Happy Wednesday everyone!

Finally got around to finishing Fernando Bouza's The Iberian World: 1450–1820, and I highly recommend it. The book does an excellent job at providing an invaluable and detailed snapshot of Iberian socio-economic, political, colonial, and religious life during a critical period in global history!

The History of English is a great podcast

Been wanting to do some research on Neolithic Society on social aspects, relationships, living conditions and distribution of function/work.

Got "Inside the Neolithic Mind" ready to be read as I'm getting through 'Evolution of Desire' by David M. Buss, but I'm always open to other recommendations!

The Discoverers, Daniel Boorstin along with its companions The Creators and The Seekers are must read for anyone wanting to grasp the broad sweep of history ... and some really interesting details

Any good book recommendations on the Roman expansion efforts into Germany? Specifically looking for something on the Battle of Teutoburg Forest and the aftermath of that. I am not as familiar with Roman history as I’d like to admit so I’d like something less academic if possible and more of an overview/layman’s explanation of the events leading up to and resulting from the battle.

I don’t have any recommendations (sorry) but wanted to ask your opinion on the Evolution of Desire so far, that sounds very interesting and I’m thinking I’ll check it out

It has been a very good read so far. The problem with most research papers and books for me is the amount of gibberish that requires half a PHD just to understand, but Buss tells it in a manner that makes it easy to understand. The only downside I'd say is that he uses a lot of extensive examples to showcase the same problem from different angles (which has benefits at times, but can also makes reading slower).

The only thing I'd say before reading it is to be ready to be faced with some uncomfortable truths. He displays a lot of statistical results and conclusions without trying to insert his own opinion. Therefore you have entire sections dedicated to e.g. the practical uses of infidelity. I am yet to read the chapter 'Sexual Conflict' which might be worse, but at least it's honest.

It personally gave a lot of insight in my own behavior, explained the behavior I've observed in some others and clears the fog on some controversial topics regarding attraction between genders.

Any good books on the history of the automotive industry and maybe how it links to society? Preferably in a not-usa context. Currently enjoying Cars for Comrades by Lewis Siegelbaum and also Michael Edwards’ biography Back From The Brink.

Sounds like a fascinating mix of history, anthropology and psychology, I’ll add it to my reading list! Thanks for the suggestion!

Tom Standage recently wrote a book called A Brief History of Motion. This covers, broadly, our attempte to travel fast on wheels, ranging from the earliest carts and chariots through to self driving vehicles. It has a particular focus on cars, and in particular, the social aspects of automobiles. Highly recommended.

Being honest, Standage is an excellent writer of narratives on the social history of technology. I recommend all that he's written.

Does anyone know a good book about the diplomacy, spying, and double dealing going on in the Renaissance Mediterranean. Preferably something that talks about the Italian city-states' relationship with the Ottoman Empire.

You might be interested in The High and the Mighty. It's more recent, about the boom in SUVs at the end of the 90s. It came out right before gas prices spiked in the mid 2000s. It ends with a bunch of questions that kind of got delayed b/c of the high gas prices, but are relevant again.

The part you might like about it is it looks at how the design eased insecurities in society and played into certain ideas of toughness/ruggedness but also sort of addressed women's desires that had been ignored up until then that were positive in one way, but still used safety standards that basically ignored women and had negative impacts in other ways.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/832299.High_and_Mighty

Finished Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938 by Philipp Blom review copied and pasted

>4.5/5 rounding up for Goodreads. I really liked it and would recommend it to anyone interested in the interwar period. I also liked it a lot more than Blom's earlier book The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914 as it has more politics. Possibly one of the better history books I've read in 2022.

