Can someone recommend me a history book?

by slimboyfat 45 Replies latest jw friends

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  panhandlegirl

  "The Hour Of Our Death" is "The Classic History of Western Attitudes Toward Death Over the Last One Thousand Years" written by Philippe Aris. I believe it was written in French and translanted into English. I have started the

  book several times but I have decided to read it for sure this Fall/Winter. I believe the title is part of a Catholic prayer. As most of you, I never expected to die (the joke was on us. How could we have ever believed that).What I

  have read of it is quite interesting. It talks about how some people know when they are going to die. My husband told me,two weeks before he died, that he was going to die. I told him he was just feeling bad and that he was not

  going to die. I lied. I knew he was going to die too, but I did not know he would die so soon. I think when you are very ill, changes in your body make you aware that you are dying. Anyway, its not really a macabre book. After all

  death is a part of life. It's just something we thought we would never have to deal with.

  PHG
• 

  slimboyfat

  Thanks for lots of great suggestions.

  cog_survivor I have read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel as well as Collapse. Both well written books about the big changes and dangers across the span of human history. In a similar vein I have also read another couple of excellent books about the biological and social impact of worldwide trade following the European conquest of the Americas: 1491 and 1493 by Charles Mann. One of Mann's main aguments is that there were many more people in the Americas before Columbus arrived than is generally believed and that the pre-Columbian societies were impressively sophisticated and complex. The American history book about Lies My Teacher Told Me looks interesting too, I wonder what kind of slant it's got.

  iamwhoiam I have read small parts of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, but I want to get round to reading all of it. A good Marxist historian with a compelling narrative to tell is what I like to see. I enjoy Eric Hobsbawm's books too that perform a similar function mainly for modern European history.

  Sulla wow would you believe that book is lying on my shelf but I never got round to reading it. I did a course on Egyptology and bought a few books on the subject last year. That was one of those but I rather neglected it and concentrated on Mieroop's A History of Anceint Egypt instead, as it cut things into more manageable chunks. The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt looks great but its rather intimidating length put me off the first time.

  sir82 you reminded me about being warned off Barbara Tuchman when I used one of her books in an essay as an undergraduate. Very enjoyable reading, but the narrative is perhaps a bit 'too good' in some respects for modern scholarship. I never revisited her after that, maybe I should. Thanks for the books about the First World War and American Imperialism, I had never heard of either of them.

  Phizzy would you believe that reminds me of another book I have got waiting on the shelf for me: Rubicon by Tom Holland, by all accounts an excellent book about the demise of the Roman republic. And I want to learn more about ancient Rome after I liked watching the HBO series. I will look out for his other books too now that you mention them.

  Cthulhu what an obscure suggestion, and not normally what I would look at. I like it.

  tootired2care you know I was put off Will Durant because the Watchtower quotes him all the time. Is he worth a look?

  Theocratic Sedition I wish I knew more about the history of the Balkans as it's really important, but also very detailed and heavy going don't you think? I have read a bit of Mark Mazower's book on the subject which was good.

  JeffT I have never read anything by Stephen Ambrose but I have read a lot about the supposed plagiarism controversy that surrounds his work. What's your take on that? Either way I fear it may just be a bit too jingoistic for my taste. Europe's Last Summer looks really interesting thanks. I love books on the July crisis of 1914, it's one of my favourite subjects.

  panhandlegirl do you mean the Little History of the World by Gombrich? I really meant to read that but I was a bit put off when I realised just how old it is. (Written over 50 years ago) Maybe that was hasty.

  Glander thanks for those suggestions for modern American history, which I have rather neglected to be honest but I should read more.

  Nambo Gruesome Harvest looks like an awful book. What is it a fascist polemic or something? One of the chapters is called "Bastardizing the German Race" ??? My mother in law lived through wartime Vienna. It was a terrible time, but the Americans never tried to exterminate German people that's just nonsense.

  jgnat thanks for the books, especially the one about Africa looks interesting. As a Scot I am a bit sceptical of the 'Scots invented the modern world' type books, of which there are a few. Who was Louis L'Amour? Wikipedia says an author of westerns.

