History is Not Boring discussion
What are you reading October 2008
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Jillian
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Oct 08, 2008 10:13PM
So what are you reading this month?
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This may be cheating since I started it in September but I did finish it in October:Young Stalin, Simon Sebag-Montefiore
As to the rest of the month, I'm focused on hominin evolution:
The Singing Neanderthals, Steven Mithen
Children of the Ice Age: How a Global Catastrophe Allowed Humans to Evolve, Steven Stanley
Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods, David Williams-Lewis
Southern Storm, Sherman's March to the Sea.
I'm reading Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku, and I just finished Barbara Ehrenreich's Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War. Both great.
Just finished reading Brian Lapping's End of Empire.A country by country study of how Britain let go of its huge empire. Full of those baco bits of information that make history so interesting.
I loved reading about those corners of the empire that were'nt as glamourous as India or Egypt.
I'm currently reading World War I by Keegan (I'm on a WWI stint) any suggestions for after I finish this lengthy tome?
Hi Mike,You should read "Paris 1919".
A wonderful book about what came after the war. Everyone has such high hopes after having gone through such a devestating experience.
You might want to take a breather before you start on another opus.
Mod
I finished The First World War, and unfortunately Manuel, the library here does not have Paris 1919, and I have no means of getting off base(I'm a Marine stationed at Cherry Point, NC) and I don't think this crummy town even has a bookstore, we'll see. I settled on "Until the Last Trumpet Sounds" a biography of General John Pershing (anybody read it?)
Paris 1919 is extremely interesting and I can also recommend McMillan's Uses and Abuses of History. Borders are arbitrary. Countries are illusionary.I just finished India by Michael Wood because I am travelling there next month. He has written many, many books and writes/stars in travel/history shows for the BBC. Some are available on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id7Vvj...
Another favorite is Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses that I read after watching (and then buying, it's that good!)PBS'New York, the documentary film by Ken Burns.
Note to Mike:Mike, you might take a look at "The Great Influenza".
It deals with what's happening on the "home front" during WWI. I was shocked more people died from this epidemic, than from the war it self, yet press censorship kept things quiet (over 600,000 people died in the US in 1918-19)
I was especially shocked at the careless way America's fighting men were treated during the outbreak.
Mod
Just read The Wild Blue by Ambrose. Good quality book.
The Great Getty: The Life of J Paul GettyThe richest man in the world from the late 1950's through 1970's. He was a poor student but an avid reader. He was a cheap womanizer but a brilliant decision maker in business ventures.
I like Ambrose's books - The Wild Blue is excellent. It told about a side of George McGovern I hadn't heard about, too. 35 combat missions and a Distinguished Flying Cross - as a retired military guy, I'm humbled by that.
Wild Bill Hickock, and Calamity Jane, it tears away all sense of glamour regarding them, as well as any dignity they had.
"The Post-American World" by Fareed ZakariaThis is not a book about how America is declining, but rather how so many former "3rd world" nations are advancing & using all the commodoties that only the US used to afford. Now we have competiters for raw materials, oil, ect. & they are bidding up the prices of a lot of necessary stuff which is impacting the cash flow & banking industries. (One of the reasons for the fluctuating stock markets). We need to get along with these countries & co-operate rather than see them as rivals.
