I found a WWII-era letter from Sven Liljeblad (1899-2000), my mentor, in answer to a request from the Smithsonian at the end of the war. The Smithsonian asked about the effects of the war on the community of folklorists, ethnographers, and anthropologists in Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Sven's response is a 21-page, single-spaced "who's who" in the Nordic intellectual community at the time.

Of greater interest was the next copy of the letter in the file I had opened: Sven had indicated to the Smithsonian that he had sent enquiries to various contacts to learn more about the condition of the survivors. Extensive marginalia on this second copy of his letter detailed "imprisoned by the Germans" or "wife killed by Germans," in the Norwegian group, as one might expect. The Finnish scholars met with their own type of grief.

It was a remarkable document, archived at Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno where Sven spent some of his last years as a scholar.

I'm researching for an upcoming AskHistorians podcast episode on the shaft tomb culture of West Mexico.

I've started reading Malcolm Barber's The New Knighthood, which is probably the best summary of the rise and fall of the Knight's Templar currently available. It's an interesting read but man Barber's text is dense. I used to recommend people pick this book up if they wanted a really thorough introduction to the Templars but now that I'm digging through it myself it might be too dense for most lay readers. I'm not sure what other book I'd recommend, though.

I'm about 80 pages in and it's gotten easier as I've progressed. The first few chapters are pretty heavy stuff, lots of discussion of specific land grants given to the Templars early in their history covering a wide range of geographic and political areas. Really dry reading and while Barber's style is perfectly adequate I would not describe it as engaging. His writing is very clear, which I appreciate, but it's only as interesting as the subject matter he's discussing.

So far it's a good book, but after reading mostly popular or fairly approachable history for my last few books it's been a bit of a struggle to dive back into proper, hardcore academic history.

Right now I'm reading "Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and Jame A. Robinson. (http://www.amazon.com/Why-Nations-Fail-Origins-Prosperity/dp/0307719227/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440864375&sr=8-1&keywords=why+nations+fail).

It's a decent read for a non-technical read for international development economics. For being a 500 page book, it does have to simplify alot of the history to fit in its point, and it does gloss over some economic research on the subject. He takes some jabs at Jeffrey Sach's theory that economic development is linked to geography (http://www.nber.org/papers/w6849). They argue it's not geography per say but the differing institutions.

The book does lack in the non economic and more prehistory and archaeological arguments. For instance, he argues that Mayan civilization probably fell because of lack of institutions. While there seems to be not standard theory why the Mayan Civilization fell after the Classic Period, to me, he seems to be fitting his theory in a place that we can not determine. This happens with the prehistory arguments of institution.

Another slight problem of the book is that good/bad institutions are like pornography, love, etc. where We don't really know how to define it but we know what it looks like.

I am researching early American (think 1700-1745) popular beliefs, particularly in monsters and the occult. What I would like are any books/articles that discuss the importance of contemporary newspapers and how widespread their readership was. I am using several newspapers as sources, and I know that Daniel Hall, Daniel Richter and Alan Taylor all discuss how pervasive newspapers were during the time period, but I am looking for more specific secondary sources to help me flush out and better defend my argument. any suggestions?

Mostly I am rereading Claude Blair's European Armour 1066-1700.

However I also found a thesis on the Tower Armouries inventory from 1330-1410. Mostly outside of my main interest (1460-1530) but still a lot if info here: http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/3919/1/Thom_Richardson_thesis_final.pdf

u/valkine and u/mi13 may find this interesting.

I am trying to find a comprehensive book on early Chinese Piracy, just for personal reading though.

I'm trying to find a good source about the history of Eastern Europe, more specifically the Khazars and the Alans, for personal reading. Anyone can help me?

Hi everyone! I've recently moved to Xi'An for my gap year, and I'd love to read up on its history, in any shape or form. Could anyone point me to any interesting books on either ancient Chinese history, or Xianese history in particular? Much appreciated (if this gets answered) :)