Grand unified books thread

[Agelastus]

It's really dense - reammed full of facts and people and quite difficult to follow. I have up after 200 pages but may try it again when I have a lot of spare reading time.

I have to agree. I found the book best when it was discussing the underlying politics and processes of the war, which it does rather extensively The long campaign descriptions are a lot of "Army 1 goes to Place 2, gets cut of by Army 3 who was seeking Army 4 while Army 5 moves to Place 6 shortly after Army 4 left for Place 2 trying to catch Army 1" etc. In short - very confusing and hard to follow.

Still, it's probably the best book you will find about the Thirty Years War.

Oddly enough I found the battle and campaign descriptions to be as enthralling as the politics; for example it contains the best outline of White Mountain that I've seen in any of the books that I've read on the Thirty Years War (most histories tend to go into more detail on this subject around Breitenfeld as if they find the Bohemian campaign and those of the Paladins, Tilly and early Wallenstein to be either too tedious or to complex; whereas I've always found it fascinating the way these early participants seemed to be able to raise armies at the drop of a hat.)

Anyway, I'd heartily recommend the book but it's certainly not for the light reader.

[Neil]

I really enjoyed Shattered Sword.  I recommend Berkut as a recommender.


Now I'm reading Norman Friedman's US Battleships.

[Maladict]

The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea by Walter R. Borneman.

Decent group bio, I was largely unaware of Leahy and King.

[Maladict]

And these came in today:
The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815


The to-read pile has grown to 46 books

[Gups]

And these came in today:
The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815


The to-read pile has grown to 46 books

Both excellent and The Command of the Ocean may well be my favourite non-fiction book ever.

Currently reading a natutical Danish novel called "We, the Drowned". Half way through and it's very good.

[Habbaku]

And these came in today:
The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815


The to-read pile has grown to 46 books

Those are both terrific works.  A shame the third will not be out until 2041.

[Sheilbh]

Any recommendations on early-mid 19th century Britain?

The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660-1649
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815

I was amazed how quickly I read the first one. I've got the second one on my shelf, though I've not read it yet.

[Queequeg]

Anyone recommend anything on the Vedic religions? 

[The Minsky Moment]

Anyone recommend anything on the Vedic religions?

There is a recent one that was banned in India.  Could go either way on that.

[Sheilbh]

Is 'The German Genius' any good?

Anyone know any other good books on the German Enlightenment and Romanticism?

[Razgovory]

Anyone know a good recent book on HIV-AIDS?  I want something that covers the Robert Rayford infection because I find that a gay prostitute died of it in middle America in 1969 really interesting and strange.  And the Band Played On is supposed to be great, though, and it was the primary influence on The Emperor of All Maladies, which was amazing.

That's totally dubious at this point.  He personally denied ever being a hustler -- it was an idea the doctors came up with that took hold, especially after revisiting the file in light of GRID/AIDS.  And I would hardly call the black ghetto of St. Louis in 1969 "middle America," at least in the sense we're familiar with. 

That's true.  The mean center of population in 1969 was like three counties over in Illinois.

[Syt]

Can anyone recommend a good colonial history of the Americas, from exploration to the independence of the colonies? Or something along those lines?

(And yes, I've watched Once Upon a Time ... The Americas  )

[Maladict]

Can anyone recommend a good colonial history of the Americas, from exploration to the independence of the colonies? Or something along those lines?

Samuel Eliot Morison's European Discovery of America is very good (exploration and earliest colonies only).

[Capetan Mihali]

Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotic Use in America Before 1965 by the great drug historian David Courtwright, has arrived.  Addressing the "classic" (i.e. purely punitive) period of American narcotics regulation, from 1923 (when the last public heroin maintenance clinics in NYC and Shreveport, La. closed) to 1965 (when methadone maintenance arrived on the scene). 

A welcome addition to the narcotics shelf, alongside other recent arrivals, Global Histories of Cocaine and Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History.  I think I'm developing a drug-history addiction.

[Syt]

Can anyone recommend a good colonial history of the Americas, from exploration to the independence of the colonies? Or something along those lines?

Samuel Eliot Morison's European Discovery of America is very good (exploration and earliest colonies only).

Thanks, I'll check it out.