Anybody Like To Read History? (written, series, favorite, essay)

[catman]

History is what I almost always read for pleasure. Fiction has a really tough act to follow!

[yankinscotland]

I like historical fiction like the Outlander series (18th century Scotland, France and US), the Sister Fidelma series (7th century Ireland) and the Sister Frevisse medieval mysteries (15th century England).

I also like general Celtic history, Ireland, Scotland, and local history in my area. Also like the true stories of 17th to 19th century immigration from Britain and Ireland to the US.

[Trudy Rose]

I read anything I can on History! Right now I'm reading "A Savage War of Peace" by Alistair Horne. It's about the French colonization and defeat in Algeria. The name of the book says it all!
I'm mainly interested in European History...from the Romans to the Goths, the Celts and all the way up to WW1..one thing leads to another and I always need to learn more about a particular person or event

[ArmyPoohFan317]

I'm reading a lot of books on ancient Egypt (both fiction and non-fiction) and history books set in India. I find both those cultures to be intriguing. Of course since I'm half-Irish I love to read about my ancestors. I've always loved American history, especially the colonial period. For work and my PhD dissertation I get to read about the military and military history fascinates. Heck, just about anything historical fascinates!

[golfgod]

I like history as well as "historically accurate" fiction. In the latter category I'd put the "Flashman" series by George McDonald Fraser". "Flashman" is kind of the 18th century, British Army's equivalent of Forest Gump, goes everywhere, does everything.

Two of the best historical books I've read in the last few years are "Shadow Divers" and (I can't remember the exact title of the next one) either "Black May" or "May 1943".

"Shadow Divers" recounts the story of some SCUBA divers who discovered a German submarine off the coast of New Jersey and their attempts to correctly identify it and the sloppy way in which the Allies had "accounted" for all Axis submarines at the end of WWII. I know the story was on a PBS special once as well as either the History or Discovery Channel.

May 1943 was the month and year that the Allies began sinking German submarines at a rate faster than Germany could replace them.

"Ship Of Gold In The Deep Blue Sea", is the true story of a ship that sank off the Carolina/Virginia coast in 1849 or '50. It recounts the efforts of the treasure hunters to develop the technology to recover (and record the provencanc) of the gold coins, still stacked as in the rolls they had shipped in, from the San Francisco mint. Some of this story has also been televised.

[GypsySoul22]

Yes, some of my favorite books are history. I am a big fan of British History, British royal history and so on.

[Bunjee]

I think any work of fiction will contain incidental historical interest. It is, after all, a product of its time. There's even a game to be played with it, like The French Lieutenant's Woman, which is historical with a modern voice but it's also a voice of its own particular time and perspective.

But other than that, I found Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley pretty interesting as it reached back to the end of WWI and offered a compelling reminder of the political and ideological naivete of the radical intellectual class that allowed--even encouraged--reactionary forces to gain traction in postwar Germany. There've certainly been parallels to that mindset in this country in recent decades, lesson unlearned. Also, a proto-existentialist writer like Andre Malraux drew on his direct experience with the Communist Internationale in China and Spain, and I've always felt that as a writer Malraux was a much better Hemingway than Hemingway. Also, books like Remains of the Day and Mishima's tetralogy offer tremendous social and psychological insights into real history.

[skinem]

As a former history teacher, I kinda like reading history...just about any.
I like everything from biographies, regional history (particularly mid-South, Pacific Northwest and Southwest history), military, political, just about any...if the research is sound, I'm not too picky.

I'm currently reading Retreat, Hell! about the "Frozen Chosin"; Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River by William Dietrich; and the Thunder Over the Ochoco series by Gale Ontko, a history of (primarily) Eastern Oregon, focusing on the Native American population.

All interesting reads.

[citizenkane2]

Great topic

[harry chickpea]

I've been working my way backwards through WWII by reading the National Geographics of the period. They may not qualify as books, but they are utterly fascinating when read with chasers of historical perspectives from the current era. One thing (among many) that I've come to realize is that the internment camps for the Japanese-Americans were vitally necessary, political correctness be damned. It was a different era and the culture of the Japanese was different.

What also is interesting is to note just how slanted reporting is during times of crisis. There are lots of glowing stories of the Soviets and the Dominican Republic and other countries. In the light of history, the coloring of what the public expected to be an unbiased source is unmistakable.