Current Events > What's a good non-fiction/history book to read?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Any topic - subject matter doesn't concern me as long as the book is good.

Salt: A World History

Navies in The Mountains.

Subterranean Fire, by Sharon Smith

Taken at the Flood (A history of Rome's conquest of Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria)

The Last Stand of Fox Company (About a single company of US Marines holding a vital hill against overwhelming Chinese attacks during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir)

Dog Company (A history of US Army Rangers fighting in Europe during WW2. I like this one because it is basically a historical account of the American campaign missions in Call of Duty 2)

itcheyness posted...

Taken at the Flood (A history of Rome's conquest of Greece, Asia Minor, and Syria)

that's right up my alley. I've been looking for a book concerning Rome's influence on the East for a while now

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Rubicon by Tom Holland

These are true crime, both very good and considered classics in their genre: Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Just be aware that in Capote's case, at least, he did make some things up to make for a more dramatic story. It still contains a lot of factual information, though.

Also Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean, which is also a true crime book of sorts, but goes into a lot of detail on the death penalty, the legal process, the effect it has on everyone involved, and how those put to death are almost always impoverished people but never wealthy people.

BurmesePenguin posted...

Rubicon by Tom Holland

I almost bought this a few weeks ago. I have it to my list of things to check out now.

Might I also add, if anyone is looking for a good book about FDR's contributions to the Allied efforts and the impact of his command over the Allied commanders , Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants and Their War is extremely good though quite an old book by this point.

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb.
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.
The Death of Expertise, by Tom Nichols.

The Fiery Trial by Eric Foner

Debt: the first 5000 years by David graeber

Jon Parshall's and Anthony Tully's Shattered Sword, about the Battle of Midway from the Japanese perspective.

I recently finished reading The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood by Dr. Finkel. The author is just so geeky about cuneiform, it's enthralling to read for the vicarious enthusiasm.

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester. It runs out of steam by the end but some cool stuff.

Origin of Totalitarianism - Arendt
The Peloponnesian War - Thucydides
March of the Ten Thousand - Xenophon
On War - Clausewitz
Battle Cry of Freedom - McPherson
Democracy in America - de Tocqueville
Bowling Alone - Putnam
Clash of Civilizations - Huntington
Presidential Power - Neustadt
Concept of Representation - Pitkin

I decided to add some poli sci stuff at the end, most of I which I chugged through in grad school.

Averting the 'Final Failure' by Sheldon Stern

american predator: the hunt for the most meticulous serial killer of the 21st century

it's a book about israel keyes

titanic thompson: the man who bet on everything

it's a book about one of the most notorious and highest stakes gamblers of the early 20th century and his exploits and life

Gibbons The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Aftermath: The Remnants of War by Donavan Webster. Shows up in the bibliography for the Hardcore History series on the Eastern Front. Goes into details about who is actually cleaning up the duds, crashed helicopters, bodies, and other refuse after wars. Talks about the fields of skulls outside of Stalingrad that are still (as of book written) present.

The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro Between this series on LBJ and his work on Robert Moses, Robert Caro is likely the best biographer of the 20th century. Doesn't hurt that he chose two of the greatest geniuses in wielding political power of the 20th century to cover. Don't care if you know a single thing about the person he is covering, you will be incredibly interested in them by page 20.

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Robert Crowley. Want to know why Civ5 lets you beat the game as Venice while having only your capital city? Yeah Venice was a global superpower without really owning any territory at all. It's an interesting story. This covers how they got there and how they lost it over a few hundred years.

The James Herriot books are in a weird place between fiction and non-fiction, as most of it actually happened but some details are shuffled around.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Herriot

Some good stuff suggested in ITT. I'll add a few:

Lies My Teacher Told Me
Guns, Germs and Steel
Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics
The Silk Roads

indica posted...

Some good stuff suggested in ITT. I'll add a few:

Lies My Teacher Told Me
Guns, Germs and Steel
Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics
The Silk Roads

Guns germs and steel is a no no

royic posted...

Guns germs and steel is a no no

...why?

Questionmarktarius posted...

...why?

Historians generally consider it a book full of questionable, cherry picked facts used to put together an even more questionable thesis.

Like taking Cortez's reports of annihilating gigantic native armies with 10 men and a horse at face value, for example, when his future funding relied on those reports making him look good.

royic posted...

Historians generally consider it a book full of questionable, cherry picked facts used to put together an even more questionable thesis.

Like taking Cortez's reports of annihilating gigantic native armies with 10 men and a horse at face value, for example, when his future funding relied on those reports making him look good.

I'm the one that suggested the book and, yeah, it's got some fairly problematic sections, especially the chapter on the Conquistadors' invasion of the Americas. Here's a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq6EuZj4axA&ab_channel=BadEmpanada

brestugo posted...

The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb.
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell.
The Death of Expertise, by Tom Nichols.

I like these picks

royic posted...

Historians generally consider it a book full of questionable, cherry picked facts used to put together an even more questionable thesis.

Like taking Cortez's reports of annihilating gigantic native armies with 10 men and a horse at face value, for example, when his future funding relied on those reports making him look good.

This.

Sonic_Cannon posted...

I like these picks

Great addition to critical thinking skills in modern times, IMO.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Topical because the Belgian monarchy just recently gave an apology - but no money - for it's role in that.

Devil in the White City is a fascinating look at the 1893 Chicago world fair and a serial killer operating out of it

RuneterranSnap posted...

Devil in the White City is a fascinating look at the 1893 Chicago world fair and a serial killer operating out of it

Was gonna suggest this one. The serial killer is H.H. Holmes.

It's narrative non-fiction, so while the facts are all there, duder takes some license with how people acted/felt.

Eat_More_Beef posted...

Was gonna suggest this one. The serial killer is H.H. Holmes.

It's narrative non-fiction, so while the facts are all there, duder takes some license with how people acted/felt.

I'd actually argue that he doesn't take much artistic license--in fact, he explicitly states that he didn't want to include anything that couldn't be verified through records and gives an in depth account of all the records he used. Honestly, as much as I liked the book, I think it was a little dry and could've used with a little more artistic license.

If you're interested in Classical Greek Warfare I would highly recommend Classical Greek Tactics: A Cultural History by Roel Konijnendijk, you might know him as the 'ditch guy' from the Insider videos on battles. Not only is it a really good read on the new Orthodoxy on Greek Warfare the book also frames the Greek way of war in cultural terms and also briefly touches on the historiography of the study of Greek warfare starting with the Prussians.

A Short History of Nearly Everything goes through the history of scientific discovery. Its really fascinating to learn what some scientists had to go through.

Billyionaire posted...

Any topic - subject matter doesn't concern me as long as the book is good.

The Creation of the American Republic by Gordon Wood is one of my favorite explorations of the political philosophy of the American Revolutionaries and the Founding Fathers. It deals with the classical republican principles of citizenship, virtue, and statesmanship that defined the opposition to Britain during the Revolutionary era. A great supplementary book by Robert Hoffert, A Politics of Tensions: The Articles of Confederation and American Political Ideas locates the debate between the Anti-Federalist and the Federalists within a larger dialogue about the nature of republicanism and community.