Wanted: easily readable, non-dusty history.

[Belfaborac]

I feel the need to widen my horizon where history is concerned, but the days when I would fearlessly dive into just any dry and dusty tome are long gone. These days I like my books well written and readable as well as scholarly reliable and to that end I thought I'd see if there's any good advice to be had from you boys and girls.

What I'm looking for, primarily, are books on:

The Duchy of Burgundy
Ancient and feudal Japan
Pre-colonial India
The African kingdoms and empires of Kush, Mali, Ethiopia and Songhai.
Ayutthaya (Thailand)
The Bagan kingdom (Burma)
The Champa kingdom (Vietnam)
The Khmer kingdom (Cambodia)
Ancient China

I'm sure several of those are too obscure for many, or indeed any, suggestions to appear, but I'd be interested in, and grateful for, any suggestions you might have regarding history books you've particularly enjoyed.

Most of my own history books are currently in storage, but in case anyone is interested here's a few recommendations for books I can remember the titles of, or still have laying around:

John Julius Norwich:

Byzantium: The Early Centuries
Byzantium: The Apogee
Byzantium: The Decline and Fall
The Normans in Sicily
A History of Venice

Lord Kinross:

The Ottoman Centuries

Shelby Foote:

The Civil War - A Narrative (3 vol.)

John Prebble:

The Lion in the North
Mutiny: Highland Regiments in Revolt
Glencoe
The Highland Clearances

J. D. Mackie:

A History of Scotland

Nicholas V. Riasanovsky:

A History of Russia

Robert Fisk:

Pity the Nation

Paul Cartledge:

The Spartans: An Epic History
Sparta and Lakonia: A Regional History c. 1300-362 BC
Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World

Noel Malcolm:

Kosovo: A Short History
Bosnia: A Short History

[ATDrake]

It's a little old and on the "light" side, but for a solid introduction to Heian Japanese culture, Ivan Morris' The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan can't be beat. Here's a review of it which is a little more descriptive than the Amazon.com stuff tends to get into.

Morris also has an excellent annotated version of The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon which is very entertaining in its own right, and a key text for understanding the time period. It's been recently reprinted into a single paperback volume at a fairly affordable price, last I checked.

If you can get your hands on them, the Cambridge History of Ancient China and Japan (not the illustrated single-volume books, which are okay, but kind of lacking, but the multi-volume text-only books) are an extremely good source which both introduce and proceed to go into depth on many pertinent subjects (and point you towards further reading as well) in a very readable fashion.

Those books cost somewhere between 200-300 CAD per volume the last time I checked, so they're not really a buy-it-yourself option for the casual reader, but it's just barely possible your library may have some of them, as mine did.

For technology and scientific discovery in Ancient China, Joseph Needham's works set the standard. The full length multi-volume set is like the Cambridge History volumes: very expensive and likely out of reach.

But he has a condensed "starter" single-volume introductory work which is well worth picking up. I can't recall the name of it off the top of my head, and I can't find wherever I left my own copy, either. But it should be pretty easy to figure out (probably sort the availbable Needham titles by price and length and pick the shortest and cheapest).

For Japan during the early European contact period to the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, Michael Cooper of the Society of Jesuits has a couple of very good books:

Rodrigues the Interpreter: An Early Jesuit in Japan and China, a biography of the man who was heavily involved in Tokugawa's court (he was the inspiration for the interpreter-priest in James Clavell's Shogun), and later with Ming officials in China and had a fascinating life.

He actually escaped from a Manchu raid on a Ming fort shortly before the dynasty fell to the newcoming Qing conquerors, and wrote the definitive early Japanese grammar and learning textbook that other people would plagiarize for centuries afterwards.

The other book of Cooper's that I recommend is called The Southern Barbarians, and it's a little more coffee-table like with lots of illustrations. But still some very good solid information on early European-Japanese relations.

