Recommend a good History book?

[danlo]

My Mom sent me the most incredible History book I've ever seen for my birthday in 1997. It's The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun and based on Werner Stien's Kulturfahrplan. It's an amazing cross-reference of everything and anything! Don't leave Rome without it!
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"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all previous centuries of it's existence."~Nikola Tesla

[Menolly]

:::until I can get him to generate his own user name:::

Paul says:

If you haven't already, check out The Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution, edited by Wilbur Applebaum, published in 2000. While not as comprehensive as the Grun volume, Applebaum goes to great lengths to cite experts in the field and give the latest opinions on the state of research on particular historical questions. It's also a useful introduction to some of the hottest academic debates in the History of Science (Paul's field). Plus "Willie" is a friend of my mentor...
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[balon!]

Guns, Germs and Steel.
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[High Lord Tolkien]

"Patriots: The Men who Started the American Revolution" by A.J. Langguth

This is my "stuck on an island for a year and could only bring one history book" book.

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"The Encyclopedia of Military History" by Dupuy and Dupuy

Covers pretty much everything with maps and tech analysis of the time.
Took me a while to get used to the writing style and page format.
It's very different!

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"Don't know Much about the Civil War" by Kenneth C. Davis

This one is fun. Don't expect any in depth analysis.
Most Civil War books bore me to death and get bogged down with too much info that only a CW buff would find interesting. Davis is light hearted and cuts to the chase.

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"Benjamin Franklin" by Walter Isaacson

I love B. Franklin! This book is great.


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I also have read a great WWII book a few times, it's massive, in depth But I forget the name and can't find it!

I also love to pick up old history books written before WWI or WWII.
They have a little different feel to them.
More "personality" maybe, not sure how to explain it.
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[Defeated by a gizmo from Batman's utility belt]
Joker: I swear by all that's funny never to be taken in by that unconstitutional device again!

[Loremaster]

1914-1918 The History of the First World War. This book covers the war in great depth - sometimes too much so. An amazing piece of work.
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Books read 2011: Ender's Game, the Fabric of the Cosmos, False Gods, Storm of Steel, Gardens of the Moon, Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun, Fall of Damnos, Regeneration, Redemption Ark, A Tale of Two Cities.

[balon!]

OOOOoo...

I also just bought a really great one, although the "history" part is a bit squewed. "The Best Alternate History Stories of the Twentyith Century."

It's quite good, a bunch of short stories that, well, the title says it all!
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[Damelon]

Rubicon, by Tom Holland. Best book dealing with the late republic period. Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, and Cicero are among the many interesting characters from that time. It's the best book on the background of Roman history.
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But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ~ Carl Sagan

[Lord Mhoram]

Bernard Lewis's The Muslim Discovery of Europe.
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"All my life I have sneered at the natural rights of man." - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

[dlbpharmd]

"The Killer Angel" by Michael Shaara.

"Patton" by Martin Blumenson

"We were Soldiers once...and Young" by Hal Moore

I'll think of some others.
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[danlo]

I've got to get my hands on Guns, Germs and Steel and Rubicon.
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"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all previous centuries of it's existence."~Nikola Tesla

[lucimay]

http://www.amazon.com/Stalin-Court-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore/dp/1400042305

Ger just finished reading this a couple of weeks ago and highly recommends it.


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a straight edge for legends at
the fold - searching for our
lost cities of gold. burnt tar,
gravel pits. sixteen gears switch.
Haphazard Lucy strolls by.
~ dennis r wood ~

[Loremaster]

I have that book! My brother gave it to me as a christmas present!
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Books read 2011: Ender's Game, the Fabric of the Cosmos, False Gods, Storm of Steel, Gardens of the Moon, Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Sun, Fall of Damnos, Regeneration, Redemption Ark, A Tale of Two Cities.

[Cybrweez]

I'll echo "Killer Angels", and also any book by his son, I think Christopher Shaara. Also, Stephen Ambrose is good, and Shelby Foote's Civil War Narrative. Rick Atkinson wrote a good book on WWII, I forget the name.

I've seen Guns, Germs and Steel, so its really good huh? I'll have to pick up that one.
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--Andy

"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur."
Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.

I believe in the One who says there is life after this.
Now tell me how much more open can my mind be?

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides. There are many translations of the original text, the first of which was done by Hobbes and might as well be in the original Greek, it's that hard to get a grip on. My favorite version is this one: The Landmark Thucydides : A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Robert Strassler. I remember, when I studied it in college, my professor pointing out a few places where the translation wasn't quite as accurate or illuminating as some of the more classic versions, but I think that is totally overshadowd by the fact that this book has maps. Reading Thucydides is so much easier if you have maps to help you understand what the guy was talking about.

If you have any interest in ancient Greek history, military history or political history, this book is a great resource.
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"We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard... and too damn cheap." - Kurt Vonnegut

"Now if you remember all great paintings have an element of tragedy to them. Uh, for instance if you remember from last week, the unicorn was stuck on the aircraft carrier and couldn't get off. That was very sad. " - Kids in the Hall

[danlo]

I could surround my self with maps!!!
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"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all previous centuries of it's existence."~Nikola Tesla

[Damelon]

Danlo Mercator

I love to study maps also.
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But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ~ Carl Sagan

[Wyldewode]

I'm a map girl ( and globes too)! I have a growing collection.

I recently received Great Batlefields of the World by John MacDonald. It's an illustrated book with computer generated battlefield layouts and representations of the troops and weapons. It goes from 1700 on, but is a pretty cool book if you're into military history.

Some other good ones:

Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley
Down With the Old Canoe by Steven Biehl
Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South by Melton McLaurin

I'm sure that there are ore, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.
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[Avatar]

Lady Elizabeth Longford: Wellington: The Years of the Sword.

--A
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Don't believe everything you think.

[Lady Revel]

I resound the recommendations for Guns, Germs and Steel. What a fascinating (and Pulitzer Prize winning) book!

I am also partial to *blush* A Short History of Nearly Everything, by (of ALL people! ) Bill Bryson.

[Kinslaughterer]

I really enjoy John Keegan's WWII and WWI books. They have depth and always have good maps.

Anyone interested in Native American history/prehistory should try "This Land was Theirs" by Oswalt, or "Skull Wars" by David Hurst Thomas a prominent archaeologist with the Museum of Natural History.

I should mention "Collapse" by Diamond. He is an excellent writer but many of his ideas about the collapse or end of societies are have an overtly environmental determinist bent. Fundamentally, archaeologists has gone to great links in working on the collapse of the many of cultures that Diamond mentions and while environmental factors were present they only equal a small part of the whole.

For instance, and this is rather popular with many writers who converse about Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans did not destroy their environment. They certainly deforested the area around Chaco but dozens of other factors were far more important than this idea.
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"We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and remember:X never, ever, marks the spot."
- Professor Henry Jones Jr.

"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

http://crowcanyon.org/
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