/history/

[Anonymous No.22390045]

Post your favorite history reads

[Anonymous No.22390078]

[Anonymous No.22390138]

>>22390045
I've read a lot of history books for fun and my absolute favourites are -
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
A World Undone
A Journal of the Plague Year
Storm of Steel
Batavia's Graveyard
The Crusades: Iron Men and Saints
Beyond Band of Brothers
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China
City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire

[Anonymous No.22390321]

>>22390045
Is there any historical works that cover the trajectory of nouvelle theologie and its influence on theology as a whole?

[Anonymous No.22390789]

>>22390045

[Anonymous No.22391084]

>>22390789
Is it good?
>>22390045
Legacy of rome is good from what I've read of it.
Btw can anyone recommend me a book about western roman elites after the fall of Rome? Is there even a book about that?
Failing that, an anon on /his/ long ago recommended me a book about the Roman senate up until the time of the Lombards but I forgot it, does anyone know anything about what I'm talking about?
>>22390138
The Genghis khan one sounds a little biased from the title.

[Anonymous No.22391093]

>>22391084
Btw, is the honorable company by John Keay good?
Or is it pop history nonsense?

[Anonymous No.22391145]

>>22391084
>Btw can anyone recommend me a book about western roman elites after the fall of Rome? Is there even a book about that?
I am literally reading a book which directly addresses it right now. 'The Falls of Rome: Crises, Resilience, and Resurgence in Late Antiquity' covers the Later Roman Senate until its demise.

[Anonymous No.22391155]

>>22391084
>Is it good?
The best in its class

[Anonymous No.22391172]

>>22391155
What do you like about it?
What does it talk about in a little more detail?
>>22391145
Does it cover what happened to the Roman elite of the Romano-barbarian kingdoms? I've been tracking down autistic tidbits here and there, Generals, Artists, etc. But I've never found any comprehensive investigation.
Still thanks for the recc.

[Anonymous No.22391184]

>>22390045

[Anonymous No.22391271]

>>22391172
>Does it cover what happened to the Roman elite of the Romano-barbarian kingdoms?
No. Just in Italy, covering the Senate. I've only seen small parts of Roman aristocrats with the Franks in a very unrelated book. Being only a small addendum.

[Anonymous No.22391281]

[Anonymous No.22391326]

>>22391271
Ah. Still, thanks.
I'm asking because I've even found generals among these now-a-bit forgotten Romans.
The Banu Qassi of all things got me into this.

[Anonymous No.22391369]

>>22391084
>Legacy of Rome
Author? I will give it a read.

[Anonymous No.22391378]

>>22391369
Chris wickham.

[Anonymous No.22391406]

>>22391378
Thanks. Also thanks to everyone else for the recommendations.
Here's some of mine:
One Soldier's War - Arkady Babchenko
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Snyder
A Hangman's Diary - Franz Schmidt

[Anonymous No.22391522]

This felt like a good translation, eminently readable.

Plutarch was a student of human nature to the highest degree and his work is so much more subtle and textured than most ancient historians, or modern biographers.

[Anonymous No.22391543]

>>22390138
>A Journal of the Plague Year
Based defoe enjoyer

Trade in the Indian Ocean and Asia Before Europe, both by Chaudhuri

Caro's LBJ books are canon

Anything by James C Scott or Timothy Mitchell

Illan Pappe is a goated historian of the middle east

[Anonymous No.22391549]

>>22391184
>>22390138
Good recommendations, especially Conquerers and White Hunters.

[Anonymous No.22391638]

>>22391084
>Is there even a book about that?
Pretty sure there are several (not my field though), but you might want to prowl Academia.edu still. Do search for stuff featuring Cassiodorus or Sidonius Apollinaris and mine the bibliographies if you haven't already as I'm willing to bet those two are going to be the chief literary sources.

[Anonymous No.22391641]

[Anonymous No.22391891]

>>22391084
>a little biased
Lmao you have no idea. The book is 90% bullshit. His conclusion is that the rise europe is because of Genghis Khan.

[Anonymous No.22391929]

>>22391543
>Caro's LBJ books are canon
What about The Power Broker?

[Anonymous No.22391935]

Bump

[Anonymous No.22391947]

>>22391093
I read it and loved it. Not pop fiction but not dry either

[Anonymous No.22391969]

>>22390045
Memphis under the Ptolemies
Land of the Elephant Kings
Mystery of the Elephant Medallions
Diodorus Books 16-21
Ghosts on the Throne
Philip II and Macedonian Imperialism

[Anonymous No.22391996]

I have a couple that I am eyeing to read. Can I get some thoughts on the following writers or specific works?
>John Julius Norwich
Four Princes
The Middle Sea
>Frank Dikotter
Mao's Great Famine
>Frank Trentmann
Empire of Things
>Robert Massie
Peter the Great
Catherine the Great
>Simon Schama
Citizens
>Christopher Clark
Iron Kingdom
>Ian Mortimer
Edward III The Perfect King
>Eugene Rogan
Fall of the Ottomans
>Brendan Simms
The Longest Afternoon

[Anonymous No.22392034]

>history
>archeology
>historical linguistics
>biological anthropology

yeah I'm thinking based

[Anonymous No.22392046]

>>22391929
>>Caro's LBJ books are canon
>What about The Power Broker?
I haven't read it yet

[Anonymous No.22392125]

>>22390045
It's a shame how hard /his/ has fallen since 2019. It's over bros.

[Anonymous No.22393598]

my diary desu

[Anonymous No.22393932]

>>22391543
Isn’t Scott an anarchist?

[Anonymous No.22393949]

[Anonymous No.22394100]

Volumes on Medieval Italy after the fall to of Rome to the early modern era?

[Anonymous No.22394126]

What should I expect from?

[Anonymous No.22394663]

The Swamp Fox

[Anonymous No.22395625]

Don't be deceived by the name, the book mostly focuses on the important political figures leading up to World War I

[Anonymous No.22395755]

What is the verdict on Tom Holland? He seems to be doing the alt-media podcast circuit as of late.

As for myself, I finished all of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire last year.

