History Book Recommendations

Discussion in 'History' started by KevTheGooner, Sep 29, 2005.

  1. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    More or less, although for me it's the details which are intersesting. I think everybody knows that the French weren't being altruistic, and that the British soon decided that writing off New England might be the best way to hold on to the rest of their New World empire. It's not like Ferling has discovered some shocking facts which completely rewrite the history of the war. But by framing the war within its global context, he helps the reader comprehend how the Americans, from about 1779/1780 on, were justifiably worried that their cause would be swallowed up and superceded by a larger struggle between several European powers.

    The problem with ANY history is that the story often has an air of inevitability. Ferling really illustrates how tenuous the success--even the survival--of the Revolution was during those middle years.
     
  2. Bluto11

    Bluto11 The sky is falling!

    May 16, 2003
    Chicago, IL
    about 100 pages from the end. Good read and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a good overview of America's foriegn policy towards the Middle East
     
  3. DoyleG

    DoyleG Member+

    CanPL
    Canada
    Jan 11, 2002
    YEG-->YYJ-->YWG-->YYB
    Club:
    FC Edmonton
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    The Great War in Africa by Byron Farwell. It deals with the Great War and the campaigns that took place on the African continent.

    - Discusses how haphazard many of the campaigns really were on the continent.
    - How close South Africa came to anarchy.
    - How one German general made a name for himself, even though his military operations had little effect on the war itself.
    - The consequences for Africa were far reaching.
     
  4. Bluto11

    Bluto11 The sky is falling!

    May 16, 2003
    Chicago, IL
    finished up. I think it kinda falls off the rails when talking about the Foundation of the State of Israel to present times. The Coup in Iran in '54 gets like a page and then the Overthrow of the Shah is like 2 pages. It seems a bit rushed.
     
  5. yossarian

    yossarian Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 16, 1999
    Big City Blinking
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sort of like the last two weeks of a typical 11th grade history class?

    :p
     
  6. Bluto11

    Bluto11 The sky is falling!

    May 16, 2003
    Chicago, IL
    that would be the perfect way to describe it. My Modern Germany class in college was like that. Two weeks on eveything up to 1930 and only one week on Germany post-war.
     
  7. yossarian

    yossarian Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 16, 1999
    Big City Blinking
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    IIRC, there was even a Doonesbury cartoon on this phenomena....probably as long ago as when I was in high school....commenting that everything after WWII gets covered in the last week of the semester.
     
  8. GunnerJacket

    GunnerJacket Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 18, 2003
    Gainesville, GA
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Remember the general time frame or characters? I've got most every Doonesbury book and could look it up.
     
  9. yossarian

    yossarian Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 16, 1999
    Big City Blinking
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm thinking it was (oh geez, you're making me show my age) circa 1987. I can't recall which character. I know most of the main characters but I think this one was specifically a teacher.

    Another funny bit involving him, assuming I'm recalling correctly, is where he's lecturing and the class is just mindlessly taking notes so he starts asking if they're actually listening to what he's saying. When he gets no response to that he starts spouting things like "Jefferson was the anti-christ" just to see if the students will write it down.
     
  10. DoctorD

    DoctorD Member+

    Sep 29, 2002
    MidAtlantic
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I got Ellis' preceding book Founding Brothers for XMas. Also highly recommended.
     
  11. allegrabene

    allegrabene New Member

    Jul 11, 2009
    Alexandria, Va
    Club:
    Celtic FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    talks, in great detail, about what Jefferson was up to after the white house and explains the roots of his financial woes
     
  12. allegrabene

    allegrabene New Member

    Jul 11, 2009
    Alexandria, Va
    Club:
    Celtic FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    talks about the influential people, thoughts and ideas that lead us to the creation of the constitution


    [​IMG]

    Chief Justice Warren Burger has labeled this the best book written about the Constitutional Convention and the struggles and challenges they faced
     
  13. Revolt

    Revolt Member+

    Jun 16, 1999
    Davis, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    [​IMG]

    Highly recommend this book. I will admit that I wasn't all that familiar with this era of Ameriican history; I was astounded how much more intense institutional racism was during this time. For example, there was a gag rule for a while that prohibited congress from even discussing the abolition of slavery.

    America, The Story of Us borrows freely.
     
  14. bigredfutbol

    bigredfutbol Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 5, 2000
    Woodbridge, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    That's a great book! I loved it.
     
  15. THE HUN

    THE HUN New Member

    Jan 9, 2010
    Club:
    VfB Stuttgart
  16. Alex_K

    Alex_K Member+

    Mar 23, 2002
    Braunschweig, Germany
    Club:
    Eintracht Braunschweig
    Nat'l Team:
    Bhutan
  17. DoyleG

    DoyleG Member+

    CanPL
    Canada
    Jan 11, 2002
    YEG-->YYJ-->YWG-->YYB
    Club:
    FC Edmonton
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Fitting for a neo-Nazi like yourself.
     