>The basic style of the book is that each year is a chapter and an event from that year is used to talk about and analyze a specific theme across the whole period. So 1918 is the end of WWI so the chapter is a lot about trauma, the impact of so many dead or crippled and the feeling of a 'lost generation' which affected the whole period, 1920 uses the beginning of prohibition to talk about prohibition across the whole 20s and its impact on morality etc. It's not an 'X happened then Y happened' sort of book. There is a good mix of cultural, scientific (the Scopes Monkey trial about teaching evolution in 1925 for example), ideological (1919 chapter starts with D'Annunzio's capture of Fiume so it is about the beginning of fascist movements and other conservative views like Spengler's Decline of the West) and political topics. The author is good at bringing the cultural and scientific topics back to how people felt politically and how they responded to the changes of the 20s and 30s. Morality and the reaction to the new movements, arts and lifestyles get a lot of mention in the book. .There isn't really anything about international politics between countries, aside from the 1937 chapter on the Spanish Civil War but I like the focus on the other stuff for a change. Despite the title saying it is focused on the west there is still quite a bit on the Soviet Union, with the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion (the theme is failed leftwing or worker uprisings, Germany's communist March Action and the USA's Battle of Blair Mountain is also mentioned), the beginning of the 5 year plans (mainly focused around the founding of the steel plant at Magnitogorsk) and the holodomor. The writing style is very good and the descriptions/depictions are also very good for things like the Dust Bowl in the USA.

Now for a shorter military history book - They Shall Not Pass: The French Army on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Ian Sumner. Mostly focusing on the soldier's personal experiences. Enjoying it so far and have finished the chapter on 1914.

I'm reading The Company right now by Stephen Brown. Someone on one of these threads recommended it a while ago. It's about the Hudson Bay Company and it's really interesting to see how exploration of the interior of the continent took place, how trade networks operated and changed, and how indigenous culture adapted to the changing economic situation. I think if you're at all curious about Canadian or Western US history then this is a great read.

I think Brown is a pretty good writer and the book is very engaging. He raises some good comparisons with modern society and asks some interesting questions about how cultures interact.

I want to learn about the history of Georgia after gaining independence from USSR and what kind of situation Georgia was in back then, bonus points if the book talks about Zviad Gamsakhurdia and his time as president

I finished Walter Stahr's biography of Salmon Chase, Lincoln's treasury secretary.

Chase was a leading lawyer in Ohio for African American rights in the 1840s. He followed this up by being a senator, governor, Treasury secretary and finally serving in the supreme court in his last years. Worth a read if you have an interest in figures from the civil war era

I have thoroughly been enjoying The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet. He outlines the process of how a branch of western science develope into a belief system and how it's victory over academia has created a culture of manipulated data and invalid research. 72% of researchers surveyed were willing to distort their data. 50% of anonymously surveyed academics admitted to sometimes presenting their research with bias. This has led to a crisis with up to 60% of cancer research and 85% of clinical biomedical research failed to duplicate results when the product is put into circulation. He starts at the enlightenment and discusses the loss of meaning in work during the industrial revolution as well as how technology has created an intersection of mindsets that have bred totalitarian thinking. A great read on historical developments leading to strong consequences today.

https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Psychology-of-Totalitarianism/dp/B0B2KRLPY2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1EO15NH4SOY9Q&keywords=the+psychology+of+totalitarianism+mattias+desmet&qid=1668057589&sprefix=the+psychology+of+tot%2Caps%2C246&sr=8-1

I was trying to remember a book from college about a woman in the gulag. Does Journey Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg sound familiar to anybody? I had to go back into old photos of me reading it to get a portion of the title. I just remember it being very informative and detailed.

I've been sitting on this one for a while. Thanks for the recommendation!

I love his biographies. I've got this one sitting in my TBR pile, but the one on Stanton and Seward were great.

Has anyone read S.F Platonov's 'Time of Troubles' translated by translated by John Alexander, can you tell me anything in terms of its readability and accuracy? If it's not good, any other book recommendations on the Time of Troubles? Chester Dunning has one too which is a bit on the long side for me but if anyone can vouch for this I might check it out.

Like you, I am interested in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. Here is two recommendations: The Battle that Stopped Rome by Peter Wells and Give Me Back My Legions: A Novel of Ancient Rome by Harry Turtledove. Wells offers a good overview, while Turtledove offers an an interesting fictional look at the relationship between Varus and Arminius that was so pivotal in Rome’s greatest defeat. Also Turtledove’s book is NOT part of a historical fiction series so you are not required to buy a ton of books. Hope you enjoy the books!!

