/lit/ - Literature

For me, it’s Tom holland, who even though does not have a phd, does have Greek and Latin so is actually an authority on classical history. You can argue against this but it just makes you mad as hell at his success. By the way check out my podcast, the rest is history

Currently reading Henry I - penguin monarchs
I was planning to read Henry series in particular order

>>23135818
This and his bio of Light Horse Harry Lee as well as A Revolutionary People at War all surprised me. He has become my favorite dark horse American historian. Pic rel is a series of 6 or so long form essays, the first of which concerns the sacking of Columbia, SC. Though it's a little weak on Jackson (Cozzens and Guthrie will deliver a balanced portrait of him) I've never experienced a more genuine assessment of Sherman --no surprise that Royster edited the Library of America volume of Sherman's Memoirs after reading this, one of the best books on the war I've read.

>>23135828
This is the most pathetic endorsement I have ever read

Underrated book imo and the author reads some excerpts on his youtube channel. He has a great voice for audiobooks.

The Oregon Trail

>>23136648
This looks very interesting

Anyone know something good about Berlin? Ideally not just about Nazi times. English oder Deutsch..

interesting sideplot in the story of America and England

>>23137995
I can only think of Berlin: Portrait of a City which is a coffee table book by Taschen

Challenge for the Pacific: Guadalcanal: The Turning Point of the War

>In August 1942, after suffering a series of humiliating defeats, inflicted by a nation not much bigger than California, the Allies seized the initiative in their first offensive of the Pacific War. Nicknamed "Operation Shoestring," this unprecedented joint-services campaign involved both ground fighting, air combat, and naval clashes, including two carrier battles. For six months Allied and Japanese forces fought night and day in a ferocious struggle for possession of a tiny ramshackle airfield in the middle of the malarial, pest-ridden jungle of a little-known island called Guadalcanal. Robert Leckie, a decorated machine-gunner and scout with the First Marine Division, fought on Guadalcanal. His own experiences as well as those of other combatants—both Allied and Japanese—add immeasurably to the impact of this sweeping narrative. Leckie describes how the exceptional tenacity and courage of ordinary men transformed a campaign of uncertain outcome into one of the most decisive Allied victories of the war, a military triumph that, against formidable odds, decimated Japan's navy and air force, forever shattering her grand strategy and the myth of Japanese invincibility.

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 - Tony Judt

Reading it right now

>>23135818
this is legitimately one of the worst-written books i have ever had the misfortune of reading

>>23137288
history of france and england in america is also excellent

Are there any good history books on Holland/the Dutch people in english?

>>23135818
American Revolution Overviews

>>23140597
American Civil War Overviews

Incredible book and probably the best history of the First Crusade.

>>23139939
Aside from reading Huizinga in English (Autumn of the Middle Ages, which is a fabulous book) I've also read pic rel, which is good.

>nuclear launch codes protocols are fucked
>nuclear fallout is fucked
>nuclear retaliation is fucked
>we've come close to a cuban missile crisis far more than once
probably one of the most terrifying things Ive ever read

>>23138578
I would also recommend 1946

>>23138616
always good to get the anglo-jewish perspective on germanic history

>>23141274
Revolution 1989 by the same author is also quite good.

>>23135818
What are some good books to learn about the cold war?

>>23142056
Yawn

>>23139462
that's unfortunate, i was looking forward to reading it. could you explain what you didn't like about the writing?

>>23142229
it's repetitive and unfocused. like, caro will repeat things he's written earlier almost verbatim in way that makes it seem like he's unaware that he's already written it. it honestly felt like he wrote every section in one shot and never reread anything. the robert moses book could easily be 1/3 the length and not sacrifice anything. there's a few really excellent parts but not enough to make up for slogging through hundreds of pages of sub-mediocrity

>>23135818
Plan on reading this real soon

>>23140597
The same Robert leckie as profiled in The Pacific?

>>23139939
Jan de Vries' "The first modern economy".

>>23135818
Requesting History on the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

>>23142457
Yeah, it's as if in the Moses book he's learning to write biography; aar still a fledgeling there, or that was my feeling when comparing it to LBJ, which *is* more polished. One instance of the repetitiveness of which you note concerns Caro's incessant mentions of Moses' relationship with his father as perhaps being responsible for this breach of etiquette, that breach of law, etc. etc. etc.
t. dif anon

>>23137288
That book has a very misleading title, but it's a great read. Parkman should be far more popular then he is.

>>23143849
>The same Robert leckie as profiled in The Pacific?
Yes, he's a great military history writer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Leckie_(author)

>>23138046
Ha, thanks, but I actually already bought and then gave away that one. Somewhat disappointed by it, to tell the truth. There were a handful of cool pictures, but not as many as I expected and not much substantive history to go along with it

>>23138076
I loved helmet for my pillow. I'll have to read this sometime.

