this era's version of Amazon which gave rural communities greater access to material wealth than they could previously get via their local general stores. Businesses had to adjust accordingly in order to survive. With the build out of the Telegraph network, a proto-internet culture also began to emerge with a subculture of telegraph operators that would later influence later US radio and Internet culture. It was also a time of great opulence in the elite with many attempting to emulate their European brethren. There was also a great movement of philanthropy and from the elite as they became frustrated with and frequently saw it as their own duty to fix society's problems. Many great public works began to emerge at this time, financed by this class of elites and referred to as the "Gospel of Wealth".It's also the time period history when the US begins to emerge as a proper Great Power. I often refer to it jokingly as Cyberpunk:1877
>>25251449Where do you do most of your research? You've definitely convinced me to take this up as a project, I'll make sure to take a pen and pad when I see my grandfather next to ask him everything he knows since the books he's written only go back to the our family's arrival in the Americas (which is some 400-odd years ago, the man didn't slack in his writing). I've needed something new to actively work on, not just reading for pleasure, so this has got me excited. Thanks anon.
>>25251449I actually haven't gotten that far back but we'll see.
>>25249932What about C.V. Woodward's account?
>>25251515I think i saw an old Sears catalog from that time period in my grandmother's attic years ago. It was amazing how well preserved it was. But yeah thanks for the advice.
>>25251570It’s no problem. I genuinely love this stuff. Typically, I start with records going back as far as I can go, using circumstantial evidence to corroborate which records are the right ones (names, locations, historical background, siblings, relatives, status, etc.). Places with good records like America and Britain go back pretty far. Ancestry and familysearch are good places for finding records and starting points. Sometimes ancestry family trees are okay going back to the late 1800s (don’t ever rely on it for anything else). Scotland has a really good site called scotlandspeople that I use to pay for scans of records (baptisms, burials, etc.). I don’t know if England has something similar. I think England’s records are more accessible on other sites.Once I run into a wall with my own record-research, I start looking at secondary sources. Chances are if you hit on anyone even remotely interesting in the 1700s, then there are people who have reliably traced them further back. I cross reference what I have with places like wikitree. Wikitree is a really good site where some profiles are carefully moderated by groups. It’s not willy nilly like ancestry or geni or whatever. It’s actually helped me identify frauds or mistakes I feel for early on (and I eliminated huge swathes of fake genealogy from my tree). The sources are readily available and viewable (usually relying on the work of professionals genealogists and academics) and it’s free to browse. The research notes are typically good and upfront about critical issues. This has helped make the jump and connection to noble lines, after reviewing the sources (or even eliminate the possibility). There are a lot of colonial American profiles, many of which note genealogical claims that are unsupported or spurious. Secondary sources at this point include genealogies like Burke’s Peerage, academic articles, and for England things like visitations. There are other sites too. For Scotland, I found patrickspeople and clanmacfarlanegeneaolgy to be useful. Even the odd geni or family search profile has been helpful. But it all depends on the sources they cite, if any. Don’t rely on anything that doesn’t have a source cited.
Well read anons, what would you say is the most interesting period in history?
>>25237211I'm curious about that book, I'm going to add it to my list.For me, mostly just 20th century, especially the 30s-50s. WWII is so insanely fascinating that I've just been churning through books about it when I'm not reading fiction. Next up is Tower of Skulls by Richard B Frank, about Japan's war in China in the 30s.
>>25251789This chart is giving me an aneurysm. Who the hell made these categories?
>>25251789It has got to be 20th Century hands down. Just look at the development of aircraft alone. In the beginning of the century it was rickety canvas aircraft, to early fighter aircraft in WW1 using hand guns to fire from aircraft & dropping explosives by hand. Then to WW2 with Fighter dog fighting over Europe, MENA & Asia & the advent of the Jet engine & propulsion. Then to aircraft that could break the sound barrier & aircraft the size of houses.From Technology, Cultural & Historic changes was so massive & crazy, that it makes the 21st century seem tame. Especially considering we are already a quarter of the way through this century. Like imagine telling a British Politician in 1900 that by 1970, the vast majority of the empire would be gone. Or that there were weapons capable of destroying entire cities in an instant.
Any recommendations for a general overview of the vikings?
>>25251789>1493>not 1491Incomplete list
>>25251449Well I have other projects I'm attending to at moment but ill keep that in mind.
>>25251946They should have two separate categories divided between baroque/renaissance and enlightenment eras.
>>25241740Whats your opinion on Fehrenbach?
>>25252212The Age of the Vikings
>>25251718Thanks anon, I've copied your post into a document I've started on researching this stuff. I was going through the books my grandfather wrote on our family history and found that one edition had a loose page in the front that traced our family tree back to Henry IV (and back up to King John but that's a given). It was just a list of names in order but a quick search shows that it's pretty accurate, though he did accidentally elide a father and son with the same name. I suppose it'd be fun to try and write a history of that line up to the point it reaches the Americas and my grandfather's history starts up, but it feels a little silly to write mini family biographies of some of the most documented men of the middle ages. Maybe just focusing on the line from Henry IV's kids down?
>>25237008Michael Hickey
>>25252008I appreciate it anon. The only issue (at least with me) is just how incomprehensible some of the technology is. It's beautiful but terrifying.
>>25252409Funny you post that I own that already
>>25252409Pls no... I've already read four or five books about this conflict..
>>25252525Holy shit checked
>>25252330Whatever you create is ultimately up to you. My focus would be on proving the link generation by generation from yourself to Henry IV. I’d include as much biographical detail and source references as necessary to do that with specific info on the key people in chain. It also depends also on how much detail your grandfather went into.If it’s any inspiration, my own work is meant to be comprehensive and to include every ancestor I have in my tree plus relevant biographical details. One volume is solely for gateway ancestors and their lines, a lot of historical figures. I usually include a paragraph or two summarizing the lives of really important people and then a sentence or two for obscure people without much info. I put more effort into more recent people that aren’t well known.
