The history books thread.

[RGBVideo]

Originally posted by VetLegion
Wikipedia is at its worst when it comes to historical articles (and basketball players' biographies). I'd never advise anyone to use it for learning history.

Every source is biased, wikipedia is biased at every direction. I absorb facts, not spin and weasel words which indeed are exceptionally common at Wiki's historical articles.

Don't get me wrong, I don't only use Wikipedia... I use Wikipedia and Google. No, really.

I couldn't rely Google for effective summaries, though, so I still needed to browse history books before Wiki.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Hueij

You should try Little Drummer Girl. It is about this Israeli intelligence officer trying to put an end to a Palestinian terrorist group. And (Le Carre) in the end there are no winners..Chilling...

Ive read Tinker, Tailor and Honorable Schoolboy. I think I see where Le Carre comes from. The heavy handed American 'cousins' are almost as much the adversary as the Russians. Indeed, in Schoolboy, the Brit Intell officials who leaned pro-American were the adversary. Even if I hadnt seen reviews of Little Drummer Girl, Id know it had an agenda. I can deal with opposing opinions in contemporary discussions, but in an old spy novel im looking for a little bit more of an escape.

Next history on the Middle East I want to read is Schama's "Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel" which IIUC is a counter to the traditional labour zionist minimization of the Rothschilds' role in supporting the 19th c settlements.

[1889]

Sound like some good books, I'll keep an eye open next time I get to used book store. As for "Little Drummer Girl" spy novels aren't my thing but I remember repeatedly passing it over for action films when I went to the neighborhood video store as kid, so I'll throw Le Carre a bone and Netflix it.

Currently reading "The Causes of War" by Geoffrey Blainey.

[Bosh]

I'm reading the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Volume II by Edward Gibbon. His constant sarcasm really cracks me up, but then I'm geeky like that

History books that all of you should read:
The Face of Battle by John Keegan (great counterweight to popular culture descriptions of historical battles, great myth-buster)
Plauges and Peoples by William McNeil (basically the germ portion of Guns, Germs and Steel but written a few decades earlier and vastly more intelligently)

[Addled Platypus]

Six Frigates, by Ian W. Toll - will be my next read

US Naval history

[Heresson]

I'm reading what my tutors tell me,
except for that Yahya al-Antaki's chronicle
and a History of Rum Seldjuks, forgot the name of the writer, in arabic

[VetLegion]

The Prize by Daniel Yergin.

It's a history of oil. Halfway through and I like what I've read so far.

[Elok]

Originally posted by VetLegion
The Prize by Daniel Yergin.

It's a history of oil. Halfway through and I like what I've read so far.

Halfway through the history of oil? That puts you at what, 400 million BC? I'd have thought that would be a terribly boring story.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle. Terrific book (so far) which uses a racially charged murder trial in 1920's Detroit to talk about race, urbanization, the Black migration to the North, and a host of other issues. Won som big prize -- National Book or Pulitzer, IIRC -- and seems to have deserved it.

[Ecthy]

Armchair historians

[lord of the mark]

while I cant say that the history of furniture fascinates me, if thats your thing, why I see nothing wrong.

[Ecthy]

In the movie The Fugitive you see a wall poster in Dr Kimble's house that is a repro of a 1890-1910ish advertisement of a furniture store of the Thonet brothers. This in itself is not a worthy piece of news, did my parents not possess exactly the same kind of wall poster.

[lord of the mark]

Ive finished "The Russia House" (and no, I didnt particularly care for the ending, though it was pretty typical Le Carre)

Ive put the Scholem and the Bloch aside.

Ive read another couple of Pages of Braudels "Civilization and Capitalism Vol II" (a book I can only read in small doses, Im afraid.

But Im reading and enjoying "Paris 1919" by Margaret MacMillan, about the Paris peace conference.

[Ecthy]

I own the same book, though it carries a different title. "Peacemakers" by the same author, same subject.

[Zkribbler]

I'm reading "Here Be Dragons," in which there ain't no dragons at all .

It's the first book in an historical novel trilogy. I thought the trilogy was going to center on the conflict between King John and Prince Lewellyn of Wales, but i'm 500 pages in, and King John has just croaked. So now, I don't know what the trilolgy's about.