Apologies for the obtuse title; I couldn’t think of a specific genre that would encompass my request. I’m highly interested in works that detail the daily life and experiences of people living through unusual and extreme experiences. Economic collapses, drug wars, the Boxer Rebellion, 3rd world conflicts, the French & Russian Revolutions, natural disasters, the Rhodesian war, the Warsaw Ghetto, favelas, Chernobyl, slums, Bhopal, great explorers, the Siege of Sarajevo, daily life in alien cultures, Pre-WWI Europe, clashes between Imperialism and native populations, etc. I’m quite fascinated to see how people have reacted and adapted to life in situations quite different from my own.
Assuming fiction isn’t discounted I’ll nominate my favourite three:
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres, set in a small Turkish village during World War One and the aftermath. Covers the rise of Kemal Ataturk, Gallipoli, the Armenian Massacre and the expulsion of the Greeks from the perspective of the villagers.
The Fox of Maulen also called The Wolves by Hans Helmut Kirst, how a East Prussian village reacts to the rise of Hitler.
And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokov winner of the Stalin prize, how a cossack village survives WWI and the Russian civil war.
On review I seem to have a thing for small rural villages at war…
Not to veer too close to the mark, as it were, a friend loaned me The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu. It consisted of people telling their personal stories of life in Red China. For a westerner not acquainted with the culture, it can be quite strange, sometimes disturbing. IIRC, the author himself did some time for being outspoken.
The best I can suggest about are two outstanding books by Studs Terkel, both collected oral histories of hundreds people. Hard Times details life during the Depression, and The Good War is an unusual WWII history in that it is more focused on the lives of Americans who didn’t march off to combat.
You can also listen to many of the recorded interviews here courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society.
Thanks for the suggestions; I’ve ordered a few from the Nook store already.
One book I’d recommend is Storm of Steel, by Ernst Junger. The fellow ran away from home to join the French Foreign Legion in 1913, fought with them for a year in North Africa, then quickly returned to Germany to enlist. His work is notable among WWI memoirs for being unflinchingly graphic and descriptive about combat, and he seems to have been one of the types that enjoys war. Survived the Somme, Ypres, Arras, and led a company during the Spring Offensive, during which he received his 14th (and last) war wound. While not greatly depicted in the book, his later life is interesting as well. During WWII, he managed to avoid execution for minor involvement in an assassination plot against Hitler and did LSD with Abbie Hoffman during the 1960s.
Storm of Steel is a great book. Junger has a very different response to the ‘war is hell’ theme that almost everyone else seemed to take with them.
Norman Davies Rising '44 about the doomed Warsaw uprising in 1944 is another non-fiction one to add to your list. Despite the title it covers the whole Polish experience from September 1939, and puts the rising into context.
And Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands is a must read for anyone who wants to feel the whole scale of Hitler and Stalin’s enormous crimes in Eastern Europe. It’s possibly the most importnant history book I’ve read in over a decade IMHO.
Another WW1 book worth a read is Under Fire by Henri Barbusse. It’s written from the French side so gives an interesting altenate view to Junger.
I just recently read We the Living by Ayn Rand which is about people living in the early years of the aftermath of the Russian revolution and I would say it’s worth a read. Although fiction it is said to be fairly closely based on Rand’s actually experiences in Russia. The details of day to day survival are very well done.
I just read Gary Krist’s “City Of Scoundrels”, which covers a pivotal stretch in Chicago’s history (a brief span including the 1919 race riots, a downtown zeppelin crash, a child murder (which led to calls to lock up all the “morons”) and a major political battle. Interesting stuff (the author previously wrote an engrossing book about the Great Northern Railway disaster (a 1910 landslide that engulfed a train).
Very appropriate to the date (200th anniversary of some of the events mentioned), Pérez-Reverte’s “The Siege” takes place during the siege of Cádiz, during the Napoleonic wars. He’s also got books involving Trafalgar and the May 2nd uprising. I’m not sure whether “Territorio Comanche” (quasi-autobiographical, based on his experiences as a reporter in Serbia) has been translated to English.
The autobiography of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China.
Amazon lists two versions of this. I’m not sure if they are two different works, or simply two different translations of the same work.
*From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi * translated by W. J. F. Jenner.
The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China translated by Paul Kramer.
I’ve read From Emperor to Citizen. It was written under the eye of the communist Chinese government, so take the later chapters with a grain of salt. It is still fascinating.
Two books about the same time period : Endgame, 1945 by David Stafford, following various participants from the fall of Berlin to the Potsdam conference, and After the Reich by Giles MacDonogh, that covers Germany, Austria and the fate of Germans from the fall of Vienna to the Berlin airlift.
