I want to see what history books you'd all recommend me and anyone else to read. Here are mine - they are all high quality, original and enjoyable works very much worth reading


Secondary works:

Robert Bartlett, The Making of Europe (very, very informative!!!)

Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity (Such a beautiful work; it's the most beautiful piece of non-fiction I've ever read. It won me over to the "World of Late Antiquity" when I read it, and it's been one of my strongest areas of curiosity ever since :) )

Paul Cartledge, Agesilaos and the Crisis of Classical Sparta

Arthur Herman, How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It aka Scottish Enlightenment ;)

Adrian Goldsworthy, Punic Wars

Donald Kagan, On the Origins of War and Preservation of Peace

J.R.S. Philips, The Medieval Expansion of Europe

Arnold Toynbee, Mankind and Mother Earth

SOURCES:

Ammianus Marcellinus
Bernal Diaz, The "Conquest of New Spain"
Herodotus
(Travels of) Sir John of Mandeville - XIII, you should read this if you haven't already ;)
Xenophon's Anabasis and Hellenica

There are three books which have been strongly recommeded to me for general curiosity and interest by some learned men:

Norman Davies, Europe - I thought it would be another generic history of Europe, but apparently it's very original.

Arthiur Conan Doyle, Sir Nigel

Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Travels with a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah


Has anyone read these that can tell me whether or not they're worth buying? ;)

Herman's book is certainly a good read, although I felt he rather overstretched in dredging up Scots in some cases. It would have been a stronger argument, in my mind, to have gone with the clear cut cases and not tried to claim second or third generation immigrants to other countries.

Can't comment on those three, sorry.

Will recommend Niall Ferguson's The Cash Nexus - an history of government economics of the last couple of centuries. Since he's really a historian, not an economist, it doesn't get stuck in details of economic theory.

Tacitus: Germania.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/tacitus1.html

Anything by:
Marc Bloch
Henri Pirenne
Georges Duby

A History of Warfare by John Keegan. Keegan refutes Carl von Clausewitz's famous dictum "War is the continuation of politics by other means" by showing that wars have been (and are) fought for other reasons besides politics.

Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie. A study of Anglo-German relations in the forty years prior to World War I.

Practicing History by Barbara Tuchman. A series of essays on history, histography and historical research by a good historian.

try the "ottoman centuries" by lord kinross--on the rise and fall of the ottoman empire

The diaries of Samuel Pepys.

For me:

The Prince By Machiavelli

It really teaches ya how government worked back when Kings/Queens ruled. It explained why some rulers treated their citizens horribly. :king:

Paul Kennedy:

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.

Most enlightening.

It really teaches ya how government worked back when Kings/Queens ruled. It explained why some rulers treated their citizens horribly.

I thought a lot goverments still are machiavellistic. :hmm:

Most history books are time and location specific. I recommand the following which would give you a different dimension of history:

Salt by Mark Kurlansky - A lot of surprises of how little things like this had such influence on world history.

Nonzero by Robert Wright - The author put history as a kind of mathematical model and claimed that every human development has some kind of benefits to everyone. I disagree with a lot of his points but he did have some good arguements.

Plagues and People by William H. McNeill - Our fear-mongering media would like to get us to believe that some kind of disease, chemical, even nuclear disasters will eventually wipe us all out. Read this book and you will realize that we (mankind) will be okay even it they happen.

Originally posted by Hades
Salt by Mark Kurlansky - A lot of surprises of how little things like this had such influence on world history.

I found that one quite disappointing, in fact. Seemed quite often to fail to put things into perspective - such as the suggestion that the Confederacy should have committed 50,000 troops to defending some salt works somewhere. If the Confederacy had had a spare 50,000 troops lying around somewhere - which the didn't IIRC - then giving them to Lee to use in Virginia/Maryland would surely have been the optimal deployment.

I also found that just as a subject got interesting the book would veer wildly down some other discussion, and I was left with quite a few "so, what happened next....?" questions that never seemed to get answered.

The post industrial revolution part of the book was a bit too long as the author was still try to stretch the importance of salt in that period when it wasn't there (introduction of canned goods). What I appreciated about it was how it related to other history books I read before and after this. For example, before this book, I could not believe the roman soliders were paid in salt, the importance of salt monopoly in Han China (which financed its imperial expension), and the French salt tax (and how it was related to the French Revolution).

A side note: I have also read a book about sugar history. Salt is much better and more entertaining.

I want to read something about the history of taxation, any idea?

Originally posted by Hades
I want to read something about the history of taxation, any idea?

From above:
Will recommend Niall Ferguson's The Cash Nexus - an history of government economics of the last couple of centuries. Since he's really a historian, not an economist, it doesn't get stuck in details of economic theory.

It's really concentrated on the development of the British government from a fiscal aspect from, say, 1700AD onwards. So while not a history of taxation per se it does have a lot of interesting stuff about the way modern government fiscal policies have developed. But since the UK led most governments in fiscal matters it does also show the 'history of modern taxation'.

Don't know of anything that covers the more chaotic nature of medieval and earlier taxes, though.

My latest favourite - Imperial China 900 - 1800 by F. W. Mote, published by Harvard University Press. Very detailed and balanced.

Source for my last couple of Chinese, Manchu and Mongol articles. :cool:

Beware though - 1000 pgs or more, hard-covered. ;)

I'm currently reading "Ancient Engineers" by L. Sprague De Camp - it's an excellent book. Very cleverly written. It's made me laugh out loud several times.

He really doesn't glorify anything, which is a nice touch.

I have a massive "History of the World" book that I haven't read much of, but's it's a very impressive book. Loads of pictures. The only problem is that it's so huge it makes you sore to read it. You have to set it on a desk or table. The thing probably weighs 15 pounds. It only cost $35 dollars too. A real steal.

William L. Shirer for WW2, especially Rise and fall of the Third Reich.

Originally posted by calgacus
Arthur Herman, How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It aka Scottish Enlightenment ;)

You? Biased? nooooo :lol:

Concerning Medieval history: I have found 'Medieval Europe: a short history' by C. Warren Hollister very enjoyable AND of very high quality (a good combination of course!).

"Genghis Khan" by Paul Ratschevnsky ("Chinggis Khan sein leben und wirken" in German)
If you know swedish I recommend "Jarlens sekel" By Dick Harrison

/DK M

Thucidedes` Peloponesian War(However it does not cover the last years of war)

Jules Verne`s The Discovery of the World(Actually I read the Turkish version. If I translate it directly it is something like this)

K.W. Oman`s compiled articles on the medievak warfare. Actually I do not know the English name.

Toynbee`s The Happiest Nations in the World.:p

On the American civil war: 'Battle cry of Freedom' by James M Mcpherson.