Can we have a recommendation thread? Even a sharethread, if anybody has anything. Books and documentaries, any subject you want.
I'm currently reading pic related and it's pretty great.
> Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives, transforming France and Europe in the space of just twenty years from 1795 to 1815. After seizing power in a coup d'état he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the Revolution had descended. In a series of dazzling battles he reinvented the art of warfare; in peace, he completely remade the laws of France and modernised her systems of education and administration. The impossibility of defeating his most persistent enemy, Great Britain, led him to make draining and ultimately fatal expeditions into Spain and Russia, where half a million Frenchmen died and his Empire began to unravel.
Can anybody recommend me some books/documentaries to become versed in American history? So far I've only gotten a fairly basic education in this subject because I live in europe.
Matthew Reed
try these maybe:
Kamen, Henry. Empire: How Spain Became a World Power, 1492–1763. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. >This book explains how a relatively minor European state, through a combination of dynastic alliances, military entrepreneurship, geographic advantages, and economic partnerships across Europe, forged the first global empire. Kamen highlights the military campaigns that made the establishment of this empire possible, but also the new organizations that enabled their consolidation. Originally titled Spain’s Road to Empire (London: Penguin, 2002). bookzz.org/book/2210240/f433d7
one that stands out as relevant is the "renaissance at war", which has the following description: :An excellent first introduction to the subject, focusing on the long 16th century, by a specialist in 16th-century Italian warfare with a broad understanding of military history. Images are used effectively to support the well-written text. free dl: bookzz.org/book/911468/560fe8
probably the oxford series on american history is the most comprehensive set of books. do you have a particular period in mind though user?
Luke Green
The Pursuit of Italy is a good catchall for Italy and it's unification. I don't have anything super specific for it.
Wilsonian Moment is a good book about how the American ideology spread across the globe and how many groups became immediately disillusioned with it until the Post-War era.
Jonathan Gomez
>The Pursuit of Italy >Visiting a villa built by Lorenzo de Medici outside Pisa, David Gilmour fell into conversation about the unification of Italy with a distinguished former minister: ''You know, Davide,' he said in a low conspiratorial voice, as if uttering a heresy, 'Garibaldi did Italy a great disservice. If he had not invaded Sicily and Naples, we in the north would have the richest and most civilized state in Europe.' After looking cautiously round the room he added in an even lower voice, 'Of course to the south we would have a neighbour like Egypt.''
Damn that sounds interesting. It's available on libgen as well
Luis Butler
Absolutely great book, great overview of Napoleon and the man behind the battles. Also recommend SPQR by Mary Beard, good for broad look at Rome and it's origins. There is also a BBC documentary that is parallel to the book
Jaxson Bell
This was pretty decent
Brayden Sanchez
>The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
>Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.
I read this and it was awesome.
Elijah Hernandez
looking for something 1494-1559 but hat book you recommended is now on my todo list
Andrew Foster
thanks for the recommends, will be checking them out in the near future
Justin Walker
Any reccomendations of Byzantines, the Romanov, or the Orthodox Church in general?
Christopher Russell
Im about to start Edward I by michael prestwich.
Anyone read it before?
Jackson Hill
Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization (Hardcover) by Lars Brownworth
Was recommended to me by my history teacher.
William Harris
> > >
Jordan Myers
Reading op's rec right now. Long but readable... lots of anecdotes to give you a feeling for the time, quite a lot of humor as well. Very well written.
Also for those of you studying for the gre, packed full of gre words. Seriously filled with them.
Leo Gutierrez
Good thread OP. Does anyone have any recommendations for books about ww2, specifically the eastern front? Currently reading Stalingrad and it's pretty great.
Angel Reyes
Novela número 13(I dont know if there is an english traslation). It is the story of some people trying to caught an expensive brittish horse during the Spanish civil war,in which they visit anarchist villages and their randon rules,which were based on reality). Also the Spanish national bank published an article about anarchist currency which was pretty interesting. I will look at it and see if I can find a link
Ian Moore
Pretty good, very good historian
Juan Kelly
1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War by Charles Emmerson
>In this illuminating history, Charles Emmerson liberates the world of 1913 from this prelude to war” narrative, and explores it as it was, in all its richness and complexity. Traveling from Europe’s capitals, then at the height of their global reach, to the emerging metropolises of Canada and the United States, the imperial cities of Asia and Africa, and the boomtowns of Australia and South America, he provides a panoramic view of a world crackling with possibilities, its future still undecided, its outlook still open.
