The 50 Greatest History Books of All Time - Reaction
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- čas přidán 16. 11. 2023
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As well as the 50+ books from the Listmuse list I recommend some better alternative reads because this list reflects interest in topic as much as quality recent histories. My alternatives (short titles) in order of reference in the video are:
1. Inga Clendinnen, Reading the Holocaust
2. Paul Ricouer, Memory, History, Forgetting
3. Serhi Plokhy, Nuclear Folly
4. John Darwin, The Empire Project
5. John Darwin, Unfinished Empire
6. Barry Cunliffe, By Steppe, Desert and Ocean: the Birth of Eurasia
7. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Millenium, Civilisations and Our America (3 books)
8. Fernando Cervantes, Conqustadores
9. John Hale, The Civilisation of Europe in the Renaiassance
10. Halik Kochanski, Resistance: the Underground War in Europe 1939-45
11. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
12. Marc David Baer, The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs
13.Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War
14. Ian Kershaw, Rollercoaster: Europe 1950-2017
15. Clare Jackson, Devil-land: England Under Siege 1588-1688
16. Winston Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
17. John Darwin, Unlocking the World: Port Cities and Steam Globalisation 1830-1930
18. Phillip Ther, How the West Lost the Peace
19. Chris Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World
20. Sudhar Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: the epic life of Toussaint Louverture
21. Richard Overy, Blood and Ruins: the Great Imperial War 1931-1945
22.James Belich, The World the Plague Made: the Black Death and the Rise of Europe
23. Christopher Clark, Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
24. Fernand Braudel, The Structures of Everyday Life, The Wheels of Commerce (2 books)
25. David Abalufia, The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans
I have read and recommend these 25 alternatives, if you want a better starting point to explore those topics.
Let me know if you have other suggestions for books and topics, and I may do a video on my personal favourites.
Check out my website and links in bio for more of my writing and talks and upcoming courses on history and our changing multipolar world.
#booktube #besthistorybooks #history #geopolitics
The real question is: where are the books on AFRICA in this list? Aside from one book about the Mau Mau Revolution (which seems like it might be just as much about the British Empire as it is the Mau Mau), Africa appears to be totally invisible. Highly unfortunate. Thanks for pointing out the clear Anglo-American bias inherent here. I think a lot of people casually take in these lists like they're some objective measure of what "good history" really is without considering the people (or, increasingly, algorithms) who have compiled it. Fantastic video!
Thank you, and that is such a good point about Africa.
Basically the introduction to this video, where "algorithm" of lists of lists is mentioned multiple times, is a great argument against the proliferation of AI to further human knowledge, without the contribution and discussion of that knowledge by living people.
Goodnpoint. I hope my alternatives show the benefit of human judgement over AI
Very interesting video! And can only second the recommendation for Felipe Fernandez-Armesto’s “Civilizations” - one of my favourite books overall!
Thank you. Have you checked out or shared my interview with Felipe czcams.com/video/8zkd0Bax9Xo/video.htmlsi=e1BzikVzqJcQtgXZ?
Yes, an interesting list, but hardly anything on China (which you noted), Japan, Mexico, South America, India, Africa (other than one on Kenya), and I dare say Australia?? Perhaps you can create and share your own lists? Your erudition is comforting to listen to. Thank you.
I incredibly disagree with you about Gibbon. He is definitely worth reading, even though much more is known now, and he got a lot wrong, but his writing is just incredible. One of the finest prose stylist ever in English. My absolute favorite (relatively) recent history book: Framing the Middle Ages by Chris Wickham (and yes, his other books are awesome). Another interesting recent history book is Stripping the Altars by Eamon Duffy .. And Eric Foner's book on Reconstruction. (With a nod, of course to the pioneering work of W. E. B. DuBois)
Also, Culture of Critique by Dr Kevin MacD0nald, and the J'wish Revolutionary Spirit by Dr E Michael J0nes.
Thanks for these suggestions.
I was surprised by the Neema Parvini book you mentioned towards the end there.
I looked it up on Goodreads as I'd never heard of the guy. As I scroll down to see the reviews, it goes past the "Readers also enjoyed" section with a list of related books. Nearly all of it was political works ranging from far-right to full-on fascist. Now, there's Spengler and Evola amongst others on the cover there so perhaps it's just far-right folks wanting to read anything about guys like that.
