What are some great history books?

[Muse]

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" - tells the story of the American West from the indigenous people's perspective and highlights many of the atrocious things we, as a country, did (or allowed others to do) to them.

I should really check this out... deeply. I don't know the facts. I watched a couple of highly touted movies the last couple weeks, generally considered to be among the best westerns ever made by a legendary film maker, John Ford, who was idolized by none other than Akira Kurosawa: "The Searchers" (1952) and "My Darling Clementine" (1946). Normally, I shy away from movies made in the 1950s or before, but I do like a very few. I was shocked by the racism of these movies. Equally shocking is that the American public was prepared to enjoy these films without remorse. This wouldn't be possible today, thankfully. I can only think that these movies indicate a miserable past in America of which I am not aware. IIRC, they didn't touch this in my grade school history classes.

I did fairly recently start reading an American history book that does not sugar coat the facts, a book recommended me by a friend of mine, an exceptional fellow. I should get the book from the library again. It's "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America" by Nancy Isenberg, who teaches history at L.S.U.

 

[Muse]

Whoa there boyo why bother quoting books laying blame for acts of yesteryear at out feet ? This thinking is noticeably wrong in two ways, as people continue to feel guilty for the acts of others committed hundreds of years ago. Let us know if you plan acts of expiation and redemption . Maybe try joining a christian church. They love repentants.

I'm reminded by this questionable post of a declaration out of the blue from an exceptionally brilliant friend of mine some 50 years ago: "There's no way that the white race can make up to the blacks for the villainy they have perpetrated against them." This is absolutely not her exact words, but is basically what she said IIRC, and yes, it was a single sentence and came out of nowhere but stuck with me.

 

[FeuerFrei]

I'm reminded by this questionable post of a declaration out of the blue from an exceptionally brilliant friend of mine some 50 years ago: "There's no way that the white race can make up to the blacks for the villainy they have perpetrated against them." This is absolutely not her exact words, but is basically what she said IIRC, and yes, it was a single sentence and came out of nowhere but stuck with me.

I hate people like that. People who seek to inflame the present, by regurgitating the past. I don't despise the British of today, for their ancestors' abuses of mine. I guess if I wanted to overthrow Britain, I would dredge up ancient history and remind everyone how bad it was back then. Angle for reparations from the British, etc.
Pure foolishness.
Surely, we can discuss long ago conflicts without harboring animosity in our hearts. All those involved are dead.

 

[BoomerD]

There has just been too much history over the years to give any simple recommendations...

What period of time are you most interested in?

What country (countries)?

From whose perspective...winners or losers of wars?

Do you want "factual" history, or opinion based stuff?

Biographies or general accounts of events?

 

[Brainonska511]

I hate people like that. People who seek to inflame the present, by regurgitating the past. I don't despise the British of today, for their ancestors' abuses of mine. I guess if I wanted to overthrow Britain, I would dredge up ancient history and remind everyone how bad it was back then. Angle for reparations from the British, etc.
Pure foolishness.
Surely, we can discuss long ago conflicts without harboring animosity in our hearts. All those involved are dead.

It's not about inflaming people in the present. It's about learning how the past shaped the present and learning to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

And, since a country is effectively immortal, it should try to mitigate the situations that generations of racist policies have helped to create. We can't just wash our hands clean and claim that it wasn't us so we have no responsibility in fixing any of it. White people have been big winners in US history, often at the expense of various minorities. We should acknowledge that and offer a helping hand to help wash away the stain of what our country's ancestors did.

 

[Chaotic42]

The Rommel Papers - Rommel's notes and diary
The First Directorate - Oleg Kalugin's story of working in the KGB during the Cold War
A World Undone - History of World War I

 

[Muse]

I hate people like that. People who seek to inflame the present, by regurgitating the past. I don't despise the British of today, for their ancestors' abuses of mine. I guess if I wanted to overthrow Britain, I would dredge up ancient history and remind everyone how bad it was back then. Angle for reparations from the British, etc.
Pure foolishness.
Surely, we can discuss long ago conflicts without harboring animosity in our hearts. All those involved are dead.

