/lit/ - Literature

>>23078759
Thought this and the /Poetry/ general were failures. Nice to see them again.

>>23078759
Thank god it’s back.

What’s some other good history on the 17th Century? I’ve read Christopher Hill and Hugh Trevor Roper who else is there?

>>23078802
Nah, /his/ exists for this reason -- no matter how terrible that board actually is. The last thing we need here are more generals taking up space.
>Verification not required.
Even Moot still agrees.

>>23078864
Moot doesn't work here no more. Now answer my fucking question.

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Burckhardt.

>>23078759
I realized this book wasn't accurate after ruminating over a few points:

>claims carbon monoxide asphyxiation trucks existed, but none survived the war somehow

>claims hitler literally chewed on the edges of carpets

It was worth reading, but turned out to be partially false, of course, like so much other (((published))) material.

>>23079235
>claims hitler literally chewed on the edges of carpets
I remember reading this in another book as well

Just bought Malcolm's Short History of Bosnia. What am I in for?

>>23079235
good to know he was a carpet muncher.

it's a good book but i was hoping it had a more comprehensive account of the battles

the history book threads are some of the the only good threads on/lit/

pmub

Before US civil war starts

>>23078759
>A tough, ruthless, driving man – albeit, like so many of the early Nazis, a homosexual
>The confused locksmith Drexler provided the kernel, the drunken poet Eckart some of the ”spiritual” foundation, the economic crank Feder what passed as an ideology, the homosexual Roehm the support of the Army and the war veterans, but it was now the former tramp, Adolf Hitler
>Murderers, pimps, homosexual perverts, drug addicts or just plain rowdies were all the same to him if they served his purposes.
>But the brown-shirted S.A. never became much more than a motley mob of brawlers. Many of its top leaders, beginning with its chief, Roehm, were notorious homosexual perverts.
>Lieutenant Edmund Heines, who led the Munich S.A., was not only a homosexual but a convicted murderer.
>These two and dozens of others quarreled and feuded as only men of unnatural sexual inclinations, with their peculiar jealousies, can.
>As we have seen, a conglomeration of pimps, murderers, homosexuals, alcoholics and blackmailers flocked to the party as if to a natural haven. Hitler did not care, as long as they were useful to him.
>Moreover, the generals were shocked by the tales, now beginning to receive wide circulation, of the corruption and debauchery of the homosexual clique...rearmament was too serious and difficult a business to permit the participation of peculators, drunkards and homosexuals
>Karl Ernst, a former hotel bellhop and ex-bouncer in a cafe frequented by homosexuals
>the S.A. Obergruppenfuehrer of Silesia, a convicted murderer, a notorious homosexual with a girlish face on the brawny body of a piano mover, was in bed with a young man
>Fritsch had been guilty of homosexual offenses
>His chief weakness, it developed, had been spying on homosexuals and then blackmailing them.
>caught in a homosexual offense in a dark alley near the Potsdam railroad station in Berlin with an underworld character by the name of ”Bavarian Joe.”
Lol

Can you guys tell me of a book that tells me what an aristocrat's education would be like?

>>23078759
Antony Beevor's works on Stalingrad and D-Day.

Fergus Canaan's "Galloglass 1250-1600"

>>23081411
A History of Education in Antiquity by Henri-Irénée Marrou
But it is focused on antiquity.

Recommendations for WWI books that focus mainly on the lives of soldiers and the trenches?

>>23081613

And it's not even close.

Great series. 5th volume just recently dropped.

>>23078759
These kill the Red Guard Yankee.

>>23081645
Thanks. I’ll check it out

>>23078759
Shows how infiltrated Western governments were with communists

>>23078759

are there any decent books about the european mercenary companies in the medieval period?

>>23078759
ahhh, finally some good fucking BOOKS

>>23081664
Will be studied for millenia

>>23082182
There are probably good monographs available, I don't know about pop history shit.

>>23081664
>>23082230
what's so special about these books compared to other presidential biographies?
i mean lbj is not the most interesting president.

currently reading

Start with the Jesuits, as they say

>>23078759

>>23078759
What’s the difference between a narrative history and a historical fiction with only real characters?

Don't read many history's but enjoyed picrel, also in a nonfiction thread on /lit/ a few years back someone suggested Is Paris Burning? and that was pretty good too

>>23082802
https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/lyndon-johnson

>>23081664
Will they release all 5 books in a set?

>>23082999
I suppose. He’s yet to finish the final one. Pray for the old man.

>>23078759
How do I into history books? Because I guarantee I’ll read and like something then everyone will say that the author is a charlatan, the facts have been debunked etc etc how do I trust sourcesss

>>23083333
start with the greeks

>>23083393
Will do thanks

>>23083393
>>23083396
The Landmark version of Herodotus is worth picking up.

>>23082182
Look for Pen & Sword publications

>>23082802
Caro really gives you the complete picture. He could have chosen anyone to cover, really, and it would have been amazing.

>>23083638
He wanted to write a biography of La Guardia. I wonder what made him switch to LBJ.

>>23083658
I read somewhere that it was his publisher who asked him to do LBJ. It sounds like it was kind of an arbitrary decision - mcconnell would have been much better IMO because he's so unlike Moses but whatever, you have to work with the material you have, and mccnonnell wasn't majority leader yet. He really is a once-in-a generation biographer. Damn shame there aren't more of him.

>inb4 verso

>>23083676
Of course

>>23083686
Wish they had a kindle version would go well with my study of the 17th century

It's the only history book that I have read so

>>23083440
All Landmark books are worth it desu. I have all of them and I highly recommend.

any notable new and upcoming releases?

>>23083867
Same. Suppose to be a landmark release of Polybius' histories coming up.

This is pretty good if you have an interest in boats.

Recs for the following?:
Middle Ages
Roman Empire
Silk Road

>>23084820
I really enjoyed Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones.

