# Recommend a good history book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-history-book/264399 "2004-09-14T12:34:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-history-book/264399/21 "2004-09-16T02:18:57Z")
I recommend _The Battle for Christmas_, a history of the Christmas holiday in America. It details how the experience of the holiday has changed for ordinary people over the years. What’s really fascinating is seeing how many of the “old” traditions were invented in very recent times but passed off as something antiquated. Pulitzer Prize winner, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-history-book/264399/22 "2004-09-16T14:41:09Z")
I just re-read Antonia Fraser’s _The Weaker Vessel_. It’s about women’s lives in 17th century England. Like Tuchman, she’s scholarly, but still very accessible. The book focused mostly on the lives of elite women–they were the ones who could write and were written about in contemporary accounts, but she does discuss the life of the “average” woman as well. Fraser’s _The Wives of Henry VIII_ is also great. She uses the stories of these 6 very different women to illuminate the mindset, politics, and daily lives of the European nobility. It also touches on how the commoners perceived each queen. Very interesting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-history-book/264399/23 "2004-09-16T21:59:46Z")
> [@thermalribbon](#): > > Agree that **Barbara Tuchman** is about as good a history writer that I’ve read. For a suggestion, try her book [The Guns of August](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/034538623X/ref=pd_sim_books_1/103-2884839-7379842?v=glance&s=books) about the months and years leading up to World War I. It was as great a learning experience that I’ve had reading a single book. Her book **The Proud Tower** is a great percursor to The Guns of August. It chronicles the Western world on the eve of WWI… and gives a great portrait of a culture that came to an end during that war. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-history-book/264399/24 "2004-09-16T22:04:34Z")
The reason I haven’t bothered to stop into this thread before this point was because I figured the first couple posts would by simulrecommendations of this extremely important [book](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1586217011/qid=1095372130/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/002-9939066-9664848?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) . I am shocked–shocked, I tell you–that it hasn’t already come up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-history-book/264399.md?page=1)