I have read Stahr’s biography of William Seward…it’s an interesting read about an under appreciated and under estimated man.

Awesome I’ll check them out, thank you!

His bio for John Jay was solid too

I've got his bio of Stanton, but all the ones of Jay seem to be pretty expensive when I glance around

I’ve started reading Montefiore’s “Stalin, Court Of The Red Tsar” and am finding it really difficult to understand / keep up. A lot of names, nicknames, the first few chapters breeze through the war, revolution, Stalin’s rise to power, and it’s hard to understand how the early govt worked. I’ve picked it up about 6 months ago and have restarted the book a few times already.

Is this topic just that confusing or is it me? Is there maybe something else I can read beforehand? I’ve done some research on that early govt on the side and the kind of helped, but the book’s still a bit tough.

Thank you for your help!

There are many historical books written by amateur historians. Does it affect your choice to pick it up if the author doesn't have the qualifications likea PhD in history or something

podcasts on ww1?

So I am preparing for the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs exam. im looking for books about European/middle eastern/US-Turkish relations and history.

also anything you'd reccomend that you consider to be essential? the exam is an interview.

It does affect my choice, not because amateurs cannot write good serious history- more that good qualifications can be considered as a guarantee that someone knows what they’re talking about. But there are plenty of other things one can look at for the same purpose- reviews by those with good credentials, history writing awards, etc.

As an example, I recently bought a book about the American Civil War- James Oakes’ ‘Freedom National’. This isn’t a topic I know well, and I didn’t recognise the name of the author nor the name of the university they work at. Their book is making a provocative argument. All that makes me quite wary- this book could be garbage! But when I look into it I find that this book was nominated for an award, and received good reviews from some of the biggest names in that field. That reassures me- even if I find that I disagree with the arguments made in the book, I have good reason to believe that it’s legitimate scholarship.

So generally I want to find some indication that an author knows what they’re talking about before buying or reading a book. But qualifications are only one of many possible indications.

Any recommendations for works about USN military divers in the Vietnam Era? My Father-in-Law who passed before I met my wife served two tours as a diver and im interested in what his service was like. All I ever here are the few larger than life stories he passed down like catching a 15 ft tiger shark with hotdogs for bait off the back of a minesweeper.

Recs for books on ancient Egypt? I'm going on a trip there in March + Nile Cruise and I'd like to learn more about the history of what I'll be seeing.

Can anyone recommend some good English language books on European exploration of Africa and beyond during the 1400s and 1500s? I realized that while I'm aware in general of Henry the Navigator and the related period of exploration, I know very little in the way of specifics. I'm hoping to find something that could cover the exploration of the African coast and early ventures in India and SE Asia. In other words, early European exploration that isnt focused on the Americas, and in particular any details possible on exploration prior to 1492.

Videos or podcasts would also be welcome, if anyone has suggestions.

Anyone know of a good audiobook on the Soviet theater in WWII? I'm looking for something that goes in depth on operations of specific battles and/or the politics in Moscow.

I'd love to listen to a 50+ hour series like Ian Toll's trilogy on the war in the Pacific but haven't been able to find one

I think even Montefiore himself would probably agree with your assessment, as he later wrote a "prequel" of sorts called Young Stalin. This covers more of the war and lead up to revolution. Perhaps it would be better to read that first? I'm in the opposite position as I've not yet read The Court of the Red Tsar.

Good suggestion! Didn’t realize he had a prequel so thank you for that. I’ve read a bit further and with the help of the included list of characters I’m able to start understanding now. The switching between nicknames, first names, and surnames for the same character threw me off a lot but it’s coming together now. Definitely reading the prequel next, should’ve started with that.

Understanding the way the old Tsarist and then the Bolshevik govt works also helped a ton. Spent a few days reading about that and the power struggles start to make more sense now.

Thank you!