Best History Book You Have Read

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samg

Sport climber

SLC

Mar 29, 2007 - 12:53am PT

Hi (first post),

Some history/history related books I've read recently are:

A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History- Manuel De Landa (highly recommended)

The Gulag Archipegalo- Solzhenitsyn

The History of Sexuality Vol.1 - Foucault

Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison - also by Foucault

Orientalism - Edward W. Said (if you want to know the source of most of the problems in the Middle East today, this is a good start).

Empire- Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri

Tristes Tropiques - Claude Levi-Strauss (most of this one is a travelogue, but Levi-Strauss does an amazing exposition of past cultures and their relationship with the modern world.

Most of these are theory/philosophy oriented books, and they are not easy reads, but they do contain a lot of history that people should be aware of; most importantly, they challenge traditional perspectives toward history and give alternate ones.

couchmaster

climber

Mar 29, 2007 - 01:04am PT

5th or 6th vote for Tuchmans "The Guns of August". Topnotch work.

I have perhaps read 1 book which topped it, that being "The Rising Sun" By Tolman.

Tuchmans "A Distant Mirror" is good as well.

Add "King Leupolds Ghost" as a classic of a different Genre, and also Dannial Yergins "The Prize" which is a great work on the history of oil/blood and politics as it relates to oil.

Curt has some winners too, especially liked Titan, and I don't think Cherneu came close on any of his other works.

Concur on Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", nice work, as is "Hornet Flight", despite the fact that they are Non Fiction.

Regards:

Bill

Bruce Morris

Social climber

Belmont, California

Mar 29, 2007 - 03:13am PT

Just finishing up the first of the three volumes of William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion: Visions of Glory 1874 - 1932 and, though it is a difficult read to say the least, thought it provided a great deal of insight into how we got into this mess in the Middle East. Hint: It all goes back to the Raj and British Imperialism. Amazing book that covers an important swath of modern history.

Melvin Mills

Trad climber

Albuquerque NM

Mar 29, 2007 - 10:08am PT

The Prize by Daniel Yergin. A history of oil--nuff said about how that applies to today's world.

Mooner

Trad climber

Somewhere sickenly flat.

Mar 29, 2007 - 11:35am PT

The Guns of August, A People's History of the US and Guns, Germs and Steel are all classics.

World of the Shining Prince by Ivan Morris is a great read about the Heian period in imperial Japan (950-1050CE) and is one of my favorites. It's an well-written book regarding the amazing level of cultural sophistication and refinement present at the imperial court in Japan at the time. Quite the contrast to not only contemporary Europe, but later, more militaristic periods in Japanese history. Really good stuff.

Refer to the ancient classics (Herodotus never goes out of style) for riffs on the theme: no matter how much things change, they remain the same.

HandCrack

Trad climber

Joshua Tree, Cal.

Mar 29, 2007 - 12:13pm PT

Longitude, by Dava Sobel
Story of the development of a reliable ocean-going chronometer which made possible accurate positioning for sailing ships far out at sea.

klk

Trad climber

cali

Mar 29, 2007 - 12:23pm PT

Ambrose's reputation has completely tanked. He started out as a serious historian, but then began cranking out popular histories at an incredible pace by cannibalizing other people's research. He ended up actually plagiarizing the work of other historians and ended up a disgraced figure in the profession.

Most professional historians hate popular histories, but Bruce Mazower's Dark Continent: Europe in the Twentieth Century is pretty good, as are Richard Evans's new books on The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich in Power.

I also recommend Fergus Fleming's Killing Dragons: The European Conquest of the Alps. Journalistic but well-researched and readable account of the Golden Age of mountaineering that is also pretty good as cultural history. (Probably better than Jim Ring's How the English Invented the Alps.)

hobo

climber

PDX

Topic Author's Reply - Mar 29, 2007 - 03:31pm PT

Just a bump to keep this going.

Anastasia

Trad climber

California

Mar 29, 2007 - 03:53pm PT

Only Yesterday , An Informal History of the 1920's
by Frederick Lewis Allen

Exiled In Paradise: German Refugee Artist and Intellectuals in America from the 1930's to Present.
Anthony Heilbut

The Search for Modern China
Jonathan D. Spence

crøtch

climber

Mar 29, 2007 - 04:07pm PT

One serious

and one kind of silly

MZiebell

Social climber

Prescott, AZ

Mar 29, 2007 - 04:39pm PT

For nautical history:

The Rudder Treasury, Eds.

Herreshoff of Bristol, M. Bray

Kayaks of Greenland, H. Golden

Longitude, D. Sobel

America & the Sea: A Maritime History, Munsen Institute

Last of the Wind Ships, A. Villeirs

After the Storm: True Stories, Rousmaniere

Tall Ships Down, D. Parrott

Avoid Slocum...

KEK

Trad climber

Boulder, CO

Mar 29, 2007 - 09:29pm PT

Ambrose actually plagiarized his dissertation. Zinn's A Peoples History. . . is a classic, a must read for any American. For European history, in the 20th century, Hobsbawm is a must read. As a Historian, the book I would recommend to a mainstream audience: The Modern Mind: A really great history of the long 20th-century. As a climber, and a westerner, I also recommend Frances Parkman. A brilliant historian of high-literary caliber; a must read, like Stegner or Abbey.

If you specify what you want I can give better suggestions.

Curt

Boulder climber

Gilbert, AZ

Mar 29, 2007 - 10:00pm PT

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

I keep meaning to get that book--but I don't want Homeland Security knocking on my door in the middle of the night.

Curt

Bruce Morris

Social climber

Belmont, California

Mar 30, 2007 - 02:25am PT

Band of Brothers is real good. It's just all the stuff Ambrose cranked out afterwards.

I plagiarized plenty of stuff in my dissertation, too, but I did it in a creative way. All dissertations are filled with creative plagiarism. That's part of the game. Hack writers imitate; great writer steal.

Rick A

climber

Boulder, Colorado

Mar 31, 2007 - 01:22pm PT

If you are not up for the serious stuff up thread, Largo gave me a great recommendation about 20 years ago and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. George Macdonald Fraser is the author of the “Flashman” novels, a series about the British Empire during the 1800’s. These are brilliant satire, great fun to read and provide some well-researched historical insights into the British colonial wars. Flashman is a rake and n’er do well who becomes a reluctant witness to some of the key battles of the period: the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Indian Mutiny, and even the Little Big Horn.
Highly recommended for a rainy afternoon, accompanied by a drink from the period, perhaps a Gin and Tonic.

mooser

Trad climber

seattle

Mar 31, 2007 - 01:47pm PT

Two of my favorites:

1. Declarations of Independence, by Howard Zinn;
2. Myths America Lives By, by Richard Hughes.

Carolyn C

Trad climber

Mar 31, 2007 - 04:50pm PT

I guess you have to be kind of a civil war buff, like I am, but my favorite is the 3-volume "The Civil War" by Shelby Foote. Maybe too much detail for some people, well, maybe most people, but the narrative is wonderful, and I learned a LOT.

Also, if you like space exploration history, "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin is a history of the Apollo program of the 1960s. And, "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe...I guess it's not really a "history" book, maybe it's historical fiction?...I'm not sure. But its a great read, about the Mercury space program, Chuck Yeager, etc.

Bruce Morris

Social climber

Belmont, California

Apr 1, 2007 - 01:38am PT

Have to agree about Shelby Foote's Civil War. Made it through all 3 volumes a couple of years back and thought I had gained a much greater knowledge of the violent origins of the United States. When my father died back in 1997 he left me a 3000 volume library and when I saw the Civil War among them I resolved it would be my first big read.