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:
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.
so i always want to read history. but i am cheap. are there good histories in the public domain? for example, The Age of Justinian and Theodora by William Gordon Holmes was just released on Gutenberg. is it worth reading? will the facts be still right? has a lot gone on uncovering more about the sixth century?
i have also looked at older award winning books in the public domain. are they still worthwhile? like books that won the Justin Winsor Prize. e.g., The Whig Party in the South by Arthur Charles Cole
I'd like to read something about the Normans' conquests in Southern Italy and the birth of the Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II.
I'm Sicilian and this part of history is kind of (understandably so) romanticised over here. I know a decent amount of stuff on the matter, but it all comes from general culture, a couple of documentaries and high school history books.
Is "The Kingdom in the Sun" by John Julius Norwich a good start? Are there any other books I should look for?
Are there any good books that deal with the history of Christianity in Korea and it's status today? Preferably one that has been translated to Portuguese.
Looking for an accessible book on the Dutch golden age and specifically what made commercial endeavors in the Dutch republic so successful in comparison with their much larger neighbors.
Looking for books regarding the disintegration of social structures in Africa during the period of Trans-Atlantic Slavery. Like what communities where there, what were they like, how the Globalization of the Slave trade during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade affected those communities and how that impacted African history in the lead up to European Imperialism of the continent in the 19th century.
Anyone know of a good book to read about rebuilding of South Korea after the Korean War? I am currently reading Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting and it has been fascinating seeing how big of a role the criminal underworld played. It has been interesting seeing how many of the members of this world were actually Korean, and it made me wonder if the underworld also played a role in South Korea after the Korean War. Any suggestions would be awesome!