cRPG
Off Topic => Historical Discussion => Topic started by: Formless on September 23, 2011, 05:53:26 am
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Anyone else notice that history books in English are mostly all about U.S, Britain, WW I, WW II, Roman and and Greek history with maybe a bit about Germany and that is about it???
Kinda sad, for example I really had to dig around to find books about the German 30 years war (which was a giant deal for Germany, but almost not covered at all by English historians). And I am still looking around for English books about John III Sobieski, Cyrus the Great, Saladin, Mohammad as General, not to mention Belisarius and books about the Romance of the Three kingdom times in China.
Just sad, :( English popular history is just too narrow they ignore too much interesting stuff that happened in other places. Sort of makes me wonder what other interesting people I never heard about because the books are simply not there.
What do you guys think?
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hm, usually books cover mostly the history directly linked to a country.
btw u should try military libraries. read about clausewitz theorems, they are being taught up to this day at west point so itr should be possible.
check books from all the parties that participated in the wars of interest, likely u will find one that got translated. and dont forget to google for videos. daily motion often has a few nice documentaries, maybe youll find some in english.
btw to your grunwald post: i guess something like eternal loyalty is a thing that cant be promised : )
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I'm a bit into the 30 years war topic (I've got a project running that's connected to that period), but here (I'm Austrian) we didn't learn much about that war in school. The whole topic seems not to be very important here, while in Germany as far as I know it's a very big topic. I'm working with some German people on said project and it's amazing what they're able to tell about that war.
If you want to read about things like that I can only suggest you to search for books on that specific topic. Common history books always mostly cover the history of the area or country where they are sold.
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well i´m german and we learned jack about it in school, had too read up on myself -.-
but ya, its a fascinating theme.
btw, austrians are gay (joke ; ) (really : )
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well i´m german and we learned jack about it in school, had too read up on myself -.-
Yeah, but you did read into it while in the rest of the world it's not considered a topic interesting enough.
tbh. I also didn't learn much about Austrian history in school, mainly about the Habsburger family and that we sucked in both world wars. But here you can buy books about the Austrian naval fleet and stuff, where I can only think "when did we have something like a FLEET?!". Yeah, I know, we had a few big ships, but our flagship got destroyed without firing on any enemy - ever.
I highly doubt that you'll find that books anywhere else than in Austria.
btw, austrians are gay (joke ; ) (really : )
Germans make bad jokes :P
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well maybe in germany : )
cooles thing are those tiny little antique book shops that are harder and harder to find (thanks internet -.-)
i found all sorts of rly cool books there. one of my last acquirements was a book about ze sexual escapades of french knights : )
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Germans love censorship I heard. 3:
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Germans love censorship I heard. 3:
what country are you from so i can drop down some biased bullshit?
or wait, lets not let this topic turn into some random dudes flaming each other. but seriously, cut the crap
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It kinda makes sense a lot of popular English historical writing is based around England and history that's linked to England. The same for most countries I guess.
One thing that frustrates me the most was History in school barely touched on the British Empire. Instead we learnt far more about the US, the Russian revolution, Rise of einstein. But very little about that little thing called the British Empire. Always pissed me off. So I've made sure to read many many historical books about it now :)
If I want to find history from any other country, I tend to look to translations, rather than books by English authors.
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what country are you from so i can drop down some biased bullshit?
or wait, lets not let this topic turn into some random dudes flaming each other. but seriously, cut the crap
can't you be arrested for saying anything about the holocaust that isn't officially accepted? Or if you say something thats percieved to be racist?
Also, i don't know what libraries you visit, but my local public library has TONS of shit on everything, while the main reference library in my city has a ton of esoteric shit that i'll never read in my lifetime. You just gotta look carefully.
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Germans love censorship I heard. 3:
So I heard that RO2 copies bought in germany..... you know the rest :lol:
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I've seen numerous examples of over-sensative Authorities(People) censoring things, including their internet access and numerous amounts of video games. Also a clear lack of freedom of expression just because they're oh so afraid of being called chocolate chip cookie's boohoo. I'm not a sympathiser, and they're generally not a problem with me unless they get into Government somehow, but people should have every right to express themselves rather than live repressed.
/Derail.
What I'm saying is. MYCOUNTRYHASPARTIALLYMOREFREEDOMSANDPSEUDOFREEDOMSTHANYOUDOHARHARHAR.
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can't you be arrested for saying anything about the holocaust that isn't officially accepted?
I think you mixed that up with Austria. Here you go to jail if you say the wrong things about the holocaust in public. The whole thing is called "Verbotsgesetz" or something like "Law of prohibition". In 1947 Austria tried to get rid of all that nasty stuff that happened the years before so they just forbid everything connected to it. IMHO a big mistake because now we have several political parties that try not to come into conflict with that law while being completely "brown" inside. That way they also get votes by people too dumb to realize who they're voting for.
In Germany there's even an official political party called "NPD" which obviously is just a successor party of the NSDAP. But they're far less successfull than in Austria, maybe because they don't even try to deny that connection.
Oh, crap, did we fulfill Godwin's Law now? So early?
Or if you say something thats percieved to be racist?
No, that's completely wrong for Germany as well as for Austria. You can go to jail if you try to agitate people against some other nationality, though (at least in Austria, dunno about Germany).
