I've noticed that a fair few of you are pretty knowledgeable on your history. Now, I know the basics, and learn bits and pieces here and there, but I'd like to know how you all get your facts from. Doesn't have to be any particular era, just name some books and sources, even your uni reading lists if you like, or just a good introduction.

Ooh now there's a question.

I've just always been interested and don't know how to answer it. I was taught history at school and college, and studied it in uni, and after that I continued by reading books. Lots of books.

I tend to read heavy in-depth ones that make others cringe in fear.

I like heavy and in-depth though. Just mention any that you particularly like, or any that give a good overview of an era.

Horrible Histories are ace! I didn't get rid of mine until I was *cough*22*cough*

My favourite periods are Prehistory, Roman Empire, Tudors, 1960s Britain (that's the bit we got modern! It's ace! There's a whole slew of important acts and also lots of fun political diaries for reading!), the Industrial Revolution, and British economic history.

But unlike Mark and Liz I am terrible at reading non-fiction without making notes, which rather scuppers it for bedtime reading. I tend to get an idea in my head then have to go off and find out if I'm right. I'll literally sit up in bed and say "But if I was a Mesolithic man I wouldn't just start farming one year and base my survival on something I heard about!" and then have to go look up if there's evidence for experimentation. (There is very little eveidence for anything!)

Hee well it depends on your interests. Mine have morphed over time.

I used to be purely military history, specifically the Great Patriotic War of World War II. I was greatly into tanks and mobile warfare in uni (hence my second 'hero' in the heroes thread). Any general book on the period would probably work.

After uni I tried to expand my knowledge a bit and not long after 'got monarchy' (kind of like getting religion ) and so read some books on the early modern period to get a better idea of the origins of Britain's institutions: The War of the Three Kingdoms by Trevor Royle was quite in-depth and interesting.

I also studied the First World War a bit, and I remained interested in Russia. The Fate of the Romanovs by Greg King tells the story of the last 100 days of the Russian Imperial Dynasty. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 by Orlando Figes was an amazing book.

Moreover, they also taught me the futility and destructiveness of revolution.

I tried reading more on the development of the British Constitution, and came across Lines of Most Resistance: The Lords, the Tories and Ireland by Edward Pearce as an account of the stupidity of nationalism, the cause of Irish Home Rule, and the origins of the Parliament Acts.

One of my personal bibles is Monarchy and the Constitution by Professor Vernon Bogdanor. It's not a historical book, but an analytical one, and discusses the utility of an active monarch in a state as opposed to a president. It was an amazing read.

More recently I have read The Case Against the Democratic State by Gordon Graeme, which sets out to destroy the arguments and assumptions people tend to put forward about democracy and taught me to use democracy as a preferred reference and tool, not a guiding principle.

I also read Bloody Foreigners by Robert Winder, for a history of immigration in Britain since Roman times. Absolutely amazing and completely undermines many people's assumptions about Britain's cultural heritage.

I think that'll do for now

quote:

Originally posted by Domitella:
But unlike Mark and Liz I am terrible at reading non-fiction without making notes, which rather scuppers it for bedtime reading. I tend to get an idea in my head then have to go off and find out if I'm right. I'll literally sit up in bed and say "But if I was a Mesolithic man I wouldn't just start farming one year and base my survival on something I heard about!" and then have to go look up if there's evidence for experimentation. (There is very little eveidence for anything!)

I did go through a brief phase of trying to notate every nonfiction book I read but it ended up quadrupling the length of time it took me to read. I now only doing for absolutely gold books full of amazing wisdom. I did it for Monarchy and the Constitution and partly for another book called Menace of the Herd, or Procrustes at Large until I realised he was talking reactionary crap, and I wish I'd done it for The Case Against the Democratic State; it was a short book, so it's not such an issue, mind.

hm.

I would start with some general information on an area you think you might be interested.

ie: history of renaissance, enlightenment, roman history, greek history etc.

honestly, i could recommened a tonne of reading but if you don't find it interesting, you aren't going to absorb anything.

As well, generally pick some primary sources from the period and have a read as well.

What periods do you think you'd be interested in? Also what country? What type of history (military, cultural, political?)

