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 started to get caught up on my list and finished The Bible Unearthed, Archeology's new Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Sacred Texts, by Finkelstein and Silberman.
Wow, I knew the Patriarchs were legendary and the Exodus story may or may not have had any tiny kernel of history behind it, but I certainly did not know that the United Monarchy of David and Solomon was fictional (though David and Solomon probably were not; they just weren't mighty kings) and that Judah was so, well, small and insignificant on the Middle Eastern stage.
My question is, is this still a well-thought of book? Is there another one that "supercedes" it as it were? Some specific questions:
What does the AH community think of the author's position that Josiah was central to the Bible, particularly the Deuteronomistic history? As written, it's kind of like "all about Josiah".
The authors mention that there does appear to have been a powerful kingdom of Israel (NOT Judah) in the 9th century BCE, but it was ruled by the biblical "bad guys", ie the house of Omri, including fan favorites Ahab and Jezebel, and hence was minimized in the biblical texts. Is this still current thinking?
Along those general lines, there is a theme that the biblical "good" kings of Israel/Judah were in general bad for the kingdom, and that the "bad" kings (such as Manasseh, or Ahab) were often very good rulers, based on archeological evidence such as lack of destruction during their reigns, and growth in civil infstrastructure, standard of living, etc. This makes some sense in that the "bad" kings were bad in the Deuteronomistic sense because they permitted integration and trade with polytheistic neighbors, became vassals (and hence protected states) of superpowers like Assyria and Egypt, all of which were anathema to the Deuteronomistic authors, who stressed monotheism, isolation, and the special role of the Davidic line. The "good" kings who followed those precepts rapidly got into serious problems with their neighbors, which had unfortunate consequences for Judah.
Anyways, what does the community think of the book?
Looking for any books covering the work of the CIA, MI6 and other foreign intelligence agencies in south america and the middle east. Specifically where the CIA started with these projects or how the US has had its hand in the drug trade.
Doesn't need to be the most comprehensive book.
Thanks
I'm working on a paper about religious epigraphy (i.e. altars and reliefs dedicated to gods) on the Antonine Wall in Scotland.
Not surprised to find so many expensive stone altars dedicated to Neptune, Silvanus, Nymphs, and the genius of Britannia. Clearly, the poor Romans were even more desperate than I was to get some relief from the constant rain, slush, mud, and gales. Feeling for those poor Syrian archers, probably not their favourite assignment.
Finally, thanks to many interruptions which were mostly holiday-related (Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four run is a holiday thing, right?), finished Robert Pierce Forbes' The Missouri Compromise and its Aftermath. Really enjoyed it, but there are some points that will definitely do for a reread. Forbes writes very long chapters with the main argument up front and rarely revisited until toward the end, so it's easy to lose the plot in all the maneuvering and inferred maneuvering.
Unsure that I'm persuaded that James Monroe was the political ninja that Forbes made him out to be, but that's a part that I found very difficult to follow so I'm quite willing to chalk it up to my not having a scorecard on hand whilst reading it.
Looking for good books on the military achievements and character of Alexander II of Macedon [edit: meant Alexander III aka the Great]. I'm thinking also about diving into (translations of) primary sources on him and some help with that would be much appreciated.
Full disclosure: I would like to use the above to create a "respect thread" for Alexander. A respect thread is a collection of the finest achievements of a character/person/group/etc. (usually fictional), which accurately demonstrates their capabilities and can be used for ease of reference in debates (usually about battles and wars). I want to undertake this project to:
Better inform myself about ancient military matters and the ancient world in general.
Create a concrete achievement based on the above knowledge which helps a community that I participate in (in this case, /r/whowouldwin).
I finished reading Anne Curry's Great Battles: Agincourt on Friday and I have to say it's one of the best books I've read in the past year. I thought my willingness to care about Agincourt had finally given out somewhere around the seventh time I read a detailed account of the battle but Curry has found a way to make it all engaging once more. Rather than focusing on the endlessly debatable nuances of the battle itself (she deals with that relatively quickly in the opening chapters) Curry explores how the battle has been written about ever since it occurred. She starts with the best breakdown and description of all of the contemporary accounts I've ever read and in so doing manages to really capture the difficulty in writing about any historical event, even one with a plethora of sources like Agincourt. From there she explores how the battle has been written about and mythologized from the sixteenth century through the present day. It's really fascinating stuff and goes a long way towards answering one of the biggest questions I've always had about Agincourt: why do we care so much about it? Considering the battles of the Hundred Years War something like Poitiers seems like a much better candidate for The Famous Battle than Agincourt does, but Agincourt is far more famous. Curry offers some really interesting insights into this (spoiler: Shakespeare is a big part of the reason). It helps that her writing style is very clear and readable. I'd definitely recommend it.
Possibly of interest to /u/Warritter, /u/TheGreenReaper7, and /u/MI13
Right now I'm reading Mary Beard's SPQR which I was given for Christmas, and really enjoying it. It's my first proper book on Roman History and so far it's really interesting stuff.
I'm a bit late to this thread but I'm looking for book recommendations on two things:
I've got the following list of people I'm interested in but do not have good suggestions of biographies of all. I'm also willing to take suggestions of other people who might be key players at the time.