While it's not quite ancient China, you may be interested in trying a couple of books by Jonathan Spence set in late Ming to early Qing, which are on the biographical side.

I personally have a copy of Treason by the Book and To Change China: Western Advisers in China, 1620-1960, and I keep meaning to read The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, who was one of the major Jesuit advisers to the Ming dynasty court.

Spence writes in a breezily accessible "light" scholarly style, but has extensive footnotes and source references in the back of each book. Although not the sort of "overview" history that you might want to start with, he does incorporate a fair amount on the events and cultural context of the surrounding times.

Hope this helps.

[Belfaborac]

Oh yes, that certainly helps. Thanks a lot for the recommendations, and for taking the time to expound on them! I'll look them all up and see if they're available and what level of additional strain my wallet can take.

[dworth]

John Keay's China: A History is pretty good. It covers all of Chinese history from about 6000BC onwards but he spends a considerable time dealing with the more ancient periods. The sheer scale of what he is trying to achieve results in a certain lack of depth, as some of the chapters would themselves provide enough material for several books, but its a great starting point and provides a solid overview of China's long and complex history.

[Belfaborac]

Thanks a lot for that tip dworth, I'll look it up right away.

Don't be shy folks, pile on the recommendations. Even if it doesn't address any of my target countries or eras, I'd be interested to hear about any history books you have particularly enjoyed.

[ATDrake]

Well, I'm personally drawn to culture/technology/personality-oriented histories (especially if they involve transitional change or outright clash or differing outcomes for seemingly similar persons/situations) rather than event/political/philosophy-focused stuff.

So with that in mind, I really liked:

The Lunatic Express: the building of an impossible 600 mile railway across East Africa by Charles Miller. This is really good stuff which doesn't just start with the building of the actual railway beginning in 1895, but goes back more than half a century before to examine competing powers and cultures in the surrounding area, the impact of the arrival of Europeans, relations between them and the locals, and the scramble for Africa that would influence the decisions that led to the building of the railway, as well as its usage for a couple of decades after.

Many local historical persons and events that are kind of tangentially related to the railway are covered in a fair amount of depth, and Miller incorporates not only footnote commentary and plenty of quotes from contemporary primary sources, but also includes chapter notes at the end of the book which go into further detail on stuff that he mentions and comments on what other people wrote about the same subject matter.

This was originally published by a UK company (and currently severely out of print), so maybe they'll have more used copies in England, which might be cheaper to ship to Norway than trying to get one from North America?

If you're interested in this area, you might want to read TLE in conjunction with Nine Faces of Kenya, edited by Elspeth Huxley (of The Flame Trees of Thika fame, and an in-law of Aldous of Brave New World fame). It's an anthology of selected excerpts from primary source documents (letters, journals, previously printed books, etc.) on many different subjects (farm life, politics, native encounters) related to British East Africa and pre/post-colonial Kenya. A little Euro-centric, due to being pulled from written documents, but I think there's a few selections from the writings of Jomo Kenyatta and Harry Thuku in there, too, and maybe one or two translations of Arabic texts for the Mombasa region.

(And you may or may not want to look up J. H. Patterson's The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures, which is public domain at Project Gutenberg. He was one of the chief engineers on the railway project when it ran into a man-eating lion problem, which has been turned into a couple of movies.)

On the biographical side for stuff you probably won't be able to easily find, I quite liked a few of Marian Fowler's books. She's received a Canadian Biography Award, and does these sort of thematically grouped mini-biographies of women in positions of influence who are just slightly too obscure to usually have mainstream works devoted to them beyond a couple of mentions in somebody else's biography (or some very in-depth exhaustive definitive thing which would be overkill for the casual reader).

Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj covers four Englishwomen who accompanied their Governor-General brothers or husbands to India and settled into official "hostess" duties. Some of them coped better than others, but Fowler explores the cultural shock and the changes in attitude towards the Indians and the assignment over time as Victorian notions of imperialism and women's capabilities changed over the decades (from relatively independent and not overly prejudiced to learned helplessness and paternalistic bigotry).