I don't believe that my friend made the statement with any intention of generating animosity much less hatred. She was far too enlightened a person. You have misinterpreted my post.

PS However, I didn't discuss the matter with her, I just took in her random out of the blue statement and filed it away in my memory to rue over. Our relationship was like that.

Hate and animosity get you nowhere. That wasn't her at all.

It's not about inflaming people in the present. It's about learning how the past shaped the present and learning to avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

And, since a country is effectively immortal, it should try to mitigate the situations that generations of racist policies have helped to create. We can't just wash our hands clean and claim that it wasn't us so we have no responsibility in fixing any of it. White people have been big winners in US history, often at the expense of various minorities. We should acknowledge that and offer a helping hand to help wash away the stain of what our country's ancestors did.

Agree with this.

 

[Iron Woode]

Ok, so this isn't a book, but there is a YouTube channel that covers WWI, as it unfolded, week by week. Anyway, I thought it was interesting…sorry for being off topic.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUcyEsEjhPEDf69RRVhRh4A

-Keith

in the same vein I also enjoyed watching the WWII series called Battlefield when it debuted. I only watched season one as life was getting in the way of TV watching. I had never seen a show that gave that much information on any particular battle before. It was almost overwhelming.

 

[DigDog]

i'm an idiot, because i'm gonna say "that book which i don't remember the title of".

A few years back, maybe around 2008, i found a MASSIVE book about WW2, and pretty much it went like this:
Day 1: this happened
Day 2: this happened HERE, while this other thing happened THERE.
Day 3. etc

a day-per-day of the local events of WW2, from small skirmishes, to riots, massacres, battles, bombing missions, and so on.

Unfortunately, i'm a moron, and i didn't write down the title anywhere. But, it was really cool to see the effect of small actions over time affecting a greater scale of things.
I tried googling it with the excessively ambiguous terms "big book with every day of ww2" and as you can imgine, google vomited out a variety of answers, and, more important, there's quite a few of these "full collection" of books, so you might get a different one than i did, and still have a good result.



my second choice would be De Bello Gallico with original latin and english translation.

 

[tynopik]

i'm an idiot, because i'm gonna say "that book which i don't remember the title of".

A few years back, maybe around 2008, i found a MASSIVE book about WW2, and pretty much it went like this:
Day 1: this happened
Day 2: this happened HERE, while this other thing happened THERE.
Day 3. etc

a day-per-day of the local events of WW2, from small skirmishes, to riots, massacres, battles, bombing missions, and so on.

is it this one mentioned earlier in the thread?

I bought and read this as a soon to be teenager: 2194 Days of War.

And yes, I still have my copy from 1977-8. I, too, had little interest in history, but the chronological layout of this book made it so hard to put down. The day to day accounts across the globe was something else.

 

[Jon-T]

Ok, so this isn't a book, but there is a YouTube channel that covers WWI, as it unfolded, week by week. Anyway, I thought it was interesting…sorry for being off topic.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUcyEsEjhPEDf69RRVhRh4A

-Keith

Working my way through this series.

I'll Second the recommendation.

 

[DigDog]

is it this one mentioned earlier in the thread?

likely not, i do remember that it was from two authors, both of which had distinctively jewish names. i did suspect bias for a short while, but the approach throughout was methodical and very scientific-like ("for the proof we have", "likely as extrapolating from this other info") and i was convinced it was accurate. Also, you *would* get involved in WW2 history if they tried to exterminate your people, and then people on the internet would say "there is no proof".

But, as said, i'm sure there is more than one. Although, sure, i could be wrong. It's been nearly 10 years.

 

[cyclistca]

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind

 

[Craig234]

The Dulles brothers are a very important topic - Stephen Kinzer's "The Brothers" and David Talbot's "The Devil's Chessboard" are both great.

Kinzer's "Overthrow" is also a good history of the US doing you know what around the world.

A classic for people to get some ideas about 'US history as told about less represented groups' is Howard Zinn's book.

Oliver Stone's 'Untold History of the United States' Series has good info.