  18. THE HUN

    THE HUN New Member

    Jan 9, 2010
    Club:
    VfB Stuttgart
    What a luck for you only to be able to think in two categories. One of them is "NeoNazi" the nother one is too complicated for you to understand. Just say what you are told to say. And tell your children to say what you were told to say. Don't care about facts, they confuse you.
     
  19. THE HUN

    THE HUN New Member

    Jan 9, 2010
    Club:
    VfB Stuttgart
    I can give you a serious reply too: I am working as an editor of some of the highest ranked scientific journals. "Editor" means nothing but: I very often request from the authors of a submitted paper to resubmit a revision. The process of revision is an integral and non-disputable part of the process leading to valid scientific assumptions and conclusions. I've seen papers undergoing 5 consecutive revision stages, each time 3 editors being involved. Authors can refuse requests from the editors, but must submit a clear and conclusive statement, why they think some parts of their papers do not need to be revised before being published.

    ANY discipline not having those standards has no right to be a "scientific" society. Non-revised publications are scientific trash and not worth the paper on which they are printed. Published without revision those conclusions have not the lightest scientific value, which does not say that they could not be a good novel or a script for a Hollywood movie. To our all great luck no scientific community, with one notably exception, is existing in those shameful circumstances. That soiciety's members can be recognized when they insult revisors.

    For more informations find: http://ori.dhhs.gov/

    Don't go immediately into your mind reduction mode, you might confuse the URL with ww.ihr.org.
    If you feel better stupidly digesting the propaganda which is placed were you must see it: don't look further, ignore the link.
    And keep on calling me "NeoNazi" if that is important for you. I can live with that.

    Look before you insult.
     
  20. nicephoras

    nicephoras A very stable genius

    Fucklechester Rangers
    Jul 22, 2001
    Eastern Seaboard of Yo! Semite
    The IHR's journal (before it was shut down) was not peer reviewed. But thanks for playing!
     
  21. THE HUN

    THE HUN New Member

    Jan 9, 2010
    Club:
    VfB Stuttgart
    [​IMG]
    I hope you don't spend too much time on that intellectual subzero level. That author with his infantile and apalling stupid comparisons seem to believe that in this way any kiond of science can be counter attacked. That is beyond any need for discussions. Not even funny, just ridiculous.

    From a "revisonist's" view I have a simple question:

    Look at the picture whcich is attached. Very famous, I had in in my school books too. Nevertheless I was a little shocked when I saw it in this incredible high resolution, which is possible today.
    HiRes is at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Stroop_Report_-_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising_06b.jpg



    Question: The man, with the gun, why does he hold a British STEN Mark II submachine gun in his hands, wears a Polish Army helmet on his head and a uniform of unknown origin whereas The two guys behind him seem not to be aware of the fact that German army helmets had the companie's assignement displayed on both sides of the helmet, although sometimes being a ittle worn off. Brand new helmets surely had visible signs on them if being army helmets (firefighters used the same type in 10 different European countries during that time). Isn't that worth a question?
    That question does not "deny" or dispute any reality, doies it?. At least not mine..
    [​IMG]
     
  22. THE HUN

    THE HUN New Member

    Jan 9, 2010
    Club:
    VfB Stuttgart
    The IHR's journal (before it was shut down) was not peer reviewed...

    Of course not, it was the reviewer himself who wrote it. Try another trick.
     
  23. schrutebuck

    schrutebuck Member+

    Jul 26, 2007
    Yep this is an excellent book. This and Battle Cry of Freedom are the best of the Oxford History of the United States, although The Glorious Cause is also very good.

    Logically, one of the next targets on my list is Empire of Liberty, which was published last year and covers the 1789-1815 period.
     
  24. hexagone

    hexagone Member

    Jul 23, 2006
    Brussels
    Can someone recommend a general history of the US?

    I loved Zinn's Popular History but I'm looking for something more comprehensive, something that would make me feel like I've my basics covered: at this point, I still feel like there's huge holes in my knowledge and understanding of US history. Ideally, a length of about 400 or 600 pages would be great but don't let that stop you from recommending something longer or shorter that would meet my needs.
     
  25. DoyleG

    DoyleG Member+

    CanPL
    Canada
    Jan 11, 2002
    YEG-->YYJ-->YWG-->YYB
    Club:
    FC Edmonton
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    [​IMG]

    This book gives an insight into how Britain went from defending its empire to dismantling it before the war itself was over. It also discusses how American interests wanted to see the British empire dismantled in order to fulfill many of the ideas proposed by American leaders at the time.
     

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