#22 Read a history about a period you know little about.

[Asakosophia]

Hey folks!
Do you think this is supposed to be "historical fiction" - ? Or is the idea that it can be Fiction or Non Fiction?

Apologies if this is a silly question but I don't know what "a history" book is as a genre. . . . .
:-)

[Kayleigh]

Asakosophia wrote: "Hey folks!
Do you think this is supposed to be "historical fiction" - ? Or is the idea that it can be Fiction or Non Fiction?

Apologies if this is a silly question but I don't know what "a histor..."

I studied history at uni and to me "a history" generally means a non-fiction book about a history of a place, people, person, event, etc. etc.

[Ilana]

Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital, by Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove

[Tricia]

I'm going to read Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1 - The Birth of Humankind. Definitely a time period I don't know much about!

[John]

Tricia wrote: "I'm going to read Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 1 - The Birth of Humankind. Definitely a time period I don't know much about!"

Tricia, good suggestion!

[Bonnie G.]

Kayleigh wrote: "Asakosophia wrote: "Hey folks!
Do you think this is supposed to be "historical fiction" - ? Or is the idea that it can be Fiction or Non Fiction?

Apologies if this is a silly question but I don't..."

I second this. "A history" does not indicate fiction.

[Holly]

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age

[Rebecca]

The Stonewall Reader or A Wild and Precious Life.

[Leslie (updates on SG)]

I am interested in reading more Fil-Am history, so I will try Little Manila is in the Heart or Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement.

[Asakosophia]

Kayleigh wrote: "I studied history at uni and to me "a history" generally means a non-fiction book about a history of a place, people, person, event, etc. etc"

Ahh. thanks for the clarification :-)

[Dawn]

I'm also reading through Obama's lists, so will do one of these:
The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001John Adams
Lessons In Disaster: McGeorge Bundy And The Path To War In Vietnam
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The Wright Brothers
Grant
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

[Tara]

I'll read Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (David Treuer). I don't know much about U.S. Indigenous history and this prompt will help.

[Tracie Margaret]

Rebecca wrote: "The Stonewall Reader or A Wild and Precious Life."

I listened to this one this year and it was great. The audiobook also has some of the people narrating their own stories.

[Rebecca]

Tip for the LGBTQ challenge: wikipedia has lists of LGBTQ historians and journalists: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categ...

[Dani]

The easy part of this is that I know little about most periods of history. The hard part is I usually hate history books. Considering Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment or Controlling Desires: Sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome

[Dani]

Asakosophia wrote: "Hey folks!
Do you think this is supposed to be "historical fiction" - ? Or is the idea that it can be Fiction or Non Fiction?

Apologies if this is a silly question but I don't know what "a histor..."

History typically indicates nonfiction, but there are some fiction books that could be considered history - I know this is a juvenile book but magic treehouse comes to mind

[Ron]

I've taken out the Hiroshima book I planned on and instead included either David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music or Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women .

1.) I don't read a lot of books on music, hardly any. I just stumbled across this one on a book search for another book challenge and it seemed interesting.

2.) The second book sounded interesting, also on a random book search.

LGBTQ+ books are certainly not in my wheelhouse but that's what will be great in terms of challenging myself.

[Noel]

Nothing Like It in the World by Ambrose. Nonfiction that reads like fiction, about the building of the transcontinental railroad. (more interesting than that sounds!) Or if you don't regularly read about the guilded age, Empty Mansions.

[Joshua]

Because I know very little about history in general, I thought I would roll through a punch of periods at once; Pinball: A Graphic History of the Silver Ball. It's a subject I'm interested in and think this will help me get through a subject I'm very iffy on to begin with (History).

[Tiffany]

I have so many options for this prompt, it'll be a challenge to narrow it down. These are on my list: Triangle: The Fire That Changed America How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS, The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, The Children's Blizzard, The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

[Jak]

Tiffany wrote: "I have so many options for this prompt, it'll be a challenge to narrow it down. These are on my list: Triangle: The Fire That Changed America [book:How to Survive a Plague: The Inside..."


Thank you for posting your book options. It really helped me out! I'm going to try Escape from Camp 14.

[Juulna]

Okay, bear with me and it because it is a pretty long book and horribly sad, but Shake Hands With the Devil by Romeo Dallaire is one of the best recent history books I’ve ever read as a historian (though not of that era). He was the person in charge of the UN Peacekeepers on the ground in Rwanda and that perspective is just… wow.

Conversely, for those who dislike history and/or non-fiction, there is University Press’ Brief History Of… series, some of which are available on Kindle Unlimited. I grabbed a well-reviewed Brief History of Afghanistan though I have yet to read it.

[Asakosophia]

Dani wrote: "The easy part of this is that I know little about most periods of history. The hard part is I usually hate history books."