>>23083724
Verso does offer .epub versions of everything, not sure how kindles handle that thoughever

>>23082328
Tom Holland is a disgusting pseudo-historian, reddit to the bone

>>23082182
Osprey publishing might have some material.

>>23085146
I’m not a Marxist though I’m closer to the Imperium guy’s ideologicallly

>>23084973
I have that

>>23085146
Also no epub version of that either

What should I read if I want to recover the intellectual, artistic and spiritual inheritance of Medieval Europe for myself?

>>23085676
It's not a Marxist book, it's just that the most easily available edition is by a Marxist publisher.
>>23085696
Yeah, seems this edition might have been before they started offering .epubs with every purchase.

I am a Laconophile, so far a decent book that does get bog down in precise dates and names, to the point that it throws too much at the reader to be practical. But that is a small part of an otherwise engaging and easy to read book.

Any recs for Chinese and or Mesopotamia Mythology?

>>23082182
https://www.ospreypublishing.com/us/galloglass-12501600-9781846035777/

I highly recommend this one.

recc some books about the assyrians

>>23078802
The Thirty Years War - C.V. Wedgwood
Peter Wilson's book of the same name is also good and more updated in terms of scholarship.

>>23082328
>>23085157
Reading the description of this and its sequels it sounds really cool, what makes it Reddit

>>23086280
Author hates Drumpf or something. Chuds are weird

>>23086286
Oh. I don't care to know what politics authors have but I'm guessing if I had to eliminate all authors who think orange man bad from my reading list I wouldn't be left with much.

>>23086286
I would have thought chuds would be at least ok with Tom Holland, Dominion was an unapologetic defense of the West as a Christian-influenced culture, and he's pretty hostile to Islamic fundamentalism.

>>23086657
>West as a Christian-influenced culture
I've noticed that many on the right now seethe at Christianity because they see it as Jewish subversion

>>23086790
Those are the larping nordic pagans.

>>23086798
I agree but I'm also curious as to how/why these people have come out of the woodworks relatively recently. I think white identitarianism on the right (which isn't an issue per se) has a lot to do with it. When you point out the distinction between Old Testament Jews and the spiritual/biological lineage of the Jews today, these people will just say cope. Or they'll say that whites shouldn't care about this distinction because it's still Jews at the end of the day, in which case, they can't really give a coherent explanation as to why Jews are/became so evil. It's also extraordinarily ahistorical for them to argue, as some do, that Western civilisation flourished in spite of its Christianity. However, which right wing faction will win out is anyone's guess. Much will turn on what happens in this year's election. Trump winning may be a stepping stone towards more "radical" politics. A Democrat win will set the movement back quite a bit. Though, there's an argument that it would actually be accelerationist in nature

This was surprisingly readable

>>23079235
>claims carbon monoxide asphyxiation trucks existed
Those were just regular trucks where the exhaust was led into the back of the trucks. There are enough witness reports from both victims, nazis and polish peasants to substantiate that claim. I'd also recommend watching Shoah on that subject, though /lit/ will call all of it fake because it was made by a jew.

>>23086834
>>23086790
It's been a staple of far right European thought for decades now

>>23086953
True but it's a more prominent talking point these days I think

>>23086962
The world is more interconnected now more than ever. It's hardly surprising.

has maps n shit

>>23087608
Wouldn't the first empire be the Akkadians, though?

>>23087685
it is a claim that the author is making.

>>23078759
Any good books about the Mongols/Genghis Khan?

>>23087897
This covers the Mongols, as well as other steppe empires.

>>23078759
Help me out bros
>Best one-volume bio on Caesar
>Best one-volume bio on Napoleon
>Best one-volume bio on Stalin

>>23086657
He also questions the origin of Islam and suggests that the prophet Muhammed may not have existed.

> At long intervals, in the invaded lands, there were fortified villages, villages, castles. Immigrant populations were too weak in number to be able to occupy all the points from the outset. The crops, as extensive as possible, were not long enough to cross the entrenchments that, especially in the western and southern provinces, protected them from aboriginal attacks. Deserted places abounded, and blacks, wolves, bears, tigers, beasts of prey of all kinds, were in no hurry to give up their safe havens. When night covered the countryside, the howls of beloved and vigilant dogs warned the sleeping Aryans of the dangers of their herds. So the guard entertained the fire, and the warriors went out to face the peril.
> If, instead of a few wooden monsters, the armed Arians saw the demonic faces of the dyws jumping and waving in the darkness, everyone was on their feet and running to repel the attackers. During the fight, the warrior of pure law slaughtered mercilessly and without remorse. After the struggle, if his anger was too much quoted, if he had some insult, some misfortune to avenge, he went on massacring. In the end, his fury was exhausted, and the enemies who remained standing could live. They became slaves and now lived under the shadow of their masters. When the Iranian was defeated and his belt forced, he learned the hard way that the dyws knew a lot about cruelty, and a general slaughter, from which the women barely escaped, was the accompaniment of a fire that instead of the city born left only one heap of ashes.
> This is how colonization was done in the midst of constant dangers, perpetual fighting, vigilance [...]
Count Arthur de Gobineau, History of the Persians.

>>23086295
Academics are usually shrill lefties, makes me glad I didn’t attend university

>>23086834
As much as I’m critical of the Jews these people have no actual ontological evidence of where the fall of Jewish nature began and simply write them off by their designation and recoil in horror if you insist that Jews prior to forming religious rites might have been decent people.

>>23088076
One is not like the others.

>>23088147
Correct. Caesar is an ancient. Napoleon and Stalin are moderns.

>>23088163
Stalin is a luckbabby who depended on moronic, masonic Western politicians. He shouldn't be mentioned even in the same sentence with the other two.

Best history book ever

>>23088175
Calm down, he never said Stalin was a military genius like the other two. He's just looking for a biography

>>23088175
> luckbabby
New cope just dropped

>>23088231
Learn sometbing about history instead of talking shit like a good commie bootlicker.

