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What’s your favorite/best history book, non-textbook/non- reference?
For me, it’d have to be Modern Times by Paul Johnson (see the sig), The Cunning of History by Richard Rubenstein, and A History of the 20th Century vols. 1-3 by Martin Gilbert. Good stuff.
The Cunning of History is a good one, which is the best is a tough one. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570, by Inga Clendinnen is one, Anti-Intelecdtualism in America by Richard Hofstadler, Haiti, History, and the Gods, by Joan Dyan, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War , by James McPherson, is a great one for its primary sources, letters from soldies. There are probably more.
I think I read the Ambivalent Conquests book in college. I found it boring personally, but I’m not much into pre-20th century history in any depth, especially outside of Europe.
Nazi Germany, A new History by Fischer is worth the read and them some. Great meta-synthesis of a lot of things.
I’m going to go with The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Hannibal by Michael Lamb was compelling. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves was pretty good to. Finally, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
