ParkCungHee
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I think we can generally say that about all sources from at least 1600 backwards.
I just finished Neil Chaiken's A Man on the Moon, which was quite impressive. It covers all of the Apollo missions and seems to have been based on extensive interviews with the astronauts and their families: he not only captures the drama of the mission and explains the science of the technology involved when it becomes an actor, but Chaiken also records in part what the astronauts were feeling during their experiences. The epilogue visits each man who visited the moon to see how the experience shaped his life, and reflects on the Apollo program. The author writes that it's a shame the United States allowed Apollo to become a brief episode in its history rather than a gateway to its future.
Quite commendable reading.
Quite commendable reading.
History_Buff
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Curse this thread. My shelf of books to read is already out of control, and you folk are not helping. 
utgotye
Warlord
I must concur. Richard Rhodes' book is a masterpiece as far as I am concerned. The only caveat is that it helps to have some background in nuclear chemistry/physics. It's not necessary but it makes the science much easier to understand. I recommended it to a fellow history major who said he couldn't finish it because, while interesting, he felt that the science stuff made parts of it feel like a chemistry textbook. It does a good job at mixing in the human factor and gives an interesting look into the minds and personalities of the major players from say 1890ish to the mid 50s, including the mass exodus of (Jewish) scientists to Britain and the United States, among other places. One can't help but marvel at the collective scientific genius that existed in that time and how 2-3 generations of scientists added another volume to the breadth of our knowledge, many times (re-)writing the rules as they went along. Truly fascinating stuff.
I might also recommend The Pacific War by John Costello (1981). The first edition has a number of errors, mainly typographical, that are ironed out it later editions. That said, as far as single volumes on the entire pacific theater go, I have not read anything more comprehensive. The comprehensive nature comes through in the way Costello zooms out at times and explores how events/plans taking place elsewhere affected the topic at hand and vise-versa. Too often books like these try to cover the war as a whole, thus depriving the reader of important detail, or focus too narrowly on one theater, ignoring the other altogether and giving the impression that they are unrelated. In addition, there is SOME explanation/discussion both of and from the Japanese POV, certainly more than one expects from most Western authors.
Ok, didn't know he went that far.
When I used the word "honest", I thought of historians who do not portrate things differently on purpose. It was most probably very rare, but I'd call Tacitus for example honest. He surely had his own bias, and it's very visible, but to me it reads like he just thought his opinions were facts.
trexeric
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The Ghosts of Cannae - Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic, by Robert L. O'Connell was the first history book I read, and by far the best so far. It dabbles into the histories of Rome and Carthage, leading up to the Second Punic War. It focuses on the Battle of Cannae (obviously), but it seriously gives a deep account of the rest of the war. It really gave me a liking for the Carthaginians and an admiration for both Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. I'd defidently recommend it. (Oh, and it is not all that long!)
Louis XXIV
Le Roi Soleil
I've started reading it. It's picking up, but I was initially very skeptical of the book because he wastes a little too much time trying to give an account of the entire history of warfare from prehistory onward. Considering how short the book was and how little expertise the author would have in that, it really made me wonder what I was getting into. But things are much better where I'm at now. When I get back to reading the book, I'll try to give a full review.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
You're reading Strong Bad's autobiography?
History_Buff
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It offers a lot of excellent insight into the mindset of The Cheat, and fills in a lot of the gaps around Senor Cardgage. Surely that's worth something.
Phrossack
Armored Fish and Armored Men
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What?
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
holy king
Deity
anybody know a nice book about Proto-Indo-European religion?
sophie
Break My Heart
Depends on what you mean by that. Remember the term Proto-Indo-European is a linguistic term used to identify a theoretical parent language for all Indo-European language descendants and doesn't necessarily refer to a specific group of people. Hell, the archaeologo-linguistic community isn't even in agreement on who the Indo-European speakers were and where and when they originated.
Virote_Considon
The Great Dictator
I guess you could get a few books of various Pagan religions of Indo-European speaking peoples (Germanic Paganism, Slavic Paganism, Scythian Paganism and so forth) and look at their similarities, but it'd be far from anything resembling accurate.
I recently read The Oxford History of the French Revolution, and would heartily recommend it. It managed to be extremely readable and well-written while at the same time giving a strong sense of being excellently researched.
Looking for a recommendation, not for a book but for an app.
My wife knows very little about history and wants to learn. There are some great educational apps on the iPad, such as the Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe one. There's also the Timeline WW2 one with Pathe news reels, which she's already got and really likes. My question is: is there anything like this for more general history, preferably British? Something that's very accessible and got lots of multimedia stuff?
My wife knows very little about history and wants to learn. There are some great educational apps on the iPad, such as the Brian Cox's Wonders of the Universe one. There's also the Timeline WW2 one with Pathe news reels, which she's already got and really likes. My question is: is there anything like this for more general history, preferably British? Something that's very accessible and got lots of multimedia stuff?
Melvin Bragg's "In Our Time" BBC radio series is pretty good, they cover various historical events, cultures, movements, ideas, etc. It's a panel format, with the host and a handful of professors talking about the subject of the day in at a level that is both accessible but not absurdly simplified. I've listened to about a dozen of them and recommend them.
In Our Time is excellent, and available from the BBC website for free as a podcast - although there's no new episodes for another two weeks.
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