/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6547710]

Can you guys recommend me some historical reading? I read the wiki, but it's pretty threadbare, and I don't quite know what I want.

I'm looking for things dealing with, but not limited to, the Sengoku Era, the Hellenistic Era (although I suppose the wiki gives pretty good suggestions there), pre-Ming China, WW2, and the Napoleonic Wars.

[Anonymous No.6547733]

For the Hellenistic era I read Plutarch's Greek lives as well as a used copy of this : http://www.amazon.ca/Ancient-Greece-Political-Cultural-History/dp/019530800X
For ww2 a ton of shit, but mainly rise and fall of Nazi germany by shirer

I don't know anything about sengoku, ming or napoleonic

[Anonymous No.6547740]

>>6547733
>http://www.amazon.ca/Ancient-Greece-Political-Cultural-History/dp/019530800X

Jesus christ, that thing costs an arm and a leg. Are history books usually this expensive?

[Anonymous No.6547761]

>>6547740
>used copy of this

Buy used man. I can see for that one there's copies as low as $4

[Anonymous No.6547790]

>>6547710
Only historical book I've read is "The shortest history of Europe". A real historian would probably tell you it's not good enough, but at least it's entertaining. It tracks the history of ideas and events that have created contemporary Europe. Like how the institutions of Rome, philosophers of Greece and pagans of the north together smashed into each other to create the greatest cultures and empires the world has seen so far. To me it was an incredibly fascinating read.

In general I think history is interesting when it deals with the larger trends of history. In fifth grade we learned about how the Egyptians removed the brains of the privileged dead through the nose. That's cool but it doesn't really make you any more wiser about how the world works and why it looks like it does.
Does anyone have recomendations about these kinds of books that track the ideas of history? I'm especially interested in things like the French revolution and how it affected the world or for that matter about how the world and our ideals have been formed in general.

[Anonymous No.6547830]

Consider The Third Reich by Michael Burleigh if you're in to nasty nazis

[Anonymous No.6547936]

>>6547740
>>6547761
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=15031884620&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3DAncient+Greece%3A+A+Political%2C+Social+and+Cultural+History

>They don't use abebooks!
I've literally never spent more than ten bucks for a textbook.

Here's that one for less than 4 dollars, free shipping.

[Anonymous No.6548775]

>>6547733
The Greek lives, damn that was an inspiring read. Never realised their political system was so complex.