>>23142135
Right, it’s always boring shit they write

>>23135818
Recently got my Grandfather a copy of "The Great Game" for Christmas and decided to pick up a copy of Alexander Morrison's "Russian Conquest of Central Asia" so we can have something to talk about at dinner next time I visit him

>>23145008
Berlin: Biographie einer großen Stadt, Jens Bisky (2019) seems to have good reviews

Bad news "The Landmark Polybius
The Federation and Conquest of the Greek States" was supposed to be released this year but it has been pushed to 2026... we have to wait some more.

>>23145680
:(
I was looking forward to that one. Landmark books are always quality

>>23144126
No one?

>>23144126
>>23146865
They were just friends but Becky says Ronald totally like likes Margaret but it’s only a rumor.

>>23146872
Huh

>>23135818

>>No Braudel
>>No Chaudhuri
>> 1 Caro
>> No Sugata Bose
>> No CLR James
>> No Shakespeare history plays
>> No American founders primary source collections (LOA editions)
>> Bunch of cosplay fanfic tier civil war history
>> ngmi

>>23135818
Good economic history?

>>23148204
Pirenne, Braudel, Cippola, Le Roy Ladurie, Labrousse

>>23135818
Can someone recommend me some more books about the Russian civil war?

>>23147105
I read The Black Jacobins by CLR James and that was great.
Do you have any more authors to recommend?
I also like Mike Davis' history books

>>23138076
Fuck I can't believe these epic wars actually happened. Imagine being shipped off to fight Japanese people on some fucking rock in the middle of the ocean with planes flying over dropping bombs and people torching each other with flame throwers.

>>23138616
>did I mention Hitler was LE CRAZY WEIRDO?
>Ok now back to how he almost took over Europe
>But remember he was actually really dumb and silly

>>23149592
>Hitler was gay
>Hitler was trans
>Hitler had one testicle
>Hitler was a terrible painter
>Hitler was a drug addict
>Hitler was a BIG MEAN STUPID POOPOO HEAD

>>23149592
>>23149641
Shut up, I'm not stupid.

>>23135870
>the destructive war
Aren't wars inherently destructive? Who was this subliterate's editor? They should both be beheaded.

what is the best book early and mid (or in its entirety) parts of the british empire?
preferrably not postmodernist

I'm a few chapters in Durant's series, and I really enjoy his telling of prehistory in a semi-connected fashion so far. His perspective on civilization being born from a line of conditions is very interesting to me as someone rusty on the subject, and the prose is enjoyable.
That being said, I hear it glosses over some historical events in history or states some inaccuracies; it's a bit old (1930s-70s) which may be detrimental to newer findings. Is it still worth trucking through this despite that, if I merely want to learn the largest parts of civilization and not necessarily the lesser details?

>>23149865
>historical events in history
Sorry.

>>23135828
>does have Greek and Latin
So did retarded Welsh 12 year olds in 1800.

These are... I dunno how to describe em. They're a collection of fictionalizations of various snapshots in history pertaining to broadly Modern surgery and how it took its place in the world. Starting from borderline witch doctor levels of efficacy to altering the human condition overall.

I wish there was a work like that, but for archival historian research and/or archeology. I'm hankering for ideas in that area for my own writings. I'd write some short stories like those, but they'd probably have to be fictional...

>>23149681
>Who was...?
I guess ignorance can't help but flaunt its ineptitude. What a world

>>23148211
Thanks. I found a few

The Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453 - Desmond Seward

>For over a hundred years England repeatedly invaded France on the pretext that her kings had a right to the French throne. France was a large, unwieldy kingdom and English kings were overlords of it's south-western coastline, Guyenne. England was small and poor, but for most of those 'hundred years' she won the battles, sacked the towns and castles, and dominated the War. France was devastated by repeated burning of crops, raiding, murder and looting. For the English, the War became a way of life and the financial rewards were high. Ordinary soldiers as well as nobility made fortunes from ransom and plunder. Great houses were built with the spoils of war, many of which adorn England today.

>The Hundred Years war lasted from 1337, when Edward III formally claimed the throne of France, to 1453 when (with Normandy lost after an English occupation of 30 years) the last stronghold in Guyenne, which had been English for three centuries finally fell. The debacle took only four years, and England - accustomed to such glorious victories as Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt - could scarcely believe her defeat. (English royalty continued to use the title King or Queen of France until 1802.)