So I try to see who Parvini is or where he's coming from and check his wikipedia page which mentions his views being described as "extreme" and "aligned with the scientific racist community" by a mainstream UK anti-racism group. Plus his writing and other collaborations are largely a list of right wing and "intellectual dark web" groups - von Mises Institute, Quillette, Traditional Britain etc. I look up his youtube channel and his profile pic is General Franco and he's calling the Mayor of London a bolshevik.
Really hard to take this recommendation seriously!
You are right, and it was not an endorsement of his political views, from memory. I try to read books I disagree with. I think Parvini's book on elite theory, the Populist Delusion is quite good, but I have not read his Prophets of Doom, whcih goes down some of the rabbit holes you mention. Like us all he gets somethings right, but by no means all. He is a good literary scholar, but no historian. However never judge a book by the company it keeps?... Thanks for commenting,
The expression "different to" is wrong. The proper expression is 'different from." Yes, I am an American, but the Latin expression "ab [aliqua re] differt" is on my side.
You are right, and I am sorry. It is a verbal habit I fall into when improvising. I will try to correct. 👃Thanks for the feedback
No Robert Caro books? Interesting.
The biographer of LBJ. Good suggestion. He was not on the list. Maybe I should do another video on the 50 greatest biographies?
Great effort, but some of the commentary seemed a bit supreficial and improvised.
- Tony Judt was a historian by training and profession. He considered himself a historian all his life.
- Eric Foner's book does not deal primarly with the working class. It's mostly about the origins of the Republican Party around the concept of "free labor ideology" as opposed to slavery (although not anti-racist or pro-black). Also, he's still somewhat active.
- I agree: Gibbon's work is more of a literary work rather than a history book.
- Comparing Cronon's masterpiece (field defining book) to Darwin's superficial account is a bit insulting.
- Same: comparing Pommeranz's detailed book (controversial) to Darwin's sweeping overview is not great.
- It would have been great to mention J. G. A. Pocock when talking about Skinner's work.
- Why does dealing with the Haitian Revolution is part of the American tradition? C. L. R. James was Trinidadnian and belong to the British (Marxist) tradition. The book is outdated but its topic is very European and belonging to the European tradition.
- I did not understand your comments on Chris Whickham. He is a beast.
- Mary Beard's book is great.
I don't think John Darwin, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, or David Abulafia are masterpieces. You rate them too high in my opinion. Great books though.
Weird list: great books, awful books.
Great comments thank you. I set myself the aim to improvise a little, since some of the books on the top 50 I really don't want to read, and so there were a few slips. I think I confused Foner in my head with shooting with another, maybe Sean Wilentz. Hazards of a history content-creator. I guess these ranking lists are most fun for the discussion and differing judgments they create. Much appreciated for your scholarly feedback.
Braudel is a favorite
me too, thanks
Your throwaway comments about the algorithm lead to some pretty trite comments about certain books.
Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the United States” is an extremely important book that,as you say, is a bestseller. Over 10m copies I think. The reason for that is that is was the first popular book that did not cover up the history of US Capitalism’s crimes.
Please read before you dismiss these important works.
Probably a negative comment on a 50 minute video on a list of a 100 books produced by a computer,
A questionable exercise, at best. Not one of your more attractive efforts.
I understand. I did cover nearly 80 books in an hour and might have given some too little air time. But a list like this will prompt debate
You cannot recommend a modern reader to read Edward Gibbon? Dear oh dear. There is a case to read the foundation texts of all disciplines. I know time is short and books are many but if anyone aspiring to know history hasn’t read Gibbon then they are not well read are they? You are suffering from the cult on the new here, my man.
EH Carr is very much a man of his time! Oh dear. Who isn’t?
Too much Rome, too much UK centric history.
What else can we dismiss?
History?
And we go on… Hobsbawm is now “dated”. Dear me. Too much Anglo Bias…
“Kooks”!
Christ.
I agree on the foundation texts but think there are better choices than Gibbon. But a good point to discuss
And where is Thucydides? A BS list if ever there was one.
or Sima Qian or Anna Comnena, indeed? Booksellers' list, did you mean?