[Anonymous No.22395762]

>>22391996
I’ve read most of Norwich’s Byzantium, his style is okay but possibly overrated. The subject is too vast for serious understanding. Schama’s Citizens is good, but it is a cultural history of the FR, I would do some serious study of the events and get a handle on the chronology before diving in. Personally, I like history with a really tight focus, wikipedia is as good for sprawling subjects as authors who fill their tomes with fluff and “cultural context”

[Anonymous No.22395769]

>>22391996
Oh, and Dikotter, not sure if there are other popular works on the subject available in English, but it’s mostly polemic against the CCP. If you do read it make a list of key characters, you will simply get lost in the Chinese names.

[Anonymous No.22395869]

>>22395755
>What is the verdict on Tom Holland?
Unqualified pop-historian his degree in English makes him a somewhat good writer but i wouldn't take him seriously as a historian

[Anonymous No.22396864]

Paul Revere and the World He Lived In

[Anonymous No.22396901]

>>22390045
whats a good book that combines history with anthropology and/or sociology for the layman?

pic only vaguely related

[Anonymous No.22396909]

>>22391996
>>Christopher Clark
Iron Kingdom
Top tier

>Eugene Rogan
Fall of the Ottomans
>Brendan Simms
The Longest Afternoon
Both are good but nothing special

I've never found a great book on the Ottomans desu

[Anonymous No.22396913]

>>22392125
You will get 50 threads of mudflinging between christian denominations and you will like it.

[Anonymous No.22397235]

>>22392125
This thread compelled me to check out /his/ again, and man, /lit/fags don't have it that bad after all it seems.

[Anonymous No.22397247]

[Anonymous No.22397284]

>>22390045
Reveille in Washington. One of the best American Civil War books I've read.

[Anonymous No.22397489]

/pol/

[Anonymous No.22397535]

>>22390789
>>22391084
COTG has been pretty much discarded by archaeological and genetic research of the past 20 years
Most pre 1990s archaeological narrations are dogshit

[Anonymous No.22397540]

>>22397535
Read this for a short introduction https://www.academia.edu/31061039/The_Coming_of_the_Greeks_and_All_That
And Lazaridis et al 2017, Lazaridis et al 2022 (all three studies) for DNA

[Anonymous No.22397728]

>>22391522
Plutarch is my favorite author, but you have to get the 2 volume modern library edition, and if you're really autistic about him (a good author to be autistic about), get the Loebs and read the Moralia too. The Penguin editions and that one cut Plutarch's work up but the lives are supposed to be read parallel to one another.
You should check out Diogenes Laertius and Nepos too if you haven't yet.
Currently I'm also reading him, specifically Demosthenes in Greek. I wish you well, fellow PlvtarchGOD.

[Anonymous No.22397732]

>>22391996
>Fall of the Ottomans
It's okay but it doesn't give enough focus on the Caucasus or Persian fronts, which were mostly what I was interested in when I got it. Does anyone know any books that do?

[Anonymous No.22397747]

>>22396909
Yes it's hard for people who don't know Turkish. All their own authors wrote in Ottoman Turkish and barely anything has been translated into anything other than modern Turkish. And it seems like all the good history books are in Turkish or German. The only books in English are super broad general histories or stuff about WW1/Ataturk.

[Anonymous No.22397852]

>>22391996
Robert Massie's books are top notch.

[Anonymous No.22398485]

Enjoying A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne.
Tempted to get his trilogy on French history.

[Anonymous No.22398552]

Looking to read about Italy from the late-ish middle ages to the early modern period. Preferably something chronological with a strong focus on politics/wars/diplomacy. Seems like most /lit/ is focused on the individual states or is organized topically. Anyone got any recommendations?

[Anonymous No.22398873]

>>22398552
Renaissance Diplomacy by Garret Mattingly has a lot on Italy. It's a bit dry at points, but it was alright.

[Anonymous No.22399047]

The Spirit Of Seventy-six

[Anonymous No.22400170]

The Passing of Armies: An Account Of The Final Campaign Of The Army Of The Potomac by Joshua Chamberlain

[Anonymous No.22400360]

>>22398873
looks interesting, thanks

[Anonymous No.22400362]

>>22398552
>>22394100
doesn't exist in English

[Anonymous No.22400603]

>>22393932
Yes

[Anonymous No.22400608]

>>22397284
If you like this check out This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust (president of Harvard University and esteemed civil war historian in her own right)

[Anonymous No.22400700]

Why couldn't the Christians take Jerusalem

[Anonymous No.22400753]

Very cool book, it's such an unknown area/era to me that i felt like reading fantasy. It's also a collection of different accounts by explorers, spies, etc from the UK or the Russian Empire, very fun to read

[Anonymous No.22400988]

>>22395625
How is it? I've had it on my shelf for a while but haven't yet gotten around to reading it.

[Anonymous No.22401037]

>>22398552
Look into general histories ftom prestigious univesities and you might find something.

[Anonymous No.22401364]

>>22390045
I’m an Anglophile and have a firm belief in most Anglo apologetics so.

[Anonymous No.22401394]

>>22398485
>Alistair Horne
>Tempted to get his trilogy on French history.
I'm only familiar with his books pertaining to France and I think they are quite good. I generally enjoy his writing style and find him to be a capable storyteller.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/177500-france

[Anonymous No.22401428]

>>22400362
Please, in cases like this, if you know a non-English book, NAME IT. For all you know, the person you're replying to isn't even an Anglo.

I can read some European languages, and every other time I'm searching the archive on some topic, there's someone saying "sorry, the best books about it are written in <whatever> and never translated", if they even bother to mention the language. So frustrating.

[Anonymous No.22401446]

>>22401428
the vast majority of medieval to early modern italy books in english are economic, social, or government institution history. There's very little narrative or political history. There are narrative books for Venice (norwich and a few others).

The only thing I can recommend that is in english is the History of Rome (the city) in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Gregorovius. You can find all the volumes on archive.org and since the papacy is a key player in Italian history in general it should be good enough for the history of medieval italy in general.

[Anonymous No.22401487]

>>22400753
Interesting, thanks for the recommendation.

[Anonymous No.22401537]

/his/ isn't even a history board anymore. It wasn't this bad even a year ago. but now it's over 90% shit

[Anonymous No.22401600]

>>22401537
Yeah it’s just /pol/lite. I would argue every single board is now not worth going to except /lit/ and /trv/. This board is what /pol/ used to be more like. I’m not sure what happened, I would blame Covid, Ukraine war, and /leftypol/ raids, but I think that simplifies the issue.