>>23088240
You sound upset. Are these commie ghosts in the room right now?

>>23088076
>Caesar
Philip Freeman and Adrian Goldsworthy

>Napoleon
Andrew Roberts and Frank McLynn

>Stalin
Robert Conquest and Simon Sebag Montefiore

>>23088254
>you sound upset as an argument
You probably post those cancerous 'how do you reply without looking mad' threads.

>>23088265
Nice boogeyman you made up.

>>23088258
Thanks

The Frontier People of America by Dale Van Every

https://www.goodreads.com/series/54628-the-frontier-people-of-america

>>23078864
>Nah, /his/ exists for this reason -- no matter how terrible that board actually is.
Implying that anyone there ever has read a history book or is even interested in general history.

Postwar

anyone have any recs for books about the history of england? I tried reading Ackroyd's book and got filtered. I think it's because I'm American and am not familiar with british geography.

Fucking fantastic history of how moving from wood burning -> coal changed so many aspects of daily living in the industrializing west. Anyone know of books with a similar theme? The only one that comes to mind is Connections by James Burke. I like history books that aren't just big names and events, but focus more on how small material changes/inventions have rippling effects.

Pic rel also fits with the above theme, lots of info about stirrups and saddles.

>>23089197
Dan Jones' books are easy reads and comfy

The Innocents Abroad

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3176

Currently reading this. Very comfy

>>23089232
>>23089221
>>23089197
The Annales guys have tons of this.

>>23089250
Seconding this. Jones is great.

>>23089529
wow yes this precisely, ty anon

>>23089529
Is there a complete list of books by Annales people?

>>23078759
>The offenses laid to his charge were sorcery, sodomy and murder. Gilles, on the first day of his trail, conducted himself with the utmost insolence. He braved the judges on the judgement-seat, calling the simoniacs and persons of impure life, and said he would rather be hanged from the neck like a dog without trial, then plead either guilty or not guilty before such contemptible miscreants.

Any good recommendations on ancient libraries or the transmission of Platonism, Judaism and Christianity?

>>23090193
Psychology Of Revolutions is good too

>>23088121
>actual ontological evidence of where the fall of Jewish nature began
Yep, that's precisely my point. They just view Jews as inherently evil but can't give an adequate explanation as to why that is beyond some biological essentialism. I don't deny that different races have different proclivities, intelligence etc. but there needs to be a higher analysis for the arguments that these people are making about Jews and their inherent evil and untrustworthiness. Specifically, there needs to be some objective referent for Goodness and Truth and how Jews inherently deviate from that. It's funny how they larp as Nietzschean vitalists but are more than happy to make moral critiques of the Jews. In my view, Jews are they way they are because they were chosen by God to be a righteous nation but instead chose to rebel. As such their scorn for God and therefore, love for evil, was more direct and tangible. This is what lead them down the path of being a cursed people. It was especially egregious in the face of the miracles that God worked before their eyes and sent them prophets from among their own brethren whom they also persecuted and killed. This culminates in their murder of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. They said it themselves when they crucified Him.
>Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
They brought this curse of evil upon themselves. They condemned themselves to become the heresiarchs of sin that they are today in the high places they occupy in the world. That's why a contextual reading of the New Testament and the sayings of Christ refutes the criticisms that these neopagans want to deliver against Christianity. Note also how relativistic they are when they make the claim that Christianity should not be followed only because of its Israelite roots and that whites should revert to paganism - as if Truth is culturally contingent. It is good an noble to love your own stock, but you become deluded when you let that lead you to such conclusions.

>>23078759

>>23090522
Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400 - Marcia Colish
Had to read some selections from this back in uni, it's comprehensive, but be forewarned that it's pretty dry.

>>23090570
I’m probably just going to pirate this since it’s a whopping 40 some dollars on Amazon

>>23090568
Agreed. I honestly have nothing else to add.

Nothern Europeans became successful because they were able to build ships.
Egypt? No seafaring ships, though bordering the Mediterranean. To protect themselves against the insults of pirates, they contented themselves with wooden barricades that entirely blocked navigation between the sea and Nile.
India's early expansion to the Eastern parts of the continent and Indonesia happened mainly with ships.
China is a strong country until this day. This is mainly due to them having a navy.
Among the Sub-Saharan Africans, even the islands close to the continent were completely uninhabitated before the arrival of Europeans or Malays.
Inca and Aztec, though very close to the sea, contented themselves with floats of the most miserable sort.
Thus, the dominance of a country over the others is directly related to the capability of it's people in making ships.
A country that has not or lost the capability of making ships falls sooner or later into the hands of the enemy.

Need a book on the history of Haiti that's not bogged down by political correctness

Omar Bradley: General at War

>>23086790
Some currents of right-wing thought like the pre-Christian world that glorified strength, might and power with world-historic "gods" walking around relishing in their conquests compared to Christian values built around weakness, original sin and suffering. Reading a little bit about Tom Holland's book Dominion, he traces the Enlightenment and humanism to the spread of Christianity even if many people with those ideas don't even recognize the connection. I don't know how many of these dissident rightists have thought about it that much, but some like Richard Spencer and his "Apollonians" are into these concepts, and I think his idea for the alt-right was to overthrow these modern concepts that come from Christianity and which pervade mainstream conservative thinking, but he doesn't think he was successful, and some of those ideas have even been recuperated by Conservative Inc. and recoded with the same old values he doesn't like.

>To most readers, Tom Holland will be best known for his outstanding popular histories of the Greco-Persian Wars (“Persian Fire”) and the fall of the Roman Republic (“Rubicon”). In the preface to “Dominion,” he vividly evokes the visceral attraction he once felt toward the apex predators who served as the heroes of his first two books: the austere Spartan warriors of the fifth century B.C. and the ruthless Roman generals of the late Republic. Yet these glamorous human tyrannosaurs, he concludes, lived in a moral universe with which he has nothing in common. “The values of Leonidas,” he writes, “whose people had practised a peculiarly murderous form of eugenics and trained their young to kill uppity Untermenschen by night, were nothing that I recognised as my own; nor were those of Caesar, who was reported to have killed a million Gauls, and enslaved a million more.”

