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.
Finished reading Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy, by David Stevenson. It's a lot more dense than most other WW1 books I've read, but it's an excellent book anyway.
It shows how, despite the stalemate in the battlefield for which the War is most known for, at the strategic level there were a lot of developments, as political leaders tried to wring their way out of deadlock.
Towards the last part, the author argues that the Allies lost unity in the aftermath of the war, which made implementation of the Versailles Treaty's terms - which are supposed to be more flexible than how it's usually viewed - difficult, if not impossible. Veterans' woes, proliferation of paramilitary organizations, widespread fear of communism (which right-wing groups exploited), and economic hardships were more directly linked to the Second World War than the Treaty itself.
Currently not reading any history books, but I still have two in my backlog: 1968: The Year that Rocked the World, by Mark Kurlansky; and The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century, by David Reynolds.
Once the lockdown is over, and bookstores here in Manila are open again I'll probably pick up some medieval books, plus something about the Reformation. I was thinking of Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517-1648, by Mark Greengrass, since it's readily available locally, plus I've already read the two succeeding books in that series.
Can anyone recommend a good English language biography of Date Masamune, or anything else relating to the Date clan or the Sendai domain?
Looking for a good translation/version of Plato’s The Republic and Aristotle’s Politics. Any other books like these would also be great. Thanks in advance!
Looking for a book to learn about Non Islamic South Asian Mythology. What's the best booK?