>The world in 1913 was more modern than we remember, more similar to our own times than we expect, more globalized than ever before. The Gold Standard underpinned global flows of goods and money, while mass migration reshaped the world’s human geography. Steamships and sub-sea cables encircled the earth, along with new technologies and new ideas. Ford’s first assembly line cranked to life in 1913 in Detroit. The Woolworth Building went up in New York. While Mexico was in the midst of bloody revolution, Winnipeg and Buenos Aires boomed. An era of petro-geopolitics opened in Iran. China appeared to be awaking from its imperial slumber. Paris celebrated itself as the city of lightBerlin as the city of electricity.
>Full of fascinating characters, stories, and insights, 1913: In Search of the World before the Great War brings a lost world vividly back to life, with provocative implications for how we understand our past and how we think about our future.
>This comprehensive and beautifully illustrated collection of essays conveys a vivid picture of a fascinating and hugely significant period in history, the Fin de Siècle. Featuring contributions from over forty international scholars, this book takes a thematic approach to a period of huge upheaval across all walks of life, and is truly innovative in examining the Fin de Siècle from a global perspective. The volume includes pathbreaking essays on how the period was experienced not only in Europe and North America, but also in China, Japan, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, India, and elsewhere across the globe.
>Thematic topics covered include new concepts of time and space, globalization, the city, and new political movements including nationalism, the "New Liberalism", and socialism and communism. The volume also looks at the development of mass media over this period and emerging trends in culture, such as advertising and consumption, film and publishing, as well as the technological and scientific changes that shaped the world at the turn of the nineteenth century, such as the invention of the telephone, new transport systems, eugenics and physics. The Fin-de-Siècle World also considers issues such as selfhood through chapters looking at gender, sexuality, adolescence, race and class, and considers the importance of different religions, both old and new, at the turn of the century. Finally the volume examines significant and emerging trends in art, music and literature alongside movements such as realism and aestheticism.
Reads almost like an adventure novel. About the 19th century Russian rivalry with Britain over Central Asia(With Russia's grand designs being on British India). If the book interests you, you should read Kim by Rudyard Kipling.
Cooper Parker
Books on the Punic Wars? I'm really interested in the politics in both Carthage and Rome
Grayson Morgan
Well this was the most related thread I could find. I am in need of interesting things to talk about on a podcast im going to start. Interesting is too broad, so ill ask it like this: What is the most interesting thing you know of that is hard to talk about?
as for coverage on the punic wars alone, check pic related, i.e. the section on "expansion in the west." goldsworthy might be a good read as i enjoyed his popular book on caesar. he specializes in military history though so he may now have as good a grasp of it as the other authors mentioned. but if you also have an interest in the military side of things there's:
Bishop, M. C., and J. C. Coulston. Roman Military Equipment from the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome. Oxford: Oxbow, 2006. >Opening with three chapters on sources (pp. 1–48), the book offers a rapid and efficient survey of the development of Roman military equipment across a span of 600 years in five chapters (pp. 50–232). An important concluding section on the production of military equipment shows that, in the imperial period, it was produced in local workshops and stresses the difference between the equipment of legionaries and auxiliaries.
Daly, G. Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War. London: Routledge, 2002. >Daly describes the lead-up to the infamous battle, traditional scholarly interpretations about the course of events, and the critical interpretation of our primary sources (especially Polybius).
Eli Torres
cont.
Austin, Norman J. E., and N. Boris Rankov. Exploratio: Military and Political Intelligence in the Roman World from the Second Punic War to the Battle of Adrianople. London and New York: Routledge, 1995. >A well-sourced study of intelligence (operational, strategic and tactical, foreign and domestic, political and military). The sources are unevenly distributed (in favor of the empire), but the authors should be commended for their ambitious scope. Careful attention here to seconded soldiers and governors’ staffs.
a different description of a book mentioned in the previous pic: Richardson, John S. Hispaniae: Spain and the Development of Roman Imperialism, 218–82 BC. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986. >Careful study of Rome’s Spanish provinciae (with detail on that word’s use over time) and the several campaigns there; relevant to the Second Punic War, early Roman imperialism (where Richardson sees aggressive, defensive, and economic motives all at play), and Roman military history in general during the Middle Republic.
pic related for another set of books the seems to cover the second punic war mostly
Jaxson Brown
any period in particular? chinese history is tremendous
I've got access to Bibliotik, taking requests for books not found elsewhere.
