Whats your favorite history book?

[Anonymous No.22805444]

[Anonymous No.22805447]

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

[Anonymous No.22805462]

[Anonymous No.22805516]

[Anonymous No.22805546]

>>22805444
Ammianus Marcellinus. Favourite pats were on Constantius II

[Anonymous No.22805571]

[Anonymous No.22806097]

>>22805444
Now Taine I can get in to

[Anonymous No.22806148]

empire of the summer moon

[Anonymous No.22806164]

>>22805444

[Anonymous No.22806173]

>>22805571
This one was really good

>>22806164
Its pretty outdated, you should read more modern authors like Kaldellis

[Anonymous No.22806185]

>>22805444
The Antique City by Fustel de Coulanges.

[Anonymous No.22806236]

>>22805516
>>22805571
>>22806164
wow when did /lit/ get good taste?

I like Bill Hogeland's stuff. Cultural Cold War , True and Only Heaven, and Enchantments of Mammon are fun too

[Anonymous No.22806250]

[Anonymous No.22806308]

>>22805444
Herodotus

[Anonymous No.22806343]

>>22805444
A history of Modern Europe - John Merriman

[Anonymous No.22806368]

[Anonymous No.22807367]

[Anonymous No.22807393]

>>22805447
Great book. For the equivalent for Fascist Italy, try Day of the Lion

[Anonymous No.22807405]

>>22807393
forgot pic. I don't suspect this book is well known at all, but I read it earlier this year and it was excellent, as was Christopher Hibbert's biography of Mussolini

[Anonymous No.22807422]

if anyone gives a shit about canada this is a recommendable book. it's hard to make canada interesting but I think this manages it

[Anonymous No.22807480]

[Anonymous No.22807675]

[Anonymous No.22807934]

[Anonymous No.22808205]

[Anonymous No.22808225]

Unread books shelf. Which one next bros

[Anonymous No.22808431]

>>22808225
Roberts History of the World

[Anonymous No.22809437]

/// The soldiers were ready at a moment's notice /// Additionally, about 96 percent of the land is under conservation easement, meaning it can’t be developed /// He's a mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry /// The army has been whipsawed by a shrinking budget and a growing pool of recruits /// It’s been really hectic here. When things settle down, I’ll give you a call /// He had developed a reputation as an automotive savant and tinkered on cars in his spare time /// Although exports are in this sense an epiphenomenon, they are the most measurable of the two /// She strapped the children in and drove away /// The lotion alleviated the itching /// I'm sure they will charge up the wazoo for tickets /// Farming may seem bucolic, but it is an inherently volatile industry, subject to the vicissitudes of weather, disease, and disaster /// Kept the truth from their unwitting friends /// The wily City veteran is rarely caught on the wrong side of a trade /// He saw no fulsome eulogies carved upon the headstones, often nothing but a name and the two dates of birth and death /// And our blithe drift towards becoming a cashless society is coming at a cost /// The movement promotes female supremacy and misandry /// I've got some bits and bobs to get done before lunch /// Noticing my slightly glazed eyes, he quickly summarized his points /// I initially dismissed the idea out of hand /// I wouldn't set foot in that haunted house if you paid me /// Taking a sheet of hotel stationery from the drawer of one of the desks I wrote: Any chance of seeing you for a moment? ///

[Anonymous No.22809445]

>>22808225
1491

[Anonymous No.22810165]

[Anonymous No.22810182]

>>22806173
Calling books "outdated" is just a meme historians use to legitimize their own work. Different theses aren't "outdated" they're just different.

[Anonymous No.22810188]

>>22810182
I agree that “outdated” is thoughtlessly thrown around by historians nowadays, like a book automatically expires after X years like it’s a food product. That said, there are books that are genuinely outdated. Now, this usually applies to modern history, because the nature of evidence becoming available over time, such as Soviet archives or whatever. So if you want, say, a biography of Stalin you’re gonna want the new one from Kotkin. But ancient history? Some new book about the Roman’s by Mary Beard? Gimme a break: Gibbon and Mommsen aren’t out of date. All these fuckers are working from the same document, no Roman “archive” is gonna open up, showing us Caesars napkin scribbles.

[Anonymous No.22810192]

>>22810188
Yes I agree 100%.

[Anonymous No.22810274]

How do you anons actually remember anything from history books? I've read many but I can barely remember anything apart from the vague outlines.

