Book Recommendations: 20th Century history

Cafe Society
1

I’ll be taking a couple of 20+ hour flights in a couple of weeks, plus lazing on a beach in Thailand for a few days, so I need to load up my Kindle. I’d like to fill in some gaps in my knowledge of 20th-Century events, so I’m hoping some of you can make some recommendations. Specifically, I’d like books on:
[ul]
[li]Israel’s creation as a modern nation and the wars thereafter. I know that’s a pretty broad topic, and I have a copy of The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, but it’s kind of a slog.[/li][li]The Nigerian Civil War and the Congo Crisis, or maybe just anything about the various African nations’ emergence from under European rule. I know next to nothing about any of this.[/li][li]The Iran-Contra affair. I know the high points, but I was just a bit too young to have followed it in the news while it was going on. Any good books on the subject?[/li][/ul]
Feel free to make other suggestions if you have particular favorites, but let’s try to stay post-WWII. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on the major world events from, say, Operation Desert Shield forward, so anything between 1945 and 1990 is fair game.

2

It’s been a long time since I read it, but I thought this book offered fresh insights on the Israeli situation.

The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel & The Palestinians

by Noam Chomsky.
3

I read a lot of 20th century history, but nothing on the topics you mention.

I did enjoy Clark Clifford’s Counsel to the President quite a bit.

4

I really enjoyed Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. It’s fascinating to read about European countries returning from the brink of destruction.

5

Paul Johnson’s Modern Times.

6

My Father’s Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD by Brian McDonald. It covers a bit of the 19th Century but much of it focuses on the author’s father & brother. Lt. Frank McDonald, Sr., was a senior officer at the 41st Precinct, aka “Fort Apache”.

7

IIRC, Frank Junior accidentally got embroiled in the early stages of the investigation which came to be known as “The French Connection”.

8

I read it a long time ago, but I vividly remember O Jerusalem! as an outstanding book about the beginnings of the state of Israel.

9

Former Israeli President Chaim Herzog’s, The Arab-Israeli Wars: War and Peace in The Middle East, is supposed to be the best one-volume work on that subject. Very much a military history, not a social history. There are several editions; the one cited has been edited and expanded by General Shlomo Gazit, and thereby covers things like the Intifada, 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and other Israeli military actions.

Not on your list, but within your time guidelines, I think T.R. Fehrenbach’s, “This Kind Of War,” is not only the best history of the 1950-1953 Korean War, but one of the best military histories ever written.

I’m eager to see what people pick for African post-colonial history and Iran-Contra Affair works.

10

King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. The story of the Belgian colonization and exploitation of Congo, one of the most ghastly tales of modern history, and of the bureaucrats-cum-detectives who exposed it. Reads like a thriller/horror novel.

11

Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Land of Israel

12

I have Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris on my list to read; it comes very highly recommended.

And although it’s not on your list of topics, consider:

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass. It’s about Nixon, Kissinger, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh focused through the experiences of Archer Blood, the American Consul General to East Pakistan back then (1970-71). Blood sent a telegram seeking aid from Washington to stop the genocide being committed right before his eyes, but was rebuffed (well, ignored) because Nixon and Kissinger were looking the other way on purpose. It’s a sad chapter in our history, IMO.

A few historical non-fiction books have gained some measure of popular notoriety over the past few decades (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, etc.) but a favorite of mine that I think is overlooked is Zipper: An Exploration in Novelty by Robert D. Friedel. It is well-written, well-researched and fun to read.

13

Thanks everyone! Some good suggestions here, although some haven’t made it to Kindle yet. Still, a good place to start.

Have you read any of Henry Petroski’s books? I particularly liked The Evolution of Useful Things, To Engineer is Human, and Engineers of Dreams. I’ve got an engineering background, so that may bias me a tad, but I think he does an outstanding job of translating engineer-speak into something anyone can read and enjoy.

Thanks! That looks good, and it’s only $4.99 on Kindle. :slight_smile:

Thanks. Might be a bit denser than I was looking for, but it did lead me to discover that David Halberstam wrote a book about the Korean War - The Coldest Winter

Thanks - looks like exactly the kind of book I was looking for.

14

Oh, and I see now that the same authors wrote a book about the India/Pakistan partition - Freedom at Midnight

15

Thank you! Your link went to the hardcover, so I thought I couldn’t download it, but it is definitely available for Kindle. This is exactly the kind of thing I like.

16

Oh, and a piece of advice to everyone. Do not look at Amazon’s “Top Picks for You” if you have One-Click ordering turned on and a budget to stick to. :eek:

17

Agreed.

18

One book I feel everyone should read is Stephen King’s 11/22/1963. It gives a lot of early 1960’s history, which has been totally overshadowed by later events.