>>25252651>My focus would be on proving the link generation by generation from yourself to Henry IV. I’d include as much biographical detail and source references as necessary to do that with specific info on the key people in chain. It also depends also on how much detail your grandfather went into.I think I'd probably try and trace/prove (or disprove, it that ends up being the case) that lineage with about the same detail my grandfather did, which was a short biography (a few paragraphs to a few pages) on each person, usually somewhat humorous with additional notes about interesting things and details he'd discovered that didn't fit well into a narrative of their life, like oddities of puritan naming conventions and whatnot. He's a rather discursive writer, but I enjoy that and would try and maintain it.I'm also thinking of doing some interviews with my mother's side before it's too late, since they're european dirt farmers who have no written records of much of anything. I'd like to get as much of that down while I can.>If it’s any inspiration, my own work is meant to be comprehensive and to include every ancestor I have in my tree plus relevant biographical details.How are you defining your tree? The amount of ancestors in a tree increases exponentially each generation you go back. Or is this a project where there isn't a specific endgoal other than just filling out what you can no matter how dense it gets? I can see how that could be fun.
>>25251789Lol, I made this at my attempt to make something but realized it was shit lmao. Because I was very into WWI at the time, I decided to make a new one focused on it right after gathering recs from /his/ and askhistorians on reddit. I'm this anon btw >>25239350
>>25251789I would highly suggest reading Restall's books as I mention in >>25237421 over Conquistador by Levy. Like almost all books on the Spanish conquest it a fair bit wrong about Mesoamerican societies and the Cortes expedition>>25252291Never heard of him, my interest in history is really specific to Mesoamerica.
>>25251515so far I'm noticing that there's a lot of Freemason Lodges in the first chapter or so coming together to mourn Abraham Lincoln's death. There's also a sort of "ideal" American being forged out of his assassination, which is a man of humble Midwest origins working his way to the top. the prose is alright for a standard bearer Oxford history but I have to read more.
>>25251639Seconding this, this is the book on it I've heard the most about
>>25252696I've been looking for more books on the US Gilded Age. I've currently got "Major Problems in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era" which isn't really /his/lit/ but more just /his/. Still, it's full of primary sources so you can read straight from the horse's mouth.
>>25252829sounds good!
>>25234546I don't read books written or co-authored by jews as a general rule, but that goes double for history books. Perhaps you could have read Westad or Lüthi instead? The only real history after WW2 is global history.>>2523721119th century and classical antiquity, probably.>>25238703I heard it's very heavy-handed with superimposing the HRE with the EU as a way to legitimize the latter, but you're hardly spoiled for choice when it comes to English literature on the HRE, so it's as good as it gets for the moment unless you can speak German.
>>25252852>superimposing the HRE with the EU as a way to legitimize the latterWhy are academics like this? The two are hardly comparable considering the degrees of centralization versus decentralization.
>>25252953It's just Wilson's MO. I heard his book about the thirty years war also has quite a bit of "aren't you, dear reader, glad that in our enlightened and globalized liberal age, we can solve these kinds of conflicts without bloodshed because we have the UN and the EU?" rhetoric.Also look at this quote from Goodreads.>Though they are now largely silent, the voices from the seventeenth century still speak to us from the innumerable texts and images we are fortunate to possess. They offer a warning of the dangers of entrusting power to those who feel summoned by God to war, or feel that their sense of justice and order is the only one valid.
>>25252974On one hand, that seems reasonable. But on the other hand, how is he so sure that modern secular ideology can't produce greater bloodshed? I'm almost certain more people died in the two world wars than in the 17th century but I could be wrong. He seems hopelessly optimistic.
>>25252852>superimposing the HRE with the EU as a way to legitimize the latterI do not think this is an accurate characterization of the book. Wilson is much more interested in pushing against viewing the HRE through the lens of either the Westphalian state or modern nation-states. He only really discusses the EU in the last five pages of the final chapter about the impact of the HRE after its dissolution, and I wouldn't call what he says there pro-EU apologetics.
>>25252684Would you recommend Guns of August? I've heard it's quite anti-German biased.Also, do you have any recommendations on the Balkan Wars?
>>25251789Late Antiquity, the Hellenistic Period, 9-11th centuries. Bronze age stuff is also pretty kino.I hate modern history with a passion because it's fucking BORING
>>25253202I'm almost the direct inverse of that, except for WWII because its anachronistic at this point. I do want to read more on ancient Greece and Rome thoughbeit. I just have to get in that mindset.
>>25253183do you expect jewish people to ever be anything other than intellectually dishonest when talking about Germans? I mean come on now. I'm sure she's a fine historian otherwise, I would just take her views on them with a grain of salt.
>>25253209Jews are always intellectually dishonest regardless of the topic. It's just more apparent with topics that are more politically and emotionally charged. But it was always there, even when you couldn't catch the subtext between their lines.
>>25253209>>25253215Didn't want to go there but yeah, blaming solely or mainly Germany for the War would be reductionist at best.Some amount of bias is inevitable, but I need a nuanced view if I'm to read a single book on the topic (road to July, and the crisis itself).
>>25251789Classical Greece 'till the Punic Wars is the most KINO age in history
>>25253274What about after that? It just magically got boring?
>>25252683That sounds like a good way to do it. And getting around to asking people about things before they die is important. It can be a good starting point, but don’t trust anything until you prove it with corroborating documents. Too many people like to say they’re Irish or native when they’re not.>How are you defining your tree?I have an electronic, online tree with over 25k people named. This tree is combined with my wife’s family, whose ancestry I traced in the same way, so it’s double the amount I guess. My initial goal was to take all of this info and research and put it into a written form that doesn’t rely on a third-party website to stay online to access. Because it’s so much, I’ve split it into two types of books. The first type is for recent ancestors and lines that usually stop in the 1700s or 1600s. This one involves less people and has a lot more narrative. It’s what my kids and family members will actually care about reading, if ever. The next type is for the gateway ancestors that spiral out into thousands and thousands of people going back to ancient times. This type is much more dense and more like a reference. It also deals with laying out the available evidence for someone being a gateway ancestors. Overall, it’s a huge undertaking, and it’ll probably take 3 or 4 volumes to do, but I just love doing it. I’ve mostly worked on the latter type, and the word doc for the first volume has over 350k words. It’s not even close to being done either. I know this is incredibly autistic and probably too much, but yeah.