  DarioKehl do you mean the TV series by Richard Miles? That was excellent.
• 

  slimboyfat

  Bobcat thanks I never knew H G Wells wrote such a book. I liked The Time Machine a lot when I was younger.

  ziddina I know there are so many interesting subjects out there. Some of my favourites are Native Americans, Ancient Egypt and Rome, Scottish history, the First World War and Nazi Germany.

  flipper Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was absolutely my favourtie book when growing up. Whenever we played cowboys and Indians in the playground I was always on the side of the Indians. I am not sure now it doesn't present a slightly romanticised view of Native Americans but it is still a great book nonetheless. Native Americans are a dignified people who suffered a lot of injustice, but there is no need to patronise them by somehow covering over their own failings and human frailties where these existed, which I think some accounts have tended to do. I just read The Empire of the Summer Moon recently, I even mentioned it on another thread. I never realised just how powerful the Comanches were before, a real nation in their own right. I have never read the book about Tecumseh, I will need to look at it next time I see it. The Native Americans of eastern part of the United States are really fascinating, but unfortunately were very quickly reduced in numbers in the face of European expansion, so not as much remains as some of the other tribes. Can I ask what tribe you partly come from? Do you visit or go to any gatherings?

  cofty I never did read Magnusson's history of Scotland. I've read Tom Devine's book that covers similar ground. (He taught some of our classes when I studied history at Aberdeen) Robert Fist is great too and I always listen whenever he has got something to say about the middle east on the news. I have looked through The Great War for Civilization but again it is one of those books that intimidated me by its sheer length.
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  ninja_matty69

  It depends what era your're looking at. Personally i love history and read ancient history because i like to see whether it corroborates the bible or not. Generally it does. Later history is not something i can comment on.

  If your looking for ancient history i would definately recommend anything by herodotus especially the Histories.

  If your looking at jewish histories around year dot then i suppose josephus but that bored me a little.

  The Annals of Imperial Rome by Tacitus paints a good picture of the 1st century after christ Perhaps marginally better than josephus for interest.

  The above are all ancient writers.

  If your looking at modern historians commentating on ancient history i hear H.G Wells wrote some interesting stuff. Also i have not read Isaac Newtons stuff but apparently he wrote more about religion and history than he did about science. I am looking to read these two in the near future.

  Gods, graves, and scholars written by W Ceram half a century ago is a good overview of archeological finds over the past 4 centuries.
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  jgnat

  Louis L'Amour was indeed an author of westerns. He is also a self-educated man, travelling the world as a merchant seaman before he settled down to writing. That man devoured books, and decried the Western tendency to ignore Eastern history. Throughout his autobiography, he lists his favorite books of all time. You would find some great reads listed there

  According to this site, he had over 17,000 books in his personal library. I've often wondered what happened to that collection.

  http://www.louislamourcollection.com/author.php

  Oh, and P.S, as a sixth generation Canadian descended from Scots, I reassure you that the book, "How the Scots Invented Canada" is firmly tongue-in-cheek.
• 

  oldlightnewshite

  Hi Slim,

  I find the black death fascinating... a good read about that is 'In the wake of the plague' by Norman Cantor. Some decent WW2 books... 'The ghost mountain boys' by james Campbell, Antony Beever's Stalin, D-Day, Battle for Spain and Berlin, E.B Sledge 'With the old breed', Robert Leckie's 'Helmet for my pillow'. 'Winston's War' by max Hastings.

  Sometimes I like Historical Fiction. Favourite authors include Bernard Cornwell 'Saxon Chronicles' 'Agincourt' 'Harlequin' 'The fort'.

  Also, Conn Iggulden's Caesar books, and Ghengis Khan. These are really well researched, and fascinating.