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.
Asked this last week but I'mma try again.
I recently read and liked Nechama Tec's "Defiance". Is there a good work on Soviet partisans during the Great Patriotic War as a whole that someone could recommend? I want something a bit 'fact and figures' oriented that gives context rather than a work driven by individual narratives.
I posted elsewhere but was suggested to post here as well: I recently returned from Germany and am interested in learning more about the HRE, Prussia, and the German empire. I know it’s a broad topic...It was suggested I read Iron Kingdom which I have added to my list, but, it appears to begin around the year 1600. Is there an overview or deeper dive into the HRE from its inception til 30 years war (preferably beginning with Charlemagne, Otto I is fine)?
Something about the trade and traveling along the silk roads, or economy in general.
I read parts of Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan but this does not really focus on trade or travel. The economy plays only a small role in it and I get the feeling that it might be important. Plus I heard probably unsubstantial rumours that he is inaccurate or misleading - I asked people about that because a Guardian article claimed that but didn't back it up, which since then has thrown me into skepticism about his book.
I already ordered The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia (Frances Wood) but it did not yet arrive. So any suggested readings are welcome.
Tea is another topic I had trouble finding good literature about. Almost all the books I looked into were reproducing legends that I saw debunked in other sources, specifically in *Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History (*James A. Benn). This one was actually informative but it was really specific(about rituals and poetry in the Tang and Song period) and sometimes a bit too scholarly for my taste.
Other books focus on cultural-studyish "analysis" of consumer mentality, including legends, e.g. that Tea has been invented by Shennong (a mythical figure of China) and social-constructivist thought that has nothing to do with the topic. Or they are advertisements in disguise. It's really not easy to dig through all the garbage.
Been looking for some reference material on the Russo-Japanese war. I've been having some thoughts about comparisons - in particular in railway usage - with developments during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war, but don't really have much useful material.
I would love a book or pile of books on Medieval engineering. Hopefully 1000-1500ad.
And I want it to cover everything; shipbuilding, canal digging, river dredging, port building, castles, wagons, massive granaries. Everything.
Edit: Woah, why remove the book recommendation I asked for?
Posted this before, but didn't get any responses so thought I'd ask again. I've only ever been exposed to more or less the "standard" narrative of WWII, and I'm looking to get more in depth about it. I recently finished reading both Keegan's "The Cold War" and Leffler's "For the Soul of Mankind" and thought they offered a nice contrast in their interpretation of events of the Cold War. Given that there's been so much written about WWII, I'm sort of lost and wondering where to start looking for something similar. Any recommendations for similar books/pairs of books that would fit that same area--not extremely detailed, but good overviews with clear theses, preferably fairly different? Or even a collection of essays with a range of historiography (I think I'm using that word correctly) would be awesome. I'm thinking about Keegan's "The Second World War" and maybe something by AJP Taylor? But that's only based on my very limited knowledge, so insights, advice, or other recommendations would be super helpful. Thanks so much!
The book The Pity of It All by Amos Elon has been on my reading list for quite some time now, ever since I heard Malcolm Gladwell recommend it. I read a sample of it and it was very interesting, but sort of in the way that fictional stories are interesting. I was wondering if the book is historically accurate, and if it is, how in-depth does it cover the experience of German Jews pre-Nazi Germany?