# Need some new history books to read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2020, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871 "2020-03-03T14:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/41 "2020-03-07T14:04:42Z")
I’ve recently read Michael Smith’s “Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park”, which keeps the technicalities of decryption to a bearable level, and gives due weight to the huge bureaucratic follow-on work to make the decrypts into useable intelligence - and to the day-to-day living and working experience. Some years ago, I was impressed by Robert Gildea’s “Fighters in the Shadows”, a history of the French Resistance in their political context, with some interesting new (to me) stuff about what happened after Liberation. ---
**Author:** ![AZRob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azrob/32/3003_2.png) [@AZRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZRob)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2020, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/42 "2020-03-07T22:15:13Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > Thanks everyone…I’ve requested a bunch of these from my library, so we’ll see which one comes in first. Thanks batsto for starting a really nice thread. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/43 "2020-03-09T20:27:26Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > Here are three of my recent favorites: > > [Falling Upwards](https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Upwards-How-Took-Air-ebook/dp/B00CNQ2P16/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=Falling+Upwards&qid=1583269040&sr=8-3): A history of hot air ballooning pioneers. This was the basis for the recent movie _The Aeronauts_. The movie focuses on one particular flight, but the book is much more of a historical overview. It’s full of fascinating information that I had never heard before. > > [Jungle of Stone](https://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Stone-Extraordinary-Catherwood-Civilization/dp/0062407406/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Jungle+of+stone&qid=1583269283&sr=8-1): About the discovery of Mayan ruins in Mexico and Central America. A really extraordinary story of exploration. > > [The Secret Token](https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Token-Obsession-Search-Roanoke/dp/1101974605/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Secret+Token&qid=1583269415&sr=8-1): The story of the lost colony of Roanoke. I thought I knew American history, but this book made me realize how little I knew about the earliest colonists. > > I’ll also second _The Library Book_. I’m about fifty pages in on The secret token and enjoying it very much…exactly what I was looking for. thanks ---
**Author:** ![Dobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Dobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dobbs)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/44 "2020-03-09T22:27:14Z")
Given the current events, _The Great Influenza_ by John M Barry. The story of the 1918 flu. Mostly US focused, but some talk of the rest of the world. He could be a Doper - the book has cites. About 60 pages worth. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/45 "2020-03-10T00:16:56Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > They had these two available right away > > Charlatan : America’s most dangerous huckster, the man who pursued him, and the age of flimflam > > The secret token : myth, obsession, and the search for the lost colony of Roanoke > > So I’ll be picking them up tomorrow and keeping most of the other recommendations in a list to look for when I get close to finishing those. Excellent! ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/46 "2020-03-10T00:31:55Z")
Speaking of books about epidemics I would recommend: _The Coming Plague: New Emerging Diseases in A World Out of Balance_–by Laurie Garrett----Published in 1994; it’s about new diseases emerging covering AIDS, Ebola, Legionairres’ Disease among others. It’s not a short book though— 620 pages and another 110 page of footnotes. She also wrote a followup in 2000–_Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health_. It is also a doorstopper—585 pages and 155 pages of footnotes. I would also recommend: \* The Making of the Atomic Bomb\* by Richard Rhodes–Published in 1986, it is about…the making of the atomic bomb. It is 788 page long. \*The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 \* by Brian Fagan Published in 2001, it is about a mini ice ages beginning in the 1300s affected European history, dramatically altering fishing and farming practices, and shaping events, from Norse exploration to the settlement of North America, from the French Revolution to the Irish potato famine to the Industrial Revolution. It is 288 pages. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/47 "2020-03-10T00:35:20Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Here are some of my recommendations: > > _The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named_ by John Keay 2000 A cool documentary of a laborious and inglorious task that helped lay down important groundwork for modern India. > > _The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner_ by Daniel Ellsberg 2017 > A scary story of just how horrifying US nuclear war planning really is. > > \*Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition \*by Daniel Okrent 2010 A good summation of how prohibition got passed and it’s effects beyond just the immediate violence. > > _Charlatan_ by Pope Brock 2009 This one is great. About the quack doctor JR Brinkley who created a radio empire in the 20’s. > > _A Counterfeiters Paradise_ by Ben Tarnoff 2011 Interesting story of counterfeiting in the antebellum US. **Last Call** was a fascinating read! The best focused history book I’ve read in the past ten years is **King Leopold’s Ghost** by Adam Hochschild. Story of Belgian colonialism in Congo in the late 19th century, and the sadistic treatment of natives in the quest for profits in ivory and rubber. And the heroic efforts of one British customs agent to bring the crimes to light, leading to an international movement which included Mark Twain and lots of other internationally famous Humanitarians. Also anything by Barbara Tuchman. Her **The Guns of August** (about the outset of the Great War) is the most famous, but I love **The Proud Tower** (European history 1880-1914) the most, because that’s the period I studied as an undergrad. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/48 "2020-03-10T02:12:46Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > The best focused history book I’ve read in the past ten years is **King Leopold’s Ghost** by Adam Hochschild. Story of Belgian colonialism in Congo in the late 19th century, and the sadistic treatment of natives in the quest for profits in ivory and rubber. And the heroic efforts of one British customs agent to bring the crimes to light, leading to an international movement which included Mark Twain and lots of other internationally famous Humanitarians. I second King Leopold’s Ghost. What a bastard he was. I just about every way. As a sidelight, I got to find out how Sanford, Florida got named. A lot of the state and regional offices I deal with are there. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/49 "2020-03-10T03:13:01Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > . . . > [The Secret Token](https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Token-Obsession-Search-Roanoke/dp/1101974605/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+Secret+Token&qid=1583269415&sr=8-1): The story of the lost colony of Roanoke. I thought I knew American history, but this book made me realize how little I knew about the earliest colonists. Along this line I really liked _The Wordy Shipmates_ by Sarah Vowell > [@](#): > > The book chronicles the 17th and 18th century history of Puritan colonists in Massachusetts, United States. The book delineates a dichotomy between the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and those who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, by analysing several key historical events, like the Pequot War and the banishment of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/50 "2020-03-10T03:53:52Z")
\*\*Good-Bye to All That \*\*is WWI through the eyes of a young officer, Robert Graves, who went on to write **I, Claudius**. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/51 "2020-03-10T11:00:33Z")
[The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72223.The_Worst_Hard_Time) by Timothy Egan. Focuses on the lives of those suffering through the worst hit sections of the drought. [Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/655570.Island_of_the_Lost) by Joan Druett. Accounts of two separate shipwrecks on the same island, Auckland Island, at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Stowed\_Bob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stowed_bob/32/3312_2.png) [@Stowed\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stowed_Bob)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/52 "2020-03-10T11:11:19Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls: True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors by Edward Leslie > > It’s a thick book but each chapter is stand-alone. This is the best collection of survival stories I’ve ever come across. I’ll second this book, it uses the tales of each shipwreck to illustrate different aspects of the Age of Discovery. Edward Leslie’s other book, The Devil Knows How To Ride: The True Story Of William Clarke Quantril And His Confederate Raiders is also an excellent read. Kinda wish Leslie had been able to write more books. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/53 "2020-03-10T12:20:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > **Last Call** was a fascinating read! > > The best focused history book I’ve read in the past ten years is **King Leopold’s Ghost** by Adam Hochschild. Story of Belgian colonialism in Congo in the late 19th century, and the sadistic treatment of natives in the quest for profits in ivory and rubber. And the heroic efforts of one British customs agent to bring the crimes to light, leading to an international movement which included Mark Twain and lots of other internationally famous Humanitarians. > > Also anything by Barbara Tuchman. Her **The Guns of August** (about the outset of the Great War) is the most famous, but I love **The Proud Tower** (European history 1880-1914) the most, because that’s the period I studied as an undergrad. I’ve read King Leopold’s Ghost and the Guns of August as well and enjoyed both of them a great deal. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/54 "2020-03-10T14:54:00Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > Along this line I really liked _The Wordy Shipmates_ by Sarah Vowell That one was okay, but her real delight is **Assassination Vacation,** where she does a deep dive into the murders of Presidents Garfield and McKinley. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871/55 "2020-03-10T14:57:10Z")
> [@mack](#): > > \*\*Good-Bye to All That \*\*is WWI through the eyes of a young officer, Robert Graves, who went on to write **I, Claudius**. Another excellent suggestion. When Graves was at school one of his teachers was George Mallory, the great climber who died during the 1922 Everest expedition. The anecdote about “Mallory’s Pipe” is unforgettable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-some-new-history-books-to-read/848871.md?page=2)