[Anonymous No.22401605]

>>22401364
What is there to like about England? What good did the English ever do for Europe?

[Anonymous No.22401619]

>>22401600
>Yeah it’s just /pol/lite
I don't go to /pol/ but it's just christian shitflinging (not even christian history which would be fine) and /int/ threads

[Anonymous No.22401646]

>>22401446
I think you misunderstood? If you say
> doesn't exist in English
then I'm (maybe wrongly?) assuming that you know about relevant books in other languages. If that is so, please name them. I don't care if there's no English translation.

[Anonymous No.22401651]

>>22390045
Anyone have good recs on the history of the cold war?
Specifically find the history of intelligence/espionage interesting. Recently read Chaos: Charles Manson and The Secret History of the 60s, which was not so much a history book as a work of investigative journalism. It did, however, touch on CHAOS, COINTELPRO, and MKULTRA.
All of which made me interested in learning more about these operations, and potentially the power intelligence agencies have over media and government up until the present day. Also interested in the geopolitical aspects of intelligence/espionage operations in the cold war, something which unfortunately the Chaos book didn't really touch on.
Does anyone has anything that touches on these topics?

[Anonymous No.22401652]

>>22401646
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storia_d%27Italia

[Anonymous No.22401660]

>>22401652
> 22 volumi
Grazie.

[Anonymous No.22401668]

Very good red pill book (I first read it when I was fourteen on a whim).

[Anonymous No.22401688]

>>22401652
>anti counter reformation
cringe

[Anonymous No.22401704]

>>22401651
"The Billion Dollar Spy" by David Hoffman is a good narrative of some American espionage operations in the Soviet Union, but it doesn't delve very deeply into the larger geopolitical aspects of the conflict IIRC. It has been a few years since I read it. It's mostly focused on the CIA snooping into Soviet radar tech. Also kind of more of a journalistic report than a history book

[Anonymous No.22401712]

>>22390045
Corroborated by real-world evidence.

Don't @ me, atheist psychopaths.

[Anonymous No.22401715]

>>22400753
Based. Very kino.

[Anonymous No.22401723]

>>22401619
>but it's just christian shitflinging
More like amoral atheist psychopaths talking about raping toddlers because they were proven wrong.

[Anonymous No.22401741]

>>22401537
Yeah I was optimistic about it when it first got added, but as time went on it just turned into /pol/ lite. X race is like this, y religion is like that etc. It's all just so tiring.

[Anonymous No.22401753]

>>22401741
It should have just been history not History & Humanities. The & Humanities allows way to much shit

[Anonymous No.22401754]

>>22401688
Get Rekt papist

[Anonymous No.22401764]

>>22401753
Then the board would run out of things to talk about

>>22401723
True. Everyone on the board complains about Christians when 90% of religious bait threads are made by atheists

[Anonymous No.22401770]

>>22396901
No answer?

[Anonymous No.22401772]

>>22401704
Sounds like an interesting story but I'm more looking for history & something that examines either the domestic political or geopolitical influence of American intelligence agencies.
Also open to broader history books that examine the history of intelligence warfare more broadly

[Anonymous No.22401794]

>>22401753
Well I don't think that the humanities are necessarily the problem, but rather a lack of board rules to help define what constitutes discussing the humanities. Like for example here you need to at least pretend to post a book about something to discuss it, even tho most of the time the book that the OP starts the thread with is completely irrelevant. As it stands you can go to /his/ and make a thread saying "x race is fucking trash" just like you would on /pol/ and just have a thread revolve around that.

>>22401764
There are over 10000 years of recorded history, it would be pretty hard to run out of things to discuss.

[Anonymous No.22401796]

I'm reading pic related atm
I wish it had some more maps
I don't think I care enough about France or England to read a nearly 4300 page epic on them but here I am
My main interests are Russian history, Soviet military history, Napoleonic history and Japanese history

[Anonymous No.22401802]

>>22401796
the fifth and final book is coming out in November this year

[Anonymous No.22401806]

>>22401794
>Well I don't think that the humanities are necessarily the problem
it is. you could get rid of most of the bullshit by getting rid of it

[Anonymous No.22401812]

>>22401806
Or just ban the psycho atheist trolls, that's most of the spam flooding of the board.

[Anonymous No.22401823]

I'm also excited to read this book although I have flipped through it and the author seems to include huge chunks of French text that is untranslated for some bizarre reason
I am learning French but I cannot read it comfortably yet
>>22401802
Yeah I just noticed that
Not that I'm going to read it anytime soon but I'm glad to know it will be finished
Hopefully Nicholas A. M. Rodger will finish his 3rd part of his books on British Naval history soon

[Anonymous No.22401850]

>>22394663
>Hugh Rankin
Great writer, any book of his about the American Revolution is worth reading.

>Francis Marion
This man was a real tough cookie, reading about generals during the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War is almost always interesting.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/francis-marion

[Anonymous No.22402185]

How are Kenneth Setton's works?

[Anonymous No.22402192]

Any good english political history works on the Rus?

[Anonymous No.22402214]

>>22402192
There is Medieval Russia by Janet Martin and The Cambridge history of Russia volume 1
I think the Cambridge history of Russia is better personally
You can find a translation of the Primary Chronicle online

[Anonymous No.22402216]

>>22402214
thanks

[Anonymous No.22402265]

>>22401741
You clearly haven't been there in ages, it gets perma-spammed by a few incredibly autistic haplo-autists nowadays.

[Anonymous No.22402279]

>>22402265
Yeah /lit/ and /his/ are pretty the only 4chan boards I visit. That guy is right and so are you. I go to /his/ about once a day and yeah it's just "but what about Hitler? What about muh niggers? What's my phenotype? What phenotype is this?". History my fucking ass.

[Anonymous No.22402344]

>>22397540
I didn't expect this viewpoint to exist, but it sure does seem quite radical. I don't know if I can get behind it.
Fascinating regardless.

[Anonymous No.22402542]

The British Are Coming

[Anonymous No.22402634]

>>22390045
Good history of science of books?

[Anonymous No.22402854]

Any good (non-pozzed) books on the rhodesian war?

