Best History Book You Have Read

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WBraun

climber

Mar 28, 2007 - 01:52am PT

Yeah Gary

Herodotus said: "This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power."

Seems that hold so true for this modern age.

Bruce Morris

Social climber

Belmont, California

Mar 28, 2007 - 02:07am PT

John Keegan, The Face of Battle. Keegan (again), Intelligence in War. Keegan (again), Six Armies in Normandy.

turd

climber

Mar 28, 2007 - 02:11am PT

Wide, maybe. Would have been deeper if he had added Mein Kampf.

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Mar 28, 2007 - 02:30am PT

I like the herodotus, but it's been a while.

Two must reads for all American History fans: Conquest of new spain by bernal diaz. Auto biography of the fall of the aztecs. Its incredible, horrible, strange, adventurous, and pschotic.

The other is called Falcon, the stoy of John Tanner. This guy gets kidnapped in ohio by Assinaboin Indians from Minnesota. One of there kids was killed so they took a kid from Ohio around the turn of the 19th century. He goes off, is raised as an Indian, shows up back on the farm as an adult, stays long enough to tell his story and heads back into the wild. Totally cool.

Tom

Gene

climber

Mar 28, 2007 - 02:35am PT

Superb!

Chiloe

Trad climber

Lee, NH

Mar 28, 2007 - 07:43am PT

Tuchman, Keegan ... some good recommendations here on the dark side of history. I thought Neal Acherson's The Black Sea was outstanding, as was William McNeil's Plagues and Peoples. I'm sure there are many others if I think a while.

Currently 3/4 through Jared Diamond's Collapse, and finding it fascinating.

Tomcat

Trad climber

Chatham N.H.

Mar 28, 2007 - 09:15am PT

I liked the Churchill anthology too.A man for the moment.

Second vote for Miracle at Philadelphia.

I love Paul Revere's Ride...David Hackett Fischer...but I'm a buff so.

Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth,while just a historiacl novel,was a great read and pretty enlightening about life at that time.

WoodySt

Trad climber

Riverside

Mar 28, 2007 - 09:41am PT

As a younger person, I read through the Will and Ariel Durant series twice, loved every page.

TopRopeGun

Trad climber

Mar 28, 2007 - 10:24am PT

"With the Old Breed"-E.B.Sledge
With the MArines at Tarawa and Guadacanal

"The Good War"
All first person accounts of ww2...amazing stuff.

"Guns, Germs and Steel"

"Eagle against the Sun"
The PAcific Theater WW2

"A peoples history of the United states"

d-know

Trad climber

electric lady land

Mar 28, 2007 - 10:41am PT

the dedalus book of roman decadence
"emperors of debauchery"

edited by geoffrey farrington

a collection of histories from
historians of the time period.

want to know how down and
dirty those cats from the past
really were?

wildone

climber

Isolated in El Portal and loving it

Mar 28, 2007 - 11:03am PT

A People's History -- Howard Zinn
Stories Hollywood Never Tells -- Howard Zinn
Artists in a Time of War -- Howard Zinn
Collapse -- Jared Diamond

And this one, which was AWESOME and was as much a history of hip hop, including the beasties boys, ll, etc as it was the sad story of run dmc..

Donny... the OHHH!- Riginal

Sport climber

Boald'r Effin See Oh

Mar 28, 2007 - 11:40am PT

"An Inconvenient Truth for Dummies"

bonin_in_the_boneyard

Trad climber

Sittin' on the dock by the bay...

Mar 28, 2007 - 12:43pm PT

For music:

Especially the chapters on Black Flag and the Butthole Surfers.

stevep

Boulder climber

Salt Lake, UT

Mar 28, 2007 - 01:05pm PT

Barbara Tuchman and Jared Diamond are both very good and very readable.
For a physics-oriented view of things, it's tough to top The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes.

I'm currently reading A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage which is an examination of all of human history by looking at drinking, politics and economics surrounding beer, wine, distilled spirits, coffee, tea and Coke. Was civilization started because of beer production? Maybe.

aldude

climber

Monument Manor

Mar 28, 2007 - 03:13pm PT

A Short History of The Civil War by Fletcher Pratt. A real page turner where the characters come alive!

Apocalypsenow

Trad climber

Cali

Mar 28, 2007 - 03:33pm PT

"The Peoples History of the United States" Howard Zinn

Kartch

climber

belgrade, mt

Mar 28, 2007 - 04:04pm PT

currently reading "Cobra II" - which seems to be a pretty good account of the Iraq war from 9/11 to the Bagdad occupation, but I have nothing to compare it to yet. Sounds like "Fiasco" should be my next read.

I'm also reading "Days of the French Revolution" which seems to be a beginners guide to the French Revolution.

Read on.

tom woods

Gym climber

Bishop, CA

Mar 28, 2007 - 11:52pm PT

I guess from reading this thread, you can't just pick a best history book becuase there are so many time periods. Herodotus is great, plutarch is pretty sweet for the anicent stuff.

I stand by conquest of new spain as a must read for American History. I like neil young but "Cortez the killer" really simplyfies things to the point of meaninglessness. This book has it all. 500 guys land on the shores of Mexico and burn their ships so there is no going back.

More modern history. Ayone read My Jihad by Aukai Collins?
How about See no Evil by Robert Baer?

The Zinn book is okay.

Lies my teacher told me is fine too, but do I really need to read a book that tells my high school history teacher was trying to simply things for me to understand? I f*#king 16 and dumb as post I'd be lucky if I learned even a tenth of those supposed lies.

Tom