Book recommendation/request thread

[ray245]

Does anyone has any good recommendations for the history of the Sassanid Empire?

[Thanas]

I'd suggest any work by Josef Wiesehöfer, Henning Börm and Engelbert Winter. The last one especially if you are interested in the interplay between Rome and Persia, but I really do not know whether it has been translated yet into English.

[TC Pilot]

The last one especially if you are interested in the interplay between Rome and Persia, but I really do not know whether it has been translated yet into English.

Is it by any chance Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity: Neighbours and Rivals? If I'm reading it correctly, the German title would have been Rom und das Perserreich: Zwei Weltmachte zwischen Konfrontation und Koexistenz ?

[Thanas]

Yes, thank you. That's it.

For those more militarically inclined, it also has an excellent map of the strata diocletiana.

[Kyler]

"Famous Russian Aircraft: Mikoyan MiG-21" by Yefim Gordon & Keith Dexter

If you are aviation history buff like me, than this book must be added to your collection. The MiG-21 may not be the fanciest or coolest jet around, but it's sheer numbers make it one of the most important combat aircraft of the last 60 years. This book has to be the definitive book on everything or anything that is the MiG-21. Yefim Gordon & Keith Dexter do an outstanding job of researching the entire history of this famous aircraft. The book covers the early development during the Cold War as a swept wing aircraft too the most modern updates and modernizations being flown today by countries like India, Pakistan, & Romania. Also included is all the Chinese copies and modified versions of the Fishbed. The Only draw back of such a large book, the history of the operational use of the MiG-21 is short since only a massive multi-volume set could cover all the operational history of the aircraft. The technical information, production numbers, and pictures provided throughout the book are top notch. At 720 pages long, the books also makes a handy nut cracker or possible murder weapon.



Personally I recommend if you are at all interested in Russian or Soviet aviation history please pickup any of Yefim Gordon's books. He has written extensively about nearly every combat aircraft flown in Russian for the last 60 years. His books come in a wide variety of types including picture books for aviation modelers, short detailed aircraft type histories, design bureaus histories, to the massive books like the one reviewed above. Also since he has being living in Moscow for over 30 years he has had time and access to information that until the past few years Western aviation writers could only dream about.

[Setzer]

I'm looking for books about the life of average citizens during various dictatorships. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Idi Amin, anything detailing 20th and 21st century dictators. I want to learn as much as possible about what it was like to live during those times. I know Hitler and Stalin have been examined quite a lot, but there are others that I have less information on.

[K. A. Pital]

I'm looking for books about the life of average citizens during various dictatorships. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Idi Amin, anything detailing 20th and 21st century dictators. I want to learn as much as possible about what it was like to live during those times. I know Hitler and Stalin have been examined quite a lot, but there are others that I have less information on.

Hmm. Thanas should be able to fill you in on the Third Reich. As for Stalin, there were a few good books I've mentioned in the Soviet industrialization thread. Namely Stephen Kotkin: Magnetic Mountain, Stalinism as a Civilization and John Scott, Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel. Robert C. Allen. Farm to Factory: A Reinterpretation of the Soviet Industrial Revolution (2003) is more of a general overview, but it has some relevant statistics from which you could guess some stuff about how the life standard changed in the late 1930s (like simple stuff - i.e. worse clothes for people, but more bicycles, etc.). I'll look into what's been translated from Russian into English and give you a few good books, including, of course, those by dissident writers, to make the picture complete.

[spaceviking]

I would recommend "Good Times, Bad Times: Memories of the Third Reich" (article). Also I would recommend the Racial State: Germany 1933-1945, it may be somewhat more broad then you want and the authors thesis is questionable, but it does contain a plethora of documents of first hand accounts of the third Reich.

[TC Pilot]

Anyone know of any good surveys of the early-to-mid 18th Century Europe? Specifically the period's military/diplomatic aspects? It's one of the periods of history I've largely neglected in my time, and I'd prefer not having to go through it piecemeal in, say, biographies of Marlborough, Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Peter the Great, etc.

