/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.1275028]

Can you tell me what your favourite non-fiction books are? And maybe give a little summary and what you thought about it. I'm making a list.

[Anonymous No.1275220]

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

[Anonymous No.1275232]

Borges - The Total Library: Non-fiction, 1922-1986

Pretty much the best collection of essays there is.

Miller - The Colossus of Maroussi

The best travelogue I've read, and it ties in really well with my Grecophilia.

[Anonymous No.1275627]

Give me memoirs.

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1275665]

The First World War by John Keegan
I'll only explain the ones that don't have self-explanatory titles.

Gulag by Anne Applebaum

Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 by Fred Anderson

The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War by Fred Anderson

The Campaigns of Alexander by Arrian
A Roman hostorian's account of the campaigns of Alexander the Great.

The Battle: A New History of Waterloo by Alessandro Barbero
A book about the battle that famously marked the downfall of Napoleon (on event often alluded to in literature)

The War of the Austrian Succession by Reed S. Browning

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
A passionate Irishman's account of the crucial roll of some medieval Irish monks in European history.

The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle

The Memoirs of Catherine the Great by Catherine II Romanov

Japan at War: An Oral History by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook
Japan - WWII

1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley

City of Djinns by William Dalrymple

From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple

White Mughals by William Dalrymple

The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple

1215: The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger

Big Bang by Simon Singh

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku

Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku

Migraine by Oliver Sacks

Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks

The Middle Ages by Morris Bishop

A People’s Tragedy by Orlando Figes
This is about the Russian Revolution.

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1275668]

Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia by Orlando Figes

The Russian Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick

Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s by Sheila Fitzpatrick

St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography by Philip Freeman

Julius Caesar by Philip Freeman

Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda

In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire by Adrian Goldsworthy

Caesar: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy

Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C. by Peter Green

A Writer at War: A Soviet Journalist with the Red Army, 1941-1945 by Vasily Grossman

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians by Peter Heather

The Histories by Herodotus
Greek historian from the 5th century B.C.E.

1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth

The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

The Second World War by John Keegan
Winston Churchill by John Keegan

Truman by David McCullough

John Adams by David McCullough

1776 by David McCullough

Tibet by Thomas Laird

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1275671]

A Country of Vast Designs by Robert W. Merry
This deals with the presidency of James K. Polk

Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Russia under the Old Regime by Richard Pipes

The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes

Russia under the Bolshevik Regime by Richard Pipes

A Concise History of the Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes

Communism: A History by Richard Pipes

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson

Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
An essential read about the oppression of women in the modern world

Plutarch's Lives
Another "old" historian. His complete works are available in two volumes published by Modern Library Classics

Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick

For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose

Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power by Virginia Rounding

The History of Alexander by Quintus Curtius Rufus
Another "old" work on Alexander the Great (in case you can't tell, I totally like Alexander the Great and Russian history - among other things)

The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
Another "old" historian

Tolstoy by Henri Troyat
Henri Troyat was an extremely famous French writer.

Catherine the Great by Henri Troyat

Spices: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner

The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin's Russia by Tim Tzouliadis

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford

The Thirty Years War by C. V. Wedgwood

Tolstoy by A. N. Wilson

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1275687]

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

The Three-Volume Set about the Civil War (of America) by Shelby Foote
I haven't read this. It's super expensive and looooong. Apparently, it's because it's saturated with meticulous detail. Pretty much everything about the Civil War is in there. Word of mouth tells me it's good, but again, I haven't read it.

The Thirty Years’ War: Europe’s Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson

The Persian Expedition by Xenophon
One more "old" historian

A History of My Times by Xenophon

Moscow 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March by Adam Zamoyski

Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman by Stefan Zweig
He was a great Austrian writer. I recommend his fiction as well (Beware of Pity and Chess Story)

1812: The War That Forged a Nation by Walter R. Borneman

The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America by Walter R. Borneman

Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter R. Borneman

Rival Rails: The Race to Build America's Greatest Transcontinental Railroad by Walter R. Borneman

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1275706]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

1812: War with America by Jon Latimer

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
Her biography on Ted Bundy

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
Memoirs by a psychiatrist, herself

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Cod by Mark Kurlansky

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Greeks by H. D. F. Kitto

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler

Country Driving by Peter Hessler

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1275711]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

1812: War with America by Jon Latimer

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
Her biography on Ted Bundy

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
Memoirs by a psychiatrist, herself

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Cod by Mark Kurlansky

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Greeks by H. D. F. Kitto

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China by Peter Hessler

Country Driving by Peter Hessler

We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch

[Anonymous No.1275755]

My god.

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.1275759]

This is incredible, I've been looking for a list like this for quite some time.

Tip of the hat to you, good sir.

[Anonymous No.1275779]

If you are going to read history, look for authors like Braudel + Burkhardt. These are not fellows who rely upon (or particularly believe in) a political interpretation of history (e.g. the annals of the prince say this is how or why something happened, so it must have been that way) but rather choose to excavate the past in all its mundane and excruciatingly uninterpreted detail and get some sense of how these facts related to everyday life (Braudel) and thereby get to the 'reality', else postulate an overarching theme or 'spirit of the age' and see how well the players within the period exemplify (or repudiate) what they say about themselves, what others have said about them (even today), and in this way come to an interpretation of history suggestive of what 'really' happened (Burkhardt).

For example:

Civilization and Capitalism 15th-18th Century (3 vols) by Fernand Braudel - An exhaustive exposition and analysis of 'material life' during this period that draws an immense portrait of the economic reality using extremely small scale details, and tracks the subtle, graduated changes that gave rise to modern forms of finance, capitalism, industrialization and later western civilization.

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burkhardt - He explores how the personalities and conditions in Renaissance Italy gave rise to the first of the 'modern' peoples: self-conscious and aware of their own individuality, the 'discovery' of nature, antiquity, political and economic organization, artistic and scientific achievement. Broadly thematic, he draws out a portrait often at odds with the portrayal the actors often thought themselves caught up in, and differing from many naive later interpretations of the period.

[Oscar !!mZ1qZX7uX1g No.1275794]

The Baader-Meinhof Complex

A chronicle of the RAF reign of terror.

[Anonymous No.1275814]

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman
Imagine if all those thoughts you had when you got stoned were actually as brilliant as you thought they were. That's what reading Klosterman is like.

Blood and Grits by Harry Crews
This one might be out of print, but few people can capture the feeling of a place better than this man. Harry Crews will make you feel like you can kick your dad's ass.

The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders
Get this for the title essay, if nothing else. It's maybe the most intelligent (and concise, and disarming, and hilarious, and and and...) breakdown of the dissemination of stupidity in the media.

Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil
An oral history of the birth of punk rock. You'll read about Iggy Pop catching VD from Nico, Lou Reid's doodoo fetish, and more heroin than you can imagine, but somewhere along the way the book will sink its hooks in and have you in tears.

That's what I've got for you so far. I could dig into the memoirs and such, but any list on the internet is probably going to give you the same ones that I would.

[Anonymous No.1276664]

Bumping for the good of the people.

[Anonymous No.1276665]

Night by Eddie Weizel
(ah hahahaha...I always get a kick out of that one)

[Anonymous No.1277359]

[Anonymous No.1277919]

bump, copy and paste it hoes

[Anonymous No.1278211]

[Anonymous No.1278484]

[Anonymous No.1278490]

Anyone have any recommendations for a history on the French Revolution?

[Anonymous No.1278497]

>>1278490
The Coming of the French Revolution by Georges Lefebvre

[Anonymous No.1278500]

>>1278497
Thanks, seems good.

[Anonymous No.1278512]

>>1278490

The Terror by David Andress. It's a very balanced book, which is sort of rare.

[Anonymous No.1278517]

Rob Fisk covers the 20th century politics of the Middle East, drawing on his 30 years' direct experience of it as a reporter for The Times and The Independent newspapers.

[Anonymous No.1279293]

>>1278490
The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
[Which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts]

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1279294]

>>1278490
The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
[Which I mentioned in one of my earlier posts]

[Anonymous No.1279297]

>>1275627
My Just War: The Memoir of a Jewish Red Army Soldier

"Temkin fled Poland for the Soviet Union after its partition in 1939. He was drafted into the Red Army and served initially in a labor battalion, but was soon captured by the Germans. After a harrowing escape, he was rescued by the Red Army, which he joined again. During the next two years he fought in many of the campaigns that helped liberate the Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary from the Nazis. This book is not intended as an overview of the battles, but is confined to one man's observations of the cataclysmic events that would shape the world for the next 50 years. It is not for the faint-hearted, for the author describes in great detail the horrors he witnessed and the hardships he endured."

[juxtaposer !6eo0Cr.dwA No.1279305]

In Cold Blood-Truman Capote did the true-crime novel first and he did it best.

Ten Days that Shook the World-American Socialist's account of the Bolshevik Revolution. It takes a little background knowledge to get into but its pretty interesting and includes text from speeches and pamphlets and newspapers.

Voices From Chernobyl-This one also takes some background knowledge of the Chernobyl disaster to get into. It focuses less on numbers and dates and more about the emotional effects of the disaster. Sad book, but worth the read.

Right now I'm about halfway through the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Its a total hipster book, but it gives a good look into the mindset of the people in the hippie movement and sometimes you do come across some really great insight about life from time to time. Some parts have been funny as hell.

[Anonymous No.1279310]

A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift

[Anonymous No.1279385]

Does anyone know of any WWII or Cold War espionage?

[Arcueid Brunestud !ARCIkc4cG6 No.1279396]

>>1279385

>asked Vladimir Putin, scowling darkly.

[Anonymous No.1279401]

Atlas Shrugged and Twilight.

[Anonymous No.1279405]

>>1279385

WW2
Agent Zigzag: The True Wartime Story of Eddie Chapman - great book, the subject is a legend.


attached is all my non-fic, i read/have read a lot of it (pic is also old, i have another shelf fulll now). No real favourites, sorry.