>The core argument of “Dominion” is that the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth—whatever we may choose to believe about his metaphysical status—mark a watershed in human sensibilities. All of our contemporary “Western” moral and social norms are the product of this Christian revolution of the mind; the Greeks and Romans are, in ethical terms, as remote from us as giant lizards. “So profound has been the impact of Christianity on the development of Western civilisation,” says Mr. Holland, “that it has come to be hidden from view.” “Dominion” traces this hidden history across the past 2,000 years, showing how many points on our moral compass turn out to have been plotted by Christian modes of thought, whether we recognize it or not.

Any good books you guys could recc me on the Glorious Revolution?

>>23091223
I do this for most books anyway

>>23092043
>he traces the Enlightenment and humanism to the spread of Christianity even if many people with those ideas don't even recognize the connection.
Interesting. I completely disagree with that thesis but I might give him a read.

>>23088216
Fun read, I really liked it

>>23092622
I only use kindle for decently priced stuff if it’s out of print or expensive as all hell I pirate

Has anyone read pic related? If so, what did you think?

>>23092811
I only buy if I can't get it on libgen etc.

>>23092912
Sort of opposite of me

>>23092899
I read it many years ago when I was a teen and I enjoyed it.

>>23090568
They're bad because they're a foreign hostile tribe that has power and presence in our nations, you don't need another argument than that. When you start getting into esoteric spiritual explanations you go down the path of irrelevance and kookiness.

>>23093105
But many people can’t find the source of the hostility

>>23082328
>>23086280
I ordered it, looking forward to it. This will be my second Rome book, the first one I tried related the history in non-chronological order which was extremely annoying and I dropped it

>>23093105
What I said wasn't very esoteric. Regardless, I think that knowing the history of the Jews is essential to understanding why they are the way that they are today. A very compartmentalised and sterilised understanding of them is useless. The truth of the matter is there for people to see. It's a question of their willingness to investigate it. Being overly pragmatic and secular when dealing with the JQ plays right into their hands

BEFORE THE THREAD DIES
Any good book on the early indus valley civilisations?

Is there guide available that outlines books and/or authors recommended for specific eras of western history?

>>23093157
I asked a question on the least politically correct book on Haiti, still no answer

>>23093141
Right but how did they come to be that way? You either have to admit they’re ontologically evil or remain skeptical, which in any case it’s blind hatred.

>>23092899
As a rule, large sweeping general histories usually suck

>>23093205
I gave my perspective here >>23090568 as to why they act in such ways. Not sure if you replied to the right anon

>>23078759
I have Shirer's book on my shelf as well as Alan Bullock's biography on Hitler; any thoughts on the latter and which one of the two I should read first?

>>23093196
popkin's short history of the haitian revolution though im not sure how incorrect you want it. you can always just extract the facts you want from any history

>>23081664
Based Robert Caro poster
>Pic related

Is this a worthy /history/ read? Or is it a meme?

>>23093345
Read Shirer, he is a very good writer.

History book threads and sffg are the only decent threads these days

>>23089196
Was going to post post war. its fantastic

>>23086040

>>23078789
50bc to 30ad is the most important & most interesting periods of time that will ever exist.

>>23081384
Wheres the part where Hitler himself walks in on one of these guys having gay sex

>>23081711
>let's let the enemy pillage and loot everything and then take them by suprise when they're tired and bogged down
Lol

>>23089196
Hah, crazy how much an impact The Beatles were in the 60s, leading the counter-culture revolution.
I'll be reading this.

>>23094070
Just started this one. It's good so far.

>>23092660
>even if many people with those ideas don't even recognize the connection
What the fuck are you even talking about dude? Literally everyone agrees on that.

>>23094295
Perhaps I shouldn't have been so diametric and presumptive in my initial language. It was more so directed at the thesis that Christianity should be rejected on the basis of what happened in the Enlightenment. Of course the Christian milieu of the Enlightenment's main thinkers is undeniable. Though, the Enlightenment was ultimately a perversion of Christianity infused with pagan elements in relation to the occult/masonic subtext of it. I'd even say it's ironic that its primary thinkers, for all of their critique of Christianity, could not escape a Christian frame of reference. Nietzsche speaks to this.

>>23078759
>Flexible Opportunism

>>23093234
Likely awhile back

>>23085157
stop worshipping that pedofaggot muhammad

>>23089146
Why does it even exist then?

>>23078759

Toland's Hitler biography is so good
Very cinematic

>>23086790
>>23086798
It's hardly novel

>>23090568
Your worldview, built on a foundation of jewish mythology, does not give you a monopoly on antisemitism lol

>>23082997
>As an NYA director to whom “hours made no difference, days made no difference, nights made no difference”; as an unknown twenty-eight-year-old running his first, seemingly hopeless campaign for Congress against seven older, better-known opponents, a race in which he drove himself so ruthlessly that a fellow politician, a man who worked terribly hard himself, said, “I never knew a man could work that hard”; at every stage in his adult life—as Congressman’s secretary, Congressman, senatorial candidate—he had displayed a willingness to push to their very edge, and beyond the edge, the limits not only of politics but of himself. In every crisis in his life, he had worked until the weight dropped off his body and his eyes sunk into his head and his face grew gaunt and cavernous and he trembled with fatigue and the rashes on his hands grew raw and angry, and whenever, at the end of one more in a very long line of very long days, he realized that there was still one more task that should be done, he would turn without a word hinting at fatigue to do it, to do it perfectly. His career had been a story of manipulation, deceit, and ruthlessness, but it had also been a story of an intense physical and spiritual striving that was utterly unsparing; he would sacrifice himself to his ambition as ruthlessly as he sacrificed others. If you did “everything, you’ll win.” To Lyndon Johnson, “everything” meant literally that: absolutely anything that was necessary. If some particular effort might help, that effort would be made, no matter how difficult making it might be.

Definitely better than j was expecting

>>23082997
>>23097543
>simping for politicians

can any anon recc any interesting books about Japanese history?
don't know much about Japanese history outside WW2
and also a little bit about the Sengoku Jidai period, but that's mostly because of anime and shogun 2

>>23098523
A History of Japan by George Sansom but it's out of date and not the most exciting thing to read

>>23098544
>but it's out of date
Reddit

>>23098523
Sengoku Jidai by Danny Chaplin, to get the full real life story

The Power Broker by Robert Caro is very good. It's one of those books that puts a lot of US politics into perspective by revealing just how much of all "this" we've seen before in the country's history, particularly all the corporate interest stuff. Robert Caro is generally very good at that, though his book on the Mueller report takes a begrudging tone about how there is no conclusive finding to the collusion thing, making it clear that he felt very strongly about it despite being mostly impartial. The rest of his work is fairly solid though.

>>23100332
good recc thanks anon

Vote for your favorite children's books in /lit/'s poll (no log-in required ):
https://forms.gle/24sJgnJoXxSTV1d1A

Thread: >>23101513

does anyone have a recommendation for a book about the origins of british ethnicity? maybe that’s more archeology or genetics than history but that’s what I’m looking for.

>>23101944
I would say Albions Seed but that's not exactly what you're looking for

>>23100332
>obert Caro is generally very good at that, though his book on the Mueller report

?

>>23078759
The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution

This guy was a seriously underrated hero and a great role model for young men, myself included. I'd like to represent him as a living-history exhibit someday.

>>23101966
yeah it seems more like the origins of American ethnicity, but is still relevant to my interests so thanks, anon. I’ve heard a theory like this before, that the civil war was just an ethnic conflict between different british ethnic groups. I’ll check it out.

>>23088773
Outdated, but this book led/contributed to so much later work. It's great for everything it started 86 years ago, not what it remains.

Covert Action in the Cold War: US Policy, Intelligence and CIA Operations
by James Callanan

A surprisingly unbiased history of the CIA's operations, primarily in the 1950s and 60s.

The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe
by Max Nelson

What's a good narrative history of Medieval English history?
I want the narrative to include descriptions of the most important battles, not to just pass them over

Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity
by J.E. Lendon

Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War
by Gregory Daly

>>23102565
For battles Boyder and Brewer has a series that covers military matters in the middle ages. Dan Jones is a good entry point for any narrative, Jonathan Sumption's series for the Hundred Years War is the best out there for the 120 so years he covers. Yale Kings series covers well, the lives of Kings. I'd recommend Henry the Young King or Henry III if you want something really comprehensive.

Does anyone know a good book on the Iranian revolution and one generally for The Arab spring? Thanks anons, this has been a really good thread.

>>23101976
He may be thinking of Mark Caro's 'The Special Council'

>>23102636
The Prize is about oil politics, but it covers a good history of Iranian Revolution (Through the lens of oil)

>>23098523
MITI and the Japanese Miracle by Chalmers Johnson, if you're into more of an economic/institutional history

Reading this now and it's surprisingly captivating

Ahh the /history/ thread, this is where I park the car when I come to /lit/

>>23102000
Hey Australia's tallest mountain is named after him what more do you need?

Is there a good chinese history book? I like durant but I guess they didnt know much about china back then because the entirety of chinese history is covered in about 200 pages

Books on Canadian history?

>>23093813
just read this. Fucking crazy ass book. I love how you can feel Caro seething across time at how based Moses was.

>>23093815
I pussyed out and went with the audio version but the book is pure kino. Something about it is so raw and immediate, even through the stiff upper lip.

>>23105581
I recently read and enjoyed Imperial Twilight and Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom by Stephen Platt, about the First Opium War and Taiping Rebellion respectively

>>23105581
John Keay's general history of China is top tier

Hands down, one of the greatest history books ever written.

>>23105757
Thanks for the rec, I'll get around to this one after I finish The Opium of the Intellectuals by Raymond Aron

>>23078759
first half is good, second half a bit of a downer

would you recommend it?

>>23106460
Very much so, yes.

>>23078759
So what’s a good English Monarch Series book? I’m not overly familiar with any of them so the most interesting would be what I want

>>23079235
It also called degenerate art splendid.
And called Rohm a degenerate or something, Shirer was more homophobic than the Nazis. Too biased, I didn't finish it plus all the criticisms made by other historians to this book.

>>23082902
A book like this I seek except I want it to deal also with the Reconquista.

>>23083723
This seems interesting. I only read Napoleon the Great.

>>23092622
Sadly not all books I need can be found for free online.

>>23085757
these books don't tell us shit, man! (there aren't enough trustworthy sources, above all else)
it reminds me of Spartacus' book by one Barry Strauss: most of it is either sourced from somebody who wrote several decades after the events, or pure bloody speculation, or XXI Century-inspired extrapolations about a man whose real intentions we know naught about.. The one about Spartacus is 80% speculation: the author admires the man, therefore every single thing Spartacus does, or chose not to do, is laudable.
you know how thin the book about Sparta is, don't you? I read that shit in two sittings.

about far-reaching history (xx century, europe, asia, etc.): I find most of it unrealiable. I seriousy doubt that historians who task themselves with telling us the history of several nations know fuck all about those countries who aren't the major ones (and about this there are reasons for hesitancy).

>>23086295
Tom Holland might not like Trump, but to state that, because he doesn't, he is as useless as many others we know about, is nonsense. Actually, his books are kind of revisionist (this is, they skirmish with most contemporary assessments and viewpoints, and posture regarding Christianity).