[Anonymous No.22402920]

>>22390045

[Anonymous No.22402929]

Joseph Plumb Martin

[Anonymous No.22402958]

>>22390045

[Anonymous No.22402981]

>>22397235
look what kpop fags did to mu

[Anonymous No.22402998]

>>22402958
other books I found great to read:
- the prize, the epic quest for oil, money and power by Daniel Yergin
- the sleepwalkers, christopher clark
- a line in the sand, james barr
- diplomacy, kissinger
and two french books, sadly untranslated
- les rythmes au moyen-âge (rythms in the middle age), jean-claude schmitt, incredible book
- la femme au temps des cathédrales (woman in the age of cathedrals), Régine Pernoud

[Anonymous No.22402999]

None Died in Vain
https://archive.org/details/nonediedinvainsa00leck

George Washington's War
https://archive.org/details/georgewashington0000unse_g7e6

[Anonymous No.22403130]

[Anonymous No.22403133]

>>22402854
Following

[Anonymous No.22403135]

>>22401806
Okay, but people want to ban humanities discussion here as well

[Anonymous No.22403137]

>>22401651
There’s a book I own but it’s over a thousand pages. Huge door stopper

[Anonymous No.22403139]

>>22401772
>>22401651
Since two people are asking

[Anonymous No.22403158]

[Anonymous No.22403176]

>>22401605
nta but were English ever obligated to do something for Europe?

[Anonymous No.22403182]

History books are audiobook material. Just like Dostoyevski. No reason to have the headache of reading it

[Anonymous No.22403236]

>>22403139
>He charts the development of intelligence and security operations and capacity through, amongst others, Renaissance Venice, Elizabethan England, Revolutionary America, Napoleonic France, right up to sophisticated modern activities of which he is the world's best-informed interpreter.
Sounds too broad, I'd prefer something with a narrower scope. These big history books that cover multiple epochs tend to devolve into boring lists of names and dates.
Also hate to judge a book by its cover, but goddamn is that a shit cover.

[Anonymous No.22403242]

>>22403236
Oh wow, the cover design gets even worse looking at his other books. This man needs to get a better publisher.

[Anonymous No.22404092]

Do Kissinger's writings hold up?

[Anonymous No.22404196]

>>22403158
Planning to give this one a read soon. Looking forward to it.

[Anonymous No.22404223]

>>22401741
>>22402265
/his/ was honestly /pol/ lite since at least 2017, there was cancer on the same level as today, it was just contained instead of infesting every single thread on the board

[Anonymous No.22404230]

>>22403236
I’m afraid you’re on your own for that one

[Anonymous No.22404236]

>>22402279
I visit /mu/ and /ck/ too but yeah

[Anonymous No.22404351]

>>22404092
100% yes. I don't even fuck with him at all, we disagree on most topics, but god damn game recognize game.

[Anonymous No.22404459]

About 500 pages into this right now. It's great

[Anonymous No.22404538]

>>22404351
Which of his works do you recommend? I'm especially curious about pic related

[Anonymous No.22404785]

[Anonymous No.22404893]

>>22404538
i haven't read the one you posted but I own it and look forward to reading it. I have read Diplomacy and On China, both of which FUCK

[Anonymous No.22405027]

>>22400988
I thought it was great. It never feels dry as it intersperses chapters about important events that lead to the increased friction between the major powers with biographical ones that attempt to humanize the figures involved in those events. You either like that approach or you don't.

[Anonymous No.22405150]

>>22390045
Bruce Catton: The Army of the Potomac

[Anonymous No.22405389]

[Anonymous No.22405592]

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris

[Anonymous No.22405910]

>>22405592
Does it cover only the military conquest or does it cover the subsequent rebellions and general changes?

[Anonymous No.22405920]

pic related was actually pretty good

[Anonymous No.22405945]

>>22404893
How readable is On China for someone with no foregin policy experience? And does it hold up or is it outdated?

[Anonymous No.22405968]

>>22402344
I don't know enough about the topic to have a strong opinion... seems like a compelling argument. But what's this about tombs being replete with paintings of chariots, but the author thinks they're pure fancy and not indicative of the people buried within?
Other than that, seems reasonable.

[Anonymous No.22406034]

>>22401600
>/trv/
Would be good if everyone wasn’t so pussy starved and only traveling for sex. A lot of the smaller boards are ok like /out/ and /diy/

[Anonymous No.22406276]

>>22405968
I do agree that's kind of weird, and he should have elaborated more on that, but he seems to make an argument that small details are missing where they should be if the artists actually knew how to ride horses.
But also I worry the paper might be outdated now that Kosina's smile is out. A reprise of the article would be interesting.

[Anonymous No.22406465]

>>22397535
>>22397540
>What really drove me to pick this as the topic for my original paper did not actually have ‘the coming of the Greeks’ in its title; it was an article by Bryan Feuer in AJA (2011) entitled ‘Being Mycenaean, a view from the periphery’, which provided clear evidence that the concept was not, as I thought, recognised as obsolescent, but could still be presented in a totally traditional form. It is embedded in the article: Feuer is quite unambiguous about presenting ‘the coming of the Greeks’ as a conquest of the southern Greek mainland by warlike Indo-Europeans who spoke the language ancestral to Greek (Feuer 2011: 516, 529), and probably came into Greece in a whole series of migrations, of unstated source, over the Early to Middle Bronze Age borderline (2011: 528). He presents these as the direct ancestors of ‘the Mycenaeans’, whom he identifies as a rela-tively large ‘elite’ group that dominated a much more numerous, appar-ently non-Mycenaean peasantry.
This is exactly what happened. Anyone who's actually read the Greeks will tell you this
Only shitlib intralexuals argue this point, because their ideology doesn't allow it.

[Anonymous No.22406534]

>>22406465
I was under the impression that based on linguistic evidence Anatolian-speaking Indo Europeans came first and the Proto-Greeks came later

[Anonymous No.22406675]

>>22406534
Greece was primarily populated by neolithic farmers who weren't related to indo-europeans. Then the IE Greeks came in 3 invasions.

[Anonymous No.22406678]

>>22394126
Nothing, its just a reference list

[Anonymous No.22406680]

>>22393949
Tom holland is too snarky and clever for his own good

[Anonymous No.22406681]

>>22400988
Robert massie is a shitty robert caro or barbara tuchman

[Anonymous No.22406685]

>>22405945
>is it out dated
Shut the fuck up you NIGGER

[Anonymous No.22406698]

>>22390045
Getting ready to read this. Luv me Bosnia hate me Serbia.