[Anonymous No.22810286]

>>22810274
You can’t remember everything. The idea is to just keep reading more. You will consistently retain information and it will become self-reinforcing as that information becomes connected to other information in your mental filing cabinet

[Anonymous No.22810313]

>>22807422
No one gives a shit about Canada except what pakis and chinks think they can extract from it. And Pierre Burton didn't write shit, it's a patchwork of research assistants' work edited together. Shit taste, retarded leaf, as is custom.

[Anonymous No.22810322]

>>22810313
And Pierre Burton didn't write shit, it's a patchwork of research assistants' work edited together
And I should care about this because ? Literally every fucking history book ever written is constructed with the help of a team of grad-student slaves. Anyway it’s clear from your post you’re not a serious person

[Anonymous No.22810323]

[Anonymous No.22810342]

Caro's monstrosity.

Not really a history of new york as it is a history of one dude, but sometimes "great man" theory is right. You need a brilliant leader/administrator at the right moment in history. Great book.

[Anonymous No.22810381]

>>22810322
>paki can't greentext
Go back to spamming Reddit

[Anonymous No.22810394]

>>22810381
Now coming after me for a typo? Yeah, you’re a deeply unserious person.

[Anonymous No.22810732]

>>22810188
They didn't have internet back then though to acquire wider knowledge
Gibson didn't have access to every Roman source and archeology out there
Which makes sense because his thesis is batshit retarded

[Anonymous No.22810865]

Always nice when a history thread isn't just 70% books about the American revolution or civil war.

[Anonymous No.22811011]

>>22810342
Need to read this and then the LBJ series

[Anonymous No.22811015]

>>22810732
Do zoomers really?

[Anonymous No.22811020]

>>22810732
>Gibbon's le wrong because umm..."modern historians" (probably can't even cite anyone specific) say so!

[Anonymous No.22811182]

>>22811020
>dude heckin Christianity caused Rome to fall

[Anonymous No.22811197]

>>22811011
I haven't touched his LBJ stuff yet but it's on my list. Kind of a shame he spent so much of his career studying one lawmaker. I would have loved to get something on the Phil Burton-Willie Brown dynasty in California.

[Anonymous No.22811391]

>>22811182
I think the erosion of the emperor-cult is a legitimate criticism

[Anonymous No.22811513]

>>22810188
Gibbon is absolutely outdated. He wrote before the advent of archaeology ffs. He's still worth reading for his prose, but as history he's lacking.

[Anonymous No.22811520]

>>22810274
Do you have depression anon? I was like that when depressed. It causes issues with forming memories. Now I can remember shit because I cured it.

[Anonymous No.22811720]

The Innocents Abroad (1869)

>The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress is a travel book by American author Mark Twain published in 1869 which humorously chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City (formerly USS Quaker City) through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867.

https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3176

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/888215.The_Innocents_Abroad_1869_

[Anonymous No.22811840]

>>22811520
How did you cure it?

[Anonymous No.22811841]

>>22811391
>I think the erosion of the emperor-cult is a legitimate criticism
nta but it really isn't. The veneration of the Emperor and his pseudo-divinity never changed. In the end all that changed was rhetoric. Civil war during the 4th and even 5th century was rather limited compared to the 3rd century so it's obvious that the Imperial Cult did little to actually stop civil war. Against the dynastic Emperors in the West, Honorius and Valentinian, all usurpers looked for accommodation with the Emperor and not to overthrow them.

[Anonymous No.22811858]

>>22811513
Faggot spotted

[Anonymous No.22811958]

>>22811840
Reading Jung and seeing a Jungian therapist. If that's not your style then pic related is worth checking out.

[Anonymous No.22812010]

>>22805444

[Anonymous No.22812054]

There were 3 Ages of Discovery.
In the first age, people sought for a route to the Indies in search of silk and spices.
In the second age, people sought to map out every corner of the world.
In the third age, people sought to map out the skies.
Ernest Shackleton's voyage to Antarctica was one of the last great expeditions of the Second Age of Discovery, after which no continent was completely unknown to mankind and no part of the world was totally remote or unexplored.
The efforts he and his party made to reach the South Pole were immense, given that they took place in an era in which aviation was still in its infancy and expeditions to Antarctica required huge crews and large amounts of resources collected either in the southern tip of South America, Australia, or South Africa.
His journey, although not totally unique, certainly helped pave the way for the construction of Antarctic bases and scientific expeditions to the great southerly continent.
I believe that reading about this man's life can offer anyone a glimpse of what mankind was capable of doing slightly over a century ago with what now seems like limited technology.