>>25253418>It can be a good starting point, but don’t trust anything until you prove it with corroborating documents. Too many people like to say they’re Irish or native when they’re not.I'll try and find what corroboration I can, but sadly I doubt I'll be able to find much. My family on that side is from just a few towns in eastern europe who went through the classic "lived in 4 countries without leaving home" ordeal that was common over there in the 20th century. I've heard a fair amount about how hellish it was getting even your own birth certificate (if you were lucky enough to have one) after even one regime change. Finding any records on someone who's been dead more than 20 years is rather hopeless. Not to mention the communists made people change their names. Typing this out, I realize my best bet is that the local churches kept marriage records, and that those weren't burned or otherwise destroyed when the town was sieged in the 90s.>I’ve mostly worked on the latter type, and the word doc for the first volume has over 350k words. It’s not even close to being done either. I know this is incredibly autistic and probably too much, but yeah.I'm seriously impressed, that's an immense undertaking. Any interesting stories you've uncovered in those pages? Also, what online tree website are you using?
>>25253183It's okay, I recommend Clark's The Sleepwalkers but also George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter. Clark goes into detail of the preceeding events prior to the assassination but also goes into the urgent drama that happens later in the month in the week prior to the German invasion of Belgium. Carter goes over more of the monarch families' relationships but goes over the Kaiser's autism that threatened Britain's "balance of power". Just like The Sleepwalkers, I really enjoyed the events of the week prior to the invasion as you see how frantic it all got within the leadership.
>>25252684here is a revised chart with more book recs from /his/. It's too large to share.https://imgur.com/a/Hdv72jF
>>25253322No, it has its moment it's not just as good as that peculiar periodBut probably it's just because I just love classical age
>>25235595Any other good books on the Mongols?
>>25253543I have a little bit of experience researching eastern Europe, but records were spotty. Some were available on familysearch, but it was really spotty and uncertain. I think the only way to make real progress is to hire someone over there to look through church records in person, but I’ve never done this.>Any interesting stories you've uncovered in those pages?There are enough interesting stories to fill a couple books lol. Idk even where to begin. All of what I have currently is just for one line dealing with the 5th or 6th son of a recently landed doctor (bought some property in Fife), who married a younger daughter of the Gourlay family, a family of generally low level lairds. This section is the longest and lays out most of the genealogy of major figures. When another section is also descended from the same people, it’ll refer back to this section so that I’m not restating the entire genealogy of Edward III. So, it’s mostly foundational stuff that anyone would know right now. The more interesting stuff I think is earlier, but this line doesn’t have any really interesting anecdotes early on.>Also, what online tree website are you using?I use ancestry. I’m used to the format, and I used the available records there when I first started doing this stuff.
>>25253202How come you find modern boring? I am the opposite to your stance
>>25253733Check out any of the works by John Man
>>25253552I own Sleepwalkers. thanks for giving me another reason to pick it up soon
>>25237421>>25241740>>25252688Actually, fuck it, I may as well ask this here.Me and my friends are trying to get our hands on this book about the Aztec Codex Mendoza which was published in the 1930s and is only in a few select university and public libraries according to worldcatAny anons here near any of these and could access the book and check some pages for us? If so, let me know and email me at saintseiyasource@gmail.comTo be clear we need this specific book, not the Codex Mendoza itself, scans of the codex are readily available online, this book's annotations and commentary of it are not.
>>25253552Thanks mate, I got the Sleepwalkers and will check it out. There's some great recommendations itt, keep it going, frens.
Currently reading the Oxford History of Anglo-Saxon England. Not too far in (nearing 100 pages) but it's quite interesting to see how many little Anglo-Saxon groups there were that are barely recorded (Hwicce, Middle-Anglia) because England had failed to keep its inherited Roman heritage.I'm thinking I might read 'SA Cleans Up!' soon.
>>25234505Do any world histories of the 1980s or even just American or British 80s history exist yet or is it too soon?
Anything interesting about Japan colonial adventures in Korea and China before WW2? Everything that I find about post modernization of japan is either about the Meji restoration or straight into WW2
>>25255806Would a book about... The Great Game in Korea interest you?
>>25255806Human Bullets is a firsthand account by a Japanese soldier fighting in the Russo-Japanese War, I'm also going to recommend The Other Great Game. I'll also recommend A Dragon's Head & A Serpent's Tail which is about the Imjin War but I haven't read it yet, just something that's been on my list for a while.
Fun fact: There is a shrine in Kyoto Japan that is a Imjin War memorial called the "Ear Mound" or the "Nose Mound" where they interred something like around 38,000 Korean and Chinese pickled ears and noses that were taken as trophies during the Imjin War. It's often called "Kyoto's least popular tourist attraction"
>>25255839>>25255847>The Other Great GameThis one looks good, i'll check it out. On the first Sino Japanese War I already read The Imjin War by Hawley and that was pretty goodAnything on Manchuria and Taiwan side?
These threads are always great. Have you (assuming OP is always the same anon who starts the threads, could be wrong) thought about having threads on a specific topic, e.g. ancient greece, biographies, military, etc.? I think that’d be interesting to try (assuming you haven’t yet and I missed it).
>>25255894>Anything on Manchuria and Taiwan side?Hmm, might not be EXACTLY what you're after but Lost Colony by Antonio Andrade is an interesting book about the first time the Chinese ever defeated a Western power by driving the Dutch out of Formosa.
>>25255305https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_JQeAQZHev0ICNot ideal but it might paper over the cracks.
>>25255946Sadly, not helpful here: I already own the Essential Codex Mendoza, and as I said, we're chasing specific citations to the commentary in the specific publication I asked about, so other material on the Mendoza doesn't really help here. I appreciate you trying to assist though
>>25255847>Sheila Miyoshi Jagertf kind of Neon Genesis Evangelion bullshit anime name is this
>>25256038I know right? When I was trying to remember her name I was thinking "this bitch a literal IRL Asuka tier mutt" kek
>>25234505>AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA>DO ANGLOS REALLY ???>BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
>>25252684Thanks for contributing anon. I bought some books based on your chart. Have you read most of these?
Best books about Rhodesia? Baxter's Complete History any good?
>>25256042Kind of unrelated, but I don't think I ever saw a single piece of fanart, much less official art, that tried to make Asuka look the slightest bit asian. I know she's only a quarter japanese, but wouldn't that still be visually evident?
>>25257576Dunno honestly. Maybe?
Anyone got any good book recs on William Marshall? I'm intrigued by The Greatest Knight but torn between that and the biography written right after his death.
>>25257611David Crouch’s William Marshal
>>25257759This is perfect, thank you anon. If only it wasn't so damned expensive. I'll keep an eye out for cheaper copies until I finish my current reads.
>>25256932I own it but haven't read it yet
>>25255913>These threads are always great. Have you (assuming OP is always the same anon who starts the threads, could be wrong) thought about having threads on a specific topic, e.g. ancient greece, biographies, military, etc.?I have started some of these threads in the past and I considered just calling them /Nonfiction/ to be more all-encompassing, but I don't particularly like to read modern memoirs, political or pop psychology books. In in the past I would openly say "post and discussion about any type of history book, primary sources, secondary sources or biographies" or "post your favorite history books and a brief synopsis" and those were usually solid threads. I tried one that was more military history focused and one for biographies/autobiographies but they didn't last as long.I think the best of these threads are the ones that draw people like me who like to find older history books that are well written or just plain interesting to read at used bookstores or maybe online. On a side note, older biographies are underrepresented in these threads and IMO very underrated when it comes to history books.
>>25234505Qrd on picrel? Whats the general consensus?
Anyone got any suggestions for a book on assyrian culture? Or phoenician. Hell, anything with a single king and a pack of minor kings who plot against ezch other instead of the single king with an outside threat would do, but the first two are preferred
>>25260834Their kids would be Dutch Blasians
>>25260830The first time I heard that name i did a double take and thought "why is the former governess of Alaska doing history lectures?"
>>25260809You've read Eckhart Frahm's book right? I'm not too specialized in that area, mind you.
>>25259198Haven't read it, but keep in mind that Pomeranz is a major representative of the revisionist "California school" that argues that Europe was on par or even behind parts of Asia up until the 19th century. And that culture and institutions had nothing to do with the Great Divergence, instead it was all down to colonialism, coal or just luck.
>>25260859What does a bitch with massive tits have to do with this post?
>>25260887Hey fuck off queer. She's hot.
>>25260859Well with that in mind, what are some competing perspectives?
>>25260887nothing, just like massive titssimple as
>>25260911>>25260914Stay on-topic next time. I won't warn you a second time.
>>25260913Joel Mokyr's cultural explanation and his book A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy, Daron Acemoğlu's institutional explanation in his Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.Or if you want a short general summary of the debate for a layperson: How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth, or a more in-depth academic book: Escaping Poverty: The Origins of Modern Economic Growth
>>25260916Wow edgy
>>25260921Thanks. Is A Farewell To Alms by Gregory Clark good too?
>Edgy What's it like being permanently stuck in 2010?
>>25260916Jeepers creepers, we'll be on our guard for sure now Mister
>>25260937Haven't read it. But Deirdre McCloskey is a highly respected scholar in the field. She says:>"the main failure of his hypothesis is, oddly, that a book filled with ingenious calculations [...] does not calculate enough. It doesn't ask or answer the crucial historical questions." She concluded: "[...] Clark's socio-neoDarwinianism, which he appears to have acquired from a recent article by some economic theorists, has as little to recommend it as history."So, dunno.>>25260916=)
>>25260938Craaaawling in my skiiiiin>>25260942She's libertarian i see. I thought libertarians (at least the American variety) were somewhat sympathetic to that view?
>>25260969Guess she's not. She's also trans. Not that it matters imo.
>>25260971>transThat explains a lot as to why
>>25256669no, it's way too much, plus I got other hobbies as well. I also have other interests in other historical periods away from WWI. Like right now I'm reading the Battle for Spain by Beevor about the Spanish Civil War, and have finished John Adams by McCullough like 2 weeks ago.
>>25260848I haven't. I am casting about in the dark.
What are some good sources for understanding the basics of historical battle tactics? I read a lot of history books and historical texts, but if I'm honest the military side of things has never interested me as much as the politics, art, and culture. I'd like to change that so at the very least there isn't such a gaping hole in my knowledge when I'm reading and major battles are mentioned. Does anyone have any good sources (ideally books) that can give me a somewhat comprehensive overview of what battle tactics were considered good, bad, and why? Ideally medieval but anything pre-industrial revolution is good.
>>25260809You might like the Mesoamerican political dynamics and scheming involved in the two Restall books I mention in >>25237421, though "When Montezuma..." absolutely focuses more on Cortes and Moctezuma II's interactions and "7 Myths..." more on misconceptions around Spanish colonialism in general more then either focuses on the fueding between Moctezuma II, Xicomecoatl, Xicontencatl II, Ixtlilxochitl II etc, so those bits with kings plotting against each other are kinda scattered between/across much larger stretches of other content
>>25262055B. H. Liddell Hart and John Keegan are probably the best ones to start with.
>>25262515Give him this one too
>>25260921Anon, I just got A Culture Of Growth thanks to you. Already have Why Nations Fail. But thanks for the rec.
>>25263905
Do you anons have any recs for material on the French revolution for someone who knows very little of anything about it as of now? Maybe a sourcebook?
