Books What Are You Reading?

[WolfBear]

James Mavor's An Economic History of Russia (initially published in 1914, republished in 1925), both Volume 1 and Volume 2, are pretty good:

https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/mavor/EconomicHistoryRussiavol1.pdf

https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/mavor/EconomicHistoryRussiavol2.pdf

I'm actually surprised that such an extremely detailed two-part book about Russia's economic history was published in the West shortly before the start of World War I. James Mavor, the author of this book, was a Scottish-Canadian economist who died in 1925:

James Mavor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

@Husky_Khan What do you think? And do you know of any other extremely old historical economic books? Especially from the pre-WWI era? I don't mean like Karl Marx's work but rather economic histories of various countries.

 

[WolfBear]

This 1918 book by Lothrop Stoddard about the stakes of World War I, which clearly, neatly, succinctly, and in great detail summarized every territorial dispute from World War I, is an excellent read:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044050776525&view=1up&seq=1

While Lothrop Stoddard was a racist, this book of his is nevertheless pretty good. Maybe it's because it primarily (albeit not exclusively) deals with Europeans, but in any case, this shows that even a bad apple can sometimes write something good.

 

[bintananth]

Recent bits in this thread made the novel No Hero For The Kaiser pop into my head. Two people just got threadbans for derailing and I'd rather not see yet another one of my posts get sent to the Bintananth Bin, so ...

It's basically the children's book analogue of All Quiet On The Western Front which also got banned by Nazi Germany for having an anti-war message.

The main character is an orphaned Polish teenager named Jan who basically gets adopted by a German artillery unit in 1914.

It ends with the Germans - who are now on the Western Front - offering him German citizenship and an army uniform in 1916, at which point he just up and disappears ... never to be seen again.

The German titles are: "Der Junge, der seinen Geburtstag vergaß" (The boy who forgot his birthday) - current - and "Der Schädel des Negerhäuptlings Makaua" (The skull of the negro chief Makaua) - original.

I've asked my parents to look for our copy so I can read it again.

 

[Husky_Khan]

@Husky_Khan What do you think? And do you know of any other extremely old historical economic books? Especially from the pre-WWI era? I don't mean like Karl Marx's work but rather economic histories of various countries.

Actually sounds pretty interesting. Might be too niche for me. I never read much economic history, I read more history of economic thought which was more interesting to me anyhiow.

I did the standard binging of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Wealth of Nations but mostly through the version edited by Robert Heilbroner, The Essential Adam Smith.

The Essential Adam Smith

The sheer strength of his great work, The Wealth of Nat…

www.goodreads.com

Robert Heilbroner also wrote The Worldly Philosophers (1953) which was a great read on the lives of those economists who latter helped formulate classical economics.

The Worldly Philosophers

The Worldly Philosophers not only enables us to see mor…

www.goodreads.com

 

[WolfBear]

@Husky_Khan You might enjoy this:

My Diary at Conference of Paris - vol 4 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

David Hunter Miller My Diary. At the Conference of Paris. With Documents. Volume IV. Documents 216-304

archive.org

These are The Inquiry official recommendations for the post-World War I peace settlement, starting from Alsace-Lorraine and stretching to all other territorial disputes that are involved in World War I:

The Inquiry - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You can also see the titles of some of the reports that The Inquiry members wrote for the US government here:

https://findingaids.loc.gov/exist_collections/ead3pdf/mss/2011/ms011161.pdf

 

[49ersfootball]

I loved reading Soul of Battle and really enjoyed the story of Epamonidas and how he managed to lead those country bumpkin Thebans to help take apart the radically different society that was Sparta with its yuge helot/slave based economy and secret police and all that jazz.

I think his most iconic book is still Carnage and Culture which I would put right up there with Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers in being just amazing 'big' world history style books which explain how the world kind of shaped into what it is today. I'd also include Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel but I wasn't big on it though I can appreciate the scope and scholarship.

Reading the autobiography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States 😎

#LBJALLTHEWAY

 

[The Whispering Monk]

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; a Christmas present!

 

[WolfBear]

@Husky_Khan You might enjoy this:

My Diary at Conference of Paris - vol 4 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

David Hunter Miller My Diary. At the Conference of Paris. With Documents. Volume IV. Documents 216-304

archive.org

These are The Inquiry official recommendations for the post-World War I peace settlement, starting from Alsace-Lorraine and stretching to all other territorial disputes that are involved in World War I:

The Inquiry - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

You can also see the titles of some of the reports that The Inquiry members wrote for the US government here:

https://findingaids.loc.gov/exist_collections/ead3pdf/mss/2011/ms011161.pdf

@stevep Do you want to see the official US government recommendations for the post-World War I peace settlement? Then here you go (right above).

 

[stevep]

@stevep Do you want to see the official US government recommendations for the post-World War I peace settlement? Then here you go (right above).