[Anonymous No.22812061]

>>22812054
Forgot book.

[Anonymous No.22812151]

>>22811958
Where do you find Jungian therapists?

[Anonymous No.22812174]

>>22812151
the psych ward

[Anonymous No.22812574]

>>22812010
heh

[Anonymous No.22812586]

>>22812151
>open up search engine of choice
>type in "jungian psychologist [my city]"
>browse the results
>filter for ones who look like they know what they're doing
>???
>profit

[Anonymous No.22812643]

[Anonymous No.22813317]

>>22812010
Could I see a hat wobble?

[Anonymous No.22813674]

>>22812151
Psychology majors
You could probably get them to pay you 1/4th the cost of an actual therapist as well

[Anonymous No.22814150]

>>22810286
this is how I do it

[Anonymous No.22814468]

>>22810165
I’m half way done with this. It’s quite a wild ride

[Anonymous No.22815385]

Civilization and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel

[Anonymous No.22815712]

[Anonymous No.22815973]

[Anonymous No.22816400]

not light reading - but very good

[Anonymous No.22816405]

also bretty good

[Anonymous No.22816799]

[Anonymous No.22816913]

The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict - Donald R. Hickey

[Anonymous No.22817870]

[Anonymous No.22817884]

>>22817870
>Whig history

[Anonymous No.22817978]

This is great

[Anonymous No.22817986]

>>22807405
where to cop? Not on amazon or thriftbooks

[Anonymous No.22818286]

>>22817884
Whig history is based and you know it.

[Anonymous No.22818583]

[Anonymous No.22818656]

Are there any good books on history post-2010?
Would be curious how the period is thought of so far. Woke authors will probably miss the massive social upheaval that's being predicted by current trends

[Anonymous No.22818853]

Any good books on the Bolshevik revolution?
I'm trying to read about it before history repeats itself once again

[Anonymous No.22819047]

>>22818853
You need to read more history if you think we're approaching anything like the Bolshevik Revolution

[Anonymous No.22819100]

>>22818853
A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes

[Anonymous No.22819224]

>>22815385
KINO

[Anonymous No.22819264]

>>22818286
Except it isn't.

[Anonymous No.22819285]

>>22805444
The alexiad
>After the death of the imperial pair the loss of the Caesar and my consequent grief would have been sufficient for the contrition of my soul and body; but now like rivers flowing down from high mountains ... the rivers of ills ... into one torrent which is inundating my house. But now my history must be concluded, for if I were to describe sad events any longer I might become bitter.
Has there been a sadder ending to a primary source than this? Anna deserved better bros.

[Anonymous No.22819372]

>>22819264
It is when the prose is good.

[Anonymous No.22819378]

[Anonymous No.22819415]

[Anonymous No.22819425]

>>22818853
The Black Book of Communism has a decent summation.

[Anonymous No.22819483]

[Anonymous No.22820005]

>>22810165
Always been interested in learning more about the British Empire. Despite how significant and massive the Empire was globally, I don't remember ever really learning much of anything about it in school.
I've always been curious what led the Empire to fall apart (besides ww2 ofc)

[Anonymous No.22820264]

>>22810394
>unserious is an insult

[Anonymous No.22820492]

any germans ITT that can give any recs good ww2 books?

[Anonymous No.22821959]

[Anonymous No.22822392]

Books on Frankish greece?

[Anonymous No.22823031]

>>22819483
>J.C. Beaglehole

[Anonymous No.22823896]

[Anonymous No.22823900]

>>22822392
Fresh out of luck if you want much. There's about 2 books of substance on the topic as a whole. 'The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium The Empire of Constantinople, 1204–1228' by Filip Van Tricht is the best (and really only) book on the topic. For the most part you'll want to look at papers for anything. Most works on the Latin Empire stop at 1228 as the Empire collapses and just becomes Constantinople and you'll only find references to the surviving Latin states scattered throughout other works.

