Is it allowed to ask for specific books in this thread? Because I'm looking for the name of a book which I saw in my uni library before it closed due to Corona. I could order it now, but I'm not allowed to enter the library to search for it.

The book is about European trade in India, beginning around 1500. The chapters are divided among countries, beginning with the Portuguese and then later the Dutch and British companies. It is the Portuguese part of which I read some. It doesn't just describe their expansion, but also their attitudes towards India and how they were seen by the Indians. The Portuguese are described as people for whom violence was extremely normal and this is connected to their warfare in North Africa, which I think is talked about in an earlier chapter of the book. It also mentions that the Indians were sometimes surprised about how little fear of death the Portuguese seemed to have, fighting elephants head on etc.

It's neither India and the Indian Ocean 1500-1800, nor Trade and Civilization in the Indian Ocean. As far as I remember it was written by a single author.

Edit: If it is allowed I would like to ping u/terminus-trantor as they seem like a person who might know this book. I'm sorry if I am being too intrusive and demanding, but this book has been on my mind for some time now.

The librarians at my university have done so much in the past year (and especially in the pandemic w/ everything closed) to get more access to ebooks and online research materials— and today they bought an ebook for me!! It was $83 on Kindle and I was dying at the thought of having to either 1) pony up $83 for an ebook or 2) not pony up $83 and just try to revise this dissertation chapter without the big giant piece of context that this book was going to help me fill in. And now I have full text access to it! Amazing!!! Librarians are the best.

Also, would any of you lovely folks have suggestions for some general books/articles on the Malayan Emergency? I’m planning to do a proper search of the literature myself tomorrow, but from my quick glance there seems to be a lot out there. I have a little stash of letters from British women in 1950s Malaya and I’m looking to better contextualize them.

Book I’m Reading: Karl Morrison’s Tradition and Authority in the Western Church, which examines what late antique and medieval Christians in the West meant when they appealed to tradition.

Book I Recommend: Andre Fleche’s The Revolution of 1861, which places the American Civil War in the context of the European age of revolutions.

I'm interested in doing some reading about the various secret police forces that waxed and waned in Ming Dynasty China, particularly the jinyiwei. Does anyone know of any good materials in English?

Does anybody have a good book recommendation for early European contact with Asia? Anything from early Roman/Chinese contact to the Age of Discovery is interesting to me.

Have y'all considered banning book request threads and just keeping a permanent one pinned to the top of the sub, perhaps creating a fresh one every week? There are constantly new requests for book recommendations and nobody ever responds to them. I myself have seen numerous ones that I could answer, but have thought "nah, not worth the effort of making a paragraph long post about why a certain book is valuable.

Looking for recommendations on the colonial period in Mozambique. Or really any recommendations on colonial periods in East/South Africa.

I have already read a lot on Congo, Angola, Nigeria, etc. and are looking to expand my knowledge of the time period across the continent.

I am sure this has been asked before and I am just having trouble finding it so I’ll as here. Would any historians be able to recommend me a book or books that contain an unabridged and non biased view of world history up until recent history?

For perspective, I am an American who went to a small town public school in the Midwest. US history classes in our high schools are notorious for glossing over details and events that would paint to US in too much of a negative light and our history books often leave out the real gritty and dirty bits of history that people may be shocked to learn. This has its exceptions. The holocaust is covered in some respectable detail, for example. I also know there’s a lot I don’t know such as Operation Paperclip. I just learned about that one today.

I know the focus of my post has been on more recent events but I’d still like to learn about more going even further back. As far back as we can reliably go. I feel like I’ve been cheated and have no idea just how rich, shocking, beautiful, and deep our world history actually is.

Hi there! I'm looking for some reading material over the summer and I've become really interested in learning more about siege warfare specifically before and after the introduction of gunpowder.

I'm particularly curious on just how the various components of defensive structures evolved, the one example that hooked me being how latter forts used slanted walls to redirect the force of incoming projectiles, which I believe might have been a direct result of the popularization of cannons(????).

There's a lot for me to learn, so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated!

I'm looking for any and all books on palace kitchens. I am more interested in the social aspects of cooking and dining (hierarchy of kitchen staff, distribution of duties, serving etiquette, etc.) than recipes or cooking techniques.

What are some good books about the Carter administration, written by historians or political scientists with a decent degree of objectivity?

I can't wait!!!

I just found out H.W. Brands, my favorite historic author, is at it again. October 6th he will release his new book, The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom which I'm about to preorder. Having read some of his works I really enjoy his writing style. I use his book The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin so much for citation or research of facts that I've literally split the binding in three places. His Heirs of the Founders on Calhoun, Clay, and Webster is phenomenal. The Reckless Decade about the 1890s is another that I really enjoyed. He additionally wrote about Grant (which I've heard is excellent as well) and several other presidents. I think this one is going to be another fantastically put together weaving of the American story and I am super excited to read it!