>>23100332
Just got a copy at Goodwill.

i have decided to circumvent the absence of old, out-of-print books by printing such books, when I am fortunate enought to locate a decent pdf version. Sadly, most of those books I find intriguing aren't available. here are some books I received recently:

- hitler's war (david irving)
- The Imperial Idea and Its enemies)
- The Miser's daughter (novel)
- Bastiat, A Man Alone
- Leftism
- Main Currents of Marxism
- England's Mission, Imperalism In the Age of Gladstone and Disraeli
- The KGB, Masters of the Soviet Union
- Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography
- Leninism, by Neil Harding.

Why does stuff that happened ages ago even matter? (not bait) I was told growing up right on the estates and that some stuff like they matter because if you dont know it then youll do it again but i never once seen it matter in my life. People smarter than me and who read all this stuff still end up doing the same things over and over so its not like it matters.

>>23108237
his obsession with christianity is the cringiest part of his persona. and he does mention Trump a lot in his podcast

>>23081613
John F. Lucy - There's a Devil in the Drum for a British perspective. Probably my favorite one after Storm of Steel, which I assume everyone and their mom has read at this point.
Barthas - Poilu for a French one. Although the author is a raging commie and a hypocrite which leads to a lot of eye rolling passages.

>>23086834
>that Western civilisation flourished in spite of its Christianity
Yeah, it's also gets even more ridiculous when Christianity is cited as a reason for Rome's decline when Byzantine, its eastern half that Christianized earlier, lasted many centuries after Rome's dissolution all the while being devoutly Christian throughout.

The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution

>Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish-Lithuanian born in 1746, was one of the most important figures of the modern world. Fleeing his homeland after a death sentence was placed on his head (when he dared court a woman above his station), he came to America one month after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, literally showing up on Benjamin Franklin's doorstep in Philadelphia with little more than a revolutionary spirit and a genius for engineering. Entering the fray as a volunteer in the war effort, he quickly proved his capabilities and became the most talented engineer of the Continental Army. Kosciuszko went on to construct the fortifications for Philadelphia, devise battle plans that were integral to the American victory at the pivotal Battle of Saratoga, and designed the plans for Fortress West Point―the same plans that were stolen by Benedict Arnold. Then, seeking new challenges, Kosciuszko asked for a transfer to the Southern Army, where he oversaw a ring of African-American spies.

>A lifelong champion of the common man and woman, he was ahead of his time in advocating tolerance and standing up for the rights of slaves, Native Americans, women, serfs, and Jews. Following the end of the war, Kosciuszko returned to Poland and was a leading figure in that nation's Constitutional movement. He became Commander in Chief of the Polish Army and valiantly led a defense against a Russian invasion, and in 1794 he led what was dubbed the Kosciuszko Uprising―a revolt of Polish-Lithuanian forces against the Russian occupiers. Captured during the revolt, he was ultimately pardoned by Russia's Paul I and lived the remainder of his life as an international celebrity and a vocal proponent for human rights. Thomas Jefferson, with whom Kosciuszko had an ongoing correspondence on the immorality of slaveholding, called him "as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known." A lifelong bachelor with a knack for getting involved in doomed relationships, Kosciuszko navigated the tricky worlds of royal intrigue and romance while staying true to his ultimate passion―the pursuit of freedom for all.

>>23102000
>>23109006
damn, you like it that much?

>>23109346
imo every post here should have at least a synopsis or review

>PAX BRITANNICA BROS???
>dat rooting out indian assassin cult
>dat afghan campaign
>dat glass fucking world teabag
hail Britannia. I'm going to read Tai-pan again. Fuck you guys.

Serge's Memoirs of a Revolutionary.

Guy lived through some insane events and writes very well.

Anyone have recommendations for
1. Other gripping and informative memoirs (the earlier in time, the better)
and/or
2. Books originally in German?

>>23110114
Theodor Fontane has some memoirs of his time as a POW in the Franco-Prussian War

>>23110322
Looks promising, thanks

>>23081862
forgot this came out, will buy later on

>>23084820
iron men and the saints

>>23110823
And its sequel The Flame of Islam

>>23081664
>The hill country was a trap
>A trap baited with grass
I knew I was reading a masterpiece in this moment

>>23102567
Lendon was my professor as an undergraduate, kind of surreal seeing his name. Incredible lecturer.

>>23111477
Yeah yeah ignore the flourishes - the actual reporting and the information is totally exceptional.

>>23110823
>>23110940
I've read the first book due to some guy on /lit/ recommending it and enjoyed it a lot, despite its age showing here and there.

Then I was hyped for the sequel only to find out that while the first book covered the First Crusade only, the second did the whole following two centuries in one go.
Bravo Harold, but if I wanted to have a rough overview I would have skimmed through the wikipedia articles. What a shame

>>23086280
Nothing, really. Cunts here are disparaging the guy because he doesn't revere Trump, a fucker so unprincipled that, if for some miraculous intervention his support came from those he vituperates, he'd switch sides quicker than you could blink your eyes.

I understand people prefering Trump to any cunt from the Democratic Party (i would), but to perceive this twat as the second coming of Jesus just displays how barren are the ideological, political skirmishes of these times of ours.

About Tom Holland, he is anything but a mainstream historian - a mere regurgitator of whatever pleases today's bosses. Actually, one could even be bolder and state that, these days, he's on the other side of barricade, on the side which believes that everything worth keeping about the West has Christianity as at least one of its progenitors. Ah, and he spares no facts, chieflty those considered irksome and potentially destructive of one's career (or access to "mainstream) when summoned to opine about Islam. He's definitely somebody one can trust in these much troubled, censorious times.

>>23102636
i'd love to read a biography of the Shah.

I'm quite enjoying this one.