>>25264055You might like Palmer's "The Twelve Who Ruled" or for classic works look into Hippolyte Taine or for a more microhistorical take: Timothy Tackett - The Glory And The Sorrow.
>>25264050Thanks again.
>>25234505Good legal histories? Can be American, European, Asian, etc
>>25249282This problem is cured by removing internet and gaming access and reading for long periods of time. It heals your ability to concentrate and remember. Also if you have depression or sleep issues that will fuck your memory hardcore.
>>25264050Wanted to ask another question - is Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation worth reading?
>>25265953Haven't read it.Though, personally, I rarely read history books that are that old. The state of the field and our knowledge of the subject matter has changed so much that imo it just doesn't make sense for me to read them. Whatever topic you might have an interest in, someone has probably written a more up to date book.While there are classics that are still worth reading like E. H. Carr's What Is History?(still a must read for history students) or Keith Thomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic come to mind. But for the most part its best to find something written in the last couple of decades.
>>25266177I mostly agree, but depending on the field, the current foundational text might be at least a few decades old. I find this is the case for anything that is not particularly well-covered in the English-speaking world. Even for a well-trodden time period like Late Republican Rome, I feel you would still get a lot of mileage from reading something like The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme, written in 1939.On a related note, I feel that the aesthetic quality of history writing has declined with time. Yeah, a lot of past work was not good scholarship, but historians knew how to write good prose. I find that history written around the middle of the 20th century is a happy medium - around the time where there's some re-thinking of the field and some more discipline and rigor applied to the scholarship, but the writers of the time were still in touch with the tradition of writing history "in the grand manner".
>>25265020From my TBR list>Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition by Harold Berman
>>25266460>On a related note, I feel that the aesthetic quality of history writing has declined with time.See, I'm not autistic, but i actually prefer the "encyclopedic" style of writing that's dominant today. Though I understand why people don't like it. Historians/writers that go for a more aesthetic/free form style tend to be less focused, less data driven and sometimes just less clear in their claims. The way I see it, when I want aesthetics, I read prose/listen to music/watch movies, but when I read history/sociology/psychology or similar I really just want the facts. And I want them neatly organized and with as much clarity as possible. Prose only needs to be be good enough to convey the message.
Test
>>25265020
>>25262515>>25263887Thanks a bunch anons, these are just what I was looking for.
Struggling to remember certain events that occured prior in the book mentioned. Especially location names.
>>25267051this looked slammin until i saw it's like 250 pages. got anything that's more of an epic slog for autists like the corporation in the 20th century by langlois does for business?
Any good books on intra ethnic/religious conflicts? It can be anywhere. From India with its Muslim & Hindu populations rioting
>>25267591>it's like 250 pages. got anything that's more of an epic slogApparently that was a shorter version of a longer work he wrote, here's that book and two more that I found:>A History of American Law by Lawrence M. Friedman>A Concise History of the Common Law by Theodore Plucknett>The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World by Fernanda Pirie
>>25267666Dancing in the Glory of Monsters by Jason Stearns and Congo by David van Reybrouck deal with the Congo War and bt extension the Tutsi/Hutu conflict and genocide.
>>25238128Theres a lot of spics on /pol/
>>25267051I have that.>>25267675Thanks
>>25234505Any reccomendations for the industrial revolution?
>>25234505Anyone got any good histories of the Jehovahs Witnesses? I got American Zion for the Mormons.
>>25268615A Farewell To Alms by Gregory Clark is probably your best bet if you want something empirical and data heavy, The Making Of The English Working Class by E.P. Thompson if Marxism doesn't bother you. Gavin Weightman's The Industrial Revolutionaries for pop history.
>>25251789>King Leopold's GhostAre you shitting me
>>252522721493 is superior>>25262055pic related
>>25265020the medieval origins of the legal profession by James Brundage is very interesting.
>>25270114Thanks. I appreciate it.
>>25268671Thank you. Do you recommend any books that are more region or period specific? And while I'm here, I recently downloaded "the King of Sunlight", a biography of one William Lever by a journalist written in a fairly 'pop' tone (at least from the introduction). Are you familiar with it?
>>25255710Update on this:The chapters about the conversion to Christianity are intensely dull and turning me off continuing. I know I must, but I'm struggling to force myself.
>>25234505Anyone read those? Is the characterisation nuanced, or does he only praise Johnson?I liked the Powerbroker a lot, and really enjoy Caro's super detailed style, but also don't want to read a 4-book PR job. /his/tards couldn't answer me, probably because noone there has read the books.
>>25270364I don't think so, how is it?
>>25270364oh I didn't notice your other question, anyways, lemme look.there's Economic And Social History Of Medieval Europe by Henri Pirenne (I've read him before, he's really good)Charles R. Morris' stuff is good toonone of these are particularly about the industrial revolution but are either data-heavy empirical histories of finance and economy, or in Pirenne's case "longue duree" style histories of how society and economy interact. I'm sure you've read Weber before I'm guessing? he often links economic "mode of production" to religious culture.
>>25268000So?Just because they are hispanic doesn't mean they'd be into Mesoamerican history
>>25270977That reminds me i should ask if anyone has read Meacham's book on Jefferson. Has anyone here?
>>25271126I haven't but will add it to my list, looks like exactly my type of political biography
A Monarchy Transformed: Britain, 1603-1714 by Mark A. Kishlansky>Traces the political, social, and economic history of Great Britain during the Stuart dynasty, from the accession of James I to the death of Queen Anne.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/169907.A_Monarchy_Transformed
>>25268661Apocalypse Delayed
>>25271423Too pricey. Guess I gotta hit up Anna>>25271325Thanks for the rec. I will look this up>>25267675Holy crap, that Plucknett book (just bought it along with the Fernanda Pirie) is super friggin technical. I'm gonna be using Wikipedia a lot for some of those legal definitions. I have no idea what I just got myself into.
