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Great History Books (covering more than one era)

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Fernand Braudel: The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the Age of Phillip II

More data than you can shake a stick at, written largely while he was a guest of the Reich (POW) during WW II.

Robert Asprey: War in the Shadows

Every guerrilla war between 700 BC and 1993 AD.

Roger Ford: The Grim Reaper

The complete history of the machine gun
 
Some favourites of mine:

Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C. by Peter Green
Very well written biography. would also recommend it to ppl that dont read alot of history books, the interesting subject plus the way Green writes makes it very accessible i think, very enjoyable.

The Greco - Persian Wars by Peter Green
Aother good one by Green. From Marathon to Mycale.

The Ottoman Centuries by Lord Kinross
Pretty Detailed account of the ottomans, mostly from the Sultans POW, good introduction.
 
It might be an idea to separate out generally interesting history books from books that relate to (say) EU2. Anyone fancy grouping the books selected into time periods at the beginning of this thread? Some interesting books there all right - I definitely have some more reading material to have a look at!

Also, FYI, Millennium by Anthony Coleman is an adaptation of the original book by Fernández-Armesto
 
derb said:
It might be an idea to separate out generally interesting history books from books that relate to (say) EU2. Anyone fancy grouping the books selected into time periods at the beginning of this thread? Some interesting books there all right - I definitely have some more reading material to have a look at!
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There are older threads in each individual forum for good history books concerning those periods (i.e. pre-1419, 1419-1819, and post-1819). This thread is intended to be used only for books that don't fall into a particular time period, although many people haven't been using it properly. Maybe I'll prune the thread...
 
My favorites all of which I own,
"Atlas of Military Strategy" the art, theory and practice of war 1618-1878

Time-Life "The Civil War" 28 volume Set

"Brassey's Dictionary of Battles" 3,500 years of conflict

"The Battle Book" 1469BC to Present

Facts on File "Encyclopedia of World History"
 
San Guo Zhi-Chen Shou

Collins Historical Atlas of World History-Unkown

There you go. Also San Gou Zhi has a book version called
San Guo Yan Yi-by Luo guanzhong later revised by Mao something
 
minority said:
San Guo Yan Yi (Romance/Dramatization of the Three Kingdoms)

absolutely epic and a great story,though with a few exagerations
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You read that. If so you'd like this forum

im Gongsunzanlives there.
 
Unsure if it's been mentioned, but I would recommend Victor Davis Hansen's Carnage and Culture . Hansen traces the development of Westen military power from the Greeks to the modern era. His thesis is that Europe had triumphed over the rest of the world due to the development of a uniquely 'western' approach to warfare. Some of the battles examined are Lepanto, the Zulu War, Tet, Poitiers, Salamis, etc.. I found it both a compelling and unique argument
 
The Fall of Constantinople by Steven Runciman. Brings tears to my eyes.
 
Emre Yigit said:
The Fall of Constantinople by Steven Runciman. Brings tears to my eyes.
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Does Runciman presuppose a considerable amount of knowledge about the era in that one? I was reading his book on the schism not too long ago and found myself thinking, "Well, sure, I know what the filoque clause is all about, but would your general reader?"
 
tpc said:
Does Runciman presuppose a considerable amount of knowledge about the era in that one? I was reading his book on the schism not too long ago and found myself thinking, "Well, sure, I know what the filoque clause is all about, but would your general reader?"
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No, it's a romping good read.
 
Not sure this qualifies to the discussion, or earns much respect in its suggestion...but I think it deserves mention--not a pointed or analysis with any direction--one might say the greatest example of one-dimensional tedium! ;)

"The People's Chronology" James Trager
 
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"Snorres Kongesagaer" a book about Vikings from Scandinavia. "Paris " by Antony Beevor and Artemis Cooper a book about Paris and France in general after WW2, if you like De Gaulle you should probably read this :) . "Gulag by" Anne Apllebaum a book about Soviet Union and its "work camps".
 
General Jac said:
"Snorres Kongesagaer" a book about Vikings from Scandinavia.
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Er.

I think it is more accurate to term it a series of assembled sagas of the norwegian kings from the mythic past to the high middle ages.

All books by Runciman are good reads - he is a brilliant writer, although his work is dated these days (most of it was written over fifty years ago, after all).

My definite world history in english assembly is Palmer & Colton's History of the Modern World. Old as sin, but unlike the republications of Runciman's works, the succeeding editions of HotMW get heavily edited and new views are added (or old views modified). Only really good at the post-medieval world, though (before the reformation gets only short chapters, as the book title would suggest), and very euro/westerncentric. It' s been a while since the last edition, though, so there might be time to look for a new mammoth modern history book.
 
Dansk Udenrigspolitisk historie (The History of Danish Foreign politics). It consists of 6 books (with start in 700 A.D. until present day) and try to tell about what role Denmark has played from the dark ages until now, and of course how Denmark has changed its foreign politics druing that time span. (great if you want to know about Danish history)

Den Menneskelige faktor (The Human Factor) its a book about the problems when humans is in control of machines. It tells the story of some of the worst accidents in history (e.g when USS Vincennes shot a Iranian civil airplane (1988), the collision on Tenerife in 77') when the machines, or the systems/computers, worked fine but when the humans in control of them failed to oprerate them. just great!
 
Warrior Race: A history of the British at war; Lawrence James

Fortunately the book appears to have been written pre-9/11 and thus doesn't suffer from the PC BS about the things the British Empire did, although there isn't much about the colonial wars of the late 19th century.

It covers effectively Britain at War from the Roman Invasions through to modern times, although offeres a lot of narative on the Napoleonic>>ww2 era. The book isn't so much a narrative, more of a look at a historians note book, filled with anecdotes and statistics as well as interesting bits of usefull information. The Earlier chapters seem to jump around in the timeline, trying to avoid focusing on events, but instead focusing on the Briton's and their social interactions.

While not everyone's cup of tea I found it a good read and a welcome break from the books I generally read about ww2.

Talking of Britain and Empire, im going to get some tea :rolleyes:
 
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