I see the section on Early Modern France consists of one (very fine!) book.

Given my French is sadly lacking, does anyone know a good English language book that's a broader overview of France in the sixteenth and/or seventeenth centuries? What I know about the Wars of Religion & the Fronde comes either from brief asides in books on England or the HRE in this period or from books that feature one M. D'Artagnan in a somewhat larger role than I suspect he played in real life....

Is O'Callghan's A History of Medieval Spain still reasonably up to date? If not is there any other overviews of the period you'd recommend?

I see the Latin American section is relatively light on colonial* and post-independence history (out of 16: 4 overviews of the whole region, 2 histories of the region as a whole focused on specific aspects, 3 histories of Cuba, 2 on México, 1 each on Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, and Central America, and a microhistory of a murder in the Yucatan). So I'd like to ask what can you guys recommend in those fields. I'm a native Spanish speaker (born in Argentina), so I'm fine with books in Spanish.

*There are many books about the conquests of native cultures (or states, if that term is less problematic) in Mesoamerica, but there's not a lot about the histories of the Spanish Viceroyalties afterwards.

Would like to take this opportunity to encourage a mod to read and review "Inferno: The Second World War" by Max Hastings. I'm of the opinion that it's not a worthy inclusion.
As an example, he actually uses the word "horde" to describe the Soviet Army. He is very forthright with his prejudices, which includes anything Soviet and more than a few Allied generals, especially Montgomery who he repeatedly belittles for his physical stature. It's an oddly sour read.

Hello!

I've heard that some North American settlers/colonizers would defect, so to speak, from white, Christian society and instead voluntarily joined Native American tribes in the 17-18th centuries. Are there any books about this? I'd love to read histories or memoirs of settlers who chose this path.

Thank you in advance!

Any suggestions for books on Jewish history, with a focus on either the second temple period or rabbinic literature?

The Science and Technology section of the book list has some excellent titles to start with. However, most of the ones listed seem to cover huge chunks of history, giving an overall look at certain time periods instead of specific inventions. Does anyone have recommendations for books and/or articles that give a more focused look at certain scientists/inventors or discoveries/inventions? The weirder/more obscure the better.

I'm looking for something on 20th/21st century Northern Ireland, with more of a focus on the end of that era. I've got a basic understanding of the Troubles but something at a beginner level would be great. If there's anything that's got a political focus and covers the effects up to present day that would be even better.

I can heartily recommend Dwight R. Messimer's Find and Destroy: Antisubmarine Warfare in World War One. Messimer covers developments in Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) that are both tactical, and doctrinal in a theatre to theatre basis. He covers each with a decent amount of detail, although some sections are more sparse than others as the book is roughly ~300 pages and he covers a lot. It's a great primer for finding out how the Allies worked to combat the U-Boats in WWI. Also helpful is that Dr. Messimer looked at German documents as well to see how these developments did or did not effect U-Boat operations!

For anyone with an interest in the crusades I would strongly recommend The Second Crusade: Extending the Frontiers of Christendom by Jonathan Phillips. It's a very readable and thorough scholarly examination of the Second Crusade, and a great look at the anatomy of a crusade in general. It's quite dense and goes into enormous detail about pretty much everything, so I can't recommend it for a complete beginner, but as studies of a crusade go you can't get much better. I'm slightly surprised it's not in the reading list tbh.

I would really appreciate some recommendations for books about Iberian conquests in North Africa, as well as the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco,

I'm looking for a few books about CIA's (or US intelligence in general) involvement on the drug war during the cold war and the aftermath.

If you know books about other countries intelligence's work in that area during cold war and the aftermath free to recommend it.

Edit: if my request is too broad you could recommend just a few books about the cold war period in Latin America .

Are there any good books that study in-depth the re-integration of the southern half of Vietnam under the new socialist republic after the unification? Or I guess any on post-Vietnam War history of the country?

I'd be really interested in anything that examines the impact of hurricanes on the development of the Eastern USA seaboard.

There doesn't seem to be any books in the Philippines section anymore. If anyone could recommend me an accessible book about the revolution in the late 19th century I should be very thankful!

Can anyone recommend a good book about the history of the Normans in Southern Italy / the Mediterranean in the eleventh century?

For anyone interested in WWII aviation, I would highly suggest "Thunderbolt!" by Robert S. Johnson. Written by one of the most successful American fighter pilots of the ETO, he starts off by explaining the beginning of his interest in aviation, then his experiences flying a P-47 Thunderbolt with the 56th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force and his plane getting shot to ribbons but still surviving and also finishing off with 28 kills. Not a super long read, but it was well worth it! A highly detailed memoir with quite a nice photo gallery as well. ;)

Anyone have any recommendations for a book on the library at Alexandria? I'm not looking for a catalog of secret information lost to the ages or whatever, just something that goes into the history and operations of the library. Specifically, I'd love any information on Apollonius of Rhodes, the poet-librarian, but it seems like he's pretty scarce in the historical record.

