List 5 Essential History Books On Your Shelf

[Seneca]

My list, not in order, and subject to change:

1. Sleepwalking Through History: America In The Reagan Years- Haynes Johnson

2. The Buried Mirror: Reflections On Spain and The New World - Carlos Fuentes

3. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong - James Loewen

4. A History Of Britain (All 3 Volumes) - Simon Schama

5. The American Revolution (A Collection of Primary Source Material) - published by The Library Of America

[punpirate]

1. Maybe not essential...

... but they're strong in mind:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer

A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn

Unequal Protection, Thom Hartmann

Reagan's America, Garry Wills

Dark Sun, Richard Rhodes

[trof]

46. "A People's History of the United States", Howard Zinn: absolutely!

[unsavedtrash]

2. my five though I could have listed quite a few more

1. Cradle of Freedom by Frye Gaillard
2. The Science Course You Should Have Had by Dr. Ed Passerini
3. A Century of Genocide by Eric D. Weitz
4. Encyclopedia of Genocide Volumes I&II edited by Israel W. Charny
5. The History and Sociology of Genocide by Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn

[yellowdogintexas]

3. Costain's "The Plantaganets" 5 volumes

The Soong Dynasty..
A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchmann
Heritage: A History of the Jews by Abba Eban
Iberia (part history part travelogue) by Michener

this is also subject to change. I used to read more history than I do now. I read to escape more than anything else, anymore.

[CubsFan1982]

4. Among others...

The Second World War - Sir Winston Churchill

A History of Britain (Volume 1) - Simon Schama

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples - Sir Winston Churchill

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years - Carl Sandburg

Truman - David McCullough

[Lannes]

5. Some essentials for me anyway...

Tammany Hall by MR Werner

Columbia History of the World

The Campaigns of Napoleon by David G Chandler

The Lives of Great Composers by Harold C. Schonberg

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris

[sasquatch]

8. The Campaigns of Napoleon is a book I'd like to read

[Lannes]

9. Its amazing

Very in depth.Its considered the definitive book on his battlefield tactics.

[JohnKleeb]

6. Hmmmmmm lets see

1. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

2. Gulag, A History by Anne Applebaum

3. People's History of the US by Howard Zinn

4. The Longest Day by Corneilus Ryan

5. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose

[sasquatch]

7. Here's my favorite history books

The Frontiersman- Allen Eckart.
Twilight of Empire- Allen Eckart.
A People's History of the United States- Howard Zinn.
A brief History of Western Civilization- Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien.
A People and a Nation- Norton, Katzman, Blight, Chudacoff, Logevall, Bailey, Paterson, Tuttle.

[baldguy]

10. I don't read a lot if history, but...

In no particular order:

Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

The Years Of Lyndon Johnson By Robert Caro

The Clinton Wars by Sidney Blumenthal

How the Irish Saved Civilization by THOMAS CAHILL

[evlbstrd]

14. Cahill's book is great.

And I should include that on my list.
Not just for the further glorification of my Irish ancestors, but for the description of the ideas and attitudes that led to the fall of Rome and the rise of the Church in the Dark Ages. I also didn't know before this book that the Irish Church had to be suppressed after Patrick, when Rome regained its power over the continent. Apparently, it blended the Irish "pagan" beliefs too effectively with the Gospels.

[jobycom]

11. Mine's heavy on the Middle Ages

Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error-- Emanuel La Roi Ladurie.

Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality--John Boswell

Holy Feast and Holy Fast-- Carolyn Bynum (Good feminist history)

A History of Islamic Societies--Ira M Lapidus

Orientalism--Edward Said (Not really history, but an important book for historians, anyway.)

[kodi]

12. similar to many here with zinn and shirer

1. "the history of mankind" 7 volumes(NATO scholars collaboration)

2. edward gibbon's "decline and fall of the roman empire" 3 volumes

3. zinn's "peoples history of the US"

4. shirer's "rise and fall of the third reich"

5. plutarch's "lives" 2 volumes.

three more essential ones,

6. oswald spengler's "decline of the west" 2 volumes

7. dampier's "history of science"

8. shelby foote's "civil war" 3 volumes

and of course, jon stewart's "America" .. but only for the nekkid pix of justices o'conner and ginsburg

[evlbstrd]

13. The Story of the Irish Race, Seamus McManus,

The Federalist Papers
Magna Carta (does that count?)
Socilaism, Past and Future; The Other America, Michael Harrington
Listening to America, Bill Moyers
Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

[non sociopath skin]

15. At the moment, mine would be ...

The Roosevelt Biographies (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt/Theodore Rex) - Edmund Morris

The English Civil War Trilogy (The King's War/The King's Peace/The Trial of Charles I) - C.V. Wedgewood

The Strange Death of Liberal England - George Dangerfield

Reconstruction- Eric Foner

The Victorians - A.N. Wilson

The Skin

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

16. OK, here we go.

The French Revolution, by Thomas Carlyle
John Adams, by David McCullough (yes, I know its technically a biography)
The War with Hannibal (from the Hostory of Rome), Livy
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (abridged edition), Edward Gibbon
America, The Book (from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn (I don't have my copy anymore, but I've read it)
The Bible

[YankeyMCC]

22. I just have to ask

The Bible in a list of history books?

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

27. Yes, I'm a Christian. Even if you're not a believer,

you have to admit that the Bible records historical events.

[YankeyMCC]

29. Ah...no I don't.

It's not a historical document.

An important piece of literature in many cultures. But not a historical document. I would think not even for believers, even if they believe some of the events are literal historical depictions seems to me that's not the point of a holy book of any religion.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

38. I was saying that it contains history.

I;m a believer, but you don't have to be to admit that it contains history.

[YankeyMCC]

43. I'm not a believer and I don't HAVE to admit anything

particularly when I don't see any evidence that it is true.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

66. OK, fine. No need to get upset.

Clearly no one's forcing you to agree with me on this, it was just an expression.

[YankeyMCC]

68. I was just responding in kind

[Bridget Burke]

69. NO history book is "unbiased"....

The Bible recounts events that may or may not be literally true in every detail. But many of the stories can be confirmed--or amplified--through archaeology & studies of other sources.

Even departures from "truth" can reveal valuable information. Why were the stories told in that particular way?

[LanternWaste]

51. Hmmm...

Three classes I took in Classical and Ancient Western Culture (history, not lit) used the bible as primary source material among other ducuments. *Many* books on mid-east or the hisotry of the Israelites cite the Bible many times over.

It is considered a history of the Jewish peoples as orally passed down, re-interpreted and linguistically translated as are almost all historical documents.

It *can* be divested of it's religious content and still maintain a historical validity.

[YankeyMCC]

52. Then a book of the Family tree..

of the ancient greek gods is history too?


There's a big difference between a book that plays a role in history or maybe tells you something about what a culture believed in the past and a book that contains accounts of historical events.

[LanternWaste]

55. "Yeah, that's pretty much a history book..."

I'm merely repeating what the Prof's and a *lot* of bibliographies have told me.

I would assume that if the family tree you referred to was extensive, held a large quantity of a particular cultures traditions, mores, and financial, agricultural, military and trade practices, then I'd probably say (all other things being equal), "Yeah, that's pretty much a history book..."

[YankeyMCC]

60. I'm talking about the family tree of

fictional characters.

There's a big difference between a fictional account and a history.

Fictional stories might provide clues used in historical research, but to call the Bible a historical book you'd also have to include the ancient Greek plays, Shakespeare, Hemingway, etc....

[LanternWaste]

61. But this is all History 101 stuff...

Except the vast majority of the Bible is really nothing more than an oral narrative (non-fiction) eventually written down of the history of the Israelites.

The Book of the Cuisit is considered a primary source of south African classical history. It was originally handed-down/written as a code for the Mavor warriors, but contains such a vast amount of references to the particular tribal culture that is is now considered a primary source for and, in and of itself, a history of the Mavor.

Really, the Bible *is* considered a Primary Source by both secular and religious scholars. There may be fictional stories included within, but one of the jobs of a historian is to to separate the objective from the subjective regardless of what the primary source is. But this is all History 101 stuff...

If you've never taken an advanced history course, try David Mills' "The Use of the Primary Source in Term and Thesis Papers"... it's will give a quick, thumb nailed description/definition (although far too long to go into here) of what a Primary and a Secondary Source is, their uses in scholarly research and and wonderful (although subjective) essay on "What Is History and What is Not".
Very recommended to the casual or armchair historian.


On edit: will checkback in morning. Thanks for your perspective and will give it all due consideration...

[YankeyMCC]

62. You believe it is non-fiction

I don't.

There is so much fiction in it any incidental resemblance to actual events makes the whole thing no more a historical document than any other work of fiction contemporary with the time period being studied.

