Historical Book Recomendation Thread

Sharwood · Mar 18, 2009

Since we seem to be on the topic of books that read like fiction but are good history, Schindler's Ark (now often published as Schindler's List because of the film) by Thomas Keneally is a fantastic book. I recommend it even for people with no interest in the period, and those who are so knowledgeable about it that they won't get much new info from it.

Stolen Rutters · Mar 18, 2009

Stolen Rutters said:
Read 1491, just finished it, liked it.

Just picked up Devil in the White City by Erik Larson to read again... really loved it the first time.

Also, just bought 1776 by David McCollough. I hear it's really good. I'll get to it after the Larson book.

Antilogic said:
I have read several of his books (1776, John Adams, Mornings on Horseback, am about to start Truman). He is an amazing author. It reads like a good novel, but he's also solid on the history.

Thanks. I switched to reading 1776 first. I think I can get John Adams from the library too. I don't think I realized how fascinating the revolutionary period was until a few years ago. I think it was because the first few books I tried to read from the period were horribly boring when I was younger, terrible stuff. (As a result, I didn't try reading anything about that time for decades).

Antilogic · Mar 19, 2009

Stolen Rutters said:
Thanks. I switched to reading 1776 first. I think I can get John Adams from the library too. I don't think I realized how fascinating the revolutionary period was until a few years ago. I think it was because the first few books I tried to read from the period were horribly boring when I was younger, terrible stuff. (As a result, I didn't try reading anything about that time for decades).

I blame American schools in particular. History has never been well-taught, and schoolkids learn nothing but a few half-truths and a fistful of simplistic statements. The richness and complexity is sadly reserved for the collegiate level.

Take the character of George Washington: most people know that false lie about chopping down a cherry tree. Now look at his brilliant mis-information campaign against the British, the occassionally insecure man who wrote about not knowing whether he was up to the task of leading the Continental Army, his quiet ambition--always behaving with a measure of humility and yet being able to position himself for social promotion and later to head the army...all of a sudden, you have a very different guy in the frame. Still admirable, but really different.

JonathanStrange · Mar 30, 2009

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language:
How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
David W. Anthony (currently reading...)

BananaLee · Mar 30, 2009

Antilogic said:
I blame American schools in particular. History has never been well-taught, and schoolkids learn nothing but a few half-truths and a fistful of simplistic statements. The richness and complexity is sadly reserved for the collegiate level.

That's high-school history anywhere in the world, mate.
History in high school is more about memorising dates and dead people than critical thinking.

Masada · Mar 30, 2009

BananaLee said:
History in high school is more about memorising dates and dead people than critical thinking.

Or its about plenty of critical thinking without any grounding in reality (one lass back in the day wrote an essay that placed Hitler as a dominant figure in WW1, she got good marks for that 'imaginative reinventing' or some such).

BananaLee · Mar 30, 2009

Well, it is Australia where people aren't well known for their intelligence

Dachs · Mar 30, 2009

BananaLee said:
Well, it is Australia where people aren't well known for their intelligence

Fair enough but he makes a reasonable point. Sometimes people are encouraged to draw conclusions and analyze situations, but from ridiculously poor information.

1889 · Apr 3, 2009

Whoop whoop for Weinberg's A World At Arms. Best WWII history ever. He does such a good job of laying out the strategic reasoning as each side saw it at the time they made their decisions that I almost forget that I already know the ending.

JonathanStrange · Apr 3, 2009

The Mountain People by C. Turnbull -- not history per se, more an anthropological work on the Ik, a small African tribe living in northern Uganda during the 1960s whose society appeared to collapse from prolonged starvation leaving traces of traditional communal tribal customs alongside seeming callous indifference to others' survival.

vogtmurr · Apr 4, 2009

JonathanStrange said:
The Mountain People by C. Turnbull -- not history per se, more an anthropological work on the Ik, a small African tribe living in northern Uganda during the 1960s whose society appeared to collapse from prolonged starvation leaving traces of traditional communal tribal customs alongside seeming callous indifference to others' survival.

yech, eek, ik. That sounds like a pretty harrowing read. Any Cannibalism ?

Masada · Apr 4, 2009

vogtmurr said:
Any Cannibalism ?

Your saying that like its a bad thing, darn euro-centrists! :mischief:

Sharwood · Apr 4, 2009

Masada said:
Your saying that like its a bad thing, darn euro-centrists!

Cannibalism needs to make a comeback. Everyone's complaining about how our current lifestyle is unsustainable, we'd need less cattle and other livestock if we were eating people.

Yes, I do mean that.

Huayna Capac357 · Apr 4, 2009

EDIT from 2012: I don't even know what I was going for here

Azale · Apr 4, 2009

Books people, books. That's what this here thread is for.

Sharwood · Apr 4, 2009

Azale said:
Books people, books. That's what this here thread is for.

And Stranger in a Strange Land clearly encourages exactly the sort of historical precedent that Huayna Capac357 is positing needs to return.

I really should go into politics. I'm spinning better than Shane Warne, and without the incriminating text messages.

Thucydides' History of the Peloponessian War brings teh awesome, and will be required reading for my brats if I'm ever unfortunate enough to have children. Probably already been mentioned (hell, I probably mentioned it) but it's been nine pages, so...

Huayna Capac357 · Apr 4, 2009

EDIT from 2012: Just another dumb post

Sharwood · Apr 4, 2009

Huayna Capac357 said:
Wait, what?

Anyway, John Adams was...okay. I read like the first bit before stopping. Just not ineterested.

The New Guinea way. And cannibalism is healthy "when eaten as part of a balanced diet."

Camikaze · Apr 4, 2009

I got a new book (new, as in, I just got it. It was published in 1978, IIRC) today. Europe Since 1870 by James Joll. Anyone heard of it, and if so, is it any good?

Masada · Apr 4, 2009

Sharwood said:
The New Guinea way. And cannibalism is healthy "when eaten as part of a balanced diet."

To much of the population is overweight

Historical Book Recomendation Thread

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