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woha quite some posts came up about this. lets not get this too far, but yes: our constitution forbids to deny that the holocaust happened.
its a price we are willing to pay. also we still have right wing parties, and that is good because the people themselves can show by not voting for them that there is no place for any racist ideology here. blah blah.
we were talking about books
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but yes: our constitution forbids to deny that the holocaust happened.
Yours too? Didn't know that, sorry.
But I have to agree, we shouldn't go too far on this..
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yeah...
but the coolest thing about this thread is how its a perfect example of how it doesnt matter what a thread is about, it will be about something completely different sooner or later. i wonder why the cav whine didnt start in her yet : )
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Read Conn Iggulden (something) series about Ghenghis Khan, they are epic.
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I've been reading a book called. Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Ressurection by John Man.
Its extremely interesting and filled with juicy facts and thoughts on the Mongolian culture, rather broad and is good to get your teeth into. While its not an old book or really missing at all, I recommend a read. Genghis Khan is alittle bit of a personal hero of mine, in the way that. A young boy raised amongst the constantly warring tribes of his people, rises up and unites them together to eventually grow and forge one of the biggest empires in the world.
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Read Conn Iggulden (something) series about Ghenghis Khan, they are epic.
Good books. Liked especially first one bout him ''Wolf of the Plains'' other ones were good too though.
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Recently read "Lords of the Bow" by Conn Iggulden, was a very good book about Genghis Khan :)
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Yeah, they are all awesome!
The most recent I read, Empire of Silver is also nice. You get to read alot of the Mongolian attacks on Russia. Cant wait til they release Conqueror in swedish.
Too bad Jochi got pwnt. He was my favourite, all tho his son Batu is a bad ass as well :wink:
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I've been reading a book called. Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Ressurection by John Man.
Its extremely interesting and filled with juicy facts and thoughts on the Mongolian culture, rather broad and is good to get your teeth into. While its not an old book or really missing at all, I recommend a read. Genghis Khan is alittle bit of a hero personal hero of mine, in the way that. A young boy raised amongst the constantly warring tribes of his people, rises up and unites them together to eventually grow and forge one of the biggest empires in the world.
Gonna read that one, thanks for the tip :)
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Recently read "Lords of the Bow" by Conn Iggulden, was a very good book about Genghis Khan :)
Liked the part where they were storming a fortress/walls if i remember it right and they left shiny stuff/armors and a birdcage and.......(rest is spoiler and i shall not say moar!). Anyhow was an example of a brilliant tactic by the fearsome Mongol horde.
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Gonna read that one, thanks for the tip :)
Hey, no problem man.
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Liked the part where they were storming a fortress/walls if i remember it right and they left shiny stuff/armors and a birdcage and.......(rest is spoiler and i shall not say moar!). Anyhow was an example of a brilliant tactic by the fearsome Mongol horde.
Yeah, this was their first chinese wall attack, when they came out of the desert.
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Read Conn Iggulden (something) series about Ghenghis Khan, they are epic.
Hell read all Conn Ingulden's books. His Emperor series (about Julius Caesar) are some of my favourite historical fiction books. The Genghis Khan ones are very good as well. Fantastic author.
If we are going to go down the historical fiction road, I also love Bernard Cornwall's grail quest series (based around an English Longbowman) and David Gemmel's series based around Troy. David Gemmel died before finishing the final book in the series but I think his wife finished writing it for him based on his notes because it considered such amazing work. I still have to read that last one.
If you want something more architectural, Ken Follett's novels based on the construction of a cathedral in England are also very good. I think the first one is called 'Pillars of the Earth'.
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Hell read all Conn Ingulden's books. His Emperor series (about Julius Caesar) are some of my favourite historical fiction books. The Genghis Khan ones are very good as well. Fantastic author.
If we are going to go down the historical fiction road, I also love Bernard Cornwall's grail quest series (based around an English Longbowman) and David Gemmel's series based around Troy. David Gemmel died before finishing the final book in the series but I think his wife finished writing it for him based on his notes because it considered such fantastic work.
If you want something more architectural, Ken Follett's novels based on the construction of a Cathedral in England are also very good. I think the first one is called 'Pillars of the Earth'.
Yeah, I've read them as well. They are epic
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No one seems to know anything really about the Byzantines, which is a shame, because it was probably the greatest empire that no one seems to know anything about (besides people who studied it in college).
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I think it's obvious that history books in the first line concentrate on topics linked to the own contry or on topics that strongly influenced the own country'S history. Guess that's why there areso many English language books about einstein/3rd Reich but literally nothing about the rest of Germany's history like the 30YW...
The same problem exists in every country I guess. I'm really into the US Civil War but it's very hard to get decent german-language books about this... :(
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No one seems to know anything really about the Byzantines, which is a shame, because it was probably the greatest empire that no one seems to know anything about (besides people who studied it in college).
Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has a large section on the ERE/Byzantines.
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Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has a large section on the ERE/Byzantines.
eh it only goes up to the collapse of the western empire i believe. I doubt it covers the march to the west by justinian or the subsequent declines and revivals that the Byzantines experienced
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eh it only goes up to the collapse of the western empire i believe. I doubt it covers the march to the west by justinian or the subsequent declines and revivals that the Byzantines experienced
My version has it.
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My version has it.
one of the criticism of Gibbon is that he was poor in dealing with the byzantine empire, attributing to him the decline in scholarly research into Byzantines in the 19th century. I haven't read to so i cannot make value judgement on it however. I think that as far as sources go, Gibbons is not a good one for the Byzantine Empire.