The Good War: An Oral History of World War II - Studs Terkel

>In The Good War Terkel presents the good, the bad, and the ugly memories of World War II from a perspective of forty years of after the events. No matter how gruesome the memories are, relatively few of the interviewees said they would have been better off without the experience. It was a central and formative experience in their lives. Although 400,000 Americans perished, the United States itself was not attacked again after Pearl Harbor, the economy grew, and there was a new sense of world power that invigorated the country. Some women and African Americans experienced new freedoms in the post war society, but good life after World War II was tarnished by the threat of nuclear war.

>>23151465
I've read that. I also recommend these two

>>23144155
actually his mother, but i agree. just over and over again. and personally i feel like playing psychologist when you're writing a biography is just bad writing. it's just polemic at that point, what's the point of writing a biography at all?

>>23151465
I actually got this for Christmas, its on my reading list.

Actually a fairly entertaining and historically accurate read

>>23145680
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the only book release I was looking forward this year

>>23147105
>No Shakespeare history plays
That’s history fiction, not history.

>>23135818

>A Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence.

I am not usually interested in history books, but the travelogue nature of it is fairly compelling and entertaining.

>>23152675
I want to brutally torture the reviewer Richard Pipes and his family, and kill them all afterwards.

>>23152710
You a Stalinist or something? I have him on the itinerary after Orlando Figes and Neil Faulkners books on the Soviet Union.

>>23150881
can you describe more? so its basically historical fiction to chronicle the progress of surgery? this shit is so expensive on ebay

>>23152929
Yes. It takes pivotal or poignant moments, often associated with the pioneers of the field, and fictionalizes a snapshot in medical history. There's also some overarching commentary between all that, I think. I haven't read it in perhaps 15 years... I have grown old. Great.

This thread also prompted me to find a decade-old purchase, pircrel. I'll have to finally read this one.

>>23135818
Recs about pre-modern Central Asia/Steppe cultures and the Decolonization of Africa? For the latter everything just looks like CRT bullshit and I just want something on what actually happened

>>23152956
ok thanks. how come you're into all this medical stuff? you a doctor?

>>23153127
When young, I wanted to go into molecular biology, but science was dismal (historical research even more so). These are all just setting craft subjects to me.

Do you know of anything that is historically materialist without the retarded marxist baggage? Economic conditions and class warfare as the exclusive movers of history seems a reasonable enough idea to me, moreso than any of its competitors, but almost all books written from such a perspective are accompanied by moralizing retardation that I don't care for. Apparently the annales historians are something like this but I haven't read anything from them.

>>23153175
"historical materialism" seems to be just the application of Marxian autism to historical sources. You'd probably have to start by finding a different term. Material culture or some such.

As far as non-fiction goes, Against The Grain sounded promising. Judging by the 1st 2 hours I've listened to the audiobook, anyway. Uruk the First World System also sounded promising, but that's more dry and scholarly.

as for actual novels, I don't think anybody would even attempt to realistically flesh out an old civilization's material foundations. It's all smoke and mirrors.

>>23152970
>Recs about pre-modern Central Asia/Steppe cultures

>>23152335
Same for me... 2 years+ is a lot. I've been reading chinese and japanese history lately but was waiting to get back to Greek/Roman with polybius but i'll have to wait more.

>>23153472
>japanese history lately
I remember that dude who slammed over 50 books in one of these threads

>>23152970
>Decolonization of Africa
The Fate of Africa - Martin Meredith

History of the Waterloo Campaign by Captain W. Siborne

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58268

>>23154566
I was there I remember. I'm reading Imperial china from mote right now, and have one generalistic japanese history one right after from french author Souyri. I enjoy reading physical a lot more for history for some reasons. Just get more in depths for specific subjects i'm really into with books I can't find/buy online. I wish something like landmark existed for asia history but I don't speak enough languages to really find any. I got other things to read to wait for polybius but reading less and better is what i'm going for I have 2 carl sagan's books lined up after i'm done with the big history ones not sure what to get after so i'm looking in this thread to find inspirations.

The Oera Linda
The Shahanshah

>>23153260
Isn’t this more anthropology than history?

>>23151819
Dang, it's only been 5 years, and I've transposed parents. I'm too young to be slipping, anon, but nonetheless appreciate the correction. I did expect more from that bio

>>23156027
It's been all technology (fire, making flood plains, storing) with some attention to its impact on man as far as I bothered with it

Anyone know any good books about the history of post-war Japan?

>>23135818
im 100 pages into this book and im getting impatient. can you give the main tricks robert moses used to gain power in politics?

Anyone know a good history book about computers?

