A Civ reading list: 7 books to celebrate Civilization VII

[WillK96]

With the release of Simon Bolivar in the second March DLC drop - Maria Arana: Bolivar: American Liberator is a great and informative read on a rather underrepresented (in Western thought) enlightenment revolutionary.

 

[Inotrobot]

Having played every single game in the series vigorously, I also over the years developed a passion for geopolitics and world history, and read numerous books on the topic. I probably would have anyway, but I'll venture saying that Civ has been a contributing factor.

And for years I had an idea to compile a list of my favourite books. With Civ VII coming out I finally got around to making it. In short, here's my list:

1. Prisoners of Geography, by Tim Marshall
2. The Clash of Civilizations, by Samuel P. Huntington
3. Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
4. Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
5. Age of Revolutions, by Fareed Zakaria
6. The Victory of Reason, by Rodney Stark
7. The Silk Roads, by Peter Frankopan

For more full descriptions and background, go to my blog: https://kennethbirch.wordpress.com/...n-vii-a-reading-list-for-a-geopolitics-gamer/

It would be fun to hear if anyone has done the same - what would be on your list?

This is why this is one of the better gaming Forums. Love the passion

 

[kennethbirch]

Jared Diamond is generally a good "big picture" read even if people criticize him for pushing narratives a bit; very good when taken with a pinch of salt. I liked Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. I want to read Upheaval and the World Until Yesterday.

Another book that fits very well into VII's narrative specifically is The Empathic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin. Again, a little softer on the scientific rigor but a few nice bigger ideas in there.

World Until Yesterday was quite interesting! Not as groundbreaking perhaps as Guns, Germs & Steel, but several enlightening points and a few dramatic tales from his own travels

 

[kennethbirch]

Love all the suggestions - it's great to see that I'm not the only one building bridges to real-world history here! I have added several to my future reading list now

Two comments on Huntington: I don't mean to argue against the criticism. Some of his analysis is most definitely shallow and superficial. But:

1) For the sake of playing Civ, it makes sense to group the world into a finite list of major civilizations. Maybe good old Samuel was a player himself

2) On a personal note, my own revelation when reading Clash (maybe 8-9 years ago) was that something fell in place for my own identity. I live in Denmark, Europe, and was born here, but spent several formative childhood years in the U.S., and have also lived in Australia for a while. I always struggled to define my identity. I didn't want to limit myself to one country, "European" didn't quite do it for me either, on the other hand it wasn't a total global village experience either. But with Huntington's definition I finally got my tribe: I am part of the West. I belong in North America, Australia, and Northern/Western Europe. Not that I don't love visiting Asia, for instance, but I'm a stranger there and I know it.

So if nothing else, and even though it was probably not its intent the book helped me narrow down my own identity

 

[Uberfrog]

I don’t read nearly enough history, but some picks from me:

I second The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, the alarming story of the East India Company told grippingly.

I also second Mike Duncan’s books and it’s in his honour I will be playing as Lafayette first. I’m a huge fan of his Revolutions podcast as well - absolutely top notch stuff.

It’s late in Civ 7’s timeline, but Restricted Data by Alex Wellerstein is a brilliant history of the American nuclear program and the secrets that (failed to) keep it from the rest of the world.

Moving into oral histories and well out of the game’s release timespan, I also found Garrett M. Graf’s The Only Plane in the Sky a shocking and moving set of eyewitness accounts of 9/11. And everything by Svetlana Alexievich (but especially Chernobyl Prayer) is a haunting but quite strikingly written perspective of Soviet life.

On my list (and the result of my continued enjoyment of the History of Byzantium podcast) is The New Roman Empire by Antony Kaldellis. (Perhaps a good counterpoint to Gibbon…)

And I am currently reading The Private Lives of the Saints by Janina Ramirez, which is a very enjoyable look at the religious history of Early Medieval Britain and Ireland.