Thursday Reading and Recommendations is intended as bookish free-for-all, for the discussion and recommendation of all books historical, or tangentially so. Suggested topics include, but are by no means limited to:
Asking for book recommendations on specific topics or periods of history
Newly published books and articles you're dying to read
Recent book releases, old book reviews, reading recommendations, or just talking about what you're reading now
Historiographical discussions, debates, and disputes
...And so on!
Regular participants in the Thursday threads should just keep doing what they've been doing; newcomers should take notice that this thread is meant for open discussion of history and books, not just anything you like -- we'll have a thread on Friday for that, as usual.
Is there a book that does what Horse Wheel Language does for Indo-European languages, except for Algoniquian/other Native American languages?
What are some foundational materials I should read on the Russo-Japanese war? Articles and books welcomed, if they're dry and academic I don't mind either!
I'm most of the way through Laura Crombie's Archery and Crossbow Guilds in Medieval Flanders, 1300-1500 and I'm really enjoying it, and not just because I'm starved for any meaningful discussion of crossbows! The subject is something I've long wished to know more about, but there hasn't been very much written on it in the past half-century, and what came before it is mostly not in English, and seemingly pretty flawed. Crombie's book provides some great insight into what were very prominent groups in medieval Flemish society. While the book isn't really focused on crossbows the weapon - it's social history not military - it is still full of fascinating information that is giving me lots of fuel for my contemplations on medieval crossbows.
This is a rather specific request but are there any books that go into relations between Roman family's and their branches? For example how is the Scipio family viewed by other members of the Cornelia gens.
Any book or documentary recommendations on Yugoslavia and the Balkan Wars?
I've just finished The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman and am looking for a good in-depth book about the course of the First World War and particularly the impact on the nations involved, stuff like universal suffrage in the UK and the Russian Revolution. Any recommendations? Thanks!
Does anyone have recommendations for reading about early 19th century (pre-1850, ideally) natural science, especially anatomy/zoology? I've gone down a rabbit hole that has me hankering.
Any good books on the war in the pacific(ww2)?
What are some good books on ancient Germanic paganism (not interested in stuff on modern heathen revivals)?
I've been trying to find a book on early modern France. Just anything after 100 years war and before revolution.
I'm trying to understand the Pelopennesian War better I've picked up the Landmark editions of Thucydides' Pelopennesian War and Xenephon's Hellenica. Have also just finished reading this, selected on the basis that it was available in my local library (not alas a student - I miss university libraries SO MUCH):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Greeks-War-Alexander-Essential-Histories/dp/1841768561
I've found reading Iphikrates discussions of Sparta and Greece more generally on here immensely informative and interesting. Any other recommendations for this period in terms of
- (cheap!) books
- online resources
- things to bear in mind when reading the primary sources