History Books

[kafka]

There are threads for Memoirs, Chick Lit, Autobiographies, Young Adult Fiction, and other broad literary genres, but none for books purely related to history. But I know that there are more than a few fans out there!

Whether you want to discuss the latest book on the Black Plague, the Holocaust, the American Revolution, the Roman Empire, the miltary history of WWII, or the birth of the CIA, this is your place.

I'll start by saying that I just picked up a book on Charlemagne by Derek Wilson and, 67 pages into it, I'm quite impressed.

Description:

Charlemagne is seen by historians as the bridge between ancient and modern Europe. His Holy Roman Empire was the embodiment of an ideal that inspired leaders as different as Charles V, Napoleon, and Hitler, each of whom sought to make a unified Europe a reality again in his own time.

In this new biography, the first major study of Charlemagne in more than twenty-five years, Derek Wilson provides an absorbing and lively account of his life, character, and accomplishments. Charlemagne transcends every notion we have of the traditional historical hero. A military strategist of Julius Caesar’s caliber, he had no knowledge of classical history. A ruler with the sagacity of Marcus Aurelius, he ordered summary executions more reminiscent of Caligula or Nero. A devout believer who ensured the survival of Christianity in the West, he considered himself above the Church, sired numerous bastard children, and generated accusations of incest.

As Wilson describes a Church divided between the Latin West, with its capital in Rome, and the Greek Church of the East, with its capital in Constantinople, we see not only the emergence of Europe but the trials of a Church in flux. The politics of the day were in constant play and were mastered by Charlemagne with cunning and force. By marrying the military might of his army to the spiritual might of the Church in Rome, Charlemagne dominated his world and forged Western Christendom.

Written by one of England’s most respected biographers, Charlemagne is a masterful, multidimensional portrait of a great historical figure—a man whose earthly passions were surpassed only by his religious devotion, and whose religious devotion was exceeded only by his will to power.

What are you reading now about the past?

[starskin]

I mentioned this in another thread, but the best historical book I've read (not that I've read terribly many) is The Guns of August. I aspire to be like Barbara W. Tuchman when it comes to academic writing. Not only that, the things she's writing about...the situations, sentiments, blunders, political maneuvering...all seem like they could have been about written today, as opposed to WWI. It's both fascinating and disheartening to see how much history really does repeat itself.

[monkey]

Ooh, I love The Guns of August and The Proud Tower. I'm about to start a book on the Hiss-Chambers case for one of my history seminars. I'll definitely be frequenting this thread, because it seems like history is all I read as of late.

Also very much enjoyed John Lewis Gaddis' The Cold War. I want to read more of him. Any recommendations?

[Mutagen]

Oooh, Barbara W. Tuchmann was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread! I think I wrote a really long fangirling post about her in one of the other threads on this board, maybe the Nonfiction one, but that was a long time ago.

Y'all should check out The Zimmerman Telegram - it's very short compared to The Proud Tower or A Distant Mirror, and parts of it are surprisingly very funny.

I'm ashamed to say I still have not finished either of the latter two books - I feel like I keep reading and reading and reading them and never getting to the end. Which I'm not complaining about, because I like both books and find them both fascinating. Tuchmann's writing is a masterpiece of economy, because she fits so much information into every single sentence - very little "filler" to be found. I'm usually a very fast reader but she really forces me to slow down and pay attention to everything she's saying.

Yes, major Tuchmann fangirl here.

[Peggy Lane]

My time is currently being split between two books. The first is "The Good life: The Meaning of Success for the American Middle Class" by Loren Baritz which examines the emergence of the middle class from the 1880s to the 1970s. It's not written by an academic, but Baritz has an excellent eye for pop culture/mass media detail and the way the middle class used these details to establish itself.

The second book I love so much I had to hide it this weekend so I could get some work done. "Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR" by Neal Thompson is an absolutely brilliant piece of Southern history. Don't let the NASCAR bit discourge you! He examines the confluence of prohibition, the Model T, and Southern exceptionalism in creating the monster that is NASCAR. I don't even believe in Southern exceptionalism, but I'm loving the way he's crafting an argument and the obvious amounts of research that he did.

Kafka! Love the thread.

[Deleted]

I picked up an old, paperback copy of The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan one day when I was bored, and did not get up from my seat till over an hour later when I'd finished it. It's a fascinating account of D-Day, told from several different points of view. I didn't know that much about D-Day then (this was before Saving Private Ryan came out) and it read just like a thriller, only it was even more exciting, because I knew it was true. I was seriously on the edge of my seat the whole time.

[kafka]

stargirl said:

I picked up an old, paperback copy of The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan one day when I was bored, and did not get up from my seat till over an hour later when I'd finished it. It's a fascinating account of D-Day, told from several different points of view. I didn't know that much about D-Day then (this was before Saving Private Ryan came out) and it read just like a thriller, only it was even more exciting, because I knew it was true. I was seriously on the edge of my seat the whole time.

That was the basis for the film, right? From what I recall reading about the film ages ago, quite a few Nazi generals cooperated with the writers, which I'm assuming now were just Cornelius Ryan. How long is the book, btw?

I think I'm going to look into ordering it. Thanks, Stargirl.

PeggyLane, I can't see you reading a book about the history of NASCAR. Let alone having to hide it in order to get work done. That must be some book!

Monkey, from what I've heard, his Cold War is the ultimate synthesis of the things he's put forth in other books.

If anyone is anti-FDR, I've got a good revisionist history biography I can recommend. And tons of WWII/Nazi books that I think are worth the time.

[Deleted]

Has anyone read Paris: 1919? Everyone in a history class I took was obsessed with it. That was a year and a half ago (or more?) and I still haven't gotten around to reading it.

My main area of interest is in Candian Prairie history. I'm writing a paper dealing with the Great Depression (probably the most interesting topic to me) so I've been poking around in alot of my books dealing with that. Men Against the Desert by James Gray is really good. It's mostly dealing with the agricultural aspect but has alot of real person experiance. There is one particular blurb about a woman and her pansy flowers that breaks my heart.

ETA: I'm interested in Canadian history (and history) in general, but the more local stuff hits home for obvious reasons. I've taken some really interesting courses dealing with everything from pre-Classical periods to Tudor England. I may take a look-see and see if I have any good books from those classes lying around.

[monkey]

My history seminar just started Allen Weinstein's Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. The story of Weinstein's research and evolving opinion of the case - and the case itself - are fascinating. I've already put his The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America on my wishlist.

ETA: Any recommendations on other such histories? I'd also like to read more about the Cambridge Three, or about American and British spies working for their governments (Maugham, Berg, etc.).

[kafka]

monkey said:

ETA: Any recommendations on other such histories? I'd also like to read more about the Cambridge Three, or about American and British spies working for their governments (Maugham, Berg, etc.).

Monkey, any interest in Philby? A friend of mine was telling me about a book he read that was a dual biography of Philby and his father (who was huge in the creation of such Middle Eastern states as Saudi Arabia, and was closely involved with everyone from Lawrence of Arabia onwards). He also mentioned another book about Philby's (utterly miserable) life in Moscow. IIRC, it was co-authored by Philby's Russian wife. I can find out the titles if you're interested.

Approaching the espionage issue as a whole, I have a book in my library called: The Second Oldest Profession: Spies and Spying in the Twentieth Century. It's by Phillip Knightley and it's good, but it's not massively detailed or in-depth about any one person. It briefly touches on everyone from Mata Hari to Dzerzhinky (the latter much more than the former), but its main focus is to sardonically assess the intelligence agencies, their function, and their effectiveness as a whole.