The History Thread

SilentWitness said:
Not a book but here there are a number of resources: https://www.societyofblackarchaeologists.com/resources

This might be of particular interest to you - https://slavevoyages.org/

It is a database of 35000+ voyages from the early 1500s to the late 1800s. Includes maps, images, essays, diaries etc. from both the enslaved and enslaver perspectives.
Click to expand...

Thanks, spent an hour last night playing around with these, an incredible volume of information there.

Carolina Red said:
Time on the Cross and Without Consent are both really famous (and controversial in the case of Time) economic histories of slavery by him.

If you want to read a general history of slavery that isn't economic history, then I recommend The Peculiar Institution by Kenneth Stampp. Less than 500 pages long and provides a good overview from the 1600s up to Reconstruction looking at slavery from the perspective of the slave, slave owner, economics, social effects, etc.

For more specfic reading...
Bullwhip Days would be a must-read, in my opinion. It's a collection of first person accounts of slavery, commissioned by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. They interviewed 2300 remaining slavery survivors to make the book.

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism is another one that is fantastic and focuses on how the modern American economy is intrinsically tied to the institution of slavery and the contributions made by those slaves.

Fall of the House of Dixie is a great social history of the Antebellum and Civil War era South.
Click to expand...

Thanks! While I have you here, have you any thoughts on Allan Nevins’ Ordeal of the Union?
 
2cents said:
Thanks! While I have you here, have you any thoughts on Allan Nevins’ Ordeal of the Union?
Click to expand...
It is the benchmark that any other study of the causes and course of the American Civil War is measured against.

Mind you - it’s an 8 volume set.
 
Carolina Red said:
It is the benchmark that any other study of the causes and course of the American Civil War is measured against.

Mind you - it’s an 8 volume set.
Click to expand...

Bit of a commitment so. I’ve ordered Battle Cry of Freedom which should do for the moment, and The Peculiar Institution.

esmufc07 said:
If you’re into podcasts this is a good one @2cents

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-history-of-american-slavery/id1482211846?i=1000452086169
Click to expand...

Thanks I’ll have a listen during the week.
 
Speaking of long things, has anyone seen The Vietnam War documentary series? 17 and a half hours of very interesting material. Absolutely worth checking out for anyone who has some time to kill this summer (or whenever).
 
nimic said:
Speaking of long things, has anyone seen The Vietnam War documentary series? 17 and a half hours of very interesting material. Absolutely worth checking out for anyone who has some time to kill this summer (or whenever).
Click to expand...

Yeah. It took me 3 months to watch it all. After every episode I needed a week to process everything that happened. Very heavy but brilliant both from a factual point and the way they pieced it together.
 
nimic said:
Speaking of long things, has anyone seen The Vietnam War documentary series? 17 and a half hours of very interesting material. Absolutely worth checking out for anyone who has some time to kill this summer (or whenever).
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s very good but very heavy as stated above. Another one from him is The Dust Bowl, if you’re interested in that time period. That story is highly relevant now given how we’re treating to the environment.
 
nimic said:
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check that one. Ken Burns sure directs some good documentaries.
Click to expand...
Everything I’ve seen of his has been just excellent.

The Civil War
The West
Baseball
The Roosevelts
Prohibition
The Dust Bowl
The War (WWII)
Vietnam

I’ve not yet seen Jazz, Country Music, National Parks, and Cancer

He’s got some awesome titles upcoming over the next few years too...

Hemingway (2021)
Ali (2021)
The Holocaust and the United States (2021)
Ben Franklin (2022)
Da Vinci (2025)
The American Revolution (2025) *Ive been wanting him to cover this my whole life*
Reconstruction (TBA)
Churchill (TBA) *this cant come soon enough for me*
 
Oh, he's doing one on Reconstruction! That would be excellent, it's an incredibly interesting part of American history, and sadly quite relevant for today. The failure (wilful abandonment) of Reconstruction basically set the stage for many of the issues with race relations we see in American society now.
 
I wish @nimic was my history teacher. Interesting suggestions.

Watched this earlier today whilst I was procrastinating at work. Really interesting . Picked up his book Inglorious Empire as it was on sale on the Kindle Store

 
nimic said:
Speaking of long things, has anyone seen The Vietnam War documentary series? 17 and a half hours of very interesting material. Absolutely worth checking out for anyone who has some time to kill this summer (or whenever).
Click to expand...

Just started this, halfway through first episode and already learned a ton of stuff. Great footage.
 
2cents said:
Just started this, halfway through first episode and already learned a ton of stuff. Great footage.
Click to expand...