>>23111802
>About Tom Holland, he is anything but a mainstream historian - a mere regurgitator of whatever pleases today's bosses. Actually, one could even be bolder and state that, these days, he's on the other side of barricade, on the side which believes that everything worth keeping about the West has Christianity as at least one of its progenitors. Ah, and he spares no facts, chieflty those considered irksome and potentially destructive of one's career (or access to "mainstream) when summoned to opine about Islam. He's definitely somebody one can trust in these much troubled, censorious times.
Thank you for articulating why I like him. Holland is based.

>>23078759
what book would you send back in time to 1930's germany to warn them about the mistakes they were going to make?

>>23078759
Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy by Edmund Morris. Thoughts?

>>23081411
Bertrand Russell's autobiography.

>>23078799
Almost finished with this but the North translation. A most excellent read.

I wanna learn about America's entire history from it's inception to now. Whats the best way to start?

>>23081384
I read this book as a teenager. Pure propaganda and I recognized it even then.

>>23083440
This and the Landmark Thucydides are incredible. Haven't read the Landmark Xenophon.

>>23112829
Paul Johnson's A History of the American People is great, if you don't mind a conservative slant.

>>23102558
Gonna wishlist this

>>23102019
No problem but where did you find that theory? I’d like to read about

>>23113326
>No problem but where did you find that theory? I’d like to read about
I heard it mentioned in passing on a podcast with the guy from Survive the Jive, but I haven’t read anything about it myself. perhaps a combination of Albion’s Seed and some Bri’ish history would shed some light.

>>23113436
Alright, that’s in the near future. I wouldn’t consider Albion’s Seed pure history though, it’s sort of a mix of that and Anthropology.

>>23086834
>I agree but I'm also curious as to how/why these people have come out of the woodworks relatively recently.
National Socialism is the ascendant ideology on the fringe right. For a long time in the US the dominant culture on the right-wing fringe was some flavor of christian fundamentalism (ex. Christian Identity) and/or hyper-individualist libertarian/survivalist/anti-government (militia movement) and that is no longer the case. The current zeitgeist of right-wing extremism is Hitler and co.

>I think white identitarianism on the right (which isn't an issue per se) has a lot to do with it. When you point out the distinction between Old Testament Jews and the spiritual/biological lineage of the Jews today, these people will just say cope. Or they'll say that whites shouldn't care about this distinction because it's still Jews at the end of the day, in which case, they can't really give a coherent explanation as to why Jews are/became so evil.
First, this contemporary hostility to Christianity in some right-wing circles is because Christianity is viewed as fundamentally and intractably philosemitic - it can't be reformed so it has to be discarded. This is not a new idea in right-wing circles by any stretch of the imagination, even antedating Positive Christianity. Second and in the same vein, their disdain for Jews is secular because they're not trying to reconcile their personal anti-semitism with their institutional philosemitism and so "Jews are demonic" has as much weight to them as "Jews are God's chosen people". These people want to see Jews machine-gunned into pits because they blame them for Paris looking increasingly like Mogadishu and couldn't care less whether or not the Jews killed christ.

>It's also extraordinarily ahistorical for them to argue, as some do, that Western civilisation flourished in spite of its Christianity.
The "if it wasn't for cucktianity we'd be kangz" crowd is mostly just rebadged fedora-ism. Generally speaking the people who subscribe to the "de-Abrahamization" school of thought described above don't tend to make any sort of political point out of it because it's firmly in the domain of historical debate and irrelevant to contemporary political issues That's not to say that these people don't have opinions on the topic or are unaware of the history and philosophy of Christianity in Europe but there isn't a monolithic opinion on the subject.

>>23108753
The discussion concerning Byzantium goes in two directions. Either that it's not a genuine continuation of the Roman Empire, or that Christianity stifled the technological and cultural "progress" that Roman was previously contributing to the Western world. Both views are laughable. Kaldellis' new book on the Byzantine Empire (recommended above) refutes the former argument entirely. He shows quite clearly that the Roman seat of power was already shifting eastward under the tetrarchy and the notion of "Rome" was not associated with city itself per se. For the latter argument to be true, you need to show a causal link between the Christian faith and the stifling of such developments, likely leading you the fedoraism that this anon has mentioned >>23113719.
>>23113719
Some great observations here, thanks anon. I definitely agree that critiques of Christianity on the basis of its Hebrew roots are not old ones. My point was more towards the recent ascendancy of Nazism in far right circles which you have given a good account of. It's interesting because there was a time when more people were saying that a return to monarchism and pre-Enlightenment society, albeit adapted for our times, is the solution. Though, it seems that this way of thinking has fallen out of favour. It's interesting how quickly things come in and out of vogue so quickly these days, especially give some have made the argument that Nazism is a child of the Enlightenment just as much as communism et al. are. I think the furthering of antisemitic discourse has definitely contributed to this. I'm not one to clutch pearls on such discussions however - I'm not a fan the Jews by any stretch. Nevertheless, I think that the advocacy for Nazism reflects an emergent trend towards a certain secularism on the far right. Obviously one's metaphysics will affect whether you accept this or not, but I also think one's anthropology will have a significant impact as well. This latter point is under-discussed in my view.

>>23079235
One minute this Hitler guy is a fag, the next he's a bonafide carpet muncher. Why can't they make up their minds?

>>23113791
>>23113719
>its Hebrew roots are not old ones
Are not new I meant

>>23113794
Jews will throw whatever at a wall and hope it sticks. Anyway, normies aren't known for caring about consistent narratives. 2020-2021 was proof of that

>>23081384
So is introducing young people to sex and fucking strangers in the ass in public a good thing or a bad thing? I'm getting mixed messages from our corporate overlords.

Gonna get a copy of this.

>>23113858
man 1500s was a wild time in Germany

>>23113858
kek this is literally written by a neet.
i respect the hustle tho.

>>23081480
>Antony Beevor
a hack who uses wikipedia articles as source material

>>23114145
qrd?

>>23114154
the first pages in Beevor's "the second world war" is a cock and bull story about some korean dude who never existed. for details see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR0kM6xj3S4

>>23108237
The problem with Holland is that he writes from a kike lovers perspective and his theories are pandering to redditors, his theory that Muhammad was not real is stupid, he was real and fucked 9 year old girls and sucked boy cock. My point is that Holland dismantles genuine historical work by filling it with his useless ideology and I hate that shit, no matter if its left or right. Let people make their own decisions after learning about historical facts and give them a good, but truthful relation of these facts. Tom Holland hardly works from source material and uses mostly other's works to base his own works on.

>>23113791
>especially give some have made the argument that Nazism is a child of the Enlightenment just as much as communism et al. are.
Argument? It's self-evident and anyone claiming otherwise either has an agenda or is ignorant.

>>23114803
To be fair I haven’t seen many self-proclaimed Nazis or Nazi sympathisers make that link. The irony of proponents of Nazism is that they’re products of the same historical movement that produced the modernity they complain about. I wonder to what extent they just love the aesthetics of it

>>23115736
>I wonder to what extent they just love the aesthetics of it

>>23115736
>To be fair I haven’t seen many self-proclaimed Nazis or Nazi sympathisers make that link.
Around here? Yeah, not too many - political philosophy has by and large been a garbage fire on 4chan for the last decades unless you manage to slip a high-effort discussion past the mods and under the radar of trolls on a board where it's not supposed to be. In other online spaces, this was and is not the case. At any rate and just like with any other flavor of politics, I would personally draw a distinction between the invested and the fellow travelers. For every self-proclaimed communist whose understanding of Marxism is "communism is when there are no police and LGBTQ+ and BIPOC folx get reparations for generational trauma and the less police you have and the more money they get the communist-er it is" you have a self-proclaimed nazi whose understanding of National Socialism is "fascism is when you gas nigs and trannies and the more nigs and trannies you gas the fascist-er it is". It's an occupational hazard of drawing teenagers like flies, especially on the internet.

>The irony of proponents of Nazism is that they’re products of the same historical movement that produced the modernity they complain about.
Oh, absolutely. As with any flavor of political extremism with youth appeal the masses tend to be along for the ride with a skin-deep understanding of what they profess or its history or underpinnings due to a lack of grounding and/or investment. More to the point, they don't know what modernism (or National Socialism, really) IS and are generally not well-read overall. Sometimes this is understandable (in the case of the aforementioned teenagers, for example) but you also have people out there who have aggressively preserved their surface-level understanding for one reason or another.

>I wonder to what extent they just love the aesthetics of it
A significant chunk, especially if you include the shock value under aesthetics.

Also:
>This latter point is under-discussed in my view
Secular and under-stated anti-semitism is such a spicy meatball that it's rarely discussed in the mainstream, in my opinion for fear of exposure. It's very easy to dismiss anti-semitism coming from a Christian or Muslim or "Jews are shape-shifting aliens" perspective out of hand - oy vey this is just the old blood libel/arab butthurt/schizo ramblings; pay these people no attention - but when you can't do so you have to engage with their points and in doing so you risk lending your opponent credence if you can't completely refute them. The closest that the media comes to that same kind of out-of-hand dismissal is shrieking about ovens and lampshades whenever a convenient strawman pops up but that strategy has been steadily losing steam for a long time now. They can't really address claims like "Jews control Hollywood and for evidence here's some famous Jews talking about their control of Hollywood" without getting into "yes, but" territory with their answers

>>23093157

>>23093157
Kino

>>23081384
The Hitler saga has to be the greatest rags to riches to rags story ever. He's like the Mike Tyson of derranged white guys minus the redemption through DMT part.

>>23112373
Good but the first one is by far the best. The other two while having their moments were really just running off fumes from the first. During his actual presidency I found the foreign affairs with China, Japan, and Panama to be more interesting than domestic, and about half of the last book is honestly just depressing. TR can at least console himself though that he still came out better than Wilson at the end of Wilson’s term and in the public eye all the way till now. I agree with HL Mencken’s opinion that in fact if he lived his finest days may still have been ahead of him as an elder statesman but it wasn’t to be

>>23115736
presumably the idea is that you'd get the good of the enlightenment (technology, science, reason) without the bad (secularization, despair, etc). that said nazism was itself a retarded secular cult that most underage brown wignats wouldn't last a day in, at least get some taste and choose national syndicalism or something.

>>23114213
>DEBUNKED BY MUH YOUTUBER
kek

>>23116166
There’s significant overlap between tradlarpers and now the resurgence of internet Nazis, especially given that the former trend has more or less died out. As you said, the crux of it is superficiality - people thinking that fags and trannies are the problem rather than identifying them as symptoms of more nefarious undercurrents. It comes back to the capacity for someone to appreciate the genealogy of ideas vs just having a myopic understanding of the ills of modernity. How many of these people will read de Maistre or Pobedonostsev? As I said, the metaphysics of communism aren’t a whole lot different to those of Nazism and your secularism will come back to haunt you sooner or later.

In any case, I think cracks are finally starting to show in Jewish power given that we’re becoming increasingly removed from the historical events that they use as a cudgel against any dissent. There’s some cause for optimism but I really don’t know whether they’ll just find a way to reconsolidate. I think them playing up certain right wing talking points in a kosher way is on the cards
>>23116541
Love me some Franco

>>23116814
>Franco
Also, aware your picrel is Portugal

>>23116814
>. How many of these people will read de Maistre or Pobedonostsev?
Any other reqs?

>>23117907
Nicolas Gomez Davila
Ivan Ilyin
Chesterton
Schmitt
Robert Filmer

>>23116570
>BASELESS CLAIMS GOOD
>EXAMINATION OF BASELESS CLAIMS BAD BECAUSE... BECAUSE IT'S ON VIDEO
kek indeed