My knowledge of African history is generally lacking, and I've always been interested how the Bantu-speaking people came to become the dominant group in sub-Saharan Africa. Know any good books about it or African empire growth in general?

Speaking of which, is there a "ask historians recommends" subreddit? I've been picking here and there from the book list, but I always enjoy reading recommendations I get from this sub.

I am doing a reserch project as part of my BA in history and I am currently looking for good academic sources to use as a basis for my project. I am currently drifting between doing something about vikings or doing something on the Norwegian resistance in WWII. If anyone got anything to help me please do :)

I'm a grad student trying to do an independent research project in the hope that I can get it published in at least a state journal if not a national one. It pertains to World War II and I'm hoping to be able to use correspondence journals of veterans from my own state (Texas). Does anyone have a good recommendation on how best to track down these kinds of sources? I've already spoken with the archivist at my university library and she's given me her newspaper databases from that time period. I'm a bit lost beyond this, however.

I am specially interested in the GDR and Poland. What were their Elite Regiments?

I was thinking a few days ago about how significantly the winter impacted the German advance into Russia. Well, storms happen, including very strong ones at sea or on small(ish) islands in the seas.

So, I wonder if any large weather events had significant impact on any battles during the Pacific Theater. Or if not on battles directly, did they impact overall strategy: avoiding typhoons and the like, perhaps, so as to avoid having to fight near one at all.

By "significant" I mean something like "a factor that had to be considered for purposes of developing effective tactics". So if a commander could not ignore some factor without compromising (or limiting) the effectiveness of his plans, that would be a significant factor.

Recently, I played a few games (e.g. Crusader Kings 2, and Civilization V), after which I've sort of been getting the urge to read up on historical periods/figures.

I'm willing to try out a very varied range of time periods (as long as it's pre-1900. 1900+ would be too modern a period for my taste, I reckon). I also have very little historical knowledge; for instance, I know the names of Joan of Arc, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, but don't know what the former two did, and only have the faintest of ideas on what the latter two are famous for. So, any setting is fair game for suggestions, whether it's Vikings, Egypt, Rome, etc.

As for writing style, I'm looking for texts which:

• are in a story-like fashion instead of an informational fashion. Wikipedia and news articles bore me. I want the text to focus on a person's view, instead of giving an overview of how things were at the time. I want to read about what the historical figure was as a person, the difficulties he/she faced, what they used to feel and think, how and why they took their actions, etc.

• are NOT very descriptive/flowery. For instance, I disliked Nabokov's writing. I prefer the writing styles of Asimov, Game of Thrones (i.e. book 1; haven't read the rest), Harry Potter, and to an extent, Stephen King. So, yeah, I prefer straightforward prose over intricate, difficult-to-decipher texts.

• are well-written/edited. By that, I mean the language of the text is concise and avoids common pitfalls that befall novice writers.

So, anyone have any suggestions on which historical books/texts I should try out?

I realize that the most impactful reform of the House of Lords took place in 1999, which is outside of the purview of this sub, but the movement had existed for decades prior, so I hope the question will be considered appropriate.

And how did the old civilizations did it? the romans and greeks?