Anyone have recommendations for books on the Cambodian (Khmer rouge) genocide

Hello AskHistorians! I have recently become interested in world religions and how religions have influenced humanity's history and I am hoping someone would recommend a book about the world history of religions, or even a place to start because I know such a topic is very dense. Thanks so much!

I have three topics I'm trying to find books on. The first is about the first few months of Japan's involvement in the Second World war, specifically about the campaigns to take the Dutch East Indies, Burma, and the Philippines.

Second is about colonisation during the era of "New Imperialism".

Third is about the development of European navies between 1880 and the dawn of the Dreadnaught.

Does anyone have any recommendations for books on the Ukrainian Black Army? Or at least one about the Russian Civil War that focuses on the Black Army?

What are some good books on US labor history?

I'm looking for a book, preferably in French, for an introduction to early modern history of France. Thanks.

I’m interested in finding a book about the evolution of American football. In particular, I’m interested in how and why the rules developed in the way they did, with a particular emphasis on early college football.

Thank you for the help!

Is there a good overall history of Hausaland, or that general region?

Any recommendations for the teapot dome scandal?

Im curently reading the plantagenents by Dan Jones and was wondering if their are any other books like it on other royal houses of Europe. Im ecpesialy looking for one on capt or bourbon France

Does anyone have an opinion on Sterling Seagrave's works? He's a journalist, which means he's writing for a lay audience, but heard some of his stuff is sensationalized or poorly argued (especially tying so many figures to the Yamashita's Treasure). He's one of the main writers I've found that's focused on mid-20th century Asia, though, so it'd would be a shame to have to ignore all his stuff.

Are there any other recommendations for reading about 20th century East Asian and Southeast Asian countries? Biographies of important figures are welcome.

And are there any specific books about the First Indochina War that are worth reading? I've already read Street Without Joy, which isn't bad but is clearly written in a journalistic style.

Can anyone point me in the direction of some literature about Neolithic belief systems? Accessible to a layman ideally, but I don't mind academic texts if that's all there is.

Is there a good overview of the War of the Roses? The popular history I see recommended is Dan Jones', but I read his "The Plantagenets", and I think I would like something more academic and with a broader scope than the doings of royalty.

Any suggestions on books regarding the Lewis and Clark expedition? Maybe even further into John Colter?

What are some good books on the evolution of the Roman army? Ideally exploring why they went from what seemed like the fairly standard Phalanx of the Med world at the time to the Manipular army, to the Marian Legions and so on?

Does anyone know of a great book on the Augustus regime and his political life? I have read The Roman Revolution and want more.

Is there a good book on Australian history from the British invasion to present (or fairly recent times anyway)? If it's got a kind of left-wing slant that'd be great but not a requirement.

I would be thankful if someone could recommend a book with information on the Saturnalia festivities, even better if it includes other accounts of how ancient Roman holidays were celebrated.

Looking for a book about Norway. It's history, people, native pop. adventures, landscape... Just something awesome and new concerning a part of the world I know nothing about.

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I'm actually looking for a bunch of books on ancient religions and their philosophies. Trying to get them in order of oldest to newest ( using this as reference )

Larger and living religions are easy enough but I'd like to find any books on the older, less known ones. Basically, following the diagram, anything 1500BCE and older.

Hi guys, I'd like to improve my poor knowledge about the history of my favourite peoples. Particularly:

• books about ethnogenesis and history of the Vlachs. Seems like very little is known and questions mostly went unanswered...

• books about ethnogenesis and history of the Caucasian (Georgian) and Armenian peoples. There was a Caucasus expert here, right? I've asked many questions especially about Armenians but they've always gone unanswered, it's a pity.

• books about the Magi as a tribe. They're usually portrayed as "the priests" and nothing more... but they were a tribe right? What's their history? (sorry to summon you /u/lcnielsen but I always read with interest your answers regarding Zoroastrianism)

I'm actually looking for several topics.

The first one would be a good book on Southeast Asia from 618AD to the end of the Tang Dynasty. Or a series of books that isn't something I could simply check out from the local library (I'm Singaporean). As a bonus, I'd also like to know more about pottery in China during this period and how it was related to Southeast Asian maritime trade. I'd like to see how Western historians look at this time in history.

The second one is about tournaments in the medieval ages. I've poked around and found a few books, but I'd like to know more. While I'm specifically looking for books that deal with the tournaments from the 1100s to the late 1300s and the evolution of the tournament to the jousting we all know and see in Hollywood, I will accept books that deal with the 1400s.

How do our various historians and experts feel about the author Robert Kaplan? He tends to write more geopolitical kind of stuff, lots of focus on the military, but he tends to give a fair bit of history as well. I've heard his older stuff on the Balkans isn't hugely accurate history wise, but what about other areas?

Any recommendations for books about fashion history? I’m really interested in the subject but I’ve got no idea where to even start looking.

An odd question, but I’ll be starting my PhD in fall 2019 and my research is over the Dogs for Defense program in WWII. I graduate with my MA in December and I will not begin my PhD until next fall, so I have some reading downtime.

My general knowledge of WWII is lacking (I studied the civil war in undergrad), so do you lovely historians have any recommendations to familiarize myself with the war?