[Anonymous No.22406760]

>>22406465
Let's keep the easily riposted accusations of bias in lieu of actual argumentation to a minimum.
>Anyone who actually reads the Greeks
the author dismisses this already.
And appeals to "anyone who akshually reeds buks agrees with me" aren't particularly convincing either.

[Anonymous No.22406955]

>>22391891
Yeah, the last third is definitely like that but the first two is really well-researched history of the Golden Horde.

[Anonymous No.22406964]

The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark was a fantastic read and taught me to hate serbs even more

[Anonymous No.22407173]

>>22392125
pinkos and christfags ruined it

[Anonymous No.22407754]

>>22406698
>Noel Malcolm

[Anonymous No.22408841]

Augustus

[Anonymous No.22409006]

>>22405945
Very readable for someone with little to no FP experience. Does it hold up? Brother it was published in 2011. yes

[Anonymous No.22409361]

>>22409006
>2011
>Pre-Xi Jinping
>Pre-COVD
>Pre-trade wars
>Pre-South China sea expansion
>Pre-Ukraine, as it relates to Taiwan

[Anonymous No.22409367]

>>22409361
ah yeah thanks for reminding me. It does not hold up upon more reflection. Trash the whole book and do not under any circumstances read it

[Anonymous No.22409372]

>>22409361
>>22409367

not unrelated
https://www.csis.org/analysis/first-battle-next-war-wargaming-chinese-invasion-taiwan

[Anonymous No.22409373]

I am considering reading ostrogorsky's history of the byzantine state

[Anonymous No.22409412]

>>22396901
the dawn of everything
sea people by christina thompson

[Anonymous No.22409445]

>>22408841
No.

[Anonymous No.22409572]

>>22401605
invented parliamentary democracy
exported repbulican revolution to France and America
composed the best novel of all times (Tristram Shandy)

[Anonymous No.22409602]

>>22409572
>invented parliamentary democracy
AKA the tyranny of the capitalist class.
>exported repbulican revolution to France and America
How is this supposed to be a good thing?
>composed the best novel of all times (Tristram Shandy)
The English are completely mogged in the realm of novels by the french and the russians. Sterne has nothing on Flaubert or Dostoevsky.

[Anonymous No.22409611]

>>22403158
I've recently been looking up interesting books about the history of the US but anything past the era of Andrew Jackson is suffocated by all the whining about negroes, jews, indians, women, etc. I don't know how burgers can stand it.

[Anonymous No.22409637]

>>22401537
that board has no mods. case in point
>>>/his/15511660

[Anonymous No.22409754]

>>22405910
It covers both pretty well. In fact, William sailing across the channel and prevailing at Hastings only takes up about 25 pages. It provides a lot of detail on pre-Norman England, the line of Danish kings in the time directly preceding the conquest, how Edward the Confessor unexpectedly became king. Also some good detail on William’s early life. Going in, I didn’t know too much about the conquest besides the basics (Harold rushing north to defeat Hadrada, then rushing south and falling to William) so I found it really interesting.

[Anonymous No.22409769]

>>22409754
AH, thanks.
From what little I know of him. Harold Godwinson was a remarkable man.

[Anonymous No.22409822]

[Anonymous No.22409824]

[Anonymous No.22410596]

>>22390045
A Leap in the Dark - John Ferling

[Anonymous No.22410948]

The Rise and Fall of Alexander Hamilton

[Anonymous No.22410956]

>>22410948
*Wrong picture, my bad.

[Anonymous No.22411407]

best books about American history? no frankfurter nonsense please.

[Anonymous No.22411615]

>>22391929
>What about The Power Broker?
I'm 300 pages in, and it's incredible so far. Caro always keeps the plot moving even with tons of background info and context being thrown at you

[Anonymous No.22411636]

>>22390045
Gonna be buying this

[Anonymous No.22411649]

>>22402344
What viewpoint, the academia paper or the archaeogenetic papers?

>>22405968
Chariots are found far later than the appearance of proto-Greek in Greece. Greek even lacks the word for spoked wheel and had to make its own from "(sun) ray". At the same time chariots are found in Minoan Crete apparently with religious importance (ergo more important than in the mainland).
From archaeology and archaeogenetics we now know that there was no invasion and that Mycenaean culture was a combination of local Helladic innovations and significant Minoan influence.

>>22406465
Only people who disregard DNA actually believe this lmao. Not to mention linguistics.
Take this for example:
>He presents these as the direct ancestors of ‘the Mycenaeans’, whom he identifies as a rela-tively large ‘elite’ group that dominated a much more numerous, appar-ently non-Mycenaean peasantry.
Early Mycenaean elites are homogeneous with the commoners, some elite Mycenaeans even have zero (0%) steppe DNA while the peasants do. None goes above 15-20% steppe, and even in 2000 BCE we have some samples with ranging percentages of steppe, 15-30% in small communities on the mainland. You are simply leaving yourself with a massive blind spot for leftards to attack and discredit you, because you believe in fantasies that have already being demolished by race science just like the myth of nigs being not-low IQ was demolished.

>>22406534
Yeah, the substratum is claimed to be Anatolian.

>>22406675
You are completely retarded, there are multiple waves of migrations from Anatolia objectively visible throughout the Aegean, from Neolithic Peloponnese to Minoans. And no I don't mean Neolithic farmers
Kill yourself

[Anonymous No.22411660]

>>22411649
To actually explain better what I mean because apparently low IQ is in abundance here. We have presence of steppe ancestry in Greece that can be linked to the Greek language as early as BEFORE 2000 BCE, centuries before Mycenaeans were a thing.

This isn't even up to debate, it's literally ancient DNA that has been found
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367181077_Ancient_DNA_reveals_admixture_history_and_endogamy_in_the_prehistoric_Aegean
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222018243
Sorry retards, you ate a fictional narrative up LMAO. No refuns

[Anonymous No.22411666]

>>22411407
The Talmud

[Anonymous No.22411670]

All of you in this thread are fucking soulless. You think history equals a tepid narration of events in a chronological sequence. No. History is the unfolding of a spiritual process. The various events and men of history are but symbols carrying the underlying spirit of the times. If one of these “great men” died another would take their place. You analyse these symbols as if they are the ends in themselves, even though they are but expressions of a deeper force. Only the man who takes the 50,000 foot view and sees history as deeply connected will attain enlightenment.