Any recommendations for books on mythology and folklore? I have old translated copies of the Arthurian Romances, Njals Saga, etc. and am looking for a lot more. Any time period, any culture/region although I my preferences and areas of focus consist of Europe and East Asia
>>25271626Do you prefer philological histories or source texts is the question? I have more of the former than the latter, most of the latter I have is epic poems
>>25271634I enjoy readying and studying it all
>>25271634Not the Anon but give us the epic poems, old french or english only if primary source. Reading Mélusine lately I have The Faerie Queene from Spenser on my list too. All that you have for us would be good we can pick what we need.
>>25270977Gonna be brutally honest 4 thick ass books about a dude that only got to be president because of Kennedy got his head popped. Like 90% of this has got to be fucking filler or a chapter on every single time he went into senate
anyone read any memoirs of soldiers that ended up being a POW in Siberia?
>>25271626
>>25271679Epic Poems:Song Of RolandRobert The BruceFerdowsiAenid Of VirgilEnuma ElishFor secondary lit, read Ronald Hutton or Claude Lecouteux
>>25271839Vietnam and Civil rights are very extensive topics.
>>25271626Check out the Kalevala, it's a lot of fun and Tolkien pulled quite heavily from it in parts (which I presume will interest you given the pic you posted). The Tain and the Mabinogion are also pretty cool from what I've read, but I've been doing supplemental readings on them and haven't read the full texts yet.
Anyone read Sumption? This is the closest I could find to the English version Nipperdey, but with less social/intellectual history and more raw facts on campaigning and heart taxes. Would recommend if you're an EU45ist
>>25272018Yeah, I'm in the middle of his first volume and it's incredibly dense, almost like Wilson's books. It's challenging to power through it, but it's pretty good. I saw Volume 5 came out but have not bought it yet, but I have Volumes 1-4.
>>25271882Is this geared more towards kids? Also how detailed or in depth does it go? >>25271987Exactly what I'm into, I've been meaning to check out the Kalevala so I'll probably start there but order everything
>>25271923Yeah but 4 books & one of them is focused apparently on his time in the senate alone. Unless its minute by minute recordings of every senate meeting. There is no way that shit needs to be that long
>>25270977my cousin read these and really enjoyed them
>>25271626You should really read Ovid's Metamorphosis if you haven't, he very eruditely took the corpus of greek mythology and put it all into a single coherent and deeply moving narrative.
>>25271843You should check out "The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz it's about a Polish army Lieutenant who gets sent to a gulag after the Soviets occupy Poland. He escapes with a few other prisoners and they walk to British India through the gobi desert and Himalayan mountains, linking up with the British army, joining the RAF and flying in the last months of the war. It turns out all the stuff about his escape is completely made up, and in fact he was released with the mass release of Polish prisoners after the Germans invaded, and he went to Iraq where he defected to the British and joined the RAF. The stuff about his arrest by the NKVD, torture, confession after being drugged, and experience in a Siberian gulag, which make up the first 1/3 of the book are considered to be accurate though. The rest is a gripping story of survival, even if it turned out to be a tall tale.
>>25272035Highly recommend getting from thriftbooks if you like physical copies. I went down a similar rabbithole to yourself a few months ago and this stack was 60 bucks total, great condition on everything.>>25272125I've pigheadedly locked the Metamorphoses behind reading it in latin since I *can* read it in that language, but it ends up being a mix of studying latin and reading at the same time. One day I will conquer it.
>>25272140Thanks I will! Very interesting topic in history thats often never discussed. I'd rather read that than one of the billion books about Normandy or Stalingrad. Especially from the minor nations & Italian PoWs of the Soviets.
I think I might have to get a diary to write my thoughts about what I have read in my current book. I got half way through picrel & I am really struggling, I think the mixture of personal anecdotes & multiple chapters for only a day or two of actual combat just killed any steam I had for it. I am almost half way through the book & i'm still only of D-Day 2 of the Salerno landings. I have a short book that I am really interested in with German PoWs in Wales during the first world war. So maybe I'll read that & circle back round to try & finish it. Apologies for the rambling & ranting.
>>25272263Here is the book on PoWs in Wales for anyone interested
>>25272263Also I'd like to gauge opinion on ranting about current books you guys are reading? I don't want to bloat this thread/general but if it keeps bumps up to avoid the thread dying.
>>25272275sure. I'm almost done with picrel. I really liked it, anyone read this or other 'oral histories'? It does feel like a conversation, or like those youtube vids where they interview a homeless dude, but less retarded. I wonder if the author is looking for misery porn or if thing weren't really that dire back then. I was particularly impacted by the story of Gleb, as told by his widow. Peculiar man, sent to the work camps as a teenager, comes back a decade later to his same work, along his coworker he suspects denounced him. Riddled with health issues and gets cancer. But despite all that he seem to have this whimsy about him.>“He made eggs. “I have a strange relationship with eggs. I buy ten in one go, fry two at a time, but for some reason, there’s always one left over.” He’d say sweet little things like that.”After all he went through, he has a shit life like most of the people in the book and yet>“His one request: “Write that I was a happy man on my tombstone. That I was loved. The most terrible torment is not being loved.”There's others interesting ones, grampa self immolating, couple can't get over son's suicide, various men doing gulag for false accusations and venerating Stalin nonetheless, getting scammed out of your house by gangs in neoRussia, etc.I also really like the part about the ex-marshall of the soviet union, Sergey Akhromeyev, and his ill fated '91 coup. As it was clear that putsh had failed he hung himself.>“Why had I come to Moscow on my own initiative—no one had summoned me from Sochi—and begun working with the Committee? I was, after all, certain that this venture would be defeated and, upon my arrival in Moscow, felt even more sure of this. Since 1990, I had been convinced, just as I am convinced today, that our country is headed toward ruin. Soon, it will be dismembered. I was searching for a way to loudly declare this.[...]Though it may sound unconvincing and naïve, this is the case. There were no ulterior motives for my decision…” -- letter to Gorby
>>25272275also to answer to the meta question, I like people blogging about the book their reading. There's probably 100 recommendations in every thread of these, even if I wanted to I could never read all the books. Or there's subjects or periods I don't care enough to read about. But I love reading some anon's thoughts or the connections to other stuff they are thinking about. This is the only place on the internet for that. I have visited /his/ a couple times and it reads like /pol/ except every single thread is about haplogroups
>>25272046I've read his other book and he is incredibly detailed but in a different way. For example, the Powerbroker contains within itself another biography, that of Al Smith, just to provide context to what is essentially the platform which launched Moses into power. And it is probably the best biography of Smith written to day.Caro is incredibly meticulous in his research, I haven't seen anyone come even close. Granted, this is the reason why the fifth LBJ book is still unfinished
Thoughts on Richard Hofstadter? Dude seems to just run PR for FDR.