>>inb4 invite plox, ain't got none
Robert Lewis
Thank you user.
Do you know which book they are refering to when they say Goldsworthy 2002? He wrote "The Punic Wars" in 2000 and "The Fall of Carthage" in 2003. Are there multiple editions of "The Punic Wars" and one came out in 2002? I think might start with a Goldsworthy book as a jumping off point and then do the Dexter Hoyos book in the second picture.
Thank you again, I was not expecting anywhere near this amount of research. Just another reminder why this is my favorite board.
Colton Adams
I'm really interested in the Tang and Song dynasties, but a general history of the imperial eras would be nice. I've read a book about Mao, the fall of the Qing, and the Boxer Rebellion but I'd like some of the earlier history.
Connor Adams
it looks like they are two different versions of the same books by goldsworthy
Dominic Powell
Looking for books on European history. This good?
Owen Ward
Ok, thank you
Samuel Peterson
Any good WW1 books?
Logan Parker
"The Guns of August" by Barbara W Tuchman is supposed to be good I think. It mainly focuses on the first month
Adrian Hall
Forgot to mention, it won the Pulitzer in 1963
Isaac Howard
i have just the thing then: Middle period china pastebin.com/QnHDUF1M ctrl f tang or song ;^)
extras: neoconfucianism (which developed mostly in the song dynasty iirc) pastebin.com/y76L34aq medieval economic revolution, which is explained by the intro paragraph: >In China’s historical context, the term “medieval” was unmistakably borrowed from European history in as late as the 20th century. It has, however, remained questionable whether this Eurocentric unilinear logic really ever conveniently suited China. Even so, a serious historian may still make do with the term to capture what was going on in China from the Sui until the early Ming, from 581 to c. 1500 across a span close to a millennium, or anything in between. The beginning was marked by the construction of the Grand Canal, over one thousand miles long, during the Sui (581–618), which linked for the first time China’s three major river systems, and hence the three most productive regions, together: the Yellow, Huai, and Yangzi valleys. During the early Ming, China maintained an undisputed first-class sea power in the world. It was a period when private education, secular literature, meritocratic bureaucracy, novel technology and new production, degrees and commercialization, urbanization, and so forth reached an unprecedented height on the East Asian mainland. During this long period, the importance of Tang-Song growth and development loomed large. So much so, the Song period was coined in the 1980s by the world economic historian Eric L. Jones, in his book The European Miracle, as the first recorded intensive growth in Eurasian history. However, the term “revolution” was first used by Shiba Yoshinobu (斯波義信), the Japanese historian of China, to describe commercial growth under the Song, in his 1970 monograph Commerce and Society in Sung China. In reality, what happed was not just economic.
Owen Allen
cont. >It was a wide range of new achievements in institutions, science and technology, production, and market exchanges. Most unfortunately, however, Song growth and development, remarkable as it was, was brutally interrupted by the invading Mongols in the 13th century, who ran sociopolitical and economic systems that were distinctively different from those of the Song. The Mongol rule of China was very short, but the damage was done. Although during the following Ming period (1368–1644) some residual effects of the Song revolution were still detectable, it was marked by a quite different growth trajectory along the line of physiocracy. China’s medieval economic revolution never repeated itself. Such turns and twists in China’s fortunes through history underlie the Great Divergence debate. pastebin.com/qfJ5tHvw
Brandon Murphy
This thread should be the boards sticky/general.
The only productive/noteworthy thread I have seen so far on this board.
Christopher Long
Flight of the Eagle by Conrad Black is pretty good at explaining why the decisions are made.
Leo Ward
for general imperial history- John Fairbank's China: A New History it's chinese history condensed into 300 pages by one of the most renowned china historians of the 20th century bookzz.org/book/754646/0b79a7
do you want to study a certain period of european history though?
Do you want to study a particular period in depth though?
Julian Thompson
woops repeated myself twice...
Adam Bennett
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters by Jason K. Stearns is one of the finest books on the Congolese wars of 1997-2005. Brilliant recounts of the political turmoil, the different factions involved and the motives behind every massacre.
Anyone interested in the story of central Africa should seriously pick up this book.
Eli Roberts
I quite enjoyed Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie but that is about the events in the decades before the war that lead to it rather than the war itself.
Levi Robinson
Any good books about the conquest of the Americas? Spanish books also accepted.
Henry Russell
some of these i've seen on bookzz and libgen but im too lazy to check:
Elliott, J. H. Spain and Its World, 1500–1700. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. >Divided into four sections on America, Europe, the royal court, and the question of decline. Collected studies representing thirty years of the author’s research. Includes such suggestive essays as “Art and Decline in Seventeenth-Century Spain” and “The Discovery of America and the Discovery of Man.”
Elliott, J. H. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. >The clearest and most ambitious survey of the early modern Spanish transatlantic empire.
Thomas, Hugh. Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan. New York: Random House, 2005. >Panoramic view in ten “books” divided into thirty-eight discrete chapters of Spain’s inexorable march toward New World dominion. A minor irritation is the author’s decision to use translated catchphrases to name every chapter. The result is that this lengthy book is somewhat hard to navigate. Contains extensive appendixes of registered ships, family trees, and the costs of becoming an emperor in 1519.
Adam Jones
Lovett, A. W. Early Habsburg Spain, 1517–1598. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. >Focuses on the reigns of Charles V and Philip II. Considers their roles in transforming the kingdom of Castile into a world power. Includes coverage of the conquests of Mexico and Peru, the revolt of the Netherlands, the defeat of the armada, and the Inquisition. Also takes into account regional differences within Iberia and conflicts with unassimilated Jews.
this might be relevant: Mignolo, Walter. The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization. 2d ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. >Examines the impact of an imported literate culture on the culture of Spanish America, and the understanding achieved by European authors of Native American culture and its semi-literate or quasi-literate products, primarily in the 16th century.
Gibson, Charles. Spain in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1966. >Gibson’s work synthesizes the research since the publication of Haring 1947.
Haring, C. H. The Spanish Empire in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1947. >Haring’s work is the classic text on the establishment of Spanish institutions in the Americas. The author’s description of Spanish dominance has been challenged by recent research.
Parry, J. H. The Spanish Seaborne Empire. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. >A parallel volume to Boxer 1991. Also older (first published in 1966 [London: Hutchinson]) but valuable.
Lockhart, James, and Stuart B. Schwartz. Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil. Cambridge Latin American Studies 46. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983. >Sophisticated volume by two of the foremost scholars of colonial Iberian America. Probably best suited to upper-division classes. Includes a useful annotated bibliography.
Liam Bennett
Just want to thank you all for this thread, I'll download a few when I get home in about eight hours or so.
I'd recommend this book on, mostly, Athens. It has to do with the Attican greeks and their way of life, thinking and governing. A few notes here and there on Dorian greeks and Sparta, the author clearly disliking them.
Also from the same publisher, The Romans. Not as easy to read, from a different author, but just as solid.
Ryder Gonzalez
Can't believe Veeky Forums never talks about pic related.
>In this magnificent synthesis of military, technological, and social history, William H. McNeill explores a whole millennium of human upheaval and traces the path by which we have arrived at the frightening dilemmas that now confront us. McNeill moves with equal mastery from the crossbow—banned by the Church in 1139 as too lethal for Christians to use against one another—to the nuclear missile, from the sociological consequences of drill in the seventeenth century to the emergence of the military-industrial complex in the twentieth. His central argument is that a commercial transformation of world society in the eleventh century caused military activity to respond increasingly to market forces as well as to the commands of rulers. Only in our own time, suggests McNeill, are command economies replacing the market control of large-scale human effort. The Pursuit of Power does not solve the problems of the present, but its discoveries, hypotheses, and sheer breadth of learning do offer a perspective on our current fears and, as McNeill hopes, "a ground for wiser action."
>"No summary can do justice to McNeill's intricate, encyclopedic treatment. . . . McNeill's erudition is stunning, as he moves easily from European to Chinese and Islamic cultures and from military and technological to socio-economic and political developments. The result is a grand synthesis of sweeping proportions and interdisciplinary character that tells us almost as much about the history of butter as the history of guns. . . . McNeill's larger accomplishment is to remind us that all humankind has a shared past and, particularly with regard to its choice of weapons and warfare, a shared stake in the future."—Stuart Rochester, Washington Post Book World
Ayden Cook
This is pretty great for beginners and personally got me into philosophy
Joseph Robinson
The first world war by John Keegan or any WWI books by professor Hew Strachan will probably give you a pretty good overview of the war
Dylan Sanchez
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Cristopher Clark
>With its capital in Berlin, Prussia grew from being a small, poor, disregarded medieval state into one of the most vigorous and powerful countries in Europe, the scourge of its many enemies and, ultimately, the motor behind the creation of the German Empire in 1871 with all that implied for the 20th century. After the Second World War Prussia, which had still continued to exist as part of the German state, was abolished by the Allies, blamed for the overwhelming militarism that had led Europe into total disaster. Prussia's role in Europe's fortunes has been incalculable and "Iron Kingdom" is, extraordinarily, the first major book devoted to it. Prussia's power came from a sequence of notably brilliant rulers (most famously Frederick the Great), dynastic marriage and an obsessive focus on military excellence. It was both a progressive, well-run, enlightened country and a huge, threatening barracks. "Iron Kingdom" is a wonderfully readable, gripping account of a state which, for both good and ill, has fundamentally shaped our world.
Anyone read Anthony Everitt's "Cicero: a Turbulent Life"? I see Everitt wrote two separate fucking Cicero biographies, lol fucking why?
I was wondering if anyone had a preference one way or the other, I just bought A Turbulent Life so I was wondering if it was good or not
Juan Brooks
Anyone got any Normans in southern Italy/Sicily suggestions? .
He's a bit of a joke as a historian. That said i enjoyed the book.
Leo Powell
I recommend Cambridge Illustrated History of China, for this general overview of Chinese history. Very interesting, lots of high quality pictures. Its a 'real' book despite the title.
Jason Johnson
Best books about Rasputin and Russia during that period of time?
Ian Perry
may just be two different editions
maybe these?
Bulliet, Richard. The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. >Bulliet’s argument is often the starting point for discussions of Muslim-Christian relations in the Mediterranean as a whole.
Catlos, Brian. Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom: c. 1050–1614. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014. >This is an excellent examination of Muslims (often North African Berbers) under Christian rule.
Scaglione, Aldo. Knights at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the Italian Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. >A highly detailed study by an Italianist scholar. Black-and-white illustrations.
download this book and look at the extensive bibliography. you're sure to find something on the period bookzz.org/book/894096/5cac44
Robert Perry
>and Russia during that period of time Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia is a great social history of Russia in the late 19th early/20th century. It was written by a woman who traveled all over Russia during the fin de siecle and wrote down her experiences to document Russia as it was. Quite literally one of the first social history works ever written and certainly the first written on Russia.
Eli Reed
Thanks.
Carter Gonzalez
Reading this at the moment. It's really interesting :)
Nathan Jenkins
If you read VLiLTR be prepared to read about women and infanticide pretty often. It was pretty fucking common in Russia at the time.
Dominic Hernandez
Oh hey, I have that exact book sitting 10 feet away from me.
Zachary Evans
Veeky Forums wiki when?
Jack Nguyen
Do you have the torrent for the documentary?
Jeremiah Lewis
Just started reading this, first impression's pretty good.
Gabriel Cook
Hopefully never. This is the only good recommended reading thread I've seen since this board was created. Generally speaking, these threads are full of memebooks or other garbage-tier books not worth the paper they're written on.
Ryder Howard
Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon
>Far more than oil, the control of water wealth throughout history has been pivotal to the rise and fall of great powers, the achievements of civilization, the transformations of society's vital habitats, and the quality of ordinary daily lives. In Water, Steven Solomon offers the first-ever narrative portrait of the power struggles, personalities, and breakthroughs that have shaped humanity from antiquity's earliest civilizations, the Roman Empire, medieval China, and Islam's golden age to Europe's rise, the steam-powered Industrial Revolution, and America's century. Today, freshwater scarcity is one of the twenty-first century's decisive, looming challenges and is driving the new political, economic, and environmental realities across the globe.
Read this a while back, super informative, definitely recommended.
Sebastian Peterson
I'm looking for a book on the history of buddhism. Any reccs? Currently reading "In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses From the Pali Canon", but I'm lacking the understanding of the different branches and general history of buddhism.
Jace Cooper
Legions of Rome: The Definitive History of Every Imperial Roman Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins Pretty cool read for Romaboos. It details basically every Legion and its important battles and contributions. Its written so its really easy to digest, and it has a lot of anecdotes about regular Roman soldiers whose actions are still remembered.
