I have no idea if this fulfills your criteria and/or is any good, but I bumped into it while looking into the Oxford History of the United States title with a very similar name that I mention several posts above this one. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/America-Empire-Liberty-History-United/dp/046501500X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278910216&sr=8-2"]Amazon.com: America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States (9780465015009): David Reynolds: Books[/ame]
Not apartheid-related but interesting: http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/other_pub.html http://www.history.army.mil/ http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/welcome.html Apartheid-related Africa: http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/text/constitution/history.html http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=./ancdocs/history/index.html&Historical+Documents http://anc-scum.blogspot.com/2008/04/anc-declares-war.html US Apartheid related: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/slavery.asp
Not apartheid-related but interesting: http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/other_pub.html http://www.history.army.mil/ http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/welcome.html Apartheid-related Africa: http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/text/constitution/history.html http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=./ancdocs/history/index.html&Historical+Documents http://anc-scum.blogspot.com/2008/04/anc-declares-war.html US Apartheid related: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/slavery.asp
many great recommendations. For Latin America Revolutions (from Spain) I recommend: Americanos: Latin America's Struggle for Independence by John Charles Chasteen. short book, only 200 pages, but covers the whole struggle (not much Caribbean) of Latin America (includes Brazil) in context of what was going on in Spain with the Napoleonic wars.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Kingmakers-Invention-Modern-Middle-East/dp/0393337707/ref=reader_auth_dp#_"]Amazon.com: Kingmakers: The Invention of the Modern Middle East (9780393337709): Shareen Blair Brysac, Karl E. Meyer: Books[/ame] - Brysac and Meyer Not a conventional history, but one of minibiographies of some of the key players. Sometimes you have to read two or three biographies to figure out exactly what happened, but an enjoyable read. They have some criticisms/suggestions for the US at the end of the book, but, really, it is hard to develop a logical strategy for that part of the world as long as the oil is present. Once it's gone, however, no one will care about it anymore.
Cool, I'm going to grab a copy of this. I've got their earlier book Tournament of Shadows, which was quite good. This one sounds a lot like John Keay's Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East, which begins with some fun stories about Bell, Lawrence, and Hogarth and the Arab Bureau. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Sowing-Wind-Keay-John/dp/0393335089/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4"]Amazon.com: Sowing The Wind (9780393335088): Keay John: Books[/ame]
Read these last week: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Plain-Honest-Men-American-Constitution/dp/0812976843/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296225759&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution (9780812976847): Richard Beeman: Books[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-1812-American-Citizens/dp/1400042658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296225692&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies (9781400042654): Alan Taylor: Books[/ame] Both excellent reads. "Plain Honest Men" should be required reading for anyone who treats the Constitution as a holy text which we mere mortals are only fit to slavishly follow without question. The book understands what a monumental and lasting achievement the Constitution is, but more crucially the author "gets" why that is so, and shows how it came to be. The long battles and seemingly endless compromises to craft the finished product are the context that too many Americans are unaware of. This is a nice, updated telling of a story that's been told before but still needs to get through to a lot more of our fellow citizens. "The Civil War of 1812" is a history of the War of 1812 on the border area between Canada and the USA. It's a study of how fluid and undefined the "border" was--not just the physical boundary between the young Republic and the British holdings in North America, but also between the citizens of that young country and the subjects of the British Crown living in Canada. In Taylor's telling, the war settled some issues once and for all--after it was over, the border was much more clearly defined culturally and politically as well as physically--national identities were stronger, and even as Americans now felt more "American" Canadians also had a stronger identity and a stronger attachment to faraway London. The local concerns and economic interests which had previously dominated the region and dictated the fluid nature of "national" identity were now trumped by identification with a larger community, the USA and the British Empire. I'm not really doing either book justice but they both were excellent reads.
Fictional history, but Neal Stephson's Baroque Cycle is an excellent read. His writing style is really unique. This is easily the best of the books (its a series) I've read from him: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0060833165/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link"][/ame][ame="http://www.amazon.com/Quicksilver-Baroque-Cycle-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0060833165/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_5"][/ame]
Both of these histories deal with the African Front in World War I, where the capture of German colonies was the main objective. Farwell's book covers the who conflict in Africa in general devoting time to the campaigns in all the colonies and the Maritz Rebellion in South Africa. Paice covers main the East African campaign, where German forces were not really brought to defeat until the actual war came to an end. It was why there was much respect for the German colonial forces as they were never defeated by military means.
Has anyone ever read Francis Parkman? Im considering the 7 years war book Montcalm and Wolfe. Recommendations or otherwise? The cover is certainly riveting. Ive heard you cant tell a book by it though.
If I remember right, it's a really old book that was based too much on secondary sources. So it's more interesting to read as sort of history as it was written way back when than a, I want to know what happened sort of book. It also takes some liberties with the truth, which is not that uncommon for 19th century writers, as he tends to try to dramatize events for the sake of the reader rather than the truth. It is considered, unfortunately some might argue, a seminal book in Canadian history, so yeah, why not take a read?
The Jew in the Modern World. A great primary source text tracing the evolution of antisemitism in Europe. For those not into true historical books, but rather the "names, dates, quick facts" type of history, I recommend Schaum's Outline of Modern European History For the more philosophical approach, The History of Madness by Foucault is great. Its his first major work, and you really can see where his thoughts on power originated. A good history/philosophy combination, throwing in come critical theory for good measure. Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities. This is the true seminal work about nationalism, and a really great read.
Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom is a good work. Obviously appartheid through his point of view, yet a fascinating read.
The Gun is a history of machine guns with a focus on the AK47. I am putting it here in particular because of the chapter on the development of the M16, which provides a valuable perspective on Vietnam that I hadn't seen before.
I recommend this one to you lads: 48 Liberal Lies About American History (That you probably learned in school) by Professor Larry Schweikart
I alway knew that we did not own any slaves and never killed any Native Americans. all left wing lies!
Here's is one No.1 New York Times Bestseller I can't recommend highly enough: Liberal Fascism - The Secret History of the Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning By Jonah Goldberg It's chock full of cracking stuff - chapters on: Everything You Know About Fascism Is Wrong Adolf Hitler - Man of the Left Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of Liberal Fascism Franklin Roosevelt's Fascist New Deal The 1960s: Fascism Takes to the Streets From Kennedey's Myth to Johnson's Dream: Liberal Fascism and the Cult of the State Truly a Blockbuster worthy of the term. 5 stars - The Guardian
The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson In combination with At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America it provides a comprehensive history of race relations in the United States from the end of Reconstruction to the present day.
I just finished a book about the Donner party. I kept misreading the word "delirious" as "delicious." So I didn't like it that much. Also, I didn't want this thread falling off the front page.