Of course a historian must pull out as clear a picture as he or she can from any primary source.

And often works of art and fiction are part of that work. There's plenty of historical information in the works of Shakespeare. That doesn't make his plays works of history.

But the bible is not a book of history. It is a piece of cultural literature, it has a large role in human history (at least western cultures) but it is not a work of history.

If any historians study the bible it is in the same way they study works of art and other works of fiction or even non-fiction works on other subjects (not histories). Primary sources can include many things, these are the "clues" I mentioned earlier.

The works other people have listed here are works written as history, attempts to present or interpret historical events. The bible is not a historical work it is a religious work. It's purpose is to spread a religious mythology and ethic not to record or present literal historical events.

Believers might interpret some of the stories as literal but that is a matter of belief not history.

[BurtWorm]

64. I thought the primary source is an actual document from the period.

Thus any Gideon's Bible is not a primary source unless you're studying Gideon's Bibles. But the dead sea scrolls themselves are. And so would any extant scroll from the original Torah, Tanakh or New Testament, if any existed.

[Modem Butterfly]

31. No it doesn't

It records stories that may or may not (more likely not) have happened. But it doesn't record historical events anymore than Aesop's Fables.

[BurtWorm]

34. Um... they're very hard to locate in there.

:freak:

Maybe one of the begats happened.

[trotsky]

36. Like what?

Adam & Eve?
Noah's Ark?
Moses and the Israelites in the desert?
The Crucifiction?

Sure, a lot of the bible's stories are wrapped around true historical events. Good luck extracting the truth from the stories.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

37. Not luck, but faith.

[trotsky]

39. Such as the faith that maybe God will smite Pat Robertson?

Yeah, that's working out REALLY well.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

65. Consider this: Matthew 7:21-23.

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

Robertson's got his coming to him, lest he repent.

[trotsky]

67. Is that history?

Do you have any proof that that will happen? Or do you simply hope it will?

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

74. It's faith. I believe it will happen.

[trotsky]

75. I would rather have something that will fight those bastards here and now.

But maybe that's just me.

[onager]

72. Bwah! About those Israelites...

I spent the beginning of this year working in Egypt. Here's a little evidence of how using the Buy-bull as history can warp and distort real history.

As everybody knows from Exodus...:eyes:

...the Israelites were horribly oppressed slaves in Egypt (even though, according to the Buy-bull account, they owned slaves themselves). After visiting 10 plagues on the Pharoah, including the totally gratuitous Slaughter Of The Egyptian Rug-rats, the Israelites finally crossed the Red Sea on dry land. The Pharoah's pursuing army was drowned.

Wow! Ten plagues that destroyed the national economy, thousands of babies killed overnight, an army destroyed and a Pharoah killed! Man, the Israelites kicked butt! The Egyptians were careful about recording events like the flooding of the Nile and other data. So they MUST have mentioned those Killer Israelites and their Awesome God-Critter somewhere in their histories, right?

Now let's see how many times the Israelites are mentioned in the thousands of years of recorded Egyptian history.

The answer is...ONCE.

The term "Israel" appears on a stelae dating from the reign of Meneptah, son of Ramses II.

It mentions a big military expedition into Palestine that "crushed" Israel.

That's it. No plagues, no dead rug-rats, no parting of the Red Sea. And the Israelites didn't come to the Pharoah, he went to them.

But if you asked 10 average Americans about these events, I bet you at least 9 would respond with The Cecil B. DeMille Version Of Egyptian History. And if you proved otherwise, they'd scream and bleat that it was "historical fact, because it's in the Buy-bull!"

[arwalden]

41. Oh My...

:rofl:

[noamnety]

42. I usually think of history books

as being nonfiction.

If us atheists thought the bible was nonfiction ... then we wouldn't be atheists, would we? ;)

[jonnyblitz]

73. no shit, since when is fiction considered history?

give me a break.

