What are your personal favorite historical books

GG&S

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Self bump

>>2989034
Arrian's book on Alexander the Great

FAces of Power by Andrew Stuart

Petros Garouphalias, Pyrrhos: King of Epirus

The starting chapter of a toddler prince being smuggled to safety from a burning palace by several Knights during a fierce lightening storm has stuck with me.

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Pic related. But a special mention to the pelican books from like the late 60's on the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Hittites, and Greeks. They're small (about 250 pages) with good summary chapters. Great for a good summary. That series even had anglo-saxons and Vikings. They're still on Amazon for pretty cheap too.

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The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

I'm surprised that no one had mentioned this book.

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Goddamn I love this book

>>2996431
It's on my to read list. To be fair, barely anybody has posted yet and they will probably try to post some rare book to feel special in their niche

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It is chauvinistic as fuck, but damn it is an epic tale told well.

>>2996382
how is lancel's book vs. richard miles

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not specifically for the content but hnnnnnnng

>>2996470
Lancel was probably the best in the field. Miles book is great, but this book goes into further detail. A good book to look out for is Patrick Hunt's Hannibal next month.

>>2996544
ok i'll look into it. i've read miles already. have you read any books by dexter hoyos by any chance?

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>>2996550
I haven't, but I've heard they're good. I just got through Aubets Phoenicians and the West and was debating reading his stuff or start reading Moscati's work on Phoenicians.

On academia.edu there's a good researcher by the name of Carlos Wagner. If you want some in depth stuff, he's got good papers. Some stuff is in Spanish, but a lot of it is in English too.

>>2996563
cool thanks for the rec. i've been eyeing that chart as well which is why i asked about hoyos. how did you find aubets? looks interesting desu

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The history of the peaceful revolution

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This is genuinely every single book in my Amazon wishlist.
Feedback or recommendations would be appreciated.

>>2997241
I was looking for good books on Phoenicians in the west and I think she was the first hit when I checked that. She's on this list too at least.

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>>2997640
On the area of pre-history and all that for Europe, Barry cunliffe's "Europe between the oceans" isn't bad.

This book also isn't that bad.

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>>2997640
And this one too

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This one is great if you don't mind being bombarded with a lot of facts and information rather than narrative

what does /his/ think of Durant's "story of civ" series? Was thinking of reading the entire series

Want to start with my first actual history book soon, but I have no clue which one I should get. What do you lads recommend?
Preferably something about Rome or Mesopotamia.

>>2990789
The Landmark series has a great version of it. Maps every 4-5 pages so you know the geographic context of events, and a lot of supplementary essays on interesting topics (Diadochi wars, Alexander persona myth, and more..)

>>2997640
Thanks for posting this list. I'm currently reading a lot of fiction but I want to change that by starting to read a lot of human history. This list is a great starting point.

>>2993684
I can trace the first of my family name to the roll call of knights to follow william across the channel. I am immensely interested in all things history related with the Norman's. Is this book worth it, I cant find it for less than $80!

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>>2998276
mesopotamia

>>2998800
Not the OP
This is a huge list and might be hard to find a good start. What topic are you interested in to start with?

>>2997353
Noice.

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>So violent and motley was life, that it bore the mixed smell of blood and of roses. The men of that time always oscillate between the fear of hell and the most naive joy, between cruelty and tenderness, between harsh asceticism and insane attachments to the delights of this world, between hatred and goodness, always running
to extremes.

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Great book about a really interesting time period. Also not full of liberal sniping about how evil America is like some of the other books in the Oxford series (looking at you Howe and, apparently, White). The author's very evenhanded and even though he obviously has his own views (pro-Jeffersonian) he acknowledges faults in the Jeffersonians and likewise when the Federalists have a valid point or concern. He actually does a pretty objective examination of the Alien and Sedition Acts and why they were implemented by pretty much stating that they went too far but there were very real fears related to them.

>>2997640
City of Fortune is great though I always recommend reading it in concert with something like Norwich's book as they cover two opposite ends with Norwich's book focused mostly on Venice itself, its politics, wars in Italy, etc. while City of Fortune focuses mostly on Venice's overseas empire and adventures meaning lots of time devoted to the Fourth Crusade, happenings on Crete and the Ionian islands, rivalry with Genoa in the Black Sea, etc. Both books together will give you a good overview of Venice.

Heart of Europe, I'll warn you, may not be what you're expecting. It's not a bad book by any means but it's far more of a cultural overview of the HRE.

>>3000254

That's actually perfect! Thank you for the extra recommendation, I try to knock another book off the list about every other paycheck, but man, for every 1 that I try to read, two more get added.

Lord of the Rings
1984

>>2997640
>Geoffrey of Monmouth

Once you go down that rabbit hole there's no going back.

>>2996434

2nd

read it 10 times at least

>>2989034
With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge. Didn't really know anything about WW2 outside of vague details but I read this wanting to learn more (no idea about what the Japanese did in combat). That part about finding dead soldiers with their genitals stuffed in the mouth of the decapitated head fucked me up as a 15 year old

>>2996434
Adrian's books are all really solid

>>2989034
Salt by Mark Kurlansky.

>>2989034
Journals of louis and clark

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this is one of my favs, what think?
>>2996431
nice sounds interesting
>>2997407
>Trotsky
no thanks
>>2999022
am i stupid for not knowing what this one is? what is it about?

>>3004383
it's a book composed by rabid anti-communists so they unsurprisingly highly inflate soviet crimes. that books the reason why you have /pol/acks around here crying "muh 100 gorillion". that said soviets killed a lot of people, but just not as many as this book claims

>>2996431
please everyone read this book so we can have informed discussions on proto-indo-europeans on this board.
a large part of it is just descriptions of different archeological sites but you can read over them quickly

>>2989034
Jonah

>not ironically.

>>2989034
I only know about him through reading Roman history but in any case he comes across like a joke.

Alexander to Actium

>>3004673
I literally just got this book in the mail today. Can't wait to dive in.

>>3004695
>t. bigboss or nathan

>>3004520
>Thinking reading one introductory book is enough for a worthwhile discussion on a topic

>>3004770
certainly better than none

>>3004775
No shit, but one source would just be a hugbox

>>3004584
This

>>3004584
now that's a war face

Anons help me choose a book

>The Bush War
>Caesar
>Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napolean

Buying one of them tonight

>>3008904
if your new to ancient history i say buy caesar. bush war is probably interesting but from a "utilitarian" perspective reading caesar is more relevant to discussion with normies and people on this board, as its one of those periods in history which is constantly referenced in western thought.

bummp

>>3013794
SEconded

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It's the book that got me into history. Went in to see if all the stories about popes killing and having sex were true, discovered that everything I thought I knew about history was wrong