[Thiel]

Can anyone recommend me a good book or books on the technical development of the destroyer?
So far I've read Destroyers : An Illustrated History of
their Impact by Eric W. Osborne and it wasn't really what I was looking for. In fact I think it was a rather bad book.
The entire books has the smell of unrestricted Jeune Ecole about it

[erik_t]

As usual, I point to St. Norman. While US Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History is obviously US-centric, it covers in considerable detail many issues that were common to all navies. Modern Warship: Design and Development, as I recall, takes the Western European postwar frigate as a sort of a test case for many problems.

[Thiel]

As usual, I point to St. Norman. While US Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History is obviously US-centric, it covers in considerable detail many issues that were common to all navies. Modern Warship: Design and Development, as I recall, takes the Western European postwar frigate as a sort of a test case for many problems.

Thanks to Interlibrary loans and the Navy Library, both of those books are now under way.

[Samuel]

I'm looking for books about the life of average citizens during various dictatorships. Hitler, Stalin, Saddam, Idi Amin, anything detailing 20th and 21st century dictators. I want to learn as much as possible about what it was like to live during those times. I know Hitler and Stalin have been examined quite a lot, but there are others that I have less information on.

Gulag Boss might be interesting- it is the memoir of a NKVD employee who worked on one of the labor camps from 41 to 45. It really manages to convey the insanity of the system.

[Big Orange]

A Seaman's Pocket-Book (John Davies) - Not so much a history book, but a historical document that was collated in 1943 for use amongst green sailors in the Royal Navy and Merchant Marine in the build up to D-Day. It has a good overview on maritime stuff such as the arrangement of navigation lights on vessels, all the primary Royal Navy communication flags and standards, and a whole subsection concerning morse code and semaphore communications, etc. There is a full explanation of all the primary nautical terms such as "avast" (which means stop), how tobacco is strictly rationed onboard or shore leave, and what splicing actually is outside of BioShock (which is tying tow ropes together with their strands). All in all a good overview on what the institutional/operational workings of the Royal Navy were like during WWII and before.

[Coyote]

William L. Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" is good.

In a different venue of history, I'd also recommend Albert Hourani's "History of the Arab People".

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Can anyone please recommend me a good history book (or books if one can't cover it well) on the history of warfare and tactics? I'm mostly interested in the ancient world, both in Mesopotamia and China, as well as the development of warfare under the Greeks, Hellenes and Romans. I guess I'm also curious about the tactics and equipment used during the middle ages and even Napoleonic times, too. This is starting to seem like too big of a subject to fit into one book, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would like to know about the tactics, training, maneuvers, gear and even the arm movements used by soldiers in ancient armies. Also, books on sword fighting techniques and such would be enjoyable for me to read, although I probably need to limit myself to introductory-level texts since I'm not a historian...at all.

[TC Pilot]

Has anyone read Jonathan Israel's The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806? I was thinking of acquiring it, but would like to know what I'd be getting myself into before committing to a 1100+ page tome.

Along that line, I'll repeat my request from a few months ago for any recommendations for a good survey of the early modern period in Europe, ideally the political/military/diplomatic events of the post-Westphalian/Age of Louis XIV timeframe?

And to top it all off, any recommendations for a good survey of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars? The only thing I could find that comes close to the mark is War of Wars by Robert Harvey, which from my limited checking so far seems to be a rather unscholarly pop history work.

[Big Orange]

Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present (PG Maxwell-Stuart) - This is a good introductory book that gives you a coherent overview and complete timeline of the Roman Catholic Church from its distant, practically mythic inception during the rule of Emperor Tiberius, up to John Paul II at the at very start of this millennia. The book chronicles how the Roman Church faced challenges from the long decline of the Roman Empire up to the Industrial Revolution. Maxwell-Stuart is an apologist of the Roman Catholic Church to a certain extent, but he also highlights how the Roman Catholic Church alienated modern sensibilties through inflamatory documents such as Humane vitae. A solid read.

[Ahriman238]

Any good sources on the Thirty Years War? It's something I've been meaning to look into for some time. I'm particularly interested in anything with a clear timeline.

[Thanas]

Just read Grimmelshausen.

[TC Pilot]

Any good sources on the Thirty Years War? It's something I've been meaning to look into for some time. I'm particularly interested in anything with a clear timeline.

If you mean historical surveys, C.V. Wedgewood's Thirty Years War is about as good a narrative as you'll hope to find. But if you're looking for something modern, you might want to try Peter Wilson's Europe's Tragedy. It covers the whole war, and touches on social, religious, and even legalistic factors (with perhaps too much attention paid to the mind-bogglingly obtuse structure of the HRE), as well as the traditional diplomacy, politics, and military campaigning. While it can be ponderous, often strikes a very contrarian tone, and often describes the course of the war with little context (i.e., Tilly marches here, bashes down a Protestant army, marches there, rinse and repeat for 15 years. No comment), it does generally stay chronological, and I found it a worthwhile read.

But if you're just looking for a quick, bare-bones survey of the war, try Osprey Publishing's "Essential Histories" on the war, written by Richard Bonney. It's only about 100 pages, with quite a few maps and pictures to give a sense of geography and the look of the era.


Moving away to a recommendation of my own, I recently managed to get a copy of an old work called The Founding of the Roman Empire, written by a one Frank Burr Marsh in 1922, moving from the end of the Punic Wars until the rise of Augustus. I acquired it from a company that takes old and rare books, using a machine to digitally scan and recopy them (with the unfortunate side-effect of messed up formatting, particularly with footnotes). Anyway, it was the first book I ever read in college, so maybe it's just nostalgia, but I thought it was wonderfully well-written in the effluent, self-assurant style that seems prominent in early to mid-20th Century historians.

That said, does anyone happen to know of a good history of Rome? I'm thinking of something along the lines of Gibbon... only modern.

[Thanas]

^Karl Christ, AHM Jones, Werner Eck and Alexander Demandt are all good names.

[Big Orange]

Roman Britain: A New History (Guy De La Bedoyere) - This part historical, part archaeological book on Roman Britain from 55 BC (Caesar's kinda half-assed foray to the Thames) to 449 AD (permanently isolated Roman Britain breaking down and facing Saxon invasion), with details on how the patchwork of Celtic tribes and towns were already heavily influenced by the Romans through trade, long before soldiers officially arrived. And much of the book concerns how Romans established themselves on the backwater of Europe through a mixture of economic/political bribery and direct miltary force directed at regional chieftains, followed by permanent garrisoning and the development of Roman urban sprawls, and how Britain had significant bouts of autonomy in the 3rd/4th centuries AD when the Roman Empire went into relative decline (becoming part of the separatist Gallic Empire in 259 AD). Then out of archaeological and historical evidence the key locations of Roman Britain (the Hadrian/Antonine military frontier and other military facilities, villas and towns, etc) are described in detail, with present day photos and illustrated reconstructions of the Roman structures. Published by Thames and Hudson.

[RazorOutlaw]

I've been thinking about asking for a book recommendation for a while and I figured I might as well put this out on the table, so to speak, even if I won't be able to get the books anytime soon.

Ever since playing Assassin's Creed 2 I became interested in the setting. I figured the game couldn't get everything right but because I didn't know any better I was able to be fully immersed. Still, I couldn't help but wonder - did the guards/soldiers really dress that way during that era? Did heralds really cry out in the streets as depicted in the game? I don't think my college library even had a book on life in general in Italy at that time, just books on their art and one or two on their navy.

So what I'm looking for 1) a book that describes life during the Italian city states 1400-15xx and/or 2) a book that describes the army composition, equipment, etc. during that same period.

[Haruko]

Hi.

I am looking for a decent one-volume history of Poland. Is there such a book?