tell me about dead dudes.
July 20, 2010 10:38 AM Subscribe
Recommendations for non-fiction history, preferably available through Amazon's Kindle store?
My taste runs towards well-regarded overviews of Big Historical Narratives written by professional historians and that get a decent amount of detail, but aren't super-technical. Narrower works (like the Roy Porter one below, or biographies of powerful leaders) are A++++ if the writing is really good and if things are still carefully sourced.
Bonus points if I can buy it for my Kindle through Amazon. Bonus points, too, if it's about Dead White Western Dudes, as I'm starting remediation of my woeful, woeful knowledge of history with the low-hanging fruit.
On the Kindle reading list now:
Abraham Lincoln by James M. McPherson
Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Piers Brendon
History that I have read and loved, but not on the Kindle:
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
English Society in the 18th Century by Roy Porter
The Third Reich trilogy (1, 2, 3)
Caesar by Adrian Goldsworthy
The Years of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1, 2, 3) by Robert Caro
A Book that Looks Amazing and That I Will Read, Once I Get Done With What is On My Plate:
This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
A Book that Rubbed Me the @$*#()*%&@# Way:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
My taste runs towards well-regarded overviews of Big Historical Narratives written by professional historians and that get a decent amount of detail, but aren't super-technical. Narrower works (like the Roy Porter one below, or biographies of powerful leaders) are A++++ if the writing is really good and if things are still carefully sourced.
Bonus points if I can buy it for my Kindle through Amazon. Bonus points, too, if it's about Dead White Western Dudes, as I'm starting remediation of my woeful, woeful knowledge of history with the low-hanging fruit.
On the Kindle reading list now:
Abraham Lincoln by James M. McPherson
Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Piers Brendon
History that I have read and loved, but not on the Kindle:
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
English Society in the 18th Century by Roy Porter
The Third Reich trilogy (1, 2, 3)
Caesar by Adrian Goldsworthy
The Years of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1, 2, 3) by Robert Caro
A Book that Looks Amazing and That I Will Read, Once I Get Done With What is On My Plate:
This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
A Book that Rubbed Me the @$*#()*%&@# Way:
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
My favourite history book is Agincourt, and they have it for the Kindle.
posted by Coobeastie at 10:47 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by Coobeastie at 10:47 AM on July 20, 2010
I just read and loved this biography of Ulysses S. Grant by Jean Edward Smith.
posted by something something at 10:51 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by something something at 10:51 AM on July 20, 2010
Also, Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August, on World War I.
posted by orrnyereg at 11:04 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by orrnyereg at 11:04 AM on July 20, 2010
I am currently enjoying Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's a readable history of the English settlements in southern New England from the arrival of the Pilgrims to King Phillip's War.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:23 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:23 AM on July 20, 2010
Donald Kagan's single-volume summary of The Peloponnesian War is engaging.
posted by nicwolff at 11:48 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by nicwolff at 11:48 AM on July 20, 2010
Anything by John Keegan fits the bill, though it seems as if some of his best works (The First World War and The Second World War) aren't in Kindle form. The Face of Battle - A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme is, though. It's a ground-level look at tactics and human behavior in three different eras of war -- it would go very well with strategy-level books on war, which tend to over-simplify what was happening on the battlefields themselves.
posted by vorfeed at 11:49 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by vorfeed at 11:49 AM on July 20, 2010
Everything by John Keegan. He's the master of the big war history book.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:51 AM on July 20, 2010
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 11:51 AM on July 20, 2010
This probably doesn't fit your "big narrative" criteria, but it is a very well written, well sourced, fascinating read: The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America (Kindle Edition)
posted by donovan at 12:56 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by donovan at 12:56 PM on July 20, 2010
Anything by My Intellectual Crush, Simon Schama.
I enjoy his pre-TV more academic work, for instance The Embarrassment of Riches, which is a look at Dutch culture and the Golden Age through the art and graphical ephemera of the time. But he's also released books in connection with his TV work. Of those I recommend Rough Crossings, which is about the escaped slaves who took the British up on their offer of freedom in return for support during the Revolutionary War.
