What would you guys recommend as essential books on history?

>>1062594
read zizek

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>>1062594

Blood, Goats, and Children: A history of modern pornography is a must read, as is pic related.

>>1062594
this thread started off quite shit. but anyway, OP, i think history is such a diffuse subject that it's hard to identify essential works. I think the your best bet is to focus on a particular area or period and work from general works on those subjects to more specialized ones

>>1062701
That's sort of what I figured, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway.

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A big tome, but a great book.

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>>1062724

>>1062611
Don't read Zizek

The Story of Civilization - Will and Ariel Durant
The Histories - Herodotus

Come back once you've read those.

Anyone interested in Late Antiquity or Early Medieval Period should read Edward Gibbon. Though always remember that his scholarship is outdated.

Still a major work.

>>1062715
well if you give us topics you're interested in we can help

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>>1062594

Pic related for military stuff

Thomas Kahn,Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Salt:A history

All of Edward Rutherfords books but
Paris and New York.

>>1063125
Well I'm not really sure. I'm interested in European history primarily, which is very broad. I'm interested in the crusades and of course the roman empire and early American history. I'm not really sure where to go from there.

>>1063170
in that case, check out these annotated bibliographies. there's dozens of articles pasted here, including ones on subjects you're interested in:
Crusades
http://pastebin.com/7h8fASgv
Late Antiquity (aka late roman empire)
http://pastebin.com/vBP1U1rg
roman empire
http://pastebin.com/ibgv0LH6
political thought of the american founders
http://pastebin.com/uWy56vWT
american war of independence
http://pastebin.com/6Kr4duAn

if you want I can post pics of bibliographies on republican rome and the american revolution (different article from revolutionary war)

as for european history, there is no single article that deals with it all, but you can patch together a good reading list by browsing the rest of the articles here:
http://pastebin.com/u/jonstond2/1

>>1063284
Nice. Thank you.

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Idk how well /his/ likes a Peoples history, but I was forced to read it in one of my AP classes last year and I found it really interesting in some chapters.

Zinn takes a bit of a liberal standpoint on most things, but all in all it offers a different perspective on US history that I enjoyed disecting

Jared diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel

>>1062594
EP Thompson's Making

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I recommend this god-tier book if you want to learn about greek (and a little nordic) mythology, an easy read and highly interesting.

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Pic related is about 450 pages and really cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had about Russian history, as most books tend to just individually cover: Ivan the Terrible, the troubles (between Rurik and Romanov dynasties), Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I (Napoleonic wars), the reformation age, Tsar Nicholas II, Russian revolution and Soviets. This book strings them all together so you can feel the changes over time, linking events together as a whole, and even smatters it with culture (writers, musicians of the Golden age).

It does it's best with the earlier Kievan Rus' days since there are so few sources available, I.e the "primary chronicle". I find that time quite fascinating though.

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It's about the history of debt, credit and money.

>>1064009
>>1063092
seconding these two. i would also include sacred texts of major religions

I appreciate the recommendations guys. Thanks.

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>>1062594
This, also The Guns of August, and The 15 Decisive Battles of the World

G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man.

>>1062724

>not including EMJ's Degenerate Moderns

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If you are an American or are interested in American history, you have to read this.

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>>1063359
Zinn is trash, he uses fucking David Irving as a source on dresden

>>1063092
>>1064081
Jesus you lot are cunts.