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Hello. So I am but if history geek and I want read based on Korean history. Not the Korean War. But the actual Korean history that goes chronologically and talks about all the kings and what they did. Even the scandals and stuff. The events that led to the division of Korea and the current Korea. Doesn’t have to be one book. Something that’s objective and not biased towards western occupations.

Thank you!

Interesting

It can be about both practical and theoretical. Thanks.

I realize that this subreddit has seen no new posts in months, but I'm hoping that enough folks subscribed that someone will hear my plaintive call.

I'm reading The Maze Maker, a work of historical fiction set in ancient Crete. The author attempts to set the story of Daedalus into our actual history, and appears to do an excellent job of representing Cretan civilization.

Can anyone recommend any books on what we know of ancient Crete's civilization, particularly its cultures and beliefs?

First off apologies if solicitations for other groups aren't allowed here.

I'm a recent college grad looking to get some quality discussion of social science texts back in my life. I'm thinking of shooting for 20-30 people, 1 book per month, group nominates and votes on the next book. I'm aiming for a small group (rather than a bigger forum like this) because I'd like it to be a place where we can get to know each other a bit, create something of a community.

I've made a private subreddit for starters, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone knows of a better platform for this kind of thing. Message me if you're interested.

Recently I've become interested in the age of the anglo-saxons of the British isles and I've been looking for some good books on the subject;

After some browsing i've looked at these two books as they seem promising.. this one for a sweeping overview for a good introductory book, and this one for a look at Alfred the Great's life since I'm interested in him as well.

Thoughts or suggestions on these books?

Thanks

Most of the ones I'm finding that have high reviews are from the 1980s or older and only cover up until the 1960s. At one point Malawi was unified with Zambia and Zimbabwe so if you have any books that talk about the whole region feel free to suggest them.

For the month of December, since the choice thread lacked adequate responses, after a few days I have decided to pick these two books.

They're among the most popular history books and thus more likely to be available in libraries, a deciding factor on why I chose them and hopefully most of you can read along with the community given these choices.

Nonetheless, I haven't been as active as I would like to be lately, but hopefully that will be different soon.

As well as that, /u/LockeProposal and I hope to introduce some fun new community activities and or contests to you guys and see what you think.

But back to the point of this post, hopefully these book choices prove to be good picks and I look forward to your feedback, ideas for the subreddit, and some of your favorite books in the month of December and onward into the new year!

Hello and thanks for joining in the selection of books to cover this month in December!

Have a book you've been meaning to read, or interested in?

Feel free to suggest it and we might get to read and experience the book along with you here.

While it is preferable the book is easily accessible by e-book formats or by library for maximum participation, it's certainly not required: feel free to suggest any history book you like.

Welcome to the last official thread for November of our book club covering A Short History of the World.

What did you find interesting about this portion of text?

Was the book an enjoyable read?

Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Since the time is fitting as today is Thanksgiving, what are some of your favorite books on the holiday, or the pilgrims, and native Americans?

Would love to hear some of your favorites!

I'll start off and say this book covers the Civil war period, beginning with John Brown and Harper's Ferry. Though McPherson periodically adds notes throughout the book, it is essentially a compilation of contemporary newspapers, mainly from the New York Times, and demonstrates how the war unfolded and was portrayed to the common citizens at home throughout the war.

I read this book a few months ago, and I'll say, it was very interesting to see the primary news sources from that era. How brave reporters often risked their lives just to get the news out first, and getting to see the war through the eyes of those left behind at home, since that was their main and only source of information.

Overall I thought the book compiled the original sources nicely, blending well with the course of the war and gives a layperson like myself the opportunity to see how those at home saw the war.

If you're interested in the Civil War, I'd definitely recommend this perspective.

GoodReads Link

Welcome all to our second book discussion thread here in the month of November over A Short History of the World.

What do you think of the book so far?

Anything in particular that caught your eye?

Please feel free to share with us here!

Clearly, my cat is a fan.

So earlier this year I read A. B. Bosworth’s Alexander and the East: The Tragedy of Triumph for the second time, and it’s a fantastic book. It moves against the grain, though, in that the author is trying to tell you that Alexander the Great doesn’t deserve credit for all the ‘good’ things that blossomed out of his empire (spread of Hellenism, etc.). In fact, he seems to have a low opinion of the man as a human being, and at the best of times treats him with something like a cautious respect.

I must hand it to him, though, in that it’s very well-sourced and wonderfully written. I enjoyed reading a historical work from “the other side of the fence,” if you will. Often I felt that he was being a bit hard on Alexander’s character, especially when considering the context of the times to which he belonged, but at other times I felt that my eyes had been opened. That I was seeing part of a truth hidden behind thousands of years of biased mythologizing.

Regardless, love Alexander or hate him, this was a great book and I highly recommend it.

Has anyone out there read this one yet? I’d love to hear your take on it! Have you changed the way you look at this august figure?

Hello Everyone,

I’m looking for people from all over the world, from all cultures, countries and everything in between to start up a ambitious project that will be launched on Kickstarter early 2017. When you have interested in History or writing a book for kids, please continue reading.

The concept

The book “Hunters and Gatherers” is the basic book. From this edition any writer, historian or person interested can create his/her own story, about an era of history in their own country and their own language. The Murai concept will act as a baseline/guideline with the already created characters and illustrations. The implementation To begin with every writer makes a translation from the basic book into their own language. This allows the writer to get used to the story line and to have a head start in his/her own country. Each writer creates their own story, and makes an English translation from this (it doesn’t have to be a perfectly ready to publish translation) This translation can be translated by other writers into their own language.

The illustrations The illustrations are one of the most important parts of the concept. The illustrations will be realistic and will contain a lot of detail. Every book will get the same kind of illustrations, preferably by the same illustrator. The platform On the website Murai.eu, all stories will be collected. They can be bought by readers all over the world. Also, the illustrations and other merchandise can be bought on the website. There will also be a forum for readers and writers. A family tree of the characters, background story’s, games, quizzes and top 10 charts. Join the Murai Team We are seeking for cooperation with writers and historians from all over the world. Please share your ideas. Contact us; info@murai.eu

Love this book!

I found this one at the local library and bought it for 50 cents. It really helped me fill in my knowledge of this period, and had a great mix of dramatic, informative, and entertaining elements. One thing I noticed was that the author seemed to have an almost pitiable opinion of Queen Elizabeth I.

It's worth noting, however, that the Queen is only mentioned in her final years, and that the book is much less about her reign and much more about James' reign. It focuses on the back-stabbing politics of the Royal Court, the way that Scottish eccentricities were received in England upon James' succession, and does well to highlight a few very interesting historical figures, most notably Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh was an absolutely fascinating historical figure, and was a pretty good poet to boot.

Has anyone out there read this one? What did you think?

If you haven't, I highly recommend it. Very readable for a modern audience, and definitely a fun and interesting read.

Hi all, and welcome to our first official book club thread, which happens to be A Short History of the World by H.G. Wells.

Since this month was started late, and this is week one of three, I decided to divide the book up into three parts for November, and this week is over pages 1-45.

What do you think of the book so far?

Anything that caught your eye, or you found interesting about the text?

This book absolutely floored me. I've had it for about a year and a half, but it's always one of the books I will first recommend to someone look for something new. This is not a story I was familiar with before, and only picked it up off of Amazon because I saw a photo of Maximilian's executioners in /r/HistoryPorn. I was not expecting this book to be so rich and gripping.

For those of you who don't know, Maximilian was the younger brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, who you may recognize as the reigning monarch of Austria-Hungary at the time that Franz Ferdinand (his nephew) was assassinated, sparking WWI.

Maximilian's story almost starts off as a Disney movie, and you get the feeling that he was just overwhelmingly a good person. As a historical figure, he didn't just grow on me, I admired him - not just for the things he did, but for the way he just was. My first thought when I finished the book for the first time was: "This man was just too good for history to let him live."

Later in life, after marrying the sister of Leopold II of Belgium (who was a bastard, but at least seemed to care deeply for his sister's welfare), he was asked by Napoleon III (nephew of the famous Napoleon I) to become Emperor of Mexico following the daring French Intervention. To his credit, Maximilian said yes, but only if the people wanted him there. And you really get the feeling that this wasn't just posturing - it was real, and this book is full of so much more evidence to support this view of the man.

The rest I'll leave to you, the hopeful reader, and I'm sorry if I've spoiled too much, but I just need to gush about this book. It helped to change the way I look at history. It reminded me that these are human beings, and they are fascinating.

I've found that nobody really knows about Maximilian and his wife, Carlota, and that is incredible to me. This is a true story about an Austrian noble and his Belgian wife, being asked by the French emperor to invade and become emperor of Mexico - while the US was in the middle of the Civil War - and nobody knows about him!

This story is as tragic and inspiring as any I've yet come across in history, and I'm going to say that this book is an absolute must-read. Maximilian quickly became one of my favorite historical figures, and every year I have a drink on the anniversary of his death - someone even invented a cocktail in his honor (and it's delicious).

Also, it's worth pointing out that I got my hands on some contemporary works on the events surrounding this man, and from what I have so far, the author did the story justice, and it seems to follow the events with perfect accuracy (although I'm not a historian, so take that with a grain of salt).

[Here] is the book on Amazon, by the way.

So has anyone out here already read this? Thoughts?

If you didn't know this, libraries sell books all the time! Surprisingly, many of them are donated and don't have that pesky library binding, and they sell them cheap! It's been a great way to satisfy my addiction without the wife getting upset about the credit card. This is just one of my recent finds - I can't wait to have the time to read it all the way through!

LOOK

AT

THIS

BOOK

:D

Currently about half-way through the book, but so far it's kept my interest and is factually rich in my opinion.

Each chapter is written by a different author, as the book works it's way throughout florida's long history.

Any readers out there, or just interested in florida, what do you think of the book?

Link

After the selection thread being up for a few days, it has been decided that the book mentioned above will be our choice of November.

Any formats are just fine to read-a-long with, but the link in the sidebar is to a free download version of the book in Pdf format.

Although weekly official threads will be held about the book, any users are more than welcome, and are encouraged to make new threads on any topic of the book they think is worth mentioning in between.

Hi all, this is the first monthly choice thread for our book read-a-long of November.

Since this is the first one, and the sub is still getting on it's feet, we will not be able to have a full four-week length for discussion in November, but I hope that by next month that will not be the case.

Anyway, to the point, please share some of the books you've been eyeing lately that you'd like to see on the list, and the top three up-voted submissions will be chosen if applicable.

It is preferred that the book is at least 200 pages in length, and available online for free in any formats to maximize our followers this month, but certainly is not required; any books you submit for the reading list, given they are the correct genre, is acceptable.

I'm particularly interested in the American civil war era;

What are some of your areas of interest?

As always, separate threads dedicated to your favorite books are encouraged here as well.

Hello all, and welcome to our brand new subreddit, r/BooksofHistory.

Fully dedicated to the discussion, opinions and suggestions of history books, as well as regular book read-a-longs within our community and more.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to stay. I would love to see this community grow from here.