[expatriot]

17. Here are five that are cool on my shelves

perhaps not essential to some people


_Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign of the West_ by Shea & Hess
_The Medieval Underworld_ by Andrew McCall
_Health Care and the Rise of Christianity_ by Dr. Hector Avalos
_Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century_ by Barbara Tuchman
(my favorite)
_Revolutionary Romanticism: A Drunken Boats Anthology_, edited by Max Blechman (A collection of essays on the revolutionary (class-oriented) elements of the Romantic Movement

[LSdemocrat]

18. My fairly 20th Century focused list (one exception)

1. Age of Roosevelt (3 vols.) by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
2. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
3. Robert Kennedy and His Times (2 vols.) by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
4. The Clinton Wars by Sidney Blumenthal
5. The Peculiar Institution by Kenneth Stampp

[Heidi]

19. Five.

"War Against the Weak" by Edwin Black

"Vietnam" by Stanley Karnow

"Black Elk Speaks," John G. Neihardt

"The Complete Writings of Trotsky," four volumes

"Audible Silence: Cy Twombly at DAROS"

[Seneca]

20. For the morning commute

[BlueIris]

21. Sandburg's "Lincoln," "A Brief History of Time," Freud's "Cocaine

Papers"...I could come with two more, but...I think my head is going to explode.

[YankeyMCC]

23. "Lies my Teacher Told Me"

by James Loewen

"Lies across America" also by James Loewen

"Race and Reunion" by David Blight

"Who Owns History" by Eric Fonner

"The Death Penalty: An American History" by Stuart Banner

And just to sneak in one biography:
"Lincoln's Vitues" by by William Miller

[Felix Mala]

24. Essentially my favorites

1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William Shirer
(Gets timelier every time more Republican Theocrats get elected.)

2. With Malice Toward None - Stephen B. Otis

3. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
(It's a historical document in and of itself.)

4. The Black Death - Robert Gotfried
(Demonstrates what happens when fear rules society.)

5. The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius
(I know it has some problems, but history wasn't as disciplined at that time and it's jazzed up with juicy personal information that would be ignored nowadays. This was Graves' primary source for I, Claudius and Claudius, The God.)

[wovenpaint]

25. These are mine

1. History of Art-Jansen
2. Art Across Time-Adams
3. Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee-Brown
4. Our Brother's Keeper - Cahn
5. Book of Knowledge-vintage edition circa 1950's :shrug:

I'm a big fan of libraries-rent and return....but there are so many of the current political history books that I still need to read.....spending too much time here...:hi:

[blindpig]

26. how about six?

in no particular order

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbons

A Forest of Kings, David Freidel & Linda Schele

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown

Outline of History, H G Wells(socialist history!)

War in the Shadows, Robert Asprey

Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T E Lawerence

[BurtWorm]

28. The Metaphysical Club, by Louis Menand

American Aurora, by Richard Rosenfeld
Pol Pot, by Philip Short
Cicero, by Anthony Everitt
The 12 Caesars, by Suetonius

[YankeyMCC]

44. Hey!

Another Metaphysical Club reader.

I was going to list that as well. It is one of my favorite books.

[BurtWorm]

54. I've got to reread it.

I put it back on the top of my reading list because I've been reading a lot about Darwin lately. It's a wonderful book.

[Terran]

30. Some of mine

I don't know how essential they are. Can't think of the authors' names since I'm at work:

Theodore Rex
A Diplomatic History of the United States
Manifest Destiny in American History
A Short History of Japan
The Hour of Our Death (a sociological history of death customs, Phillipe Aries)

[Kellanved]

32. well.

1. Haffner: "Preussen ohne Legende"
2. Haffner : various works ("Defying Hitler", "Germany: Jekyll and Hide", ...)
3. Propylaen Weltgeschichte
4. Propylaen Technikgeschichte
5. Brockhaus Encyclopedia

[onager]

33. An essential one for everybody!

Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds by Charles Mackay.

Written in the mid-nineteenth century, and not a bit old-fashioned! I try to read this amazing book every couple of years.

You can't read Mackay's history of the witch persecutions in Europe without thinking of our own Religious Reich. And if you think the Dot.Com Bubble was a modern phenomenon, you need to read Mackay's account of the Dutch "Tulip Mania," when the price of a single tulip bulb could buy an Amsterdam townhouse.

[One_Life_To_Give]

35. Morrison, S. E. History of the US Naval Operations in WW2

Technically it's 15 volumes. But essential for any Naval history buff.

[renter]

53. Samuel Morrison

Mr. Morrison does have an abridged,if this is the right word, of his 15 volume classic. It is titled the "Two-Ocean War." A good nautical read.

[GumboYaYa]

40. "Guns Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond and "The Death and

Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs. Both may be better described as sociology. Nevertheless, these are two of the finest books ever written to understand the current problems facing our civilization. I would also add Jane Jacobs most recent "Dark Age Ahead".

[VOX]

45. "The Civil War: A Narrative" by Shelby Foote...