[Anonymous No.22411693]

>>22411649
>inb4 hurr no migrations durr
Lazaridis et al 2017
Clemente et al 2021
Lazaridis et al 2022
Neumann et al 2022
Skourtanioti et al 2023
literally all show this

[Anonymous No.22411706]

>>22411666
Fuck off chang

[Anonymous No.22411713]

>>22409412
Alright

[Anonymous No.22411715]

>>22411670
Somehow you managed to sound dumber about history than Toolstoy at the end of War and Peace

[Anonymous No.22411740]

>>22411715
That’s not an argument. I wish I could beat your head into the ground and land severe elbows on your smug face

[Anonymous No.22411811]

>>22411740
Still dumb.

[Anonymous No.22411818]

>>22405968
Mycenaean grave circles are full of minoan items as well and minoan decorations on prestigious items like the knives. I dont think anyone called them minoan even when in reality mycenaeans were actually something like 90% minoan genetically, a civilization that more advanced than the mycenaean was for over 500 years
>>22411649
there's also west asian influence in mycenaeans. their chariots are of the same model as 1900bc Kultepe in anatolia and with the same spoked wheel type.
I'm a bit surprised archeologists like drews missed all of this. maybe it was simply not available to them in their time? a lot of new information has been uncovered in the past 20-30 years, exactly like Dickinson said in the paper linked here earlier

[Anonymous No.22411822]

>>22411818
also not to forget that mycenaeans were initially conquered by the minoans lol. it took them centuries to get rid of the bondance and take crete under their control

[Anonymous No.22411856]

>>22411666
what does that have to do with American history?

[Anonymous No.22411863]

>>22411856
The person you’re responding to is just a typical demoralizer

[Anonymous No.22411866]

>>22411863
oh, ok.

[Anonymous No.22411871]

>>22411856
It also might be Satan

[Anonymous No.22411878]

>>22407173
No, we didn’t

[Anonymous No.22411896]

>>22411856
It reflects the ideology of the american elite classes for centuries and thus america's direction over the centuries I reckon

[Anonymous No.22411916]

>>22411740
All that “enlightenment” and you responded with that. A fool sir, a fool. Perhaps you should stick with wishing, you may even wish yourself into enlightenment.

[Anonymous No.22412247]

>>22411896
We've only been around for just under 3 centuries. Maybe you're just projecting.

[Anonymous No.22412481]

>>22390045
Fall of the Roman Republic by Plutarch was a pretty good read

[Anonymous No.22412552]

>>22397728
>>22391522
Based Plutarch fans. Many great writers throughout time cite Plutarch as their favorite author

[Anonymous No.22413015]

>>22411693
oh shit my brother contributed to that Skourtanioti paper. feels kinda surreal seeing his team's research mentioned in 4chan of all places kek but better here than on the trainwreck that is /his/

[Anonymous No.22413026]

Any recommendations on how england built their empire?

[Anonymous No.22413278]

>>22404092
Not after Russia attacked Ukraine. Also the faggot doesn't think about societal change ever happening.

[Anonymous No.22413290]

>>22411649
The academic one.

[Anonymous No.22413879]

>>22412247
>he doesn't count the pre-revolutionary colonies as being essential parts of american history
i shiggy diggy

[Anonymous No.22413935]

Comfy and well-written. I haven't read Foucault's Madness and Civilization to compare the two but it probably sucks

[Anonymous No.22413941]

do you know any good books about swords

[Anonymous No.22414408]

Picked it up from the printers yesterday.

[Anonymous No.22414418]

>>22413941

[Anonymous No.22414420]

>>22390045
>>consistently the most engaged thread every time it's posted
???

[Anonymous No.22414445]

>>22414420
It's easy to agree on objectively good historiography. Plus I imagine anons enjoy creating their own /his/ library of topics they favor the most.

[Anonymous No.22414577]

>>22401796
This entire series is great if you're interested in the Hundred Years War. Incredibly succinct on nearly every year of the conflict.

[Anonymous No.22415272]

>>22414420
/his/ is a shit board

[Anonymous No.22415278]

How is the Plantagenets by thomas costain?

[Anonymous No.22416226]

What are the best books on italian history?
Looking for an interesting story about a family, individual, city, event or war from medieval times till early modern era which will through the discussion of its central focus, give me a vivid sense of Italy at that time

[Anonymous No.22416311]

>>22416226
Norwich Venice

[Anonymous No.22416315]

>>22390045
Its poetic in certain passages

[Anonymous No.22416809]

Son of the Morning Star

[Anonymous No.22416823]

Any recommendations on the revolutionary war in the US?

[Anonymous No.22416855]

>>22416315
>Peter Brown
Great writer.

[Anonymous No.22416875]

>>22413935
Foucault's M&C is a total charade. The ending is just the most nonsensical garbage I have ever had the displeasure of slogging through. Completely unacademic, up his own ass, just spewing edgy platitudes about fucking Goya and Nietzsche. The actual meat of the book consists mostly of almost-too-thin connections, supplanted with intentionally obfuscatory "philosophy". The fact that Foucault has ever been taken deeply worries me.

[Anonymous No.22416878]

>>22404092
Diplomacy is top tier

[Anonymous No.22416880]

>>22416875
has ever been taken seriously*
Not to mention M&C is actually an abridged version of an original French publication that was nearly twice its length. I think I would've gone fucking mad if I tried reading through that.

[Anonymous No.22416881]

Anyone read The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History

[Anonymous No.22416930]

>>22416823
These ones look pretty good:

>>22410596
>A Leap in the Dark
>>22402999
>George Washington's War
>>22402929
>A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier
>>22402542
>The British Are Coming
>>22401850
>Rebels And Redcoats
>>22399047
>The Spirit Of Seventy-six
>>22396864
>Paul Revere and the World He Lived In

[Anonymous No.22416960]

>>22411740
You wouldn't do shit.