LOL. This really speaks to me

I wonder if Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China counts? It definitely feels more memoir-ish, but is also a "Sweeping history of..."

[Ron]

This one is something I didn't know of:

Nazi's during the Cold War in a borderland? I didn't even know this thing even happened!

Educating the Enemy: Teaching Nazis and Mexicans in the Cold War Borderlands

[JessicaMHR]

I think I'm going to use Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI for this since I had never heard of this.

[Ron]

Jessica wrote: "I think I'm going to use Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI for this since I had never heard of this."

I hope you like it. I read it a few years back and it was really good.

[JessicaMHR]

Thanks Ron. I just finished it and it was great! I loved the way he wrote it, more like a story and not just facts.

[Ron]

Jessica wrote: "Thanks Ron. I just finished it and it was great! I loved the way he wrote it, more like a story and not just facts."

That's what I enjoyed too.

[Asakosophia]

Jessica wrote: "I think I'm going to use Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI for this since I had never heard of this."

Oooh that's a good one and it's been on my TBR for a while actually!

[Ron]

Asakosophia wrote: "Oooh that's a good one and it's been on my TBR for a while actually!"

Hope you get to it at some point. I read it over a year ago and it still stayed with me.

[Reed]

I'm reading War and Peace would that work for this prompt?

[Leona]

Tiffany wrote: "I have so many options for this prompt, it'll be a challenge to narrow it down. These are on my list: Triangle: The Fire That Changed America How to Survive a Plague: The Inside..."</i>

[book:The Children's Blizzard is one of the giveaways March 1-31. I saw it this morning.

[Tricia]

What do you think about the Song of Achilles? Does Greek Mythology count as history? It's definitely a period I don't know much about, and I just finished this book and feel like I learned so much!

[Carm]

Greek mythology acted as inspiration for the creation of the famous Parthenon, which was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the Hellenic period. As a visitor of Greece I think our tour guide pointed other famous landmarks, In Turkey is the famous Tomb. Haven’t read this book yet definitely going on the list.

[Jane]

What book are you referring to?

[Carm]

Song of achilles

[Hannah]

Que Vivan Los Tamales. it's one of my favorite books... teaches the history of Spain's colonization of Mexico by tracing the influence of race on food preferences.

[Kaia]

I read Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston for this one (the audiobook version).

[Ron]

Discovered Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

[Metz]

Ron wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I think I'm going to use Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI for this since I had never heard of this."

I hope you like it. I rea..."

Thank you for the rec! I really never got into history, not even fictional history but I love a good true crime story. This sounds perfect for this part of the challenge.

[Tiffany]

Does anyone know any good Partition history books between Pakistan and India? Found some fiction books but looking for nonfiction that isn't too dry.

[Bonnie G.]

Tiffany wrote: "Does anyone know any good Partition history books between Pakistan and India? Found some fiction books but looking for nonfiction that isn't too dry."

I recommend Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age. I confess it is the only nonfiction book I have read about that era so I can't compare to others, but I can say it was really interesting.

[Ron]

Metz wrote: "Thank you for the rec! I really never got into history, not even fictional history but I love a good true crime story. This sounds perfect for this part of the challenge."

Cool. Yeah, I haven't read it in a while but it stood out and was really good.

[t ♡]

Asakosophia wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I think I'm going to use Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI for this since I had never heard of this."

Oooh that's a good one an..."

Thank you for recommending this, it was a really good read

[Renee]

I’m going on the assumption that a well researched historical fiction will work. I was a reading teacher.

[Sherri]

I read Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am. I knew nothing about Pan Am or the airline industry.

[Maggie]

Metz wrote: "Ron wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I think I'm going to use Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI for this since I had never heard of this."

I hope you li..."

A little late to reply but Freedom at Midnight would fit this. It's a great story that reads like fiction.

[Janell]

I'm reading The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh which is historical fiction about 1880s Burma. Definitely fits the "know little about" but since it's fiction not nonfiction I'm not sure if it qualifies as "a history of."

[Regan]

Janell wrote: "I'm reading The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh which is historical fiction about 1880s Burma. Definitely fits the "know little about" but since it's fiction not nonfiction I'm not sure ..."
I personally feel like if enough research went into historical fiction it can count as a history, especially if the emphasis is on the period itself. For example, the length of the works cited in Ruta Septys' I Must Betray You makes me feel comfortable counting it as a history, especially since it's at least as much about the Communist period in Romania as it is about the protagonist.

[Rebekah]

I'm reading Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, which focuses on the lead-up to the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century throughout the borderlands. It's a period of time I know little about, and also covers historical figures I knew embarrassingly little about, and it's a really well-written and fascinating book so far. Highly recommended!