Historical Book Recomendation Thread

[Agent327]

A surprising look at the (start of) the US Civil War:

MADNESS RULES THE HOUR
Charleston, 1860 and the Mania for War
By Paul Starobin

Or, as the review puts it:

How the Charleston Elite Brought on the American Civil War

Democrats had settled on Charleston in order to mollify Southern members and ensure a united front heading into the fall presidential election. The opposite occurred. Southern disunionists, emboldened by galleries packed with supporters, rigged the convention to split the Democratic Party — the only national party competing that year. The breakup would inevitably result in the election of the yet-to-be-named Republican candidate. A Republican victory, the radicals theorized, would galvanize white Southerners to form a new nation secure from the economic predations and racial terror that the new administration would inevitably unleash upon the South if the slave states remained in the Union.

But this was not the first time this had happened:

Secession was not a new fever in Charleston in 1860. Agitation had flared before: in 1832 in opposition to an allegedly punitive tariff, and in 1850 in the midst of the debate on the admission of California as a free state and related issues. But as Starobin notes, the itch to leave the Union was hardly a widely shared view elsewhere in the South, neither on those earlier occasions nor even in 1860.

From: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/...&nl_art=&nlid=61820453&ref=headline&te=1&_r=3

 

[Gen.Mannerheim]

A surprising look at the (start of) the US Civil War:

MADNESS RULES THE HOUR
Charleston, 1860 and the Mania for War
By Paul Starobin

Or, as the review puts it:

But this was not the first time this had happened:



From: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/...&nl_art=&nlid=61820453&ref=headline&te=1&_r=3

In the immortal words of James L. Petigru, "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum."

 

[Lexicus]

Finally got around to cracking open The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. I'm about 50 pages in and would already recommend it.

 

[Ajidica]

Finally got around to cracking open The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution. I'm about 50 pages in and would already recommend it.

How much of a doorstop is it? I've had a passing interest in the English Civil War and Cromwell making himself Definitely-Not-King since playing an excellent mod about it on Medieval2 but I have enough doorstops sitting on my shelves.

 

[Lexicus]

@Ajidica It's only ~400 pages, my paperback version is quite thin.

 

[Flying Pig]

On the Carthaginians, try Carthage Must be Destroyed by Richard Miles. On the Celts, specifically in Britain, try Britain BC by Francis Pryor, or the relevant chapters in his The Making of the British Landscape. I have heard good things about Pagan Britain by Ronald Hutton (specifically for pre-Roman religion) but have yet to read it. On the Persians I'm afraid I can't be of much help.

 

[Lexicus]

I've been wanting to get into some of the history about the ancient Persian empire (Achaemenid dynasty). So far I've read "Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE" by Matt Waters which was dissapointing. It was little more than a detailed timeline of who the kings where and what they did, but almost nothing on the culture/inventions/art/life/etc... of the persians. Are there any recommendations for that?

While I'm at it, similar recommendations about the Carthaginians and Celts would be very welcome. I'm trying to diversify my classical history beyond the greeks and romans.

For Persia, Persian Fire by Tom Holland is pretty good. It's not super academically-rigorous, I suppose, but it is entertaining and presents several interesting viewpoints, like referring to the Athenian sack of Sardis as the classical antiquity version of 9/11.

 

[Mouthwash]

I'm finally reading Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West. Any good follow-ups?

 

[Traitorfish]

My understanding of CFC World History is that, once you finish Barbarian Migrations, you surrender your material form and become a being of pure energy.

 

[Ajidica]

I'm finally reading Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West. Any good follow-ups?

Peter Heather The Goths gives a slightly different perspective on the role of the Goths in the "fall of the Roman Empire" and includes some really interesting information on Roman ethnography and archaeology in pre-writing Outer Europe. It also highlights a lot of the weaknesses in using archaeological sources which is always interesting given how heavily Halsall relies on archaeology to supplement his narrative.
It is also a bit of a shame because it shows Heather can be an excellent writer and scholar; and then he wrote his Fall of the Roman Empire book where he literally says "immigrants caused the collapse of the Roman Empire".

