Kevin's Watch

My Mom sent me the most incredible History book I've ever seen for my birthday in 1997. It's The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun and based on Werner Stien's Kulturfahrplan. It's an amazing cross-reference of everything and anything! Don't leave Rome without it!

:::until I can get him to generate his own user name:::

Paul says:

If you haven't already, check out The Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution, edited by Wilbur Applebaum, published in 2000. While not as comprehensive as the Grun volume, Applebaum goes to great lengths to cite experts in the field and give the latest opinions on the state of research on particular historical questions. It's also a useful introduction to some of the hottest academic debates in the History of Science (Paul's field). Plus "Willie" is a friend of my mentor...

Guns, Germs and Steel.

"Patriots: The Men who Started the American Revolution" by A.J. Langguth

This is my "stuck on an island for a year and could only bring one history book" book.

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"The Encyclopedia of Military History" by Dupuy and Dupuy

Covers pretty much everything with maps and tech analysis of the time.
Took me a while to get used to the writing style and page format.
It's very different!

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"Don't know Much about the Civil War" by Kenneth C. Davis

This one is fun. Don't expect any in depth analysis.
Most Civil War books bore me to death and get bogged down with too much info that only a CW buff would find interesting. Davis is light hearted and cuts to the chase.

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"Benjamin Franklin" by Walter Isaacson

I love B. Franklin! This book is great.


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I also have read a great WWII book a few times, it's massive, in depth But I forget the name and can't find it!

I also love to pick up old history books written before WWI or WWII.
They have a little different feel to them.
More "personality" maybe, not sure how to explain it.

1914-1918 The History of the First World War. This book covers the war in great depth - sometimes too much so. An amazing piece of work.

OOOOoo...

I also just bought a really great one, although the "history" part is a bit squewed. "The Best Alternate History Stories of the Twentyith Century."

It's quite good, a bunch of short stories that, well, the title says it all!

Rubicon, by Tom Holland. Best book dealing with the late republic period. Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, and Cicero are among the many interesting characters from that time. It's the best book on the background of Roman history.

Bernard Lewis's The Muslim Discovery of Europe.

"The Killer Angel" by Michael Shaara.

"Patton" by Martin Blumenson

"We were Soldiers once...and Young" by Hal Moore

I'll think of some others.

I've got to get my hands on Guns, Germs and Steel and Rubicon.

www.amazon.com/Stalin-Court-Simon-Sebag ... 1400042305

Ger just finished reading this a couple of weeks ago and highly recommends it.

I have that book! My brother gave it to me as a christmas present!

I'll echo "Killer Angels", and also any book by his son, I think Christopher Shaara. Also, Stephen Ambrose is good, and Shelby Foote's Civil War Narrative. Rick Atkinson wrote a good book on WWII, I forget the name.

I've seen Guns, Germs and Steel, so its really good huh? I'll have to pick up that one.

History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides. There are many translations of the original text, the first of which was done by Hobbes and might as well be in the original Greek, it's that hard to get a grip on. My favorite version is this one: The Landmark Thucydides : A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Robert Strassler. I remember, when I studied it in college, my professor pointing out a few places where the translation wasn't quite as accurate or illuminating as some of the more classic versions, but I think that is totally overshadowd by the fact that this book has maps. Reading Thucydides is so much easier if you have maps to help you understand what the guy was talking about.

If you have any interest in ancient Greek history, military history or political history, this book is a great resource.

I could surround my self with maps!!!

Danlo Mercator

I love to study maps also.

I'm a map girl ( and globes too)! I have a growing collection.

I recently received Great Batlefields of the World by John MacDonald. It's an illustrated book with computer generated battlefield layouts and representations of the troops and weapons. It goes from 1700 on, but is a pretty cool book if you're into military history.

Some other good ones:

Washington Goes to War by David Brinkley
Down With the Old Canoe by Steven Biehl
Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South by Melton McLaurin

I'm sure that there are ore, but these are the ones that come to mind right now.

Lady Elizabeth Longford: Wellington: The Years of the Sword.

--A

I resound the recommendations for Guns, Germs and Steel. What a fascinating (and Pulitzer Prize winning) book!

I am also partial to *blush* A Short History of Nearly Everything, by (of ALL people! ) Bill Bryson.

I really enjoy John Keegan's WWII and WWI books. They have depth and always have good maps.

Anyone interested in Native American history/prehistory should try "This Land was Theirs" by Oswalt, or "Skull Wars" by David Hurst Thomas a prominent archaeologist with the Museum of Natural History.

I should mention "Collapse" by Diamond. He is an excellent writer but many of his ideas about the collapse or end of societies are have an overtly environmental determinist bent. Fundamentally, archaeologists has gone to great links in working on the collapse of the many of cultures that Diamond mentions and while environmental factors were present they only equal a small part of the whole.

For instance, and this is rather popular with many writers who converse about Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans did not destroy their environment. They certainly deforested the area around Chaco but dozens of other factors were far more important than this idea.