Bookclub Wednesday!

Submitted by AutoModerator t3_ydv58q in history

Hi everybody,

Welcome to our weekly book recommendation thread!

We have found that a lot of people come to this sub to ask for books about history or sources on certain topics. Others make posts about a book they themselves have read and want to share their thoughts about it with the rest of the sub.

We thought it would be a good idea to try and bundle these posts together a bit. One big weekly post where everybody can ask for books or (re)sources on any historic subject or timeperiod, or to share books they recently discovered or read. Giving opinions or asking about their factuality is encouraged!

Of course it’s not limited to *just* books; podcasts, videos, etc. are also welcome. As a reminder, r/history also has a recommended list of things to [read, listen to or watch](https://www.reddit.com/r/history/wiki/recommendedlist)

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ideonode t1_itwlrs2 wrote

I've just finished a slightly different history book - *Making History, The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past * by Richard Cohen. Its tells the story of historians from Herodotus and Thucydides through to modern television documentary makers. It's a big book (660 pages before the footnotes), and a big sweep of time.

I think it generally works well. It covers the obvious historians (Gibbon, Suetonius), the obvious in hindsight (Shakespeare, Trotsky, Churchill) plus a range of voices that have been underrepresented. There are some great chapters on fiction as history, Marxist historians, Machiavelli and black historians.

Its a narrative read rather than a book on histiography, but it's all the more readable for it. I'd recommend it.

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Stalins_Moustachio t1_itycy7v wrote

Oh wow, this sounds incredibly interesting! Thanks a bunch for the recommendation.

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JaDou226 t1_ituf6a3 wrote

I'd like some book recommendations on the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly about the difficult process of becoming independent for the former SSRs. For example, how Ukraine dealt with its stockpile of nukes, the Transnistria situation, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh, etc. All of those things that have a lasting impact on geopolitics today.

I'd also like some book recommendations on the collapse of the Russian Empire and in particular how nationalist movements, for example in Ukraine, tried setting up their own independent nations, and how they eventually fell back under Russian control.

Any recommendations on topics along those lines would be appreciated!

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dropbear123 t1_itvvvsa wrote

While it doesn't specifically focus on the former SSRs I liked Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970-2000 by Stephen Kotkin when I read it a few years ago. Short but has a lot of info.

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sabrefudge t1_itvjr6m wrote

Looking for recommendations for books giving insight into what life would be like for a family on the American frontier. Isolated life in a cabin in the woods, if such a thing occurred. What they would do to get food (hunting, growing food?), what kind of clothes they’d wear, what kind of illnesses could kill them, how the cabin would be laid out, how often passing travelers would come through and if they’d generally trade, et cetera.

Thanks!

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elmonoenano t1_itvmrwz wrote

The cabin part is real, but for the most part people weren't isolated on the frontier. There were already people there. They might have been Indians, but usually early settlers were reliant on Indians and involved to some extent in their community. There was a recent book about Daniel Boone and his time on the frontier called The Kidnapping of Jemima Boone by Matthew Pearl that might be worth checking out. There's a couple recent books, one by Cassandra Tate and one by Blaine Harden on the Whitmans. They were pretty early settlers but you'll see they were still integrated into a community of settlers. If you want to get stories about the "lone white person" in a frontier area, you can look at the fur trappers, but all of them were integrated in one way or another into the indigenous communities. Usually they took an Indian wife so they could have freedom to travel and access to hunting. Maybe check out something like Ted Morgan's Wilderness at Dawn.

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sabrefudge t1_itwxzre wrote

Great. Thanks for all this info. Trying to do some research for a project involving an isolated family in the wilderness. With little to no contact with other humans. Unsure what time period that would fit best into.

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Jaded247365 t1_iu2vxd9 wrote

A recent book that backs this up is:

Born of Lakes and Plains, by Anne F. Hyde (Norton). “A new way of looking at the American West emerges in this history of the mixing and marrying of Indigenous people and settlers. Beginning with the fur trade, Hyde shows how marriage and procreation were crucial to integrating newcomers and building alliances. Commerce relied on networks of kin, and, as Native American clans would share knowledge only with those they considered family, mixed-descent children were vital intermediaries. The stories of five families through the nineteenth century illustrate how these intermediaries were also vulnerable to racist and expansionist policies. Though some were forced to hide their heritage, Hyde highlights their acts of agency, and tells "a narrative of our past with shared blood at its heart."

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projectdavepodcaster t1_itwp37q wrote

You might like the Oregon trail by rinker buck. He traveled the trail a few years ago by wagon and talks about what life was like expanding westward

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SoxfanintheLou t1_itxpm7w wrote

Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie is a fantastic book about the early settlement of Illinois.

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greydivide t1_ityb42n wrote

Pioneering Death: The Violence of Boyhood in Turn-of-the-Century Oregon takes a deep dive into early settler life in a small town in Oregon after a parricide.

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Tiny-Bus-3820 t1_iu3hz9p wrote

You might enjoy Pioneer Women: Voices From the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L Stratton. The book is a compilation of autobiographical sketches by the actual women who lived on the Kansas frontier. And cover several decades of time.

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notgoodenoughforjob t1_itvwk02 wrote

Does anyone have recommendations for books about Egyptian history (any time period, ancient through modern) that are very easy and enjoyable to read? I'm taking my mom to Egypt this winter and a lot of the books on the recommended list are a bit dense for her so am looking for more!

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Bentresh t1_itxbr4z wrote

A History of Ancient Egypt by Marc Van de Mieroop is by far the best introductory overview of ancient Egyptian history. Since it's dry read, however, I recommend starting with Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt and Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz.

For readable introductions to the major archaeological sites in Egypt, see Exploring Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw.

Jason Thompson's A History of Egypt: From Earliest Times to the Present and Egypt: A Short History by Robert Tignor are worth a read as well.

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GrantMK2 t1_itwroid wrote

Wilkinson's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt is fairly accessible.

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meeseeks1991 t1_ituqg08 wrote

I'm looking for a biography on Walter Christaller, German geographer and introducer of Central Place Theory.

He lived an interesting, controversial, and influential life. His party affiliations appear to be very opportunistic. I can hardly believe no one has written about him yet. A lot is written about his theory, but never about his life.

I hope you can prove me wrong:)

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Stalins_Moustachio t1_itydqrb wrote

Tried to prove your theory wrong, but you are correct. Maybe you could be the chosen one to write his biography!

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meeseeks1991 t1_iu3aj76 wrote

sadly I'm an urban planner (hence the interesti) and not a historian. highly doubt my competenc😁

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Apart_Supermarket441 t1_itz5bz3 wrote

I find ‘collapse’ of societies fascinating.

As a Brit, I’m particularly interested in the collapse of Roman Britain. Does anyone have any recommendations for books on this subject?

I’d really be interested to read about the effects of the Roman ‘withdrawal’ (if you can call it that) on ordinary life. What happened to the Roman towns? What did society look like in the years after the fall of Rome?

Any recommendations would be really appreciated!

Likewise, any podcast recommendations!

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ideonode t1_iu84b7v wrote

The BBC History Extra podcast just did an eight part series on the end of Roman Britain, which sounds like it might be up your street...

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VLenin2291 t1_iu37k2m wrote

I can see why The Guns of August is at the top of the recommended books for World War I and World War II, I’m reading it currently and I am very much enjoying it

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Tiny-Bus-3820 t1_iu3j4bv wrote

Unfortunately, I have never read Guns of August; although I have heard it is a classic. It appears that you are interested in World War I. I would like to make a recommendation to you. Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War by Robert K. Massie is an outstanding book. Have you ever wondered how Great Britain went from a close relationship with Prussia (later Germany) to an alliance with their historical nemesis France? In this book Massie traces how that happened and why it happened. Makes fascinating reading of an event that,in many respects, set the stage for the 20th century. If you haven’t read it hope you enjoy it.

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VLenin2291 t1_iu4eybk wrote

I’ll put it on the list, right next to The Influence of Sea Power Upon History

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nola_throwaway53826 t1_iu4vxbz wrote

I would recommend A World Undone by G J Meyer. I personally find it to be one of the best single volume histories of World War 1, and the way he does an insert of background information as he tells the history never feels like its interrupting and was a great way to get a clearer picture of what was going on. For instance, he is talking about the Balkans, and Serbia in particular. He inserts a quick bit of background with a brief history of Serbia at that point. And it's not a footnote either, it's a couple of pages, and then back to what he was originally talking about.

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Nymphia-Sylveon t1_iufk7ys wrote

Just started up the liberation trilogy and already blazing through An Army At Dawn. Great read so far.

Looking to go way back in time and learn more about the Mycenaeans and Minoans after this trilogy. Any good book recommendations?

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WeeklyIntroduction42 t1_iu9jt8r wrote

Looking for any books on niche history topics in the 19th-20th centuries

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Old_Spinach7541 t1_iud0jqb wrote

I’d love a reasonably simple book about the history of Wales. If there was an audio edition that would be great!

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Usakiia t1_iujfscd wrote

With books that are history like such as House of the Dragon coming out, a common comment I see is that these fiction books are often inspired by historical events. I haven't read any historical books beyond the dry history text books of high school and community college. Are there any books that mimic that "fantasy" type writing style that I know and love, but on true events? I'm trying to be interested in non-fiction, or non-fiction fiction (if that's a thing?).

I see the recommendeds, but I'm not sure if what I'm seeking is truly in there, or if I'm asking for far too much :)

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