 

[Mouthwash]

Peter Heather The Goths gives a slightly different perspective on the role of the Goths in the "fall of the Roman Empire" and includes some really interesting information on Roman ethnography and archaeology in pre-writing Outer Europe. It also highlights a lot of the weaknesses in using archaeological sources which is always interesting given how heavily Halsall relies on archaeology to supplement his narrative.
It is also a bit of a shame because it shows Heather can be an excellent writer and scholar; and then he wrote his Fall of the Roman Empire book where he literally says "immigrants caused the collapse of the Roman Empire".

Thanks, I'll look at both of them.

 

[Flying Pig]

Peter Heather The Goths gives a slightly different perspective on the role of the Goths in the "fall of the Roman Empire" and includes some really interesting information on Roman ethnography and archaeology in pre-writing Outer Europe. It also highlights a lot of the weaknesses in using archaeological sources which is always interesting given how heavily Halsall relies on archaeology to supplement his narrative.
It is also a bit of a shame because it shows Heather can be an excellent writer and scholar; and then he wrote his Fall of the Roman Empire book where he literally says "immigrants caused the collapse of the Roman Empire".

Another good one on the Goths is Michael Kulikowski, Rome's Gothic Wars, which has a lot of interesting discussion of how archaeology and conventional history go together, and how Gothic identity became something that people understood. Very much up Halsall's street. I would definitely echo that caution on the rest of Peter Heather's stuff, though I haven't actually read The Goths in full.

 

[Ajidica]

Mouthwash, I wouldn't recommend Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire if you have read Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West. Heather approaches it from a "pop-history" perspective and ends his history at 476 on the nose. Which, given he previous wrote The Goths, he must know is absolute rubbish for any serious evaluation of the period. The only area where Heather comes out ahead of Halsall on a "general history of the fall of the Roman Empire" is he is more readable.

Flying Pig, from what I have read (and from Dachs) is that Heather's scholarly work is still well regarded and despite being 20 years old The Goths has held up very well. That Heather did such good job in The Goths of covering various Romano-Gothic kingdoms makes his absolute lack of coverage of them in The Fall of the Roman Empire all the more perplexing.

 

[Hrothbern]

"De rafelranden van Europa" from the Dutch historian and political analyst Ivo van de Wijdeven.

The big surprise of this book are the digital maps over time of Europe, the 2nd Holy Empire, the Ottoman Empire and some more.
These digital YouTube maps are in English.
The book describes the risks on war/terrorist separation movements of contested areas that in the course of history swapped between owners/nations.
Like Kurds<-> Turks, Macedonia <-> Greek, etc.
Ivo van de Wijdeven makes a case in his book that the existence of the EU is beneficial in minimising the risks on war within Europe.
(I agree with him. The cost of keeping the EU up and running, as "insurance" fee, is for me as Dutch citizen 280 Euro per year. (Net cost EU for NL divided by number of inhabitants). Much cheaper than keeping up a big military )

I add here one map as example.

Here the link to the site where the book is discussed (in Dutch), containing other digital maps used.
http://historiek.net/rafelranden-van-europa-vaak-eeuwenoud/65211/

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Hello, I recall some interesting discussion on the historic origins of capitalism on this forum and am now looking for a or perhaps the good book which explores those themes.

The discussion was about how exactly it occurred and proceeded that the European middle age economies moved towards capitalism. (I remember colonization playing some significant role.)

That means that I am not that interested in the Industrial Revolution, rather I want to know how the European countries got there and how and why they already became more and more capitalistic in the process of getting there.

Thanks for any help

 

[Lexicus]

Just finished peter green's biography of alexander the great. Anyone know of a good one that's more recent?

 

[Kyriakos]

Just finished peter green's biography of alexander the great. Anyone know of a good one that's more recent?

You could read about Franjo the great Ustase

 

[SupremeClientele]

Not about to check 60 pages, but World Order by Henry Kissinger will explain how the entire world works as far as geopolitics. Extremely important read

 

[Traitorfish]

Any book purporting to explain "how X works" is inherently suspect.

There's a reason academic texts have names like "An inquiry into a study of a survey of..."

 

[Hrothbern]

Isn't that a little outdated by now?

I think not really

geopolitics is very much a long term based positioning
typical much longer than the usual 4-8 year periods of governments

the only real complicating factor in that positioning is the erosion of the classic nation states since already the Arab Spring,
but as this does not involve the big powers themselves.....