[Anonymous No.22823923]

>>22818853
The Red Wheel by Solzhenitsyn

[Anonymous No.22824582]

>>22821959
based
one of my favourite aussie historians along with lyndal roper. highly recommend pic related for anyone interested in reading about literal witch hunts

[Anonymous No.22824602]

>>22824582
also for some reason this book has 2 alternate titles

Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany
Witch Craze: Women and Evil in Baroque Germany

no difference in the text as far as I can tell though

[Anonymous No.22824808]

>>22822392
Don't listen to this guy >>22823900, read The Latins in the Levant. The book he mentioned is by a modern academic (i.e narrow minded hylic) so best to ignore.

[Anonymous No.22824813]

>>22824808
and The History of the Crusades and any book on Byzantium generally like Treadgold.

[Anonymous No.22825435]

>>22824808
>>22823900
>>22822392
>>22824813
William Miller - The Latins in the Levant_ A history of Frankish Greece (1204-1566)-E. P. Dutton

Peter Lock,The Franks in the Aegean, 1204–1500

The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest

Crowley, Roger (2011). City of Fortune - How Venice Won and lost a Naval Empire.

The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages

The two key works are
The Latins in the Levant A history of Frankish Greece

The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest

[Anonymous No.22825444]

>>22825435
For events adjacent to greece we have the balkans and I don't know many particular books but here are some I do know

Realm of St. Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary

Steven Runciman A History of the First Bulgarian Empire

Alexandru Madgearu the Asanids the political and military history of the second bulgarian empire

[Anonymous No.22825605]

>>22805444
Passionate, Attentive, Genius

[Anonymous No.22825731]

>>22824808
>Modern historians bad... why? Because I said so!

[Anonymous No.22825760]

>>22808225
>age of extremes

Have you read the trilogy before it? It's the worst one by far but the first and second are so good.

[Anonymous No.22825790]

>>22825760
What's wrong with it? I've read age of capital

[Anonymous No.22825823]

>>22825790
As you probably know he's very close to some of the richest and most important material of the era, his bitterness and personal history with Communism (as he admits) colors the work. As the title implies, the book is a lot less clean than the others, it almost seems like he can't make sense of the period he's covering. Once you've read the rest (and you really should read Age of Revolutions, it's the best one) you can read it for the sake of completion, but I don't recommend it much beyond that.

[Anonymous No.22825852]

There's already salt in the thread about this book but come on, Decline is indisputably one of the greatest English literary works ever written. It was important and widely read even beyond the English world, then and ever since. It's massively important from the perspective of Historiography, and since he's using the same sources we still use, the History is still relatively well presented. If you actually read it, you'll realize how bizarrely overplayed the idea of the "anti-christian" central thesis of the book is. It's such a minor part of the work, so obscured by religious propriety of his day. Anyway, most importantly, Gibbon is incredibly fun to read, his prose is wonderful, funny, ironic, bitchy. Decline fucking rocks, fuck the haters.

[Anonymous No.22825889]

>>22808225
Legacy of Ashes for modern history if you're in that mood, otherwise The Conquest of the Incas

[Anonymous No.22825913]

>>22825823
He always has some weird takes. Like I remember from Age of Capital he had a few pages dedicated to this "gotcha" of the bourgeois where he claimed they were hypocrites for wanting a society with social mobility for themselves but then being happy with a "paternalistic, autocratic" family unit that resembles the pre-industrial society of hierarchy under monarchs.
Like did he seriously think they were going to go:
>wow my literal family structure doesn't exactly match my self-serving classical liberal free market beliefs, let me just atomize my family unit and start a commune!

[Anonymous No.22825945]

>>22825913
Sure, but the difference is for things he has this deep personal attachment to, eg Communism, he's actually way less interesting. I would have preferred weird takes, Age of Chaos is mostly just boring imo.

[Anonymous No.22826036]

>>22815385
I liked The Mediterranean, but always felt Braudel took too long to get to the point. How are his other works?

[Anonymous No.22826044]

Any good books for china or japan history? Non regular ones if possible. Great dynasties or focussed on specific era or individual.

[Anonymous No.22826049]

>>22825852
Is it worth it to read an abridged version? Specifically the Penguin one. I’d like to read Gibbon but not 4000 pages of Gibbon. There is too much stuff I want to read and reread to dedicate that kind of to a single work

[Anonymous No.22826072]

>>22826049
Sure! Why not? But what are you hoping to get out of it? If you want, there's many more concise ways of learning about Rome. Gibbon is so special to me because of his inspired prose and originality of the work. If you want to read less, I think you'd be better off just reading the first volume, and then if you enjoy him as much as I did, you'll keep going. God knows I didn't expect to finish when I started, but once I got going it went pretty quick.

