Board index › Topical Discussion › Politics, Philosophy, and Religion

History books

Page 1 of 1 [ 5 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

metaphysics
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jun 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 809
Location: Everywhere

01 Jul 2011, 2:29 pm

Which history book is worth to read, in your opinion?

And Why?

Which historian would you prefer, and why?

What is the essential thing that great history books should have, in your opinion?

Anything else would you like to mention, please.... :P

I like Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. But my list maybe a little bit longer than that.....

In the words of Benedetto Croce, all history is contemporary history.

Would you agree? And why?



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

01 Jul 2011, 2:46 pm

metaphysics wrote:
Which history book is worth to read, in your opinion?

And Why?

Which historian would you prefer, and why?

What is the essential thing that great history books should have, in your opinion?

Anything else would you like to mention, please.... :P

I like Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. But my list maybe a little bit longer than that.....

In the words of Benedetto Croce, all history is contemporary history.

Would you agree? And why?


History of what? There are many different kinds of history books.

ruveyn



metaphysics
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jun 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 809
Location: Everywhere

01 Jul 2011, 2:48 pm

Humanities.. Not sciences...

(Thank God, this forum works now)



Philologos
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2010
Age: 81
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,987

01 Jul 2011, 7:18 pm

Your taste might not match mine. Lots of excellent histories around. But the most well done, most readable I have ever seen is Omer-Cooper's The Zulu Aftermath.

[http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6015609M/The_Zulu_aftermath]



YippySkippy
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2011
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,986

01 Jul 2011, 10:47 pm

If you care to mix a little psychology with your history, "Ordinary Men" makes fascinating (albeit gruesome) reading. It is the story of a group of German policemen during WWII, and their gradual transformation into a killing squad for the Nazis. It is one of my favorite history books not for the specific story told, but for its insights into human nature.