I started reading about history becaseu i jsut thougtht it was like reading a story book about stuff that actually happened, and it was basically a slacker class if you could jsut remeber the story. If you like the long and in-depth books, i suggest that you get into some of the more notable historians and here is where i let you know that my interests lie almost entirely in modern history (1800 - 1990's), well i ignore the last two decades as i don't think they are historical enough to have objectivity in their recordings. I love primary sources, read winston churchill's account autobiographies, the Rommel papers (thanks Mark) and if you can stomache it, you can read some kissinger and some presidential auto bios! For jsut a general understanding of the Cold War you might want to read J Keegans the long telegram, its an article that appeared in foreign affairs about how to deal with the rising danger of the USSR, one of the most re-printed articles of all tiems. There is also the napoleonic wars starting in the 1800's which are really interesting and you need to knowthe culture of the time to get a lot of what happenns, i suggest the Naoleonic Wars: Wellington's army and the The Napoleonic Wars (CAssell does a ton of war companion books) then wtch the movie Waterloo! For WW2 i love Max Hastings, and the Imperial War Museum has a whole line of ifferent books all of which are good, and one of my absilute favorite books is the origins of ww2, it was a text i had but it made the whole war far more complex if you understand what heppened before the conflict ( and you gt to laugh at chamberlain who is incidently my friend's great uncle). If you like historical fiction, try the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell, as he is a notable historian as well as fiction writer, DON'T WATCH THE MOVIES FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY (watch for sean bean). There are more but I am at work and have taken too much time writing this already

If it's British history you're after I think Simon Schama's TV series was excellent. Might be available from the library on DVD and it has been repeated on UKTV History I believe.

Lilia! Dude! Paragraphs!

And you're doing a PhD?

(kidding)

i have to write a bit then look like i am doing work then write a bit moer, no time for that unnecessary enter key!

Or shift

Andrew Marr's History of Britain series is amazingly good, if you want to add it in with Schama to get the political angles.

Asa Briggs is old, but really solid general history, especially for the Victorian era. Very easy to read.

capitalization is an annoyance. I have foresworn it when internetting and texting, despite insisting on accurate grammar and punctuation otherwise, as far as I'm able.

and, really, I was only interested in history as a means to understanding stories. (I didn't realize that until I was half-way through college.) I'm a big believer in primary source documents and have always eschewed textbooks and historical nonfiction. they bore me. you can learn a lot about a time period from the literature it produces, and it's a lot more entertaining.

oh! oh! there's an ace book on how history is taught called History Lessons, but I can't remember who it's by. Anyway, it's ace and really interesting! It has a bit about the British obsession with teaching kids to analyse primary sources.

I get very bored with regular history books, but will chew through even the most dry biographies with great joy. So I've decided that I'm going to learn about history by reading a bunch of biographies. (Sadly, this project is being delayed by John Adams having such a freaking heavy biography. I can't take a ten pound book on the train!)

Anyway, it sounds like you like regular history books, but it works for me.

Edit to add: The St. John's college great books program isn't exactly what you're looking for, but you might be interested in seeing the list anyway: http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/academic/readlist.shtml

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jocelyn,

i love early history. egyptian, greek, and roman. particularily egyptian and greek, since the romans basically took all the greek's good stuff and changed it minutely.
i'm a huge mythology buff when it comes to greek, and i can follow norse mythology to an extent as well.
my one true history love is greek though. i would love to study greek mythology and history... if only i could pay the bills with that!
s'pose i could be a history prof or something, but thats a lot of school...
i think that the mythology is just as important as the historical facts. through the mythology you can learn how the people of the time thought, the things that interested them, how they dealt with life.
i love how the greek gods are like today's celebrities. superhuman but still flawed. arguing, fighting, being petty, completely impulse-driven for the most part.
i recommend Troy by Adele Geras for reading about the gods' involvement in human life, as well as the essential Iliad and Odyssey.

Oh dear. THat's a large question.

I, um, have degrees in history. I have like 8 shelves just of history books. I can't pick just one! merfle.

And I use wikipedia for dates.

But, a really good read is "The Coffee House: a cultural history" by Markman Ellis and "Scotland's Black Death: the Foul Death of the English" by K Jillings.

Pick from Renaissance Scotland, 18th c. Scotland, 18th c. british material culture, colonial/early America and I'll give a longer reading list (sorry, I have no ability to focus outside of work)

@ green robot - yet another poster who needs to learn the paragraph/space's rule, honestly I never make it past the first sentence then the dyslexia kicks in and it looks like blerg!

I tend to read fiction set in historical settings, sure it's biast but tends to be funny as hell and if you find something interesting you can do further research

I heartily reccomend Neal Stephenson, his books are ace.

Also I find due to travelling I pick up history much easier than from a book, even if it is from a travel book like lonely planet etc.

Also, once you get a good grip on the history you can try some revisionist history with the What If series, very interesting, and shows you how the weirdest things are monumentally influential. That and it is an intersting thing to ponder what if the persians had won marathon?

quote:

Originally posted by green-robot:
my one true history love is greek though. i would love to study greek mythology and history... if only i could pay the bills with that!
s'pose i could be a history prof or something, but thats a lot of school...

if only you could pay the bills with that....