I just finished Al Gore's Assault on Reason and have moved onto Ellis' excellent (so far) Founding Brothers.
Seems like appropriate material for Thanksgiving .
My interests primarily lie in the ancient and classical eras, however. I'm hoping to get Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar for Christmas--- anyone here read that one yet? Thumbs up or down?
Damelon...nice avatar. I finally saw Seven Samurai last month, it's amazing how ahead of it's time the cinematography, framing, etc for that movie was.
Holsety... yes, Pernoud's time is spent debunking the title 'Dark Ages' by pointing to different records and developments taking place in France before the 14th century.
I'm now most of the way through 'A Short History of Byzantium' which is basically an abridgement of a three book set on the topic. It's been educational in at least a couple of ways. First, I now have some understanding of how and where the eastern orthodox church came into being, and what portions of theology divided Rome and Constantinople. Second, it's been interesting to see the paradox of having power and pursuing power. As different aspirers to Constantinople's throne come to power by assassination or politics, rather than by heredity or credible association with the throne, they actually win a throne that they themselves have weakened. In effect, you can share power, but as soon as you aim to take it for yourself, you've insured that you will in fact never have that power. Only two usurpers that I've seen have actually acheived their ends, and that was because they were displacing a ruler of little power, and they themselves were invested in making rulership more powerful. Most times though, it's one powerful person taking down another powerful person, to the disadvantage of both persons.
I'm going to be starting 'A Distant Mirror- The Calamitous 14th Century' as soon as I finish a Pratchett book I'm reading to break up the non fiction.
"Humanity indisputably progresses, but neither uniformly nor everywhere"--Regine Pernoud
You work while you can, because who knows how long you can. Even if it's exhausting work for less pay. All it takes is the 'benevolence' of an incompetant politician or bureaucrat to leave you without work to do and no paycheck to collect. --Tjol
I just finished reading Anthony Beever's The Fall of Berlin 1945.
What an absolutely brutal battle on both sides. The ruthless behind the lines terror of the Nazis and the vengeful Soviets when they passed through an area. The surreal life of the inhabitants of the bunker. It's an interesting read.
I've been mulling over getting The Hitler Book, the book prepared by the Soviets for Stalin; written after the war from the accounts of survivors close to Hitler.
"The truth about 27. March" ... Read it a couple of time actually. That book is about how did England push Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the WW2.... Yugoslavia has lost so much in that war and adopted to communism .
Serbian epic poem:
"...Zeman došo, valja vojevati,
Za krst časni krvcu proljevati
Svako svoje sa pokaje stare..."
"...The time has come,
It's time to battle
To spill our blood for The Holy Cross,
To avenge our elders..."
'Thermopylae' by Paul Cartledge. Very good on the actual Greek vs Persian scenario, even better on the way in which this encounter has been used (and possibly abused) by various historical figures.
Just picked up a copy of Skull Wars by David Hurst Thomas. I started it and finally have the chance to read it through. Pair this with the Mismeasure of Man by Gould and you have a fantastic look at how dangerous pseudoscience has been to the world.
"We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and remember:X never, ever, marks the spot."
- Professor Henry Jones Jr.
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."
I have been reading and still am ,Harper,s Pictorial History of the Civil War Contempary accounts and Illustrations from the magazine of the time, its about 850 pages long so its abit intense but I,ve read alot of it section by section plus its full of factual infromation about the amercian civil war.
A lie well told and told often enough,I'm damned if the truth will ever catch up with it!
It's not exactly a history book, though it deals with historical issues. For anyone who makes the mistake of judging the past with their hindsight, I'd recommend reading the essays Eco presents in here.
Other than that, I'm always reading a ton of historical material for my work.
"For the love of God, Montresor!"
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" - Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado.