Today:
Saturday Reading and Research will focus on exactly that: the history you have been reading this week and the research you've been working on. It's also the prime thread for requesting books on a particular subject. As with all our weekly features, this thread will be lightly moderated.
So, encountered a recent biography of Stalin that revealed all about his addiction to ragtime piano? Delved into a horrendous piece of presentist and sexist psycho-evolutionary mumbo-jumbo and want to tell us about how bad it was? Need help finding the right book to give the historian in your family? Then this is the thread for you!
I'm currently reading two historical books. Firstly, R.A.C. Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement: British policy and the coming of the second world war, (London, 1993), and it's a very good text book on the Britain's appeasement of German expansion, and actually primarily focuses on the economic argument, as well as the anti war and pro-German stances.
The second, for my dissertation (which I shall touch on in my research), is B.Trinder, The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire, (London, 1973) and it is my current bible. It is a complete and detailed history of the changes that Shropshire, England underwent throughout the long 19th century, looking at the economics, industry, society, and briefly religion.
And research wise, I'm still working on my dissertation: What was the social impact of the industrial revolution in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire? A good topic, but I'm currently trawling through 60 years of census papers to get occupations changes, population growth, migration figures and surname indices. It's a chore, especially the surname index and female occupation graphs, I'm not the best at reading cursive, but the statistical part is nearly complete then I can start to write.
Currently reading Sheilagh Ogilvie's A Bitter Living: Women, Markets, and Social Capital in Early Modern Germany which is not only delightfully written but very eloquently argued as well. Can anyone else recommend something that incorporates social network theory/analysis, applied to Central Europe in the 17th -18th centuries?
I got a copy of A Kim Jong-il Production yesterday but haven't started it.
Are there other English-language histories of this episode? I have a Korean-published biography of Shin in English, but it mentions how little has been written about him even in Korea.
Edit: I started reading it, and so far I approve. It has some difficult challenges such as summarizing the Korean war in a few pages, but it also seems to capture the incestuous nature of what I've come to think of as the "government-entertainment complex" in Korea.
A few notes that I found notable/want to check on:
Choi Eun-hee smoked in public? That was a big no-no, but maybe it varied on an actress-by-actress basis.
Baek Gun-woo was almost kidnapped by KJI too. Not surprised.
Three Ninjas was #6 at the box office.
Not sure if Choi Eun-hee has a Pusan accent or was dubbed in films.
Shin wanted to make (Rambo) First Blood!
I'm looking for academic books on Roman and Ancient Greek art and/or architecture. I took Latin and Greek in high school and am doing a minor in classical history in uni and would love to have something of an academic level on their art and artitecture to read. Any tips? (: