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Not that user, but I have read it. It definetly overloads on the British perspective, there's like three whole chapters about the process of britain deciding to join the war, and half a chapter on the german military preparations for it.

It's a good read, dunno about the accuracy

One of the best books I have ever read and certainly the most enlightening to the machinations of the industrial dynasty. The introduction alone gave me shivers.

Any good books on the Victorian era? fascist italy is fine too

I've always been a fan of "organizational" histories, books that explore the life not of a person, or a country, but rather a specific organization, whether it be a corporation, government agency, or criminal mafia, how that organization evolved over time, what impact it had on world events, and vice versa. This seems like it has serious potential.

looks interesting ill give this one a peak

*peek, im a fucking retard

I need to check out his book on Augustus.

I would specifically like a recommendation regarding the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and/or its aftermath. This is a tricky subject because I want to avoid both Bolshevik apologists and Romanov apologists. I want a clean, balanced account of what actually happened, if such a thing is even possible.

Even if you don't like the Bolsheviks Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution is an excellent history. Similarly Sukhanov's account of the Russian Revolution is good and non-Bolshevik if you want that

If Veeky Forums actually read that book as I did they would not be on Napoleon's cock in the way that they are. While Roberts is clearly fascinated and sympathetic to Napoleon he doesn't shy away from his glaring inadequacies and unsurpassed hypocrisy.
It is an excellent read though.

For my money I'd recommend what I'm reading now
>Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Always fun to have a primary source and so far my conclusion is he's a very interesting man with a /feel/ packed life, a giant who lived in a time and place that is wildly misunderstood.

This is probably the most well written historical book i have read, and really takes you back to an exotic and at the same time familiar Roman Empire.

The other work of her during the middle ages is also 10\10.

Never see many people talking about it, but in its native French this is a work of fucking art.

World Undone, absolutely, Guns of August I agree with what this user has heard; it's overrated, maybe because of the Cuban Missile Crisis connection. It's just a military history of the first month of the war with better prose than usual. I prefer Clark's Sleepwalkers, though the two books don't cover the exact same subjects and Sleepwalkers is much longer.

Seconded, 2/3rds of the way through and it's fantastic. Nice to get the social and economic history along with military/political stuff. The framing of the book also nicely sidesteps the war cause debate and gets right into what was actually going on in Germany and Austria-Hungary during the war.

I'd also recommend Dreadnought and Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie. Dreadnought is about the anglo-german naval arms race and related diplomatic developments leading up to the war. Castles of Steel is about naval operations during the war, which are often dealt with in a page or two in general histories (World Undone has like 2 paragraphs on Jutland and nothing else about surface naval operations), but seem pretty damn important and epic when given center stage. Massie writes well and gives interesting biographical sketches of the main admirals--Beatty, the British battlecruiser admiral, was a piece of work, as was his wife.

If you're at all an angloboo or interested in naval history, you have to read N.A.M. Rodger's multi-volume "Naval History of Britain," which, by halfway through the first volume becomes an institutional history of the Royal Navy.
I found the first volume, The Safeguard of the Sea, to be a bit of a slog until I got to the Elizabethan era, but the second volume, The Command of the Ocean, was really excellent. The third and final volume is supposedly coming out next year.

That's not true at all, I read it and it made me appreciate Napoleon and his genius more than ever. Especially learning about the 1814 campaign which I'd never heard of before. Also the section on Russia gave me more feels than anything I've read.
>Drummer boys playing the march into pits with their soldiers after being captured and prepared to be buried alive by russian peasants.
>The Dutch sappers who gave their lives wading through freezing rivers to erect a bridge that saved tens of thousands of soldiers.
>Neys rear guard action
What was really hard to stomach though wasn't the defeats, it was the betrayals as his power waned.
The book also exposes you to what a huge cunt Tsar Alexander was.

hmm..any specific reccs for her middle ages material?

There is only one I think, its about an alchemist\scientists right smack in the middle of the renaissance workers revolution, you know better sewing machines etc. The first factories. And increasing tension between reformists and Catholics.

In English its called The Abyss, but I love its original name , which is The Work in Black. Which was alchemical term famous during the middle ages.

I love her more than Umberto Eco, she really has a knack to transport you into a specific time era in such a dreamlike way I cant describe. Its the best fusion of historical accuracy and literature I have ever seen. Yet I really never see much about her.

Oh okay I saw that one I thought there were more. Hope it reads as well in English as in French.

>tfw you're defending the revolution but also running out of European thrones to sit your brothers on.
>tfw a soldier under your command rapes a girl on her mothers cadaver.
>tfw you send millions of french men into futile and unwinnable wars, abattoirs on all fronts and then have the temerity to screech "betrayal" when your people don't consent to you murdering their sons and old too as Russians ravage the country you're sworn to protect.

the bones of Frenchmen, scattered in every region, bear witness to our fidelity. - de Lafayette

He was a disaster, you probably haven't read the book and regardless you're a napoleboo idiot.

Just finished this, anyone have more good books about the time period, especially revolutionary/napoleonic france

His brothers were a mistake. The only one likely capable of running a country, Lucien, was estranged from Napoleon over his marriage. If you still believe this shit then it's probably you who haven't read it, since the vast majority of those conflicts were defensive and even the ones that weren't (Russia) he tried to avoid. I'll give you a good quote from the Amiens chapter to show how he tried to avoid conflict.

Obligatory

isnt there a list of Veeky Forums approved history books?

Great book and Berlin 1945 is a great follow up
>being a German citizen in late 1944 and realizing millions of mongoloid bolsheviks are coming your way for revenge to completely obliterate your way of life
Scary desu but obviously they had it coming thanks to that autist Hitler

This looks interesting

Unlikely Warrior

It's a book about a soldier from Vienna fighting on the eastern front, retreating and then being captured.
The kind of book that you start reading and then you'll finish it in one go. I suggest a map of Eastern Europe so you can try to trace his path.
For all you Germany haters, he is a Jew.

A look at one of the most mercurial American military leaders of the 20th century. MacArthur was a very strange figure; incompetence, arrogance, brilliance, ruthless self-promotion, and great intelligence were all united in a single figure. MacArthur swung for the big hits, and caused disasters and miracles. He was one of the most egregious glory-hogs I have ever read of, and it is easy for me to see why many of the soldiers that fought for him in the Pacific despised him.

I'd say any book done by Max Hastings is a decent read, quite long though.

I suggest this in every Veeky Forumslit/ thread.

This is a collection of stories about various naval encounters that went horribly wrong. They are divided by cause (bad luck, bad planning, insane commanders, etc.)

Both this and Great Military Blunders are very interesting reads.

Just finished reading Max Hastings' Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45
Highly recommend it

Same author as the Krupp book, for what it's worth.

Seems very interesting. When things go wrong at sea, they can go really wrong. Every time the dogger bank copypasta gets posted on this board people lose their shit because it's so crazy.

Can't find it anywhere.

Is it the same as:How to Lose a War at Sea: Foolish Plans and Great Naval Blunders by William Morrow?

What is wrong with you
google.com/search?q=geoffrey regan book of naval blunders&oq=geoffrey regan &aqs=chrome.5.0j69i57j0l4.7544j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I want it NOW and for FREE.

Only books I buy are damaged ones, 4 for 10€. Plus, how can you read a book about ships and not pirat it?

so buy a used one on amazon???

He has another book I want to read called A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, but from what I have heard it contains many older ideas about the Middle Ages that are no longer popular in current academic thinking. Still, I enjoyed his prose style and will probably try it out.

Honestly it sounds like a living nightmare. No wonder they had to press thousands of men into service.

ok this sounds neat

Help me out Veeky Forums
Has someone read pic related?
>Is it good?
>Is it accurate?
>do i need to know something before reading it?

thanks guys

I would also like some recommendation on this since we're near the 100th Anniversary.

>I'll give you a good quote from the Amiens chapter to show how he tried to avoid conflict.
Give quote then

What do y'all think of pic related?

Tbh I sat at my PC and typed up a whole 2000 character post with it and it was perfect, posted it and Veeky Forums ate it because something was wrong with my image. I'll give it another go in a little bit.

>neat
It will crush you. You can not imagine the amount of suffering people are able to endure.

...

neat

What does this say about the execution of Jews on the Eastern front? Any mention of camps, Einzatzgruppen or the like?

An absolute must read on the Vietnam War era

Nice collection of essays discussing the military evolution that took place in 15-17th century Europe.

A lot of you guys have probably already read this, or know enough about Byzantium that you don't need to read it. But if anyone is curious about the Byzantine empire and you have no idea where to start, I found that this book is a great overview.

Does anyone know of a good book about Ulysses Grant? I find his career arc compelling.

please elaborate a bit.

...

pic related for fascist italy

a list of history books in this link are all related to victorian era
pastebin.com/NEkhdCeR

God Is Red: The Secret Story of how Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China

Depressing but inspiring

I want to be a Viking now

pic related is a chart i made on lenin

for works on the russian revolution check out
pastebin.com/vqY1DtEt
pastebin.com/MbtsSZiN (ctrl f russia, mostly comparative works on revolutions)
russian civil war
pastebin.com/UXeqUWNd

The first essay makes the case for calling that period a military revolution due to many factors including the emergence of large permanent standing armies under the direct control of the sovereign. I'm about to run off to work so I can't really type more right now sorry.

>Liao Yiwu
Shiit. I read the one where he interviewed people involved in the massacre of the tiananmen square.

It's so fucked up, felt weird having a "normal life" after reading it. It's incredible how cruel the world can be.

yo chart guy, can you post all your charts and pastebins you've made so far?

pastebins are all found in here
pastebin.com/u/jonstond2

I don't want to spam this thread with charts but if you make a chart thread i'll dump them there for you.

>read an entire library
Oh, thanks, user.

I respect anyone who is willing to get so familiar with a topic. But I think the real skill is to make you understand a topic in as few pages as possible. Especially in history there is so much to learn and understand that it is simply impossible to understand multiple areas deeply.

>
Do want - creating a to-read list from here on, this comes in second place after Sun and Steel.

yes i agree absolutely. i never intend for people to read every book on the lists i make. i haven't read most of the stuff i put in them. the point though is to give those people who do have a deep interest in a particular subject (i try to make ones on topics people on Veeky Forums seem to be interested in) easy access to book titles. the hope is that they'll read the books that interest them most on the list and then are able to pass on more recommendations to others on Veeky Forums.

the other idea behind the charts is "didactic" you could say. it's to show that many historians write on historical subjects, that they have opposing views, and that there is no single, "clean" narrative behind history. its a rebuttal to people on here who claim that academia is "marxist" and that there is something evil about "revisionism," when the craft of history is inherently about taking into account new interpretations and new evidence (i.e. revisions).

it seems, though, that people get intimidated and confused by such a big list, which was never my intention. i try to organize the works into smaller categories, and i always put a section on introductory/general works for people who just want a synthesis of the period in the title. it's imperfect , however, as i often jumble up categories by mistake. I've also tried tagging other charts to identify the "beginner" books in a chart, so maybe i'll do that more. if i have more time in the future i'll also revisit the charts and cut them down to 5 to 10 essential works.

I admire your work, user, godspeed. Have you got a chart on the 100 year war, on anything that centers around the 12-15th century? It might be my favorite historical period, p-partly because neat armours and the battles fought then.

Are you drawing these up from Oxford bibliographies? Some of them seem familiar.

t. Reference librarian

thanks user. the (You)s are appreciated
i've got this on the war of the roses, and charts on medieval peasantry, genoa, minor italian city states, brittany and medieval ireland, all of which overlap with that period

they all are
all the pastebins are oxford bibliographies

i only make the format cleaner and collate works into themes i find are more appealing to Veeky Forums

Andrew Johnson: Worst President or Why Impeachment Will Never Happen Even If The Government Really Wants It

This book is the same. He is interviewing people in China. It's a good book for even someone who is secular because it exposes a lot of BS that goes on in China.

>even someone who is secular
Are you implying there are people on this board that are not secular?

This is an excellent read. The Penguin Classic edition (the newer one, which I read) will provide a good introduction to Anna's bias and other such issues as well as giving good footnotes.

Jesus reading these pastebins is an eyesore for me.

Can you dump a chart on "World War II, Russo-German War"?

Is there a difference between OP's and this one?

Gonna read it then, thanks user

good question I've never noticed this before

yes it's another reason why i make the bibliographies into charts kek. I'll try to make wwii eastern front one but i already have a lot of others to make so bear with me

separate english and american editions or publishers, i think. the content is the same im 100% sure

kek, I look forward to it lad

>pastebin.com/u/jonstond2
sorry I went to work, thanks for the pastebins it'll be enough

>Just read volumes and volumes of communist literature!

maybe i should remake the chart because the point wasn't to emphasize reading communist literature.... i usually order all the charts in this order: reference works->primary sources->secondary sources

Oh I C

The best book I've read on the phoenicians to date.

what do you like about it? what makes it better than other books on the phoenicians?

Speaking of ships and pirates,
any historical books on real life pirates during 1600-1700s?

Hit me with any of those please, i'm a huge medieval fag

hi

>ctrl+f
>no huizinga
Dissapointed

Just finish reading pic related. Enjoyed it a lot and it's a decent overview of the man, although some sections of his life felt neglected. I also read Robin Lane Fox's "Alexander the Great" a year ago which was an excellent read.

Request: Anything on Meiji era Japan

The depth in maritime and commerce aspects. Also the fact it provides much information on a topic rarely covered, Pre-Punic Western Phoenicians.

intranet.ames.cam.ac.uk/jbib/

Excellent Cadavers is a very good book on the Sicilian mafia in this vein