[Anonymous No.1279427]

Well Vlad, the is:

A Man Called Intrepid - William Stevenson

Stevenson was the official archivist for the Office of Strategic Services during WWII, and after the OSS files became declassified in the 70's he edited them and released this book.

Keep in mind the book does paint the OSS in a favorable light, being written from the perspective of a former member, but it is much more accurate and reliable than the fiction that has been written about spying during WWII

[Anonymous No.1279473]

Bears

[Anonymous No.1279482]

What-if books written in a non-fiction perspective are also acceptable.

[Anonymous No.1279493]

On war - Clausewitz

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Preset - Michael Oren

Napoléon - Hachette

The last one is a compilation of information from a whole slew of French and English authors. The book is in French though, probably not worth reading if you don't speak French.

[Anonymous No.1279538]

The Assassination of Julius Caesar by Michael Parenti

Hannibal by Theodore Ayrault Dodge

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson

Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears

The Age of Extremes by Eric Hobsbawm

Stalin: Man of History by Ian Grey

Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 by Geoffrey Roberts

Origins of the Great Purges by J. Arch Getty

The Road to Terror by J. Arch Getty

Red Star Over China by Edgar Snow

The Battle for China's Past by Mobo Gao

The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village by Dongping Han

Some of Us: Chinese Women Growing Up in the Mao Era by Xueping Zhong, Zheng Wang, Bai Di

A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

[Anonymous No.1279544]

If you like U.S. History, anything by David McCullough is great.
Also, just recently read "Maus" and "Maus II" which are excellent nonfiction graphic novels about the holocaust.

[Anonymous No.1279872]

Anyone know of WWI nonfiction?

[Anonymous No.1279880]

old testament

[Anonymous No.1279918]

>>1279872

related (somewhat) is a pamphlet by General Smedley Butler entitled "War Is A Racket." easily found online-read it. read about him. rad dude.

[Anonymous No.1280872]

[Anonymous No.1281112]

Dear OP, you wouldn't happen to have any of these wonderful titles online, or links maybe?

[Anonymous No.1281144]

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston is something every American should read. It's basically about how extremely wealthy people and corporations have exploited taxpayers and consumers for their own immense personal profit in the most hypocritical ways you could ever imagine. Also worth checking out Perfectly Legal by the same author, even though it's a few years old now. It's about how screwed up the US tax system is. Subsidies and taxes may not sound like the sexiest topics in the world but these are really great books. Doesn't matter if you are "conservative," "liberal," whatever, guaranteed to make you atomic rage repeatedly.

[Anonymous No.1281288]

[Anonymous No.1282098]

[Anonymous No.1282235]

Wretched of the earth - Frantz Fanon
Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Freire

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1282280]

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 by Antony Beevor

The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor

Leonardo: The Artist and the Man by Serge Bramly

Napoleon: The Path to Power by Philip Dwyer

The Road to Stalingrad by John Erickson

The Road to Berlin by John Erickson

Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox

Paddy's Lament by Thomas Gallagher

The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War by David Gates

Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy by John R. Hale

Stopped at Stalingrad by Joel S. A. Hayward

The Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert

Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet by Peter Hopkirk

Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia by Peter Hopkirk

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia by Peter Hopkirk

A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne

We Die Alone by David Howarth

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives

Churchill by Paul Johnson

Richard the Third by Paul Murray Kendall

The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie

Scotland: The Story of a Nation by Magnus Magnusson

In Search of Ancient Ireland by Carmel McCaffrey

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1282282]

The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic by Robert L. O'Connell

Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography by Alexandra Popoff

The Myth of "Bloody Mary" by Linda Porter

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme

Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig Symonds

Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett

The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1282288]

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson

The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic by Robert L. O'Connell

Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography by Alexandra Popoff

The Myth of "Bloody Mary" by Linda Porter

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme

Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig Symonds

Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett

The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith

[NM !!KM/PRfCL67O No.1282315]

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson

The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic by Robert L. O'Connell

Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography by Alexandra Popoff

The Myth of "Bloody Mary" by Linda Porter

The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

Awakenings by Oliver Sacks

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Island of the Colorblind by Oliver Sacks

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks

The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Roman Revolution by Ronald Syme

Lincoln and His Admirals by Craig Symonds

Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett

The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir

Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen by Anna Whitelock

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard

The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849 by Cecil Woodham-Smith

How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman

[Anonymous No.1282435]

[Hipster !LJkZLSDDrI No.1282489]

>>1282098

Beksinski made the most amazing paintings. I was lucky enough to see a gallery of his works once.

[Anonymous No.1282849]

[Anonymous No.1282885]

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

[Anonymous No.1283027]

The Cleanest Race - B.R. Meyers

It shows you how crazy, yet uncrazy the North Koreans are, it was awesome.

[popopie No.1283068]

fuck you people. all of you.

[Anonymous No.1283297]

[OUTRAGEOUS No.1283340]

I have a bunch, but my favorite to read was The Twelve Caesars... it's hilarious knowing the weird fetishes of the emperors of Rome

[Anonymous No.1283376]

The Bible

[Anonymous No.1283384]

>>1283376
>>dealwithit.jpg

[Anonymous No.1283995]

>>1283297