>>23156945
Never read the book, though I remember listening to a couple podcasts about Robert Moses. One of the guests tried to take a nuanced perspective, and suggested that the Power Broker was overly critical of a man who actually managed to complete many major infrastructural projects mostly on time and on budget. Moses and his legacy stands in stark contrast to ongoing jokes like CA HSR project which does all the "nice" things like using minority owned businesses, environmental reviews, inspecting for indian burial grounds, etc. Leftists will say he's racist or whatever because freeways separated white and black neighborhoods, yet seem completely ungrateful that we actually have freeways at all.

More to your point, he made friends in high places, centralized his power whenever possible, and navigated legal landscape effectively. Much like major figures today, he knew how to manipulate the media and handle PR. He also managed to motivate many of the men who worked for him with grand visions that they are building things equivalent to modern cathedrals. Moreover, most workers were unionized and felt properly respected and compensated.

>>23135818
goes into great depth on the people, chemistry, physics, politics and history. the best 'single topic' nonfiction imo.
Black Sun is likewise very good.

>>23147105
>Braudel
I've reda Mediterranean in the Times of Phillip II and the first volume of Capitalism and Civilization.

Both of those books, and specially Cap and Civ, literally changed my brain chemistry. History really is the most important social science.

>>23153175
Read Braudel's Capitalism and Civilization and the Mediterranean. That is the kind of historical materialism you need.

Also consider Wallerstein's Modern World-System (the four volumes). In his other works he tries a little bit more of that moralizing. But not in here, although it's very scholarly.

>>23157490
I just have World Systems Theory the book

>>23157523
Like the introduction? The one that is like 150 pages or so?

I mean that's more theoretical, it's an introduction to understand his other work. It's an easy read and it has some historical elements to it, but his 4 volumes are probably more what you are looking for, specially since he outlays a historical foundation for his idea of a system with a clear division of labor (core, semiperiphery and periphery).

I would say give it a go and if it convinces you go for the four volumes (the most important ones are the first two though).

>>23152335
>>23145680
I'll be 30 when that book comes out. Been waiting for years. Grim.

>>23157300
Nolan's reddit movie kind of soured my interest in this topic

>>23157154

>>23157548
Possibly but I’d have to look

>>23157548
Yeah it’s an introduction, though the individual volumes are pricey might have to pirate them

>>23157674
We are the same age anon I feel you

>>23157749
You guys are kids

>>23157816
Strassler will die before me so I should be able to get the last landmarks before I die not sure if anyone will continue the series when he's done i'll get sad when we learn about it hope he finish the books he's working on before it happens.

>>23135818
Thoughts in Bruce Catton?

>>23135818
Thoughts on Bruce Catton?

>>23157859
2nd volume of his straight up Civil War trio-- solid, fun to read.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It goes into a lot of detail about all of the emperor’s wars and campaigns. It is 1200 pages and includes very good maps. Good starting point if you are really into the Napoleonic Wars.

>>23158006
Is the Army of the Potomac trilogy worth reading?

>>23158097
If the war in Virginia interests you specifically, yes. Catton's at his literary high water mark in that one according to critics, although, desu, the Grant trio as well as the Civil War one are every bit as good. He's just a marvelous, evocative writer.

books on gooning?

>>23158097
Yes, it's absolutely worth reading. Had the honor of meeting a true legend in American Civil War studies, Dr. Gary W. Gallagher. I greatly enjoyed his talk about Bruce Catton's Army of the Potomac Trilogy re-released in a single volume edition from Library of America edited by Dr. Gallagher.

>>23158381
huh?

These are by far the best threads on /lit/. Thank you all for not being degenerates.

>>23157859
He's excellent, his best books are the centennial history of the Civil War series (very comprehensive and insightful) and This Hallowed Ground (very concise and well written).

https://www.goodreads.com/series/72318-the-centennial-history-of-the-civil-war

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11624676-this-hallowed-ground

>>23135818
If you had to choose between these two historiographic schools which would you choose and why? Annales school or German historicism?

>>23137969
What is it about? If it is his supposed biography , then I rather read the Motorcycle diaries by Guevara he was writing during his years in med school when he traveled around south America and Spain.

these niggas had robots

>>23160506

>>23157679
this obsession you people have with reddit is the strangest pathology.

>>23157688
absolutely confused that they gave this a pulitzer. it spends so much ink emphasizing personal drama etc and basically ignores the actual machine.
it's not shit, but it's not good either.

>>23158383
Anon, easy on the burgers.

Very interesting and quick read about a guy in northern Italy during the 1500s who invented his own weird cosmology that probably had ancient pre-Christian roots.

>>23153172
I'm a molecular biologist and I hate it because I'm painfully mediocre.

>>23163087
Well, at least that one's teeny tiny
Can be read in a few hours, if
Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle is equally as short, non demanding, and marginally 'rewarding,' i.e. I liked, too

>>23160506
Seems like a fun book, is it good?