Interesting thanks. Only had time for a brief look but some differences from what is normally considered, such as Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands to Belgium, and a number of the decisions in the east. The idea of a much larger Lithuania combined with Poland as well. Plus possibly a Ukrainian state. Could have been that much better than OTL but of course the Bolsheviks won out.

 

[WolfBear]

Interesting thanks. Only had time for a brief look but some differences from what is normally considered, such as Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands to Belgium, and a number of the decisions in the east. The idea of a much larger Lithuania combined with Poland as well. Plus possibly a Ukrainian state. Could have been that much better than OTL but of course the Bolsheviks won out.

Steve, if you like, you can also take a look at the official (but much shorter) US government commentary on the 14 Points:

Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, Volume I - Office of the Historian

history.state.gov 3.0 shell

history.state.gov

 

[WolfBear]

This book about Europe's national states of mind during World War I is also very interesting:

Present-day Europe, its national states of mind : Stoddard, Lothrop, 1883-1950 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

5 p. l., 3-322 p. 22 cm

archive.org

 

[WolfBear]

This book about Europe's national states of mind during World War I is also very interesting:

Present-day Europe, its national states of mind : Stoddard, Lothrop, 1883-1950 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

5 p. l., 3-322 p. 22 cm

archive.org

The fact that this book was written by a racist and a segregationist simply means that even someone who is a bad apple can sometimes write good books. It helps that his book here was primarily about Europeans, possibly.

Interesting thanks. Only had time for a brief look but some differences from what is normally considered, such as Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands to Belgium, and a number of the decisions in the east. The idea of a much larger Lithuania combined with Poland as well. Plus possibly a Ukrainian state. Could have been that much better than OTL but of course the Bolsheviks won out.

Worth noting that The Inquiry suggested that Ukraine should have Crimea so that it could get better sea access.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Read Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea by Noah Andre Trudeau who I assume has no relation to the corrupt Communist Kleptocrat in charge of Kanadia.

I really liked the book. As expected, it was about Sherman's famous March during the American Civil War from Atlanta to Savannah from November 15th to January 21st, well after Sherman's successful capture of the port city. The first part of the book discussed the strategy and original formation of the idea that Sherman had of marching out from Atlanta on a campaign to the Coastline instead of confronting (or rather chasing) the Confederate Army of John Bell Hood and instead leaving the Confederate Army to pursue its offensives into Tennessee without Sherman's Army interfering.

Then the subsequent meat of the book deals with a day by day explanation of many of the events ongoing in the theater. It is literally divided into individual days, often involving what happened with each 'Wing' of Sherman's Army as it advanced through Georgia and included daily maps (the maps were kind of simple and I felt could've been more detailed) as well as the actual weather reports which was interesting, since the March did take place during the Winter.

Along with the macro discussion of what the higher level commanders on both sides were doing, along with their troop movements, the book also extensively referenced primary source documents including quoting extensively from Union and Confederate soldiers as well as local civilians diaries, journals, correspondence as well as newspaper articles, primarily local Southern ones. What's interesting is how the firsthand accounts at the time changed with later writings and statements made by those who were involved in the affair years and decades after it occurred and how embellished the claims became, for better or worse (usually the latter).

Lot of interesting anecdotes sprinkled through the book as well such as when Sherman's Army captured the Georgian State Capitol of Milledgeville.

Very amusing.

All in all it was a highly readable and for me, engrossing page turner. I kept wanting to read what happened next which is impressive as there were very few battles that occurred... but everyday there is a new town encountered, another stream or river to be crossed and all of the unique encounters and POV's that arise from it that was interesting to read about. Good Civil War history. Might not learn anything new on the grand level, but the depth of knowledge would be enhanced by reading this book about Sherman's Famous March to the Sea.

 

[stephen the barbarian]

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
by Tom Holland

a narrative on the foundations of western morality and how the very idea is rooted in Christian theology.

i just finished it. most of it is solid, but i think he tried too hard to defend socialism as a legit off shoot of Christian thought rather than a cancerous growth.

 

[TheRejectionist]

Read Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea by Noah Andre Trudeau who I assume has no relation to the corrupt Communist Kleptocrat in charge of Kanadia.

I really liked the book. As expected, it was about Sherman's famous March during the American Civil War from Atlanta to Savannah from November 15th to January 21st, well after Sherman's successful capture of the port city. The first part of the book discussed the strategy and original formation of the idea that Sherman had of marching out from Atlanta on a campaign to the Coastline instead of confronting (or rather chasing) the Confederate Army of John Bell Hood and instead leaving the Confederate Army to pursue its offensives into Tennessee without Sherman's Army interfering.

Then the subsequent meat of the book deals with a day by day explanation of many of the events ongoing in the theater. It is literally divided into individual days, often involving what happened with each 'Wing' of Sherman's Army as it advanced through Georgia and included daily maps (the maps were kind of simple and I felt could've been more detailed) as well as the actual weather reports which was interesting, since the March did take place during the Winter.

