Favourite History related books
I will always add books to every category once in a while so keep an eye out!
Wild Swans: Three daughters of China by Jung Chang
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The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history.
An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents’ experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution.
-> This is one of those rare books which make you despair of humanity and then go a long way towards restoring your faith in it. The vivid descriptions, the pictures are so powerful and graphic. The way in which she explores her family so deeply and covers a thoughtful conversation about Communist China draws you in completely. I highly recommend it to anyone really, it is so important to understand the people of the past and what better way is there than to read a true story that opens your eyes.
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
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Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
Clark traces the paths to war in a minute-by-minute, action-packed narrative that cuts between the key decision centers in Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, and Belgrade, and examines the decades of history that informed the events of 1914 and details the mutual misunderstandings and unintended signals that drove the crisis forward in a few short weeks.
-> The aim in this book is not to re-write the causal history of WWI, but rather to clarify it. Well all I can say is, mission accomplished Mr. Clarke. Interested in the Great War? Don't miss this one.
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright
From former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright comes a moving and thoughtful memoir of her formative years in Czechoslovakia during the tumult of Nazi occupation, World War II, fascism, and the onset of the Cold War. An intensely personal journey into the past that offers vital lessons for the future, Prague Winter combines the intimacy of an autobiography with the drama of an exciting and well-told story—all underpinned by the gravity and intelligence of a serious work of history. The result is a highly readable and incisive work filled with tragedy and triumph, a resonant narrative informed by Albright’s remarkable life experience and her characteristic candor in speaking hard truths.
-> Currently reading. It covers weighty content, but is incredible powerful. Here a quote that struck me:
'There is a piece of the traitor within most of us, a slice of collaborator, an aptitude for appeasement, a touch of the unfeeling prison guard. Who among us has not dehumanized others, if not by word or action, then at least in thought?'
The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 by Eric Hobsbawm
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This magisterial volume follows the death of ancient traditions, the triumph of new classes, and the emergence of new technologies, sciences, and ideologies, with vast intellectual daring and aphoristic elegance. Part of Eric Hobsbawm's epic four-volume history of the modern world, along with The Age of Capitalism, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes.
-> One of the greatest Historians ever lived. The book is well-written, well-argued and most importantly non-American. Age of Revolutions deals with the decisive era that began with the French Revolution and ends with the revolutions of 1848 (and includes of course the Industrial Revolution). Hobsbawm writes as from a generalist perspective for the general reader of history. Despite his Marxist's approach Hobsbawm possesses a mind that shuns simple conclusions in favor of complex answers that raise even more complex questions.