/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2020676]

General history recommendation?

Because of a shitty public education in the subject (and deplorable lack of effort on my part up until now) I know very little about important human cultures/civilizations/milestones. Any good general history/anthropology books you would recommend?

Pic related, I'm about to read it

[Anonymous No.2020688]

b mup

[Anonymous No.2020686]

If you like Guns Germs and Steel, then you'd love Our Kind by Marvin Harris.

He's the founder of that kind of functionalist anthropology---he argued, for example, that Aztec cannibalism was a direct result of the need for dietary protein in an ecosystem with no domesticable animals except dogs (which consume more protein than they are worth)

[Anonymous No.2020696]

Just get the abridged version.

[Anonymous No.2020709]

Thanks, I'll take a look at those if GG&S goes well

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.2020723]

A book covering general history?

The best histories are more specific imo, but I considered getting this (pic) one. I like Mead's writing.

I can recommend all sorts of history books that I've read this year so far. They're specifically on Byzantium and revolutions since 1776.

[Anonymous No.2020727]

>>2020686
Apparently Marvin Harris has never heard of the turkey.

[Anonymous No.2020743]

>>2020727

No, he covers it. He notes that all they had were dogs, fowl and deer. And that no culture in history has managed to domesticate the deer, and that turkeys were insufficient for the population explosion that happened in Tenochtitlan.

If you were quibbling with that because you're a vegan, or Jonathan Safran Foer, or both, I'll note that he also points out that the dietary protein shortage was sufficient that the Aztecs also seem to have been the only culture to domesticate a grain (quinoa) purely for high protein content.

[Anonymous No.2020748]

>>2020723
Not OP but recommend whatever you can, brer.

Are you that dude who majored in some kind of history field that is centered on Byzantine Empire?

[Anonymous No.2020787]

Since we're on the subject of history:

Can anyone here recommend histories of pre-Roman Britain? That's something that's interested me lately.

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.2020841]

>>2020748
Majoring in the university of my own head. On my third book of the topic and I want more. I don't think even the John Julius Norwich triptych will fully satisfy once I order them. But to list...

The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire - Luttwak
Sailing to Byzantium - Wells (Great into book)
1453 - Crowley

Thomas Paine and the Promise of America - Kaye (Great into)
Then I read all the Thomas Paine I could get my hands on
1848 - Rapport
The Second Bill of Rights - Sunstein (Some historical significance but mostly a beginners law book)
Lawrence and Aaronohn - Florence (Lawrence of Arabia, WWI and the fall of the Turkish empire, which bookends 1453!)
Homage to Catalonia - Orwell

Haven't read yet
Garibaldi: Invention of a Hero - Riall
Road to Wigan Pier - Orwell
The Portable Hannah Arendt

Haven't bought yet
On Revolutions - Arendt
The Poison King: Life and Legend of Mithradates - Mayor
Unruly Women of Paris: Images of the Commune - Gullickson (Paris commune 1871)
Byzantine Slavery and the Mediterranean World - Rotman (Seemed a bit dry "scholarly" but maybe...)
Byzantine: The Early Centuries, Byzantine: The Apogee, Byzantine: The Decline and Fall - Norwich
Byzantine Dress - Ball (Need one on their art. I bet that would be expensive)
The Basque History of the World - Kurlansky
And I think I want Alexander Herzen's My Past and Thoughts

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.2020845]

>>2020841
Ah fuch.
>(Great INTRO books)
And I did it twice

[Anonymous No.2020865]

A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order
and everything else by F. William Engdahl

[Anonymous No.2020867]

>>2020865

oh ya this book documents how oil shaped the last 100 years of history

[Anonymous No.2020883]

>>2020865

oh ya also this book is free

http://www.archive.org/details/F.WilliamEngdahl-ACenturyOfWarAnglo-americanOilPoliticsAndTheNew

[Anonymous No.2020909]

>>2020676

I'll save you some time. People that had access to beneficial things produced powerful societies. Imagine a thousand examples of that and you now have Guns Germs and Steel.

[Anonymous No.2020913]

you'll like this

[Anonymous No.2021039]

The three volumes of "Civilization and Capitalism" from the greatest historian who ever lived: Fernand Braudel

The man is a stunning genius.

http://www.amazon.com/Civilization-Capitalism-15th-18th-Century-Vol/dp/0520081145/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8
&qid=1313738583&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Civilization-Capitalism-15th-18th-Century-Vol/dp/0520081145/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8
&qid=1313738583&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Perspective-World-Civilization-Capitalism-15Th-18th/dp/0520081161/ref=pd_sim_b
_1

[Anonymous No.2021050]

Hey, I JUST finished that book, OP.

Great stuff, I love Diamond's work, but keep in mind that this is closer to anthropology than history. And that Diamond is a scientist, not a historian (though well-learned enough to become one I'm sure).

Check out Collapse, also by Diamond.

[Anonymous No.2021092]

EP Thompsons /Making of the English Working Class/ started social history.

[Anonymous No.2021102]

Supplement what you read with primary sources of the people whom the book mentions.

[Anonymous No.2021120]

More naked chicks with bows, please.

Also primary sources are what you need.

[Anonymous No.2021146]

a little less on topic. more of a contrary-to-popular-belief type of read. the beginning gets a little boring when they go into types of loans and fiscal details but i found the rest really fascinating

[Anonymous No.2021173]

Cassell's Chronology of World History by Hywel Williams

[Anonymous No.2021179]

>>2021178
Of course, forgot the picture.

[Anonymous No.2021178]

On a related note: i wanted to read the book pictured left, but obviously can't afford >100$ books. Would any of you have a working download link for the pdf (which exists, by the way)?

[Anonymous No.2021182]

I find the works of Richard Wrangham fascinating. This is more evolutionary biology than anthropology though.

[Anonymous No.2021184]

>>2021179
>>2021178
I've never heard of this book.

>Added to wish list.

Thanks bro

[Anonymous No.2021550]

>>2021092

>EP Thompsons /Making of the English Working Class/ started social history.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about.

Ever hear of Max Weber?

[Anonymous No.2021572]

I read this a couple of years ago. It ties in the various areas of the world (focusing on China,, Africa, India, and the West as a whole) during the same timespan (scientific rev and enlightenment) and compares their power/status by way of technology and science. It's pretty repetitive but that's how Adas wrote it so as to seal the deal in making his point. Either way, it's good. I've watched the Guns Germs and Steel documentary but have yet to read the actual text.

[Anonymous No.2021605]

This seems like a good place to ask. I need some bitchin' books on the American history up to and including the Revolution. I'm interested in frontier life, the burgeoning revolution and the revolution/founding of the nation in general.

Just read Mason&Dixon by Pynchon and I'm trying to git dat 'merican history nahmsayin?

[Anonymous No.2021618]

>>2020696
Spengler is fucking amazing. I wish continental philosophy hadn't died in America. Or in general.

[Anonymous No.2021739]

>>2021039
I lost best years of my life looking for ebook version of this. Please tell me my search is over.

[Anonymous No.2021782]

"Caliban and the Witch" by Silvia Federici
The author spent 20 years researching this book. Fucking awesome.

[Anonymous No.2021805]

Richard Evans 3 volume history of the Third Reich. Great series, on possibly the most important period to know about in the last 100 years.

[Anonymous No.2021838]

>>2021805
Even though we just repeat history regardless. The way I hear people refer to Hispanics and Muslims in the U.S. is probably the same way they spoke of Jews in the late 1930's in Germany. And how people ALWAYS refer to gypsies.
Not to mention they're just the latest scapegoat, as we've already used up the "Russian Menace", the Koreans, Chinese, & Vietnamese. Etc, etc, etc.
Not to mention that whole Genocide that the U.S. did to the Native Americans, which, ironically is what Hitler studied.

[Anonymous No.2021844]

>The way I hear people refer to Hispanics and Muslims in the U.S. is probably the same way they spoke of Jews in the late 1930's in Germany.

Uhhhhh no it's not. No, it's not even that close. If you're going to make a comparison to the Holocaust, you better be damn careful about it. And, even though there is endemic racism in America, and xenophobia and fearmongering wrt Muslims especially, it's not nearly on the level of anti-Semitism in Germany between the wars, either on the level of social acceptability or on the level of virulence. It's racist and wrong, but it's not akin to the Nazis

[Anonymous No.2021941]

>>2021739

Quit being a bitch and buy the fucking book and read the fucking book the way Braudel wanted it to be read. This isn't a Nancy Drew novel, it is serious historical scholarship.

[Anonymous No.2021945]

>>2021838

>Even though we just repeat history regardless.

This is the biggest bunch of bullshit spewed by those who understand NOTHING about historical theory.

[Anonymous No.2021977]

[Anonymous No.2022337]

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. Like Guns, Germs, and Steel, it tries to look past the whole "we got here because we are good and God loves us the most" mentality that you find in many traditional history books.

[Anonymous No.2022346]

>>2020676
>Because of a shitty public education in the subject (and deplorable lack of effort on my part up until now) I know very little about important human cultures/civilizations/milestones

Go to college. Problem fixed.

[Anonymous No.2022355]

>>2021977
Parenti<3

[Anonymous No.2022366]

I like Goldsworthy. Especially his books about Caesar. You can learn more about our politics and society studying the Romans than our society itself since we don't use blindfolds and tinted glasses looking so far back into history.

What I didn't like was the book OP mentioned. Almost during the entire book I had the feeling he was trying to sell me on an idea a little too hard. Like he was writing around a simple explanation he didn't dare to write and looked everywhere in history for excuses as to why certain peoples developed a certain way.

There's simply no platform to discuss race and civilizations in our modern society. Only way to study it neutrally is to go back in history and look at what other researches and scientists have to say about the topic.

[Saudade !!2PmVxG34N56 No.2022376]

>The Secret of History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford
A well written layman's history book. It covers the role of Ghengis Khan's daughters within his empire and the collapse of it due to the ineptitude of other family members.
Another good little book is
>Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? The Transformation of Modern Europe by James J. Sheehan
It covers the rise of nationalism in Europe at the turn of the last century and what brought it to The Great War.

[Saudade !!2PmVxG34N56 No.2022379]

>>2022376
Not general history, but still enjoyable nontheless.

[salty No.2022384]

>>2021039

Socialist nut case. Dream more fag.

[Anonymous No.2022394]

shelby foote civil war trilogy is fascinating. It's nonfiction but written by a novelist, with so many details that it has a lot of narrative. If you really want to understand the period, it is a wonderful and interesting way to do it.

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.2022960]

>>2022384
Oh?

Now I'm interested!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel

Braudel argued that capitalists have typically been monopolists and not, as is usually assumed, entrepreneurs operating in competitive markets. He argued that capitalists did not specialize and did not use free markets. He thus diverged from both [Classical-] liberal (Adam Smith) and Marxian interpretations. In Braudel's view, under capitalism the state has served as a guarantor of monopolists rather than as the protector of competition usually portrayed. He asserted that capitalists have had power and cunning on their side as they have arrayed themselves against the majority of the population.

So true.

>>2021039
Thanks.