Reading: I'm slowly reading Canning's Languages of Labor and Gender and it's pretty fascinating. I find the case studies in the second chapter a bit uneven - the Krefeld one was much longer than the others, owing to a richer archive - but the conclusion really helped me pull together how each study was related to each other.

Something I find very interesting is how the weavers of Krefeld were able to construct the identity of the weaver as being purely masculine, considering that Canning showed that there had been a large percentage of female weavers until very recently. Clearly, they were able to, but how did they actually justify rather than just assert this to themselves and others? Was women's work devalued even earlier, laying the groundwork for how it could be discounted?

I'm also a bit confused at her use of Handwerk (craft) vs. Hausindustrie (household production). From the way she described it, I assumed that weaving in Krefeld was a Hausindustrie, but she calls weaving a craft throughout, so I am not sure if I have misread her there or if she was introducing a theoretical distinction, but then carried on using the term in its folk sense once the necessity for distinction had ended.

I also find the work to be interestingly transitional. E.g. Canning seems to be dealing with the cultural turn, but social history is still prominent enough that she is engaging with some economic/social historians (Jean Quataert, Maxine Berg). I also note that when I read social history, I tend to read men, so it is actually refreshing to see her more women.

Oh, if there is one issue I have, it is that I know nothing about weaving and I have no idea how silk and velvet weaving differ. The impression I had was that velvet is made from silk, so I assumed it was a subset of silk weaving, not an independent industry.

Recommendation Request: Actually building off that penultimate point, would anyone have any recommendations for social history centred around Germany or Central Europe more broadly written by women?

Anybody know a good read or two on the European 48ers who migrated to America and Mexico after the failed revolution? August Willich is of particular interest to me, but I'm up for anything on the broader movement as well.

Thanks!

What are some of the most up-to-date articles/book sections on the Norse in Greenland and/or the Indigenous populations in premodern Greenland?

I've got a couple, but this is pretty far afield of me and I'm sure I'm missing some.

Hi! I’d love it if anyone could recommend some books on Sri Lankan history, preferably pre-colonial (the brief Tamil rule and Bagan-influenced Buddhist revival for example) or from the times of Portuguese, Dutch and early British interactions with the Kingdom of Kandy. I’d also be thrilled with a general history of the Island.

( I think u/artfulorpheus has made some great answers on topics like this, so maybe they know some books?)

This week I read Thomas Noble's The Republic of St. Peter about the formation of the Papal State. He attempts to rescue the history of the early Papal State from the impression of it being a pawn either of the Roman Emperor in Constantinople or of the Franks, a task at which I'm not sure he's entirely successful, though I did come to appreciate the role the local Italian aristocracy played. I also started Duffy's The Voices of Morebath this week.

I happen to particularly enjoy Anthony Kaldellis's The Byzantine Republic, which tackles the topic of Eastern Roman political culture and how scholars characterize it. For a non-specialist like myself, this book successfully does the hard job of making historiography interesting.

Recommendation Request: Can someone recommend a biography of Henry Clay? I'm open to reading a comprehensive biography or even a book that focuses on a specific period of his life. Similarly, I'm open to reading a book that focuses entirely on the 1824 presidential election. Thank you.

Recommendation Request: What are some of the best introductions to the origins of the alphabet? Where can i really learn my ABCs?

I’m looking for a good history of the colonial conflicts in North America from an indigenous perspective, and indigenous histories of North America in general.

Ideally, it would be something academic, but written as a narrative.

Hi all - After years of jumping around historical periods and topics casually, I really want to focus my reading and personal research. I have a masters degree in art history, so I'm not unfamiliar with research techniques, but I've realized that the methods are quite different. With the help of the askhistorians reading list, I've read "The Historian's Craft" by Bloch, E.H. Carr's "What is History?", "Who Owns Antiquity" by Cuno, and now finishing up ""The Landscape of History" by Gaddis. Do you have any other book recommendations for historiography or research practices? In addition, any favorite journal recommendations? I have access to Jstor and Columbia University libraries but I don't know which are the 'quality' journals for history.

My growing interest is to learn more about pre-modern chroniclers, historians, and diarists, and I would also welcome any readings on the subject generally or a particular person or publication.

Thanks in advance!

Can anyone reccomend a good scholarly book on the Catilinarian Conspiracy? The best I can find are biographies of Cicero that have a section on it, but not much in the way of full studies/breakdowns of the subject.

I'm looking for books on:

1. The Normans, specifically the conquest of Sicily and their activity the east and Byzantine.

2. The Rus and Varangian Guard generally.

Thanks.