Life in the ancient/medieval world

>>8790486
Creation by Gore Vidal

>>8790496
wasn't expecting such a hole in one in the first post

thanks mate, never heard of it before and it looks really good

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>>8790486

As far as fiction goes The Name of the Rose is historically sound in describing the day to day life of a medieval monastery.

There's one detail that's anachronistic, but it's so blatant that I'm sure it was put there on purpose.

>>8790486
FUCK GIBBON AND HIS RETARDED REDUCTIONISTIC HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES


REEEEEE

Any good books on Egypt? History or just life in Egypt.

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>>8790650
>Name of the Rose
He's asking about history books, not fiction.

Anways, I can't find enough praise for The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization. It's as up to date is they get with modern archaeological finds, and while up to now there was dominant thought that avoided every dark ages talk, even erasing it's nomenclature, this one goes back to it and provides proofs that dark ages indeed were dark. Beautify written, not overly long, and with plenty of pictures to enliven the pages.

Gibbon is still an interesting read, but you must remember that it was written in 1770's so it is awfully outdated in parts.

>>8790743
Plus Gibbon has some really, really stupid views

>>8790743

Oh, and Cambridge Ancient History and New Cambridge Medieval History sets are a good read. Now they are daunting. Massive volumes with huge number of books in a single collection, but you CAN only read the part you are interested in. Nothing wrong with that, they aren't meant to be read cover to cover. I'm certain that there's silk trade part in one of them.

>>8790747
yeah he was a real dunce
thank god we have true geniuses like you

>>8790486
It's not Ancient or Medieval but Bill Bryson's book At Home is a good survey of what an average person's life was like from 17th - 20th century if you want to read that later.

>>8790769
Correction, they can be a good read. Some of the authors are brilliant, some unreadable.

Both books about the medieval Catholic church.

Regular Life: Monastic, Canonical, and Mendicant Rules
Daniel Marcel La Corte, Douglas J. McMillan

The Medieval Church: A Brief History
Joseph H. Lynch, Phillip C. Adamo

Why do people hate Gibbon?

>>8791151
no idea, reading gibbon now and imho it's the best prose i've ever seen

The King in the North, Oswald of Northumbria

A "biography" of Oswald of Northumbria information on him is somwhat scarce so the book is padded with lots of really good information including the spread of Christinanity and the state of the church at the time, blanket history for the British Isles at the time as well as the pre feudal "Hide" tribute system.

>>8791151
They focus on his shortcomings rather than what is great about him.
Of course there are going to be certain viewpoints that a person of the 18th century held that will seem ridiculous to us.
Of course the current research is objectively better. But Gibbon's goal is not to provide an objective account of what happened. The way he writes alone should clear away such notions.

>>8791151
Blaming the fall of Rome on Christianity and decadence while neither can really be shown to be the cause.

>>8790778
keked

>>8791404
Pretty sure cultural and religious divides were major social problems in Rome. The decadence of people like Nero and Caligula advance the fall of Rome. They are not "the reason" Rome fell, but there were kinks in the bulwark of Rome.

>>8791443
Well the thing is that the military continued winning most engagements right up until the end but the civil administration and trade just broke down.

All in all I think the biggest blow to the Roman empire was the crisis of the third century after which we can see a visible decline in their material culture in quite a few areas.

>>8791443
>The decadence of people like Nero and Caligula advance the fall of Rome

Ehem.... Nero was third emperor, and Caligula the fifth. If you're going to argue these two are responsible for the fall of Rome, you best invite me to your house. I'll bring popcorn and wine and I promise I wont intrude in that explanation in any way.

Honestly the only real reason for the fall was barbarians fucking around them like crazy. Goths, Visingoths, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Franks, Vandals, Huns, Slavs all decide they'll try their luck in Roman Empire at roughly the same time. Good luck with that. You can civilize some, placate others, convert some, beat back the rest, but the numbers are against you. They will overrun you eventually.