In a Gilded Cage: From Heiress to Duchess tracks five American heiresses who married into the British aristocracy at a time when there was beginning to be significant backlash about foreign women from those vulgar nouveau riche families with working class ancestors marrying into the impoverished ancient lines (something that would come to a head with Edward the Whateverth and Wallis Simpson).

Fowler's a little on the pop-history side, but generally manages a good introduction to the subjects and the overall societal structure that they lived in, and some of the things which led to their bubble worlds being the way they were. There's just enough depth to satisfy without overwhelming for a first-timer and plenty of footnote cites that lead you to more info in the bibliography if you're interested.

It might be the easiest to find, but I'd probably skip The Way She Looks Tonight: Five Women of Style. While the section on Elinor Glyn (practically invented the "modern" pot-boiler bodice-ripper romance novel, and a major influence on early silent-film Hollywood) is quite good, Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson, and Jackie Kennedy are all covered to a much better degree by other works, and this title is kind of superficial compared to Fowler's previous volumes, which are more scholarly. So it's not really worth it unless you want to read about Glyn.

I had a few more recs that I was going to type up, but this post has gotten really long when I preview, so I'll leave them for later.

[ATDrake]

Okay, since I've been giving recs for out-of-print/not-cheap paper books that you'd probably have to import/pay shipping/customs on, here's a couple that are available in e-edition, at least in Canada, and maybe overseas.

The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks: The Story of the Helicopter by James R. Chiles, $9.29 CAD @ Kobo.

I love history of technology development stuff, which I find tends to be best written in individual volumes by single authors who are devoted to their field. Chiles is no exception, and does a very engaging history of the helicopter (going back to ancient Greek stage devices). He has a supporting website for the book here, and it turns out I did a kind-of-review on my old blog entry here.

The Story of French: From Charlemagne to Cirque du Soleil by Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow, $7.79 CAD @ Kobo.

I love history of cultural change stuff, and Nadeau and Barlow's book provides a nifty look at the development and spread of the modern French language from its langue d'oïl roots through to modern usage as France became more powerful and prominent over time, and then its fortunes waned and so did the use of the language associated with it, which sometimes survives in non-French outpockets in surprising ways. I really liked this book when I read several years ago, and it turns out I gave it a highly recommended on ye olde blog entry review.

Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe by Nancy Goldstone. $10.39 CAD @ Kobo.

I've mentioned I love stuff with diverging paths for similar situations which make actual events practically a built-in What If alternate history scenario? And while I didn't exactly love this book, which came with a few flaws according to ye olde blog entry, I definitely liked it enough to give a conditional "if the subject already interests you and you'd like to know more, then this is a pretty decent read that'll probably be worth your time unless you're picky".

I recall it had some fairly interesting stuff about the sister-queens' interpersonal relationships and the effect that had on the political relationships between their countries, which were kind of a larger stage for their sibling rivalry.

Kind of like Miranda Carter's recently published George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I ($11.09 CAD @ Kobo), which I read earlier this year and thought much the same about (although that one was slightly less interesting, because those men had less personality; or less appealing personality, according to ye newe forum post).

I give both a mild-to-moderate recommend if looking for reading material in that time period/subject area, and the top two books a high recommend for "good introductory read for idly trying out new interests".

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Well, I'm personally drawn to culture/technology/personality-oriented histories (especially if they involve transitional change or outright clash or differing outcomes for seemingly similar persons/situations) rather than event/political/philosophy-focused stuff.

You Sir, would appear to be far more focused than I. I just like to know stuff. Well, "history stuff" anyway and mainly of the older variety.

Thank you for the additional recommendations and for once again including excellent detail on each one. Very much appreciated indeed. I'll certainly look up each and every one and also bear Amazon.uk in mind, as I always do. As far as pricing goes I find that whether a book is less expensive in the US or the UK is fairly arbitrary, regardless of where it was published, although my experience is lacking where older, out of print books are concerned.