I also hear he has an interesting book about the French Revolution called Citizens, but I have yet to read it.
posted by Sara C. at 12:58 PM on July 20, 2010
I enjoy his pre-TV more academic work, for instance The Embarrassment of Riches, which is a look at Dutch culture and the Golden Age through the art and graphical ephemera of the time. But he's also released books in connection with his TV work. Of those I recommend Rough Crossings, which is about the escaped slaves who took the British up on their offer of freedom in return for support during the Revolutionary War.
I also hear he has an interesting book about the French Revolution called Citizens, but I have yet to read it.
posted by Sara C. at 12:58 PM on July 20, 2010
Shit, forgot about the Kindle request - only his two most recent books (of which one is Rough Crossings) are available as ebooks so far. But you should still check his hard copy stuff out.
posted by Sara C. at 1:01 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by Sara C. at 1:01 PM on July 20, 2010
What Hath God Wrought; the Transformation of America, 1815 to 1848 by Daniel Walker Howe.
Its much better than the title sounds and leads very nicely into
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
posted by tommyD at 1:04 PM on July 20, 2010
Its much better than the title sounds and leads very nicely into
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
posted by tommyD at 1:04 PM on July 20, 2010
A Distant Mirror is a classic engrossing survey of 14th Century france, all your plague, battle, and castle intrigue action (spoiler: everbody dies!). Doesn't look like it's on Kindle, but it's the first thing that leaps to mind when I think 'sweeping historical survey'.
If you've never read the great-great-great grandaddy of them all, line up The Histories of Herodotus (yes on Kindle) immediately, it's completely awesome and as fresh as the day it was written.
posted by Erasmouse at 1:06 PM on July 20, 2010
If you've never read the great-great-great grandaddy of them all, line up The Histories of Herodotus (yes on Kindle) immediately, it's completely awesome and as fresh as the day it was written.
posted by Erasmouse at 1:06 PM on July 20, 2010
Battle Cry of Freedom is available for the Kindle now, although I think that's a very recent change. I'm reading it right now.
You may also want to look at Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. I heard an interview with the author recently, and it sounded really interesting. Good reviews, too, so far.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:01 PM on July 20, 2010
You may also want to look at Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. I heard an interview with the author recently, and it sounded really interesting. Good reviews, too, so far.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:01 PM on July 20, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for all the awesome answers, all! Please to be keeping them coming. The Kindle is a very, very nice bonus, but not necessary.
(Further points of information: Devil in the White City was a little sensationalist/fiction-style for me, though I can see how it's great read. Team of Rivals underwhelmed me. And I have a weird, weird bias against David McCollough that is probably founded on nothing more than seeing his books next to a lot of scary Suze Orman covers at BJ's.)
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:10 PM on July 20, 2010
(Further points of information: Devil in the White City was a little sensationalist/fiction-style for me, though I can see how it's great read. Team of Rivals underwhelmed me. And I have a weird, weird bias against David McCollough that is probably founded on nothing more than seeing his books next to a lot of scary Suze Orman covers at BJ's.)
posted by joyceanmachine at 3:10 PM on July 20, 2010
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (Kindle Edition). Read it earlier this summer -- was quite good.
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 6:38 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 6:38 PM on July 20, 2010
I want to echo the love for both Dark Mirror and Nixonland. The former was the first "grownup" history I read for pleasure, and the latter has been on my to-do list for years. And this has been a great reminder - it's going on my kindle wishlist right now...
posted by Sara C. at 6:50 PM on July 20, 2010
posted by Sara C. at 6:50 PM on July 20, 2010
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science. An extremely well-researched book that goes into almost obsessive detail about several scientific discoveries from Captain Cook's first voyage in 1768 and Darwin's Beagle journey in 1831. It almost reads like a novel.
posted by upplepop at 4:25 AM on July 21, 2010
posted by upplepop at 4:25 AM on July 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by orrnyereg at 10:46 AM on July 20, 2010