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.
Any good books about the history of the early Christian church?
What's a good book to start learning about the French Revolution?
I'd love to read a history of Red Vienna, particularly one that helps me understand broadly the situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before and during the war, and the broader situation of Austria after the war. But particularly about postwar Vienna and how the socialists there got and used power, and navigated "socialism in one city".
I highly recommend Avner Wishnitzer's As Night Falls. It's an amazing and vivid analysis of nighttime in Ottoman cities from Istanbul to Jerusalem from how the populace dealt with the dark, the nightlife in Ottoman cities, to power dynamics after the dark. Wishnitzer's descriptions really brings the Ottoman night to life, and I can't recommend it enough.
I'm looking for recs regarding immediate post-WWII "restoration" period that isn't about politics and getting justice for war crimes. I am not sure how to put it concisely, but any reading that concerns how "ordinary" people lived right after the war e.g. how the cities were rebuilt, where did people sleep if their houses were destroyed, what food was available, how markets worked, how people were looking for their lost friends and relatives, what methods of transportation were available, the state of medical services, how people dealt with the loss of documents, etc.
If there's nothing then I'd take something about restitution of cultural objects post WWII.