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Someone posted a request for good history books. Good question. Here are my recommendations; what are yours (and why)? Maybe I'll get some good reading material out of it.
The 70's: How We Got Here, for Better or for Worse, David Frum. Fundamental changes in late 60's and early 70's in America, in public attitudes toward institutions (we didn't trust them), legal system (the lawsuit explosion), divorce (it became much cooler). Granola, too.
Out of the Ashes. Authors make the case that Hussein stayed in power in '91 because the US worked to be sure he did.
Hitler's Willing Executioners. Goldberg makes the case that the reason the Germans at that time didn't object to the Holocaust was they thought it was a great idea -- and that they weren't afraid to protest things they *didn't* like.
America's Secret War. (Bad title.) An account of diplomacy and war related to Afghanistan and Iraq since 9/11. Not documented well, unfortunately.
1491. An attempt to recreate what the author could of what the Americas were like before Columbus: Peru, Mexico, the Amazon, North America. Estimates that 1 out of 5 people on the whole *planet* died in the new plagues coming to the Americas.
Collapse. Not history, exactly, and some chapters on social collapse (Montana? Really?) seem a bit farfetched. The author does attempt to reconstruct the collapse on Easter Island, Greenland, the Marquesas, and in the Maya Empire.
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Why some nations industrialized at certain times and others didn't.
The Third World War. OK, this was fictional, but it was still interesting. Written around 1979, about a Soviet invasion of West Germany in 1985.
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Weird. I just went to a bookstore and read the back of every single one of the books that were just listed.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Oh, and I'm a big fan of Herodotus and Josephus myself. When I was 9 my mom bought me a big ole worn out 1920 copy of The Histories which I still have. I credit that book with inspiring my love for history. And I have 4 copies of The Complete Works of Josephus. For some reason, once word got out that I loved history, people would randomly buy me The Complete Works of Josephus. Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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For North American history, anything by Stephen Ambrose. I know, I know. But, he really writes well.
Posts: 1167 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I think Stephen Ambrose has some great stories, but the two books I read by him were so mind numbingly boring I wanted to paper cut myself to death with them.
If you like dry, long winded and somewhat boring, check him out.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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