[Anonymous No.22417187]

thoughts on pic related?
also please recommend french revolution books

[Anonymous No.22417454]

>>22417187
Tocqueville book, François Furet books, Lefebvre, Michelet, Schama’s Citizens, maybe Calasso’s Ruin of Kasch

[Anonymous No.22417466]

>>22417187
I read it and it was just ok. The most interesting part was about an Englishman who just so happened to be in France at the time of the revolution because he was studying French agriculture. The worst part was they kept feeling the need to mention "and black people were part of the revolution too!" desperately trying to link everything to the white genocide in Haiti, as and defending the white genocide as good.

I recommend Thomas Carlyle's book on the French Revolution. It's a challenging read, but it's been the definitive text on the French Revolution since the 1800s. That hack Charles Dickens pretty much ripped off Carlyle's best prose, as well. Mentioning how everyone was so famished they were like walking scarecrows.

[Anonymous No.22417837]

>>22417466
>Thomas Carlyle's book on the French Revolution.
Thanks for the rec cuz

[Anonymous No.22417947]

>>22417466
thanks for the review. fortunately i did not purchase it last week.

[Anonymous No.22418015]

>>22417187
Christopher Hibbert

[Anonymous No.22418140]

>>22411649
>Early Mycenaean elites are homogeneous with the commoners, some elite Mycenaeans even have zero (0%) steppe DNA while the peasants do. None goes above 15-20% steppe, and even in 2000 BCE we have some samples with ranging percentages of steppe, 15-30% in small communities on the mainland.
>he actually believes the (((DNA tests)))

[Anonymous No.22418454]

>>22390045
Any sociology book recommendations?

[Anonymous No.22418621]

>>22412552
plutarch wrote fanfiction he overheard on his way to the communal brothel

[Anonymous No.22418640]

>>22413015
I haven't been on /his/ for a long time, did it get even worse? That's an achievement lmao it was already a cesspool

>>22418140
>dna isn't real, trust me bro

>>22413290
That's mainly due to new findings. Before that there wasn't really an opposition to it, besides people calling it out for proposing untestable just-so-stories type of theories
And this was before the ancient DNA studies, now nobody is using it as a source lol

[Anonymous No.22418647]

>>22418640
How (((convenient))) that this DNA just happened to pop up

[Anonymous No.22418784]

>>22418647
Anon, I...
Dna has confirmed that askhenazis are barely half levantine aka not real jews
Or that there is no african dna in europe
You're retarded

[Anonymous No.22418818]

>>22418784
I think that's called--common sense!

[Anonymous No.22418875]

>>22418818
>common sense is when you examine molecules in the human body
Are you that assblasted jap who didn't quite like the study that found that japs are 70% chinese?

[Anonymous No.22419397]

Admiral of the Ocean Sea

[Anonymous No.22419433]

>>22413879
They weren’t America as we know it

[Anonymous No.22419442]

>>22411636
Weird my post got no engagement…oh well.

[Anonymous No.22419485]

>>22419433
yes they were, dummy.

[Anonymous No.22419773]

>>22419397
Tell us about it anon

[Anonymous No.22419776]

>>22419433
You are retarded.

[Anonymous No.22419786]

[Anonymous No.22419810]

>>22419485
look I don't care

>>22419776
I guess so, but hey, what would this board be without a genius like you?

[Anonymous No.22419836]

>>22401796
>japanese history

have you read this? It's good.

[Anonymous No.22419865]

>>22401651
This was pretty good.

[Anonymous No.22419906]

>>22419865
gonna wishlist that.

[Anonymous No.22419924]

>>22419906
Also, I've heard Day of the Assassins is good
And this is a fun read: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP83-01042R000200090002-0.pdf

[Anonymous No.22419976]

>>22390045
Pic rel is what I’m reading right now. It’s a two volume series with pictures of pretty maps and relics.

Anyone got a rec for the Mexican-American war?

[Anonymous No.22420092]

>>22390045
>Southern History of the War by Pollard
>R.E Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman
>French Revolution by Thomas Carlyle
>History of the Conquest of Mexico by Prescott
>History of Texas by TR Fehrenbach
>The Boer War and The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham
>King Charles II by Antonia Frasier
>Cromwell by Antonia Frasier
>British Empire Trilogy by the only good troon James/Jan Morris

[Anonymous No.22420111]

>>22420092
Also despite this list I am not an autistic Southerner I am Australian. Australia actually has a very exciting history it is just poorly received by an international audience and is basically politically out of favour at home now. I own Geoffrey Blainey's trilogy on Australian history but its not on the list cause I haven't read it yet it is on the list though. Anyone able to recommend some non-pop history pulp on Australian history? Especially anything to do with exploration and early settler migrations. Someone needs to write an Albions Seed type book about Australia.

[Anonymous No.22420161]

>>22418454
read Comte

[Anonymous No.22420371]

>>22419773
Almost anything that Samuel Eliot Morison wrote is worth reading.

[Anonymous No.22420389]

>>22411636
Added to my list, thanks.
*hops on to libgen*

[Anonymous No.22421045]

>>22420111
>>22420092
Are you literally me?

[Anonymous No.22421853]

>>22414420
Is history considered literature?

[Anonymous No.22421907]

would recommend this

[Anonymous No.22423484]

Russia Against Napoleon

[Anonymous No.22423486]

Bump for an interesting thread.

[Anonymous No.22424140]

>>22416823
>Any recommendations on the revolutionary war in the US?
Trevelyan

https://archive.org/details/americanrevoluti03trev

[Anonymous No.22424327]

>>22420111
>>22420092
>>22421045
Let me tell you the Complete History of Australia.
>Anglos drift some prison ship out to a desert shithole no one's ever heard of
>The prisoners go "oi mate look, look at all this beautiful desert wasteland for us to make a home out of" "yeah Rob, sure is lovely innit"
>100 years later for some reason more Anglos actually come to the desert shithole ON PURPOSE
>they forcibly steal all the land from the Aboogiwoogi and Kangarooroo people then commit a hecking genocide the rest of them
>100 more years pass and they copy the Wild West but do it with British accents
>100 more years pass and they have a couple serviceable cities clinging to the coastlines which are the only habitable parts of their "country"
>uh-oh! Looks like they have their own nasty negro and injun problem now too! Except instead of calling them "niggers" and "indians" they call them "abbos" or something. Looks like you shouldn't have done a damn stinkin colonialism after all, "Australia"!
>now everyone has to apologize to anyone they meet whose skin color is darker than sand, unless they're Italian, and they have to wear masks and say nice things about gay people no matter where they are. And they have no rights.
That's Australian history for you. I wrote the book on it.

