# Recommend Me Some History Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825 "2005-01-15T05:28:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/1 "2005-01-15T05:28:36Z")
Lookin for recommendations for novel-like history books for a couple subjects. When I say novel-like I mean something more exciting then a text book but does a good job of covering the period. I am looking for books about: 1. The Russian Revolution 2. Japan from early 1800s to at the earliest the Russo-Japanese war and the latest the beginning of WWI. 3. A general European history book from Napoleon to WWI. Thanks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/2 "2005-01-15T11:51:00Z")
NIcholas and Alexandra, by Robert Massie, covers the lives of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia. This would cover the Revolution of course, and quite a bit about other “players”. Non-fiction, but very readable. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/3 "2005-01-15T14:47:04Z")
Only tangentially related to point #3, Eric Hobsbawm’s book _Age of Empire_ is quite remarkable for his introduction wherein he describes why the study of history is important and valuable (the story about the people from Egypt in particular). His entire “Age of…” series will fit into your European caterogy, but I liked this book in paritcular. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/4 "2005-01-15T17:47:14Z")
There are some good scholarly books about the Russian Revolution. Two that I’ve read with **Olentzero** ’s recommendation were both by Rabinowitch. The first is _Prelude to Revolution_ and the other is _The Bolsheviks Come to Power_. These are not popular histories; they are serious scholarly works. If you’re looking into Japanese history, my world civilization professor recommended Clavell’s _Shogun_. It is a novel, but it’s about the period you’ve described, more or less. Robin ---
**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:** [January 15, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/5 "2005-01-15T22:17:55Z")
Not “novels” but entertaining reads nontheless… **10 Days That Shook The World** by John Reed (Russian Revolution) **The Proud Tower** by Barbara Tuchman (Pre-WWI) **The Guns of August** by Barbara Tuchman (beginning of WWI) But, if you want a really fun series of novels that do a great job of covering the 19th Century, you should look no further than **The Flashman Papers** by George MacDonald Fraser. The are the “rediscovered” journals of Harry Flashman (the bully from Tom Brown’s School Days) a cad, coward, philanderer and rake, as he manages, through no fault of his own, to show up at most of the major historical events of that era. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/6 "2005-01-16T00:42:10Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > If you’re looking into Japanese history, my world civilization professor recommended Clavell’s _Shogun_. It is a novel, but it’s about the period you’ve described, more or less. Unforunately, Shogun’s about 300 years too early. **treis** , the only book that comes to mind for the period you describe is Donald Keene’s **Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his World, 1852-1912** , which is supposed to be excellent and quite readable. You might also like Fukuzawa Yukichi’s [autobiography](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231083734/qid=1105836454/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-0123477-5997723). Hopefully those two won’t be too unsuitable for you. Unfortunately, most of the works I know of handling the fall of the Tokugawa bakufu and the the Meiji Restoration are quite academic. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/7 "2005-01-16T04:45:25Z")
Regarding number three, Henry Kissinger wrote his thesis at Harvard on the Quadruple Alliance and the Concert of Europe. This was later revised and published as _A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace_. A bit dry, but an interesting look into great power politics and the personalities of the period (as well as into the man who would think of himself as a later-day Metternich). For a shorter treatment, he covers the same period in a couple of chapters of his book _Diplomacy_. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/8 "2005-01-16T04:49:56Z")
A good one for a quick and dirty intro to the origins of WWI is _Europe’s Last Summer_ by Fromkin. It’s an easy read and not too long. It gives a very insightful look at what was going on in Germany and Austria at the time and why they started the war. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/9 "2005-01-16T05:12:27Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > A bit dry… I expect nothing less from Henry the K, especially if you are stating that as an ironic understatement. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/10 "2005-01-16T05:22:21Z")
W. Bruce Lincoln wrote an excellent three part history of the Russian Revolutionary era: _In War’s Dark Shadow: The Russians Before the Great War_, _Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution 1914-1918_, and _Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War_. They’ve been in print for a few years and I see you can get used copies of all three for less than twenty dollars combined on Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2005, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-some-history-books/284825/11 "2005-01-16T07:36:55Z")
> [@Neurotik](#): > > It gives a very insightful look at what was going on in Germany and Austria at the time and why they started the war. And, it also, as you said, has the thesis that Germany and Austria started the war. If you’re reading that, also read Niall Ferguson’s “The Pity of War”, which argues, among other things, that Britain did. You also might like “The Rites of Spring” by Modris Eksteins, which blames the whole thing on modernism.