[Anonymous No.22826114]

>>22826044
>Non regular
What do you mean by this?
>China
I recently read and really liked Stephen Platt's Imperial Twilight and Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, about the First Opium War and Taiping Rebellion, respectively.
Honestly, the whole Century of Humiliation reads like a low fantasy novel (in a good way, of course).
>Japan
Not quite history, but the Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict is the seminal anthropological work on Japan. It's kind of outdated, but one gets the impression that modern cultural scholars on Japan are essentially commentating or annotating this work.

[Anonymous No.22826119]

>>22826072
I’m interested in Rome but more interested in Gibbon as a writer. Even if some current scholarship disagrees with him, he is still a landmark and cultural touchstone. I’m also planning on reading Livy sometime this year, specifically the first series, I think it’s books 1-4/5, and the Second Punic War one, but part of me wants to wait for the Landmark Polybius for Hannibal. I still need to get around to Tacitus, which I bought some time ago in my Roman phase but lost interest in. I digress, but I guess what I’m trying to say is I respect Gibbon even without reading him, his ambition reminds me of Spengler. I’ve never read the former obviously, but I find their goals admirable even if I disagree with some stuff with the rudimentary knowledge I have. I think I can read 800 pages of Gibbon, edited together by Wormsley, but I don’t know if I have thousands of pages in me and ~$100 for the EL box set. Who knows though? Christmas is coming and then tax season. I usually treat myself to a few more expensive books that are a little out of my wheelhouse during that period

[Anonymous No.22826120]

>>22826114 (me)
>Japan
Adding MITI and the Japanese Miracle by Chalmers Johnson, if you're in the mood for economic history. It doubles as a good text on Asian developmentalism in general.

[Anonymous No.22826128]

>>22826114
Not the books everyone recommends or on generic reading list. Thanks for the books.

[Anonymous No.22826144]

What does one read in place of livy's lost works?

[Anonymous No.22826151]

>>22826144
Livy’s “lost” books are out there, you just gotta know the right people

[Anonymous No.22826164]

>>22826119
I haven't read any abridged versions, so I'm sorry to say I can't really help you decide. I really think the digressions and lack of concision are part of why it's such a strong work, and wouldn't have wanted it to be shorter. If it's just the money, maybe you can find an orphan volume from an unabridged set. I'd rather read, say, volume 4 without context than an abridged whole.

[Anonymous No.22826179]

>>22825852
>Gibbon is incredibly fun to read
I never got this. Gibbon (along with most pre 20th century historians) are just frustrating and annoying to read. It's not hard but at heart they are all sophists and it's incredibly insufferable to read their ramblings. Along with just being pretentious in the same way a basedboy would reference marvel movies but instead they just cite authors who have nothing to do with the topic to jerk off about. Gibbon cites Cicero an awful lot, he has absolutely no reason to do so but he does so anyway, it's a pointless distraction from the topic he writes about.

[Anonymous No.22826188]

>>22826144
Appian, Cassius Dio, Dionysius

[Anonymous No.22826212]

>>22826179
That's fair, I just disagree. Beyond the raw enjoyment I get from his florid style, his superfluity reveals elements of Gibbon the man and the time he comes from. It's a personal and opinionated work, a portrait of the 18th century, as well as a straightforward history. If you don't enjoy thinking about Gibbon the man and know nothing about polite 18th century European society, you'll get less out of it.

[Anonymous No.22826225]

>>22826179
You would love Robert Burton
>>22826164
Why do you say volume 4? I think Penguin breaks the whole series down into 3 big books for their unabridged version so I might be more interested in one of those 3. I wouldn’t say I can’t afford it, just that I can justify getting 5 different books I’m interested in compared to one box set. It’s definitely in play for the next box set I get but I have a feeling I’ll get something from Library of America

[Anonymous No.22826234]

>>22826225
>Why do you say volume 4?
No reason, just a hypothetical. Actually, I should say five and six aren't as good as the first four volumes.

[Anonymous No.22826868]

Books on the Greco-Persian Wars?