I'm enjoying this at the moment. He likes to shit on everyone else who has written about the Thirty Years War though.
Levi Watson
I just want to say that this thread is amazing.
Luke Ortiz
>I'm currently reading pic related and it's pretty great. I've read it and it's great
Brayden Johnson
>The Pursuit of Italy is a good catchall for Italy and it's unification. It was too broad for my tastes
Liam Martin
Just downed a big book on 30 years war by Dick Harrisson(swedish author) and I felt it wasn't analytical enough
Michael Cruz
Frogive me user, I'm very much a casual reader of history so I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say analytical here but for what it's worth I'm about a quarter of the way through the book and it's still covering the decades leading up to the war from the perspective of various partcipants to give a sense of why things happened the way that they did. For example a chapter is given to the Spanish and Dutch each and their conflict to explain how it impacted upon the German princes and their political considerations.
For what my opinion is worth it doesn't really feel like a casual read like say an Antony Beevor book or Iron Kingdom here and although I occaisonally find my self a tad overwhelmed I'm still having a blast.
Robert Wilson
are you interested in a particular perspective on the war (say, sweden or spain?) or just the war in general?
Justin Turner
Is this any good? I'm very interested in life in medieval/renaissance times, but not sure if this book does a good job...
Jaxon Adams
This is probably asked a lot, but...
Any good recs for the byzantine empire from the fall of the western empire to the fall of constantinople? There are a ton of books covering Byzantium, but obviously I'm looking for a really good one, that goes into pretty good depth chronologically.
Eli James
did you check out the byzantine stuff on the bottom of this post? I've started, but haven't finished the, Byzantine state and society by Warren Treadgold. It clocks at around 800 pages, but the100 pages i've read have been good and since it covers the entirety of Byzantine history it may be what you're after. I've culled the other "general works" from the pastebin above, but these don't cover all of byzantine history in one volume:
Jenkins, Romilly. Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries A.D. 610–1071. New York: Random House, 1966. >This well-known study of Byzantine politics and culture begins with the reign of Heraclius and ends with a brief but balanced description of the Byzantine defeat at Manzikert. Describes the battle as politically and militarily disastrous, precipitated by court machinations and poor Byzantine generalship in the face of a capable enemy.
Angold, Michael. The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1204. 2d ed. London: Longman, 1997. >Although not strong on the connection between Byzantine military and society (see Haldon 1999, cited under War and Society in 11th-Century Byzantium), Angold’s history of the period between the death of Basil II and the Fourth Crusade offers a fine section on the early reign of Alexius Comnenus.
Haldon, John. Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565–1204. London: Routledge, 1999. >Well researched and cited, with extensive notes. Haldon is equally adept in describing the changing political and strategic circumstances faced by Byzantium over this period, as well as the implementation of the thematic and tagmatic military systems. Describes Manzikert as more a political defeat than a disastrous military event.
there are other comprehensive works on the byzantine empire i've seen discussed before, namely ostrogorsky's and norwich's three volume set. ostrogorsky's book is around 700 pages and I've heard good things about it. cont.
Elijah Wood
anyone got some input on this?
Eli Young
On the other hand, Ostrogorsky's book is written in the late 60's, with revised edition published in the 80s as far as I know. In comparison, Treadgold's work is probably more up to date, though I'm sure you'd learn a great amount from Ostrogorsky. I can't speak to Ostro's style, but having tried to start Norwich's work on Venice, I found that I had to put it down because his book was more like a story than history, and his writing style was too long-winded to my taste. I'd reckon his volumes on Byzantium would be the same (though I'm sure other anons may disagree with me on this)
Kayden Campbell
I read parts of the book when I was working on a school project in high school. I liked what I read and I hope to read it in the future. Also, in the 1960s Mcneill won numerous awards for writing a comprehensible history of the world (the rise of the west I think it's called), which is probably the best entry point for someone who wants a historical foundation. So considering his ability to capture the scope of history, I think that the Pursuit of Power should be good as well.
David Cruz
anybody want any of these? Pursuit of power is not avaliable, unfortunately.
Parker Diaz
Can you post Rise of The West? made it sound really interesting
Do you know if there are any other ways to download it or how to get a .mobi or .epub to work? Those are the only two versions of Rise of the West I could find on bookzz and neither seem to be working on my computer
Brandon Edwards
hmm try downloading calibre maybe? that works with mobi and epubs i think. other than that I don't know, try google for help i guess