>>25272018I have. It was good. Enjoyable. Literally read all five volumes and don't have much to say.
>>25255710>Oxford History of Anglo-Saxon EnglandThis edition?
Anyone have any good sources on easing into Early Modern English or Middle English? Something like LLPSI that can help you understand all the different vocab, I'm trying to read the Faerie Queene and I'm sick of checking the gloss every 4 lines.
Odd question, any books out there about the history of SCUBA?
>>25274211Scuba America possibly?
Was looking for an easy overview of China's entire history and I found this. The most recent edition is from 2022. Hope it's good.
>>25275414Good book, read the epilogues first. Also get "chinese history a sourcebook" to supplement it with primary sources
>>25234505On the subject of historiography, what reactions did German historism provoke after ww2? I could probably look up the answer but is there any texts which document this change? Big question, I know.
>>252382201177 BC by Eric Cline might not be what you're looking for but maybe someone else can assist you.
>>25275671Also possibly looking for longue durée style history about bronze age and pre-bronze age history.
>>25234505Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years by Israel ShahakGore Vidal called Israel Shahak "the latest, if not the last, of the great prophets" and Edward Said called Shahak "a very brave man who should be honored for his services to humanity" who he credits with doing more to dissipate the "ideological smoke screen" of Zionism than any other single individual.I think Shahak's book is essential reading along with Walt/Mearsheimer's The Israel Lobby and Norm Finkelstein's The Holocaust Industry for understanding the contemporary world.
>>25275695>ongue durée style historywhat does this mean
>>25271626I'm >>25237421As I said in >>25241740, I read academic papers more then I do full books, but the best (or least bad) book I know of which acts as an overview on Mesoamerican myths, religion, and theology is "The Flayed God" by Markman and MarkmanIt's seriously dated in some respects like what it says about the Toltec (who are now considered to be largely mythical rather then a real civilization, and even if Aztec/Nahua accounts of Toltecs are based on some real history/if the site of Tula really was the Toltec Tollan, it almost certainly didn't rule over a large empire that conquered or colonized the Yucatan Peninsula), and in it ignoring West Mexico, and some researchers would dispute some of how it characterizes Aztec and some other Mesoamerican religions in terms of gods being more actions or preformances rather then animate entities in their own right and how it describes there being a cosmic energy force that ties into that (see: https://desuarchive.org/his/thread/18200225/#18209318)......but it does include translations of a few major myths, analyzes a variety of religious iconography and motifs, touches on a lot of the thematic and conceptual through-lines both within and across the religions of different Mesoamerican civilizations, so it does cover a lot of bases and material.
>>25277322>>25271626>I read academic papers more then I do full books, but ..As in/the implication being, there may be better suggestions I'm unaware of, but...
>>25264101Very late but 'The Twelve Who Ruled' was exactly what I was looking for, thanks.
>>25277225https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longue_dur%C3%A9e?wprov=sfla1
>>25277332You're welcome
Was currently the best book about the Druids? One with the latest and best research?
>>25277395I think Ronald Hutton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWXZAHHxdEErare good booktok vid, goes over Sleepwalkers and Guns of August, their differences, etc
>>25273110>PR for FDRGood way of putting it, he's with Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in terms of mid-century American liberalism. (Schlesinger was still running defense for Camelot 35 years after JFK died https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FVf2sfG-y4)His work on the Populists is really bad, due to his obsession with reading McCarthyism and conspiracism into political movements he doesn't like. Yes some populists said mean things about bankers, but that doesn't make their movement antisemitic.Elizabeth Sander's Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 1877-1917 is a much better treatment of the populists, main thesis is that farmers and their allies wanted to get the government to intervene to protect their way of life from economic change, partially through rural infrastructure (so that people wouldn't move away from rural areas for the cities) and research (to make crops more efficient and economic). Also relevant for >>25247493 and >>25251515
>>25278092Ill look into thanks, but its only available on physical formats. If need be ill pirate it off annas if I really am so inclined to read it. What else can you recommend?
>>25277565Thanks to you too, ive always wanted to read Sleepwalkers.
>>25278113For populists/agarianism the other book I'd recommend is Harvest of Dissent by Thomas Summerhill, less about the populists in particular than 19th century upstate New York rural unrest/agrarianism in general. Had a fun chapter early on about Barn Burners vs Calicos (two political factions), the Free Soiler Party, and how upstate farms would send agents into NYC to pick up fresh immigrants as laborers. For 19th century US general other people in this thread have recommended The Republic for Which It Stands, and for that I'd just add some caveats. As a historian White focuses on labor and the American West, and his book on railroads (Railroaded, about how the industry was more about stock manipulation and government land grants and subsidies than actual railroads) makes it clear that he doesn't much care for the era or its major figures. That's not a problem in itself, but when writing a general history (as the Oxford series is) it leads to problems in selection bias. The book focuses on labor issues and strikes for the most part, which was a huge issue at the time but far from the only one. He leaves out basically all cultural developments - baseball, libraries, popular music, the late Victorian novel. And unlike other volumes I've read (Foner's one on the Civil War, Gordon S. Wood on the Early Republic, Daniel Walker Howe on the Antebellum Era) his distaste for the era's developments is very different from their volumes. You can really tell that Wood absolutely LOVES writing about his period, for example. And they have their biases too - you can tell Howe much prefers the Whigs to the Democrats, mostly based on their more assimilationist attitudes towards Native Americans - but White goes even further than that. So I'd just add that if you're interested in that book.Also I don't remember exactly where it is in the book but there's a realyl funny story about the Supreme Court basically declaring US greenback currency unconstitutional (Hepburn v. Griswold) so Grant had to pack the court with two extra justices and get the ruling reversed.
