As I will continue to hammer home and yell from the hills of this subreddit until I froth at the mouth - my specialisation is the rich and controversial field of Australian colonial history and frontier warfare. I am still compiling a new book list for AskHistorians, and it will be sent soon. Most of the works will have been published in the last twenty to thirty years, and will cover in sufficient depth many aspects of Indigenous Australian history, Australia's quite unique economic histories, Asian-Australian history and of course women's history. I will, obviously, still be putting in good books on the less contentious elements of our history, like WW1, Federation and the famous convicts.

It is critically important that anyone, especially not from Australia, who wades into introductory reading or interest on Australia sees that we're talking about a complex, multifaceted country - which has often had deep structural problems with letting the voices of certain people be heard.

On that note, a wonderful book I've been reading lately is called Me Write Myself, a history of the Indigenous Tasmanians after they were exiled to Flinders Island - one of the more infamous episodes in Australian history, considered to have been an act of violent ethnic cleansing. The book documents the writings, publishing and campaigns for their own self-determination and freedom of the Indigenous community once they were on Flinders Island - who published their own newspaper, sermons, petitioned Queen Victoria and regularly asserted their right to self-determination. The work seeks to recover and bring to light the agency, resistance and voices of the community in the face of hardship and challenge.

Definitely one that has been added to the list!

I'm currently reading Warfare in Medieval Europe, c. 400-1435 by Bernard and David S. Bachrach. It's pretty good, although it has some irritating flaws. The work is intended as a synthesis of existing scholarship rather than explicitly the Bachrach's take on medieval warfare, which is something I like. Their opinions do shine through, but they are explicit about scholarly disagreements and they include the other opinions. It's written in a textbook style, which I don't love, but it is at least a relatively engaging textbook style. The big flaw with the book is that they've chosen to include end of chapter bibliographies rather than notes (excepting for direct quotes, which are referenced), which makes it hard to know where they're getting specific points from and can make it feel like sometimes they're describing a straw man when they make points refuting what other scholars have thought in the past. The book also has a strong Early/Central Medieval bias, that being the time periods that the authors are specialists in, with not much in the way of content for late medieval.

The book is good overall, but my big question is whether or not it should be the entry level medieval warfare book I recommend. It would be great to be able to point to a single survey that covered the whole Middle Ages, but given this book's scarcity of late medieval content I'm a bit dubious about it, especially with it's referencing decision. I'm still relatively early into the book, though, so my thoughts on that might change.

Does anyone have recommendations for refreshing one's knowledge of Classical-era Latin? Like a lot of people I studied Latin through junior high/high school and in college but as I use it less and less for longer translations I feel myself losing my proficiency -- is it worth my while to return to introductory textbooks like Wheelock's, or am I better off just reading Latin-language authors and using my dictionary a lot? Is there a third option for refreshing my familiarity with the language?

Has anyone read Jackson's Persian Gulf Command? I am interested in the Middle East during the Second World War, and was wondering if it was more academic or more to the side of pop history.

Hello! I would love a recommendation for a book on a historical leader. I would prefer someone a little less well known that could use more attention. They could be a great leader or a terrible one. The more complex the better! This is for an assignment, but I'd really like to go off the beaten path a bit and learn more about someone I'm less familiar with. I've considered Custer, Ulysses Grant, and Jim Jones, if that gives any idea! The leader can be from anywhere in the world.

I want to start reading,learning and understand modern China, but i'm aware that i can't understand the present without learn about the past. So as someone who knows close to nothing about China what would be good readings for the beginning?

Edit: I don't know how feasible is this but would also like to read books which they talk about Foreign policy and diplomacy of China through the years as i'm learning about their history, thank you.

Can someone recommend me a book on the Cold War in Africa? (in English or French). I'm looking for more of an overview, but I'm also open to good books on specific subjects.

Specifically, I'm interested in the history of communist movements in Africa, in overviews of African conflicts like the Congo Crisis, the Rhodesian Bush War or the Mozambican War of Independence, and in the involvment of the US, the USSR, and former colonial powers in these conflicts.