[Anonymous No.22424488]

>>22423484

[Anonymous No.22424500]

>>22424488
>((((ZAMOYSKI))))

[Anonymous No.22424534]

>>22424500
Oh no a hecking JEW! My Yid alarm bell is ringing! I--I can't read this, anon! It might brainwash me!!! Oh gosh, oh jeez, oh damn!

[Anonymous No.22424659]

>>22404785
OP said HISTORY books, anon.

[Anonymous No.22424787]

>>22390045
Any good civil war history writers besides Shelby Foote?

[Anonymous No.22424796]

[Anonymous No.22424925]

>>22424488
>>22424500
If I'm not mistaken he's not a Jew?

[Anonymous No.22424940]

>>22397728
>2 volume modern library edition
redpill me on the translation?

[Anonymous No.22424943]

>>22407173
/pol/ ruined it

[Anonymous No.22424946]

>>22403130
I hope this refers to the ancient city and not the modern country. Ahistorical otherwise.

[Anonymous No.22425377]

>>22424534
uhh..YES?

[Anonymous No.22425533]

>>22423484
>>22424488
read both recently. Pretty good, kinda amusing how much of a fuck fest the congress was.

[Anonymous No.22425848]

>>22391084
>Btw can anyone recommend me a book about western roman elites after the fall of Rome? Is there even a book about that?

Potentially: Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul by Mathisen

[Anonymous No.22427315]

>>22390045
Alexander of Macedon by Peter Green

[Anonymous No.22428624]

>>22405389
Nice hidden hand

[Anonymous No.22428635]

>>22424500
>>22424534
>>22424925
Dude's family is older than the thirteen colonies, burgers.

>The family was influential in Polish politics for several centuries

[Anonymous No.22428649]

>>22417187
If you are an angloid, William Doyle is far superior. The reason why it forces blacks into the narrative like that other anon complained about is because that guy is actually a specialist in the haitian revolution, not the french revolution, look up his other works if you don't believe me.

[Anonymous No.22428656]

>>22416315
If you liked that one Chris Wickham and Peter Heather will probably be up your alley as well, they both have written big syntheses of the era. Roger Collins too if you want something more like a conventional political narrative of the 300-1000 period.

[Anonymous No.22428712]

>>22424327
And yet Australians will always be richer than your useless faggot shithole.

[Anonymous No.22428713]

What are some good books on central and eastern european medieval history?

[Anonymous No.22428719]

>>22428713
For Hungary, the most accessible book in English is Pál Engel's "The Realm of St. Stephen".

[Anonymous No.22428775]

>>22428713
Kimberly Craft's biography on Elizabeth Bathory

[Anonymous No.22428782]

woo hoo let's post the books i may have not even read again
woo hoo let's post the books i barely understand enough and better off reading the wikipedia again
woo hoo let's rec books for no good reason than it being a decent book that can be find anywhere else again

[Anonymous No.22429225]

>>22427315
The last few history books I read had dozens of references to Green and his works. I should probably get around to reading him

[Anonymous No.22429600]

Read LaFeber
Appreciate LaFeber
Try in vain to find historians as good as LaFeber
It's a vicious cycle.

[Anonymous No.22429647]

>>22425848
Thanks.

[Anonymous No.22429663]

>>22428782
Projection

[Anonymous No.22429684]

>>22393949
pop-his trash of the worst sort

[Anonymous No.22429711]

>>22428719
>>22428775
I don't know anything about hungary but I guess I'm going to learn something now

[Anonymous No.22429717]

I only like reading pop history
Pic related is fucking amazing man
I'm going to build a model of the SMS Derfflinger and the HMS Iron Duke soon, love history and stories through history
Battles and wars are cool

[Anonymous No.22429865]

would also recommend

[Anonymous No.22430776]

>>22390045
Can someone please recommend me good books from this list of subjects? Thanks in advance :)
>pre-Heian Japan (anything before it, Yamato, Yayoi, Jomon periods etc.)
>anything that happened in the Ryukyu Islands before the US occupation
>3 Kingdoms of Korea (and before)
>Eastern Siberia before Russian conquest
>Inuits/Arctic American peoples
>Polynesians
>South American natives besides the Inca
>Pre-Roman Levant
>Pre-Roman Italy
>Pre-Roman Iberia
>ancient Gaels and Picts
>Vasconic peoples before the Reconquista
>Pre-Greek non-IE people in Greece and ancient Crete
>Sardinia before the Middle Ages
>>22392125
We should have a separate board for religion
>>22418818
>exclamation mark
Get out

[Anonymous No.22430800]

>>22430776
>Get out
Hey! No need to--get all up in "arms"! Ha-ha!

[Anonymous No.22431739]

>>22391543
>illan pappe
go suck a hamas dick

[Anonymous No.22432125]

[Anonymous No.22432361]

>>22406698
Megabased Bosnian brother.
Srbija je Bosna

[Anonymous No.22432457]

>>22424488
Picked it up recently, about halfway through and have to say it's pretty good so far. As the other anon said, it manages to convey just how much of a cluster fuck the conference and everything that preceded it was. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the period.

[Anonymous No.22432531]

Peter H WIlson has an great pair of books about the HRE and 30 years war.
Europe's Tragedy and Heart of Europe.

>>22429717
Fantastic taste in ships. Have you read Battleship Commander? It's a bio of Admiral Lee.

[Anonymous No.22432548]

Jay Winik is excellent.

[Anonymous No.22432566]

A recent fave

[Anonymous No.22433150]

A recent favorite. Not sure if there is an english translation, but it really opened for me the world of 11th century Iberia.

The author not only assembles a fairly detailed biography for el Cid, but also dedicates an entire chapter detailing how the legend itself begun tracing the different poems and chronicles produced after his death up to the modern day.

[Anonymous No.22433287]

>>22432566
have you read any other (non-fiction) history books published by NYRB? do they have a decent history catalogue?

[Anonymous No.22434427]

[Anonymous No.22434597]

>>22434427
>social theory
commie bullshit. I’d be much more interested in something like the biology of history. how diet, disease, and genetics shaped history. something real like that.