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.
I recently finished two books by John Keegan: The First World War and The Second World War. I know some of Keegan's views are stale or out-dated but I thought both books were good. The one on WWII was significantly better, though: better narrative, better photos, and far better maps than the book on WWI.
I did get the sense that Keegan was somewhat dismissive of the United States' fighting and war-planning capabilities during WWII. His thoughts on France's defeat to Germany were also hyper-critical and shallow. Still, I'd recommend both books to anyone looking for a broad overview on either war.
What do you guys think of the New Books Network podcasts?
Im looking for reading on life in the ohio river valley before Columbus. More specifically if you guys have recommendations that deal with their ancient system of beliefs.
In this brief article on the Akitu festival in ancient Babylonia, it says: "The people were singing all kinds of songs. Three of them can be reconstructed: a frivolous hymn to the goddess of sexuality and love Ištar, a song in which Marduk's father Enlil was ridiculed as a god in the gutter, and an antiphonal hymn in which the gods were asked why they were not in their temples and replied that they had to be with Marduk." Is there any translation of these songs published anywhere? Where could I look? I have been trying to find them for years; in particular the one about the "god in the gutter". I have a couple of books of ANE primary sources but haven't seen these.
Any book recommendations for a general overview of Swiss history and the peculiar political institutions they have evolved.
I’m looking for a history of Singapore, preferably from WW2 to the present. Anyone have a recommendation?
Does anyone have a link to a British newspaper covering the American revolution at the time?
I’m looking for books that discuss Ancient Greece and it’s mythology! I am just getting into the topic so the most explained and easy to comprehend the better
Looking for some good recommendations on the Great Depression (primarily with a US focus). Not as much the crash itself as the reaction/impact to it. The only work I have is Jonathan Alter's "The Defining Moment," and I'd like to pair that with something from a historian's perspective. Suggest as many as you like, but if I'm only going to read one I'm curious which that should be.