Historical Book Recomendation Thread

[Traitorfish]

I did, but the jibe wasn't meant with any particular seriousness to begin with. Just poking fun at political-military historians is all.

(The article you linked looks interesting. I'll have to figure out if my school has the AHR (I think so?) so I can get a look at the rest of it.)

 

[Dachs]

Since the American Historical Review is one of the two most well-regarded journals in academic history in this country, it would be very strange if it did not. Be sort of like an American university not having a subscription to Past and Present.

 

[Traitorfish]

Well, turns out we do. Always reassuring to discover that your school meets the most basic requirements of respectability.

(Out of interest, what is the other of the two journals in question? I'm afraid I'm basically pig-ignorant when it comes to this stuff; I'm still at the stage where I just hunt down whatever's on the reading list without paying overmuch attention to where it's coming from.)

 

[Dachs]

Well, turns out we do. Always reassuring to discover that your school meets the most basic requirements of respectability.

(Out of interest, what is the other of the two journals in question? I'm afraid I'm basically pig-ignorant when it comes to this stuff; I'm still at the stage where I just hunt down whatever's on the reading list without paying overmuch attention to where it's coming from.)

AHR and JAH. The American Historical Review is the American Historical Association's official journal, and the AHA is the oldest and largest group of academic historians in the country. AHR covers a very broad array of subject matter.

The Journal of American History, formerly the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, is the official journal of the Organization of American Historians. JAH's remit is more focused on specifically American national history.

The ISO 4 abbreviations for those two journals are different - I think Am. Hist. Rev. and J. Am. Hist. - but nobody uses ISO 4 outside of formal citations.

I think that both AHR and JAH are part of the Oxford Journals online collection, so it should be pretty rare for a university to not have access.

 

[Pangur Bán]

i have a hard time believing that good anything "should be" anthropology

Not sure what you mean here, Dachs. Do you mean that you reject the value of its insights?

 

[Louis XXIV]

So I know this is a book recommendation thread instead of a book review thread, but I'm reading Arthur Eckstein's Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome right now. It's pretty good, but one thing I really could use are maps. In spite of flaws of maps in representing certainties that didn't exist, they would really help me visualize what he's talking about - especially since we're talking about things like the Aetolian League, which isn't exactly the most famous political actor in the Hellenistic Age.

 

[Mouthwash]

Is there history that is written tersely and with proper pacing? It makes nonfiction so much more readable and entertaining. Most histories that I've glanced at just stuff as much as they can into each page.

AHR and JAH. The American Historical Review is the American Historical Association's official journal, and the AHA is the oldest and largest group of academic historians in the country. AHR covers a very broad array of subject matter.

The Journal of American History, formerly the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, is the official journal of the Organization of American Historians. JAH's remit is more focused on specifically American national history.

The ISO 4 abbreviations for those two journals are different - I think Am. Hist. Rev. and J. Am. Hist. - but nobody uses ISO 4 outside of formal citations.

I think that both AHR and JAH are part of the Oxford Journals online collection, so it should be pretty rare for a university to not have access.

For a few seconds my brain said "Institute for Historical Review" when I read this.

 

[carmen510]

What are the best political histories for the early stages of the Cold War, from the end of WW2 to the Cuban Missile Crisis?

 

[Flying Pig]

Is there history that is written tersely and with proper pacing? It makes nonfiction so much more readable and entertaining. Most histories that I've glanced at just stuff as much as they can into each page.

A lot of older narrative history books are written as works of literature, with a high standard of (if outdated) scholarship: Wedgewood's The Thirty Years' War is a great example, and I've recently picked up The Sicilian Vespers by Steven Runciman which is of the same sort of calibre. Of course, these tend to have shortcomings, the most obvious being that history does not, naturally, fall into an easy narrative. The need to examine different aspects of a period or event rather than treating it like a continuous progression of happenings is one of the reasons why modern academic writing tends to have moved away from this, having a few chapters which deal with narrative but then several others examining different elements of the subject matter. AJP Taylor's works are extremely readable, particularly The Origins of the Second World War, and then there are Tom Holland's works of ancient history, such as Rubicon and Persian Fire, although I think I may have heard bad things about their scholarship. This tends to be the trade-off: the more scholarly a text, the less likely it is to make page-turning reading, in general.

 

[History_Buff]

James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom also has a very narrative structure, and while it's getting on in years, was still enough to get it highly endorsed in this very thread. I thought it was a riveting read.

This tends to be the trade-off: the more scholarly a text, the less likely it is to make page-turning reading, in general.

But of course, I would tend to agree with this. Details are the key to real understanding, but it's very easy for those details to be something a more casual reader might not care much about, which would make the text feel very plodding.

 

[Cutlass]

James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom also has a very narrative structure, and while it's getting on in years, was still enough to get it highly endorsed in this very thread. I thought it was a riveting read.

I was thinking of that one as well. I remember it as being a nice read, as well as a good book. probably likely to find it in some of the lighter pop history, rather than in the more scholarly works. When writing for a mass audience, like Stephen Ambrose, or David McCullough, they need a narrative structure that appeals to that audience. I seem to recall that The Prize, by Daniel Yergin had a good narrative structure, and won a Pulitzer.

 

[sophie]

Is there history that is written tersely and with proper pacing? It makes nonfiction so much more readable and entertaining. Most histories that I've glanced at just stuff as much as they can into each page.

Strachan's The First World War, Part I: To Arms! is a genuine page turner.

 

[Mouthwash]

Can anyone recommend me a good (tersely written and paced- if anyone here has played Europa Barbarorum the "yearly announcements" are a good example) history of ancient Egypt? I'm interested in social and military aspects more than OMG look at how high dis pyramid was built.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Can anyone recommend me a good (tersely written and paced- if anyone here has played Europa Barbarorum the "yearly announcements" are a good example) history of ancient Egypt? I'm interested in social and military aspects more than OMG look at how high dis pyramid was built.

Oddly enough lately I've been itching to get a few books on ancient Egypt. I already borrowed a few from my uni's library the other day, though I haven't looked at them yet.


I do have this one book on ancient Egypt that's a sort of history book/history atlas blend (it's more like a history book with a lot of useful maps than a normal historical atlas pe SE) that has served me well for a number of years, possibly since middle school or early high school (dunno when I got it), written in clear and understandable language but still informative, and covering a wide variety of topics besides political history including social stuff, literature, and so on... I'll try to find it and give you the name and stuff once I do.

Even after a decade and more, I still love ancient Egypt, so I probably know of a few more books that you might like if I could remember them.

 

[Dachs]

Can anyone recommend me a good (tersely written and paced- if anyone here has played Europa Barbarorum the "yearly announcements" are a good example) history of ancient Egypt? I'm interested in social and military aspects more than OMG look at how high dis pyramid was built.

So, by "tersely written and paced" you mean sound-bite history, basically?

I'm reasonably sure that nobody has written a whole history book of just sound bites. It'd be like a book full of hot takes, and even Simmons couldn't manage that.

 

[Mouthwash]

So, by "tersely written and paced" you mean sound-bite history, basically?

I'm reasonably sure that nobody has written a whole history book of just sound bites. It'd be like a book full of hot takes, and even Simmons couldn't manage that.

Not at all. I just mean in the same tone and manner as the EB historians. I've read books which do an even better job.

 

[Masada]

I have a history of soundbites I can recommend?

 

[Mouthwash]

I have a history of soundbites I can recommend?

How funny! Crack the same joke again and see how much more funny it becomes!

 

[Masada]

I have a history of soundbites I can recommend?

 

[Mouthwash]

Can anyone at all recommend me a social/economic history of ancient Egypt that is decently readable?