Along with the macro discussion of what the higher level commanders on both sides were doing, along with their troop movements, the book also extensively referenced primary source documents including quoting extensively from Union and Confederate soldiers as well as local civilians diaries, journals, correspondence as well as newspaper articles, primarily local Southern ones. What's interesting is how the firsthand accounts at the time changed with later writings and statements made by those who were involved in the affair years and decades after it occurred and how embellished the claims became, for better or worse (usually the latter).

Lot of interesting anecdotes sprinkled through the book as well such as when Sherman's Army captured the Georgian State Capitol of Milledgeville.

Very amusing.

All in all it was a highly readable and for me, engrossing page turner. I kept wanting to read what happened next which is impressive as there were very few battles that occurred... but everyday there is a new town encountered, another stream or river to be crossed and all of the unique encounters and POV's that arise from it that was interesting to read about. Good Civil War history. Might not learn anything new on the grand level, but the depth of knowledge would be enhanced by reading this book about Sherman's Famous March to the Sea.

From what I gathered, Sherman basically did/said "Yeah let's blitzkrieg everywhere in the enemy territory!".

 

[TheRejectionist]

Found this book exists @Husky_Khan

 

[TheRejectionist]

@ATP @Batrix2070 @Buba found also finally that zombie alternate history I remember one of you guys talking about it.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Read A Continent Explodes: Decolonization, Civil War and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-55 written by Ronald Spector who as an aside is probably one of my more favorite popular military history authors. This might be the third book of his I read and it was a pretty good read. Like the title says its basically a military history of Post World War Two Asia with a particular focus on China, Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia. It is a bit curious how Malaysia is barely mentioned as well as the postwar conflicts in the Philippines and Burma and the like.

I've read a fair bit on Post-War Asia as far as popular military history goes, so while not as much was new, there was a lot that fleshed out my memories of other things I've read. The accounts most interesting to me concerned the Chinese Civil War as the Author actually went into a fair bit of depth that I appreciated reading and gave a large bit of geographical sense to the conflict and how the Chinese Communists managed to rebound from the dire straights they almost found themselves in the opening states of the Chinese Civil War.

The other interesting component of the book was the Indonesian War of Independence and to me, just how rapidly the scales shifted (several times it seems) in the conflict as the Dutch engaged the Indonesian Rebels. Also how fratricidal the conflict actually was, with the pro-Independence Indonesians often targeting mixed race Asians, Christians, Communists, Chinese-Indonesians and the like etc. Also much like the conflict in French Indochina, how threadbare the Dutch colonial forces actually were. And on the same note, how grossly unprepared the Indonesians were as well.

The other interesting thing was the political dimension and just seeing the evolution of European and American (as well as Soviet and Chinese) policymaking and diplomacy and how much events had shifted it in a short period of time. The other asset was how the Author took the time to introduce and set up a context around particular individuals but also particular military units. It was interesting for example learning where the various formations of the Korean War that the Chinese threw into their Winter Offensives actually hailed from. It was actually more than just 'Chinese Nationalist prisoners pressed into service' as popular revisionist histories seem to state for example.

But it was also interesting to learn about how the US Marines scratched together a Provisional Brigade to send to Korea in order to save the reputation of the US Marine Corps, or the many failings of the French to half heartedly create a Vietnamese National Army and so on and so forth.

This helped make the book far more engrossing, especially as it tread over history that I have already read a fair bit about, such as the Korean War and the (French) War in Vietnam for example.

Overall would recommend. Easy and engaging military history.

 

[Zyobot]

Been searching for resources on Taoism, and have started paging through its seminal works online.

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is the big one found on the shelves of every American bookstore, for which I'm relying on Stanley Rosenthal's 1984 translation (here).

Equally insightful is the lesser-known work of Chuang Tzu, which is much more extensive and has been translated by Victor H. Mair (here). If anything, Mair holds the Chuang Tzu itself to be the superior work by far, happily heaping glowing praise on its breadth of writings and the wisdom they bring to somewhat humorless, ho-hum Western audiences living in the present day.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Just finished catching up on Curiosity Killed The Schoolgirl and found it enjoyably surreal.

It looks and acts like it's a simple slice-of-life anime comedy but the stuff that happens to the two friends and the situations they get into are so bizarre it doesn't really get stale.

Like, the latest chapter starts with the simple premise that the schoolgirls are visiting an amusement park. Then they discover mascots aren't costumes, they all really look like that, because amusement parks are all controlled by subterranean animal people who are gradually taking over the surface by turning the entire world into a series of interconnected amusement parks where they can roam the surface without being seen as alien. The schoolgirls managed to injure the only one who was stopping them from accelerating the program and conquering earth in one night...