It's one of the few factual series I've watched that I wouldn't have any regrets watching again in its entirety if I had the time.
 
French Revolution: remains discovered in walls of Paris monument:
Experts believe up to 500 people guillotined in period may be buried in Chapelle Expiatoire
The discovery blows apart the accepted historical account, which suggests the bodies of famous guillotinés, including Louis XV’s mistress Madame du Barry, Olympe de Gouges and Maximilien Robespierre, revolutionary architect of the Reign of Terror, were moved to the network of catacombs under the city.
Click to expand...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...remains-discovered-in-walls-of-paris-monument


British state 'covered up plot to assassinate King Edward VIII':
"It is entirely possible that MI5 were aware of McMahon’s planned attempt and were happy to let him assassinate Edward, thereby removing an internationally embarrassing monarch with believed Nazi sympathies from the throne. Or, alternatively, simply that they were embarrassed by their arrogance and incompetence.”
Click to expand...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...vered-up-plot-to-assassinate-king-edward-viii
 
Last edited:
711 said:
I find it strange that someone who attempted to kill the king in the 1930s, in front of a shedload of witnesses, only received a twelve month sentence. I would be less surprised if they'd have hung him.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's suggestive.
 
It was between about now (3:30pm) and 4pm on July 3rd, 1863 that the Confederate soldiers making “Pickett’s Charge” began to directly encounter the Union Army defenders of Cemetery Ridge.

It would be an Irish regiment, the 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers that would find themselves at the center of the assault at the “Bloody Angle”, a small stone wall they had taken shelter behind. The 69th Pennsylvania held the line despite being flanked on both sides and suffering awful casualties. For their efforts, they’d gain the nickname “The Rock of Erin”.

a9a0f227c0d4d992322d87d16f15e6a5.jpg
 
Can anyone point me in the direction of audiobooks or long format podcast series on world history? Happy for basically anything but i'd maybe skew WWII, ancient civilisation history centric.

Thanks to anyone that has a "go to" audio experience that you've really enjoyed :)
 
WPMUFC said:
Can anyone point me in the direction of audiobooks or long format podcast series on world history? Happy for basically anything but i'd maybe skew WWII, ancient civilisation history centric.

Thanks to anyone that has a "go to" audio experience that you've really enjoyed :)
Click to expand...

I haven’t yet read it but perhaps look at Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads?
 
WPMUFC said:
Can anyone point me in the direction of audiobooks or long format podcast series on world history? Happy for basically anything but i'd maybe skew WWII, ancient civilisation history centric.

Thanks to anyone that has a "go to" audio experience that you've really enjoyed :)
Click to expand...

The History of Rome

Revolutions
 
WPMUFC said:
Can anyone point me in the direction of audiobooks or long format podcast series on world history? Happy for basically anything but i'd maybe skew WWII, ancient civilisation history centric.

Thanks to anyone that has a "go to" audio experience that you've really enjoyed :)
Click to expand...
Hardcore History is probably the most popular one. History Time for ~Bronze Age to Medieval times, with a heavy focus on early English and Norman history (I had no idea I knew so little of that). Fall of Civilizations picks examples of such and dissects it for an hour or two.

For audiobooks, I have The Rising Sun, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and Stalingrad about WWII. Augustus, SPQR, and The Storm Before the Storm (authored by the History of Rome podcast guy mentioned above) make up my recent Ancient Rome spree.
 
Hardcore History is pretty good, but he's more of a story teller than an historian. He also shouts quotes at you.

The History of Rome and Revolutions are great. After you do The History of Rome, you can do The History of Byzantium, made by someone else. Revolutions is currently on its last subject, the Russian Revolution (he's on a break until November or something).
 
BBC said:
An Iron Age skeleton with his hands bound has been discovered by HS2 project archaeologists, who believe he may be a murder victim.

The remains of the 2,000-year-old adult male were found face down at Wellwick Farm near Wendover in Buckinghamshire.
Click to expand...
Seems to me that he died of old age.
 
2,300 year-old Scythian woman’s boot preserved in the frozen ground of the Altai Mountains
Click to expand...
EckoZpMU4AAF4O4
 



Standard estimates for the Bering land bridge theory: Link.
 
I have just finished reading 1491 by Charles Mann. Fascinating book - there is so much I did not know about the Americas before Columbus, and so much I thought I knew that's actually wrong. (Especially everything about pre-Columbine population levels, their level of technology/knowledge, and the myth of nature in its 'pristine' state'.) He goes into this origins debate extensively. I'll have to check back how this fits in. :)

Here's a decent non-paywalled article btw (in French).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.