What recent history books have you bought?

On Friday I bought a large collection of 19th Century books, manely on natural science (that is, natural science at that time, of course). Some of the books are from the 1860's, but most seem to originate from the 1870's.

Today I bought a large biography of Hitler, "HITLER". It is written by a certain Joachim C. Fest. I do not know much of Hitler, so I'll probably learn a thing or two.

 

how the irish saved the modern world (or something of that nature)

it sounded interesting, I got it, now I hope to start an obsession with irish history.....

 

Well its not exactly a history book, because it also discusses the media perception of pirates, but I got a Book by David Cordingly called "under the black flag"
REVIEW
I got it to read on my upcoming deployment to sea

 

i just bought a 20th century for a dollar. its cool.

 

I have been taking in a history of the Negro Baseball League, and an old copy of "A Short History Of Mexico". I noticed I had been reading too much fiction, so this summer I made sure to take in some facts!

 

You talkin' 'bout "How the Irish Saved Civilization"?
It's a good'n. Not to spoil it for you ... but they really did. Without Irish monasteries, thanks to Pat, Columba, and the guys, Europe would have never gotten out of "the Dark Ages".

 

The latest book I got was was on the History of African Magic.

 

A lot of my books for college deal with the history of different places in the world, since I do archaeology. That was last year (I haven't got the money for this year's books :&).

 

Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda

Sean Naylor

 

Read it. Liked it. Who was the author again?

Currently reading Cornelius Ryan, The Last Battle, on the final months of WWII

 

hey, how is that book? i've heard of it

 

I read a book that said that the Scots were responsible for the modern world. Maybe each saved civilisation at different times.

 

Social History of the Machine Gun
John A. Ellis, Foreword by Edward C. Ezell
A very good look at how social perception influenced the military. A lot of it makes you think about the mess in Iraq.

 

is that one about the scottish enlightenment?

 

Latest would be "With the Old Breed." A personal account (quite possibly the very best) of the fighting done in the Pacific during WWII. I recommend it.

 

First Man, the biography of Neil Armstrong....

 

ah, i bought Caesar's commentaries and the roman revolution by Syme...ah, being a nerd rocks.

 

Not purely historical, but historically based, relevant, and projectional is Critical Path by R Buckminster Fuller. Just started it a few days ago ~ what a blast of a statement in the introduction.................
'All the great political, religious, and - most of all - big business systems would find their activities devestated by the universal physical success of all humanity. All the strengths of all great politics and religion and most of business are derived from the promises they give of assuaging humanity's seemingly tragic dilemma of existing in an unalterable state of fundamental inadequacy of life support."

 

Yes

 

I recently read the Federalist Papers. Two things struck me.

First, things have changed dramaticaly since then. A canal was high tech.

Second, they were written to convince the normal newspaper reader. The style of languange (use of compound sentences, subordinate clauses, etc.) and the complexity of the arguments are much higher than we expect from people today.

They also trusted the reader with the truth. They did not try to hide defects or exagerate benifits. Its not surprising that they thought the public could be trusted to run a government. They thought highly of their readers and the writting showed it.