Readings and History Books

I'm a First World War historian, by trade. Just another academic plugging along, and playing Civ when I can. ;)
 
Being a history buff myself, especially of Ancient Rome, I did notice something that is missing from Civilization. While you can develop a reputation, good or bad, one of the main reasons the Roman Empire expanded as far as it did was that the rest of the world, quite frankly, were scared of them. Imagine, forty-thousand men standing on the other side of a thousand-foot wide river building a bridge capable of marching them all across safely IN TEN DAYS. Germania didn't mess with Rome for several generations!
That fear is missing in Civ. The city states, maybe, but not other civs. Songhai bullied a city state under my protection. I took half of his empire. He did it again. I wiped him out! Along comes Atilla and does the same thing! Sure, I was a warmonger, but it didn't yield as many benefits as one might think. I think we should get a sort of military Golden Age or soemthing. Just my two cents.

adricv said:
Hello,

I'm an avid player of Civ5G&K (once IV and III). One of the things I love the most about this game, besides the gameplay, is the history. Seeing characters come to life on screen is thrilling, let alone being able to declare war on them, or trade or denounce.

I love history and I love reading - there really should be a recommended book list for people wanting to find out more about specific topics, leaders or civilizations. I couldn't find any in the forums so I figured I might as well start it here and add people's contributions as they come in, like a centralised repository of introductory and in-depth reading material about different aspects of the game for people who want to find out more. I'm deeply curious about Polynesia and Kamehameha, for instance, and I'd love a good introductory book without necessarily being a textbook, something accessible.

Let me know what you think!

--

American


George Washington

Arabian

Harun al-Rashid

Austrian

Maria Theresa

Aztec

Montezuma

Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar II

Byzantine


Theodora

Carthage


Dido

Celts


Boudicca

Chinese

Wu Zetian

Danish

Harald Bluetooth

Dutch

William I (of Orange)

Egyptian

Ramesses II

English


Elizabeth I

Ethiopia

Haile Selassie


French


Napoleon Bonaparte


German


Otto von Bismarck


Greek


Alexander


Hun

Attilla

Incan


Pachacuti

Indian

Gandhi

Iroquois

Hiawatha

Japanese


Oda Nobunaga

Korean

Sejong

Maya

Pacal

Mongolian

Genghis Khan

Ottomans

Suleiman the Magnificent

Persian


Darius

Polynesia


Kamehameha

Roman


Augustus/Caesar


Russian

Catherine


Siamese

Ramkhamhaeng

Songhai

Askia

Spanish

Isabella

Sweden

Gustavus Adolphus

City States

Cultured

Brussels

Florence


Kathmandu

Kuala Lumpur

Milan

Monaco

Prague

Warsaw

Yerevan

Maritime

Cape Town

Jakarta

Manila

Mombasa

Quebec City

Ragusa

Rio de Janeiro

Sydney

Venice


Mercantile

Antwerp

Cahokia


Colombo

Genoa

Hong Kong

Marrakech

Singapore

Tyre

Zanzibar

Zurich

Militaristic

Almaty

Belgrade

Budapest

Hanoi

Sidon

Valletta

Religious

Geneva

Jerusalem

La Venta

Lhasa

Vatican City

Wittenberg
Click to expand...
 
An excellent book on Harun al Rashid is the book The Caliphs Splendor by Benson Bobrick and a great book on Byzantine, Sassinid, Jewish, and Arabian History is In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland
 
This isn't for a specific civ or leader, but is a great general survey of political world history. Susan Wise Bauer has started a great series on the whole history of the world. It was supposed to be 4 volumes, but she is extending it (It's the entire world after all!). She has completed the history of the ancient world and of the medieval world The Renaissance World will be completed in the fall. Great books that go chronilogically instead of geographically. They also have short chapters that are surprisingly deep and well researched. I highly recommend them for someone who wants a great overview of mankind and the interconnectedness of civilizations, which has been the general trend in study for world history now.

http://www.amazon.com/The-History-Ancient-World-Earliest/dp/039305974X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
http://www.amazon.com/The-History-Medieval-World-Constantine/dp/0393059758/ref=pd_sim_b_1
http://www.amazon.com/The-History-Renaissance-World-Constantinople/dp/0393059766/ref=pd_sim_b_2
 
justinianI said:
Thank you so much for this!!!!!!! I'm a high school World History teacher and these are AMAZING!!! I'm definitely using these for intros/refreshers!!!
Click to expand...

You're Welcome. ;)
 
Maya:
A Forest of Kings:
The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya
David Freidel, Linda Schele


Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of The Mayan Book of The Dawn of Life and The Glories of Gods and Kings
Dennis Tedlock
 
For Rome, Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars is a pretty good ancient source, even if it does kind of read like a tabloid at times. Plutarch's Lives has a good section on Alexander.
 
Pook said:
For Alexander, I'd recommend Alexander of Macedon by Peter Green.

It gives you an idea of how far ambition can carry you, sometimes into madness. When you demand worship from your own generals, and compare your own exploits to those of Hercules, something might just be amiss.
Click to expand...

You know, that might just explain his ingame behavior whenever he denounces someone on Turn 6...
 
Camikaze said:
This thread in the History forum would probably interest some people here.
Click to expand...

I came here out of the depths of OT and WH following Camikaze's links--last Civ I played seriously was Civ4. But I'd also like to plug our serial book-reading thread in OT: Which book are you reading now?. I've posted some fairly detailed reviews on the nonfiction I've been reading over the past few years.

We are also working on a list of top-recommended history books, I'll copy several of the titles here (unsorted at the moment and might have repeats, sorry 'bout that):

The First World War by Hew Strachan
Iron Kingdom by Christopher Clark
Battlecry of Freedom by James McPherson
1491: New Revelations of America before Columbus by Charles Mann
China Marches West by Peter Perdue
Kingdom of Matthias by Paul Johnson
1493 by Charles Mann
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Howe
Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-1861 by David Potter
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
John Adams by David McCullough
Truman by David McCullough
(actually, anything by David McCullough, one of my favorite authors)
The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
The Inheritance of Rome: History of Europe from 400 to 1000 by Chris Wickham
Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America by Daniel K. Richter
The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor
A People's Tragedy: 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
Nature's Metropolis by William Cronon

(Also, this is my subscription post. I have plenty more on my shelf at home to post if people are interested.)
 
To repeat Antilogic's post: anything by Hew Strachan is highly recommended. A real pillar in the field. If anyone is interested in the Somme William Philpott's "Bloody Victory" (called "Three Armies on the Somme" in the American version) is also well recommended.
 
Would like to contribute these following two books on my own country:

Singapore
"Defending the Lion City" Tim Huxley
"From Third World to First" Lee Kuan Yew
 
Antilogic said:
The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor
A People's Tragedy: 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I had forgotten about those. Brilliant books. Beevor in particular is quite spectacular.
 
For Rio de Janeiro there are too the books "1808" and "1822", both by Laurentino Gomes. Those books make clear to understand the situation of actual Brazil.
 
Hey, you forgot the barbarians! Didn't you now they can actually be civilized? If not, please read Terry Jones' Barbarians (ISBN 978-0-563-49318-1 or 978-0-563-53916-2).
 
if you want to learn about the greek civilization you should read the ancient greek literature...

Herodot "Histories"
Thukydides "The Peloponnesian War"
Xenophon "Anabasis", "Hellenika"

the list could go on and on.

you would never imagine, that the ancient people could tell such thrilling stories, that give you an imagination of how their world used to be.
 
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