The history books thread.

[Lord Avalon]

Halfway through Third and a Mile: The Trials and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback (An Oral History) by William C. Rhoden

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Shall get myself Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West soon. Anyone heard anything about this?

I heard it was a PoS, not worth the bother.

[Nostromo]

I'm reading an historical novel called "Les bienveillantes". It was the litterary event of 2006 in France. Its 900 pages long and was written by an American, Jonathan Littel. But he wrote it in French. Its the fictional autobiography of SS Obersturmbannführer named Maximilien Aue. The novel is not without its faults, but Littel sure seems to have done his research. The book is very detailed, precise. Very graphic, also.

[Ecthy]

Well if that isn't a qualified statement

[Nostromo]

Well, it can't be qualified since I didn't read it. Sorry if I was a bit "blunt", but I only heard bad things about it. From an historian's point of view, the book doesn't seem to be very good. Maybe its worth reading for its philosophical/cultural criticism part.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Hueij
I picked up Sir Alan Gardiner's Egypt of the Pharao's for 9 euro's in a second-hand book shop last week. Although a bit outdated (1961) it is an awesome read.

Im pretty sure I read that once upon a time.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by germanos
The embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama.

Nice book on the Golden Era of the Dutch Republic, from an internal point of view.

I read Citizens which was very well done, if strongly opinionated on some key historical issues. Ive heard good things about Emb of Riches.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ecthy
Shall get myself Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West soon. Anyone heard anything about this?

Hes real big on civilizational essences, and inevitable cycles. IIRC he makes some fairly arbitrary cuts in where civs begin and end, to get them to fit his cycle theory. His book became the background to some really right wing German politics. I have no doubt its compellingly written, and is one of those influential books one has to read for an insight into the era, but Im sure you will read through it being aware of its weaknesses.

[molly bloom]

Just bought- well, yesterday- a Jackdaw booklet on 'The Peasants' Revolt'.

£ 2:50 in the Oxfam bookshop near the British Museum.

I already have several others, on Alfred the Great, the Black Death and so on.

They make great teaching aids, so if anyone is or knows a teacher, I recommend them. Great for children or young adults interested in history too. Or bibliomaniacs like me...

The Alfred the Great has this in it:

Broadsheets

Brief account of Alfred of Wessex’s life
Muddle and manuscripts: Difficulties of interpreting Alfred’s life from limited sources
Under the Golden Dragon: System of raising armies and men for the navy
Alfred’s England
Full-time king: Alfred’s achievements

Historical Documents

Map of Anglo-Saxon England with key to present-day names.

Two pages from the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Four pages from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle covering some of Alfred’s battles with the Danes.

Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle on Alfred’s reign.

The treaty between Alfred and Guthrum in which Alfred extends the boundaries of Wessex.

Alfred’s introduction to his translation of “Cura Pasoralis.”

Translation of “Cura Pasoralis” with word-for-word gloss of the first page.

Picture sheet of Anglo-Saxon coins from the time of Alfred.

Anglo-Saxon art and architecture.

The Alfred jewel.

The Anglo-Saxon wall painting excavated at Winchester.

Model of the church of St. Lawrence, Bradford-upon-Avon.

Model of an Anglo-Saxon ship.

Anglo-Saxon warfare — a picture sheet.

Study Guide / Lesson Plan – Reproducible Activities

http://jackdaws.com/

Revolting peasants...

[Lord Avalon]

I don't know when I'll get around to reading it, but it's by William Stevenson, who wrote A Man Called Intrepid, which I enjoyed:

Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon
I don't know when I'll get around to reading it, but it's by William Stevenson, who wrote A Man Called Intrepid, which I enjoyed

I read it. It almost reads like a spy novel. It was pretty entertaining, but I'm not sure if its worth anything as an histortical book.

Did you read "Bodyguard of lies", by Anthony Cave Brown?

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by nostromo
Did you read "Bodyguard of lies", by Anthony Cave Brown?

No I haven't. Any good?

[Nostromo]

Pretty good, yes. Its basically about operation Bodyguard:

Operation Bodyguard was the overall Allied strategic deception plan in Europe for 1944, carried out as part of the build-up to the invasion of Normandy. The major objective of this plan was to lead the Germans to believe that the invasion of northwestern Europe would come later than was actually planned, and to threaten attacks at other locations than the true objective, including the Pas de Calais, the Balkans, southern France, Norway, and Soviet attacks in Bulgaria and northern Norway.

The name 'Bodyguard' was derived from a comment by Winston Churchill to Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conference in 1943, saying, "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

The main part of Operation Bodyguard was the plan to deceive the enemy as to the timing, weight and direction of the Normandy invasion. Roger Hesketh, who helped plan and carry out the operation while working at 'Ops B', the deception sector of SHAEF, recalled in his book the three main goals of this part of Bodyguard. These were laid down in Appendix Y of COSSAC, a previous deception plan, and were:

1. To induce the German command to believe that the main assault and follow up will be in or east of the Pas de Calais, thereby encouraging the enemy to maintain or increase the strength of his air and ground forces and his fortifications there at the expense of other areas, particularly of the Caen area.
2. To keep the enemy in doubt as to the date and the time of the actual assault.
3. During and after the main assault to contain the largest possible German land and air forces in or east of the Pas de Calais for at least fourteen days.[1]

The Bodyguard plan was created by London Controlling Section following the Teheran conference in November 1943. It was divided into three main sub-operations: Operation Fortitude, which had both a North component (designed to lead the Germans to expect an invasion of Norway) and a South component, designed to lead them to expect an invasion at the Pas de Calais. The third main sub-operation was Operation Zeppelin, to indicate landings on Crete or Romania. There were also numerous smaller operations. These operations were not implemented by London Controlling Section, but by the commanders in the theatres to which they applied.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Traianvs
So your intention is to read it all?

[Odin]

Originally posted by nostromo


I heard it was a PoS, not worth the bother.

Started reading it once, but soon got annoyed with the heavy amounts of influence from German Idealist philosophy.