Looking for some books about the history of the creation of monastic orders in France, Italy, England or Greece (other countries also welcome) Extra point for the architecture of the buldings.
>>25277565nice video, thanks for sharing
>>25238201any impressions so far? I always assumed terminally online leftists love to link whiteness to Judaism, but now I see that's an academically accepted theory.
>>25278227I'm already reading it, actually. White seems to be painting President Johnson as some kind of hapless fool trying to play ball with backwards-as-hell southerners who are salty about having to turn in their outdated farm equipment. I'm only vaguely racist (one of the people I talk to online the most is actually a black guy, but he's kind of an Uncle Tom) but I can tell he's really just going through the motions here. I read reviews of H.W. Brand's take on the period, and I have that book too, but most of the reviewers complain its unfocused and the narrative jerks around like some kid with ADHD and tourettes at the same time. I dunno.>Also I don't remember exactly where it is in the book but there's a realyl funny story about the Supreme Court basically declaring US greenback currency unconstitutional (Hepburn v. Griswold) so Grant had to pack the court with two extra justices and get the ruling reversed.which one of the books are you referring to here? and I've heard Wood is good for Revolutionary America but I have yet to pick up any of his volumes.>And they have their biases too - you can tell Howe much prefers the Whigs to the Democrats, mostly based on their more assimilationist attitudes towards Native Americansthis just sounds like typical Yankee academic bias. I live in the Midwest but like a good portion of Ohioans I have a soft spot for the Rebels.
>>25278329I think you might like the Penguin History Of The Medieval Church, but I haven't read it.
>>25238220Anything by Trevor Bryce. His Warriors of Anatolia is a good intro.>>25272018Dense, but the best series for the hundred years war. I really enjoyed it and was really rewarding to get through.
>>25272018Every British cabinet should have at least one history autist
>>25275695Cyprian Broodbank "Making of the Middle Sea." He states like 5 pages in that he's using Braudel as the foundation of the text. Starts all the way from the ice age and goes to the beginning of the classical world. Very good. Very dense.
>>25278962> Cyprian Broodbank "Making of the Middle Seathanks
>>25278595The book series from Chadwick?
What book provides an authoritative overview of the Portuguese Estado Novo?
>>25279195I think so?>>25279479I would be interested in this. Possibly A James Gregor or Stanley Payne wrote something.Also, does anyone have a history of scientific concepts & controversies similar to these books:The Invention Of Science - David WoottonTruth: A History And Guide For The Perplexed - Felipe-Fernandez ArmestoThe Age Of Wonder - Richard HolmesFashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals And The Abuse Of Science - Alan Sokal & Jean BricmontThe Unpersuadables - Will Storr
Just purchased (second hand): - The Age Of Revolutions (Hobsbawm) - The Age of Capital (Hobsbawm)- The Age of Empires (Hobsbawm)- The Age of Extremes (Hobsbawm)
>>25279737>(((Hobsbawm)))Seriously tho, I have the age of extremes but found it kind of dull. Maybe his 19th century books are better, but personally, I usually find "global", big-picture history to be boring
>>25279737>Marxist historianlol, lmao
What was the title of that history book that delved into how fucked up and degenerate Weimar Germany was? Talked about brothels full of child prostitutes and all sorts of other sick shit going on before the nazis took over.Anybody have any idea what I'm referring to?
>>25234505I want to find a book on the RISE of Imperial Britain, preferably starting in the 18th century but post Napoleonic is OK. Furthermore it must focus on concrete actions and people, not abstract systems The majority of books focus on abstract systems or the peak to decline transition Pls help.
>>25280024I know what you want
>>25279752I'm kind of the opposite but my attention span could use some work. But I also enjoy microhistory too.
>The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean is a comprehensive historical survey authored by David Abulafia, Professor of Mediterranean History at the University of Cambridge, and published in 2011. The book traces human engagement with the Mediterranean Sea from early prehistoric migrations—such as hominid crossings from Africa to Crete around 130,000 BC—through ancient civilizations, medieval trade networks, early modern naval conflicts, and into the modern era, including economic challenges like the Greek debt crisis. Abulafia frames the Mediterranean not as a mere geographical barrier but as a vital conduit for commerce, conquest, cultural diffusion, and societal interactions across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East, emphasizing human agency and specific events over deterministic environmental factors.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12174097-the-great-sea
Rate my haul
>World war slop>Biography slopBranch out nigga
Any history books out there about the "snake oil salesman" of the Wild West?
>>25279823sounds made up
How is it fairing with the current book you guys are reading? I decided to take a break on that book on the Invasion of Italy as that one anon suggested, currently reading that POW of Germans in Northern Wales during WW1. Pretty fun but a fair amount of the pages are snippets from newspaper articles of the time for anyone interested in the book. Here it is for anyone interested >>25272266>>25281011Would pair quite nicely with Picrel
any anons read picrel? I read half of it but I'm not the biggest fan. It doesn't feel focused enough. I mean of course it isn't because it looks at all aspects but like I just read a chapter about south america which could have said just as much in 5 pages. Or maybe global histories are not my thing, I just maybe read wikipedia and then pick focused book on interesting events
Which one on the history of Venice?
Rip to a great thread, had a good run
>>25238880Dividing the Spoils isn't bad.
>>25282888No but I have John Lewis Gaddis' book on the same period.
>>25277470sure looks like a trustworthy man
>>25282944John Julius Norwich