It is wordy, and it is detailed (Foot is a big Proust devotee), but it is entirely worth the ride. Foote uses a novelist's sweep to make history accessible, and as three-dimensional as a writer possibly can.

If I could have only one work on the American Civil War in my library, this is *it*.

[Seneca]

49. I love Shelby Foote!

I covet your set - all 3 books! :evilgrin:

Foote was once asked why he didn't have an editor. He said, "I don't need one." :D

[mark414]

47. Isaac Asimov's Chronology of the World

The Autobiography of Malcom X

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation

A People's History of the United States

The Hunting of the President

[FuzzySlippers]

48. Not sure how essential,

but these are good ones for progressives:

Eric Foner, "The Story of American Freedom"

David Halberstam, "The Children"

E.P. Thompson, "The Making of the English Working Class"

Richard Hofstadter, "Anti-Intellectualism in America"

Richard Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics"

[LanternWaste]

50. My Five...

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers; Paul Kennedy

The Good War; Studs Terkel

The Bible; (anything or -one I attribute as author here is bound to put someone into a snitful of self-indignation)

Utoptia in Power; Salik Ushtinouv

Sutton Hoo: Anatomy of a Dig; Anthony Maes

[fishnfla]

56. Mine tend towards Military history

1. The Guns of August by Tuchman
2. A Bright Shining Lie by Sheehan
3. The First World War by Keegan
4. Undaunted Courage by Ambrose (Also Citizen Soldiers by same)
5. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Brown


Self indulgent pick: When Pride Still Mattered (Vince Lombardi bio) by Maraniss

[BellaLuna]

57. Lots of great suggestions here

I don't have many books at home but some of these sound great.

I have Hillary's book, the Hunting of the President and a few others. I really want to read Bill Clinton's autobiography when I get the time.

[Elidor]

58. Only five?

Black Elk Speaks, John G. Neihardt (props to Heidi for reminding me about this excellent book - with one of the best accounts of Custer's Last Stand from the Indian perspective, "The Rubbing Out of Yellow Hair.")
The Face of Battle, John Keegan - fascinating!
The Rape of Nanking, Iris Chang - harrowing, especially after her recent suicide.
Incredible Victory: The Battle of Midway, Walter Lord - what a story!
And, because someone here at DU reminded me of it recently, Dreadnaught, by Robert K. Massie, who is a superb storyteller.

Amazingly, I haven't listed anything on the Plantagenets, those kings I love to hate and love.

[renter]

59. Five you may not remember right off...

"The Columbia History of the World" 1972 by 40 Columbia University profs. Edited by John Garraty and Peter Gay(yep,that's his real name).
"My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians" 1871 by Fanny Kelly.
"Home Life in Colonial Days" 1892 by Alice Earle.
"Two Years Before the Mast" 1840 by Richard Dana Jr.
"Hard Times" "An Oral History of The Great Depression" 1970 by Studs Terkel.

[nuxvomica]

63. Well, these are the only history books on my shelf:

The Rise and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy

A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

A History of the World with All Its Great Sensations Together with Its Mighty and Decisive Battles and the Rise and Fall of Its Nations from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1887 2 vols.) compiled by Nugent Robinson

Body of Secrets by James Bramford (purchased during the DC sniper period)

A Pictorial History of the Second World War (1944 5 vols.)

[Squeech]

70. Oldie but goodie

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East -- David Fromkin

Fromkin's thesis is that the reason the Middle East is so fucked up is that the Allies made a boatload of stupid and contradictory decisions about how to administer the region during and after World War I. (And part of the reason for that is, the Allies' governments all changed hands between the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles, but that's not the whole of it.)

Somebody above mentioned Seven Pillars of Wisdom, written by Lawrence of Arabia. Problem is, Lawrence himself admitted that it wasn't an honest account. One of the reasons I read A Peace to End All Peace was to get more historically verifiable information.

Buy it new; Fromkin keeps releasing new editions with more stuff. My copy's at least 15 years old.

[deutsey]

71. They Marched into Sunlight, David Maraniss

An excellent history of the escalation of the US military in Vietnam and the anti-war movement in the US circa 1967.

A People's History of the US by Howard Zinn.

Bearing the Cross (about MLK), by David Garrow

The Souls of Black Folk, WEB Dubois (I don't have this on my shelf, but I plan to remedy that soon).

The Assassination of Julius Caesar (A People's History of Ancient Rome), by Michael Parenti