Originally Posted by dworth

John Keay's China: A History is pretty good.

This seems to be exactly what I want, at least to begin with, so thank you once again for mentioning it. As an added bonus Mr. Keay also has a similar book on India and various other volumes which may well be of interest. And while any single volume work on national history will by necessity suffer from a lack of depth, they do make for ideal starting points just as you point out.

On a closing note, before I hit the sack, I feel I should point out that enjoying Single Malt Whiskey before and whilst browsing Amazon is not necessarily a particularly good idea. It would seem that I am now the owner of a complete set of The Cambridge History of Japan....

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

On a closing note, before I hit the sack, I feel I should point out that enjoying Single Malt Whiskey before and whilst browsing Amazon is not necessarily a particularly good idea. It would seem that I am now the owner of a complete set of The Cambridge History of Japan....

Okay, I feel kind of guilty now because those things just cost you well over a grand for all six volumes unless you managed to find dirt-cheap used copies (and even then I suspect high 3 figures or above in equivalent CAD).

I seriously hope you enjoy and really get your money's worth from them. But they are very good indeed (occasionally a couple of sections are a little dry, but generally very accessible overall) and I'd have bought copies myself if I could afford them.

I suppose this would be a bad time to encourage you to also at some point read James Burke's excellent Connections and The Day the Universe Changed, which tie into his very good tv series, if you "just like to know stuff"?

He does this marvelous job of synthesizing all sorts of knowledge about stuff from political maneuverings to military campaigning to territorial expansion to cultural impact to societal change etc. etc. of scientific discovery and technological innovation starting from pretty far back, in a way that wraps it all up into a coherent, interconnected and interdependent whole.

His newer books are also generally good, but Connections was where it all started and where the really important linkages that you learn the most from to begin with are.

[Belfaborac]

I doubt there's such a thing as a bad time to point me towards interesting stuff. As it happens I own the full Connections and The Day the Universe Changed series on DVD (as well as most of BBCs production of similar series and programs), but I must confess to not having read the books. Too many good books waiting to be read I guess, whereas TV isn't exactly overflowing with quality programs.

If I may make a counter-recommendation, Kenneth Clarke's Civilisation is an absolute must if you've yet to see it. While it may seem dated in both form, format and content (it first aired in -68 after all), Kenneth Clarke is superbly erudite, with an aesthetic judgement second to none and the series became the template for all the great BBC documentary productions which followed. All of which you very likely already know already. Available for a song at Amazon on both DVD and BluRay.

As for feeling guilty: don't. I won't be skipping next month's electricity bill because of the Cambridge set, nor go hungry. And I have no doubt I'll love the books.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

If I may make a counter-recommendation, Kenneth Clarke's Civilisation is an absolute must if you've yet to see it.

No, I haven't seen it, but it looks good, and just the sort of cultural development/spread stuff that I usually really like. And it turns out the library has 3 copies available on DVD (all checked out, but I've still got several free request slots left and only two classes taking up my time this summer).

Thanks for the rec!

[mikaelalind]

If you know Swedish, I recommend Cecilia Lindqvist's Tecknens Rike. If not, check out the English version, Empire of Living Symbols!

If you want something cheap, Bushido is available from the Mobile Read Library.

Also check out the Making History series by Jacob Abbot that is available in the Mobile read library.

[G_Pari]

Hey,

Here are a few books related to what you are looking for:

1) Africa and the Africans in the Nineteenth Century by Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch

2) The World and a Very Small Place in Africa by Donald R. Wright

3) Modernization and Revolution in China by June Grasso, Jay Corrin, Michael Kort

The best part is, you can read a few pages of the book (viewinside) and judge whether is worth.

[ctol]

You might find some books of interest at this link.

http://www.southeastasianarchaeology...ategory/books/