Looking to buy good history books. Especially American history. Any suggestions? (Vanity, I suppose)

11-27-02 | None

[Green Knight]

Alright, I've been meaning to buy a history book with detailed American history, but I'm leary of spending money on a Politically Correct piece of crud. So can you folks help me out, here?

I'd like A) A book which focuses specifically not only on the USA, but on the history that led up the founding of the United States, and B) A detailed look at world history (Being only one book, I can't imagine it'd be all that detailed). I'd also like C) A book detailing World War II.

Appreciate any and all help folks. Thanks.

[KriegerGeist]

"The Patriot's Handbook" (A Citizenship Primer For A New Generation of Americans) by George Grant. ISBN: 1888952032. $14.95

This book has all the American documents and speeches and papers for a small paperback book.

[Publius]

Go to Amazon and order everything written by Forrest McDonald. States' Rights and the Union is a masterpiece.

[vigilo]

Start with everything by Clarence Carson.
Gary DeMar also has a good series called "God and Government". Oh, btw, did I mention Clarence Carson, aka. Clarence B. Carson?

[Petronski]

William Shirer's series on World War II is considered definitive, and although he worked for CBS, he is a fair historian and is exhaustively thorough. Try any of these three:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich * Berlin Diaries * The Collapse of the Third Republic

Also, regarding Nazi Germany, Klaus P. Fischer is excellent, in two volumes:

Nazi Germany: A New History * History of an Obsession

[x]

Plenty of free ebooks and etexts here and here and also here.

[KriegerGeist]

Coral Ridge Ministries also has great Christian American History books like "America's Heritage" by Gary DeMar or "Original Intent" by David Barton:

Link to Coral Ridge Ministries books

[justshutupandtakeit]

For the philosophic underpining of the Revolution: Novus Ordus Seculorum by Forrest McDonald. It is not an easy read though very deep. His biography of Alexander Hamilton is also excellent as well as the Presidency of George Washington and the Persidency of Thomas Jefferson.

You must be wary of old books as well for they tend to worship Jefferson and refrain from telling the truth about him, his ideas and his conscious sabotage of the Washington administration.

[yarddog]

I haven't read Churchill's WWI history (didn't even know he wrote one) but his six volume history of WWII is as good as it gets. I especially enjoy reading the telegrams he excanged with different world leaders.

The only complaint is that since I am a slow reader it took me around a year to finish them all, then by that time I had forgotten so much I had to start over.

BTW didn't he win the Nobel Prize for literature for that series?

[Petronski]

A great History book about the civil war is called "Killer Angels" By Michael Shaara. He's a Pulitzer Prize winner. Drop everything and buy it now! (The Best Civil War Book Ever)

There is an excellent, unabridged Audiobook version of Killer Angels that I HIGHLY recommend, especially if you are a commuter. It is not just read, but acted. The performer is very versatile and the thing just comes alive.

The Turner (yes, that Turner) production of Killer Angels is also excellent on DVD, if you can get beyond the laughably fake beards.

[Jerrybob]

Anything by Stephen Ambrose. BAND OF BROTHERS is excellent, as is CITIZEN SOLDIER.

[Petronski]

The movie version of Killer Angels is called simply "Gettysburg" and is perhaps 85% faithful to the book, and an extraordinarily authentic production (except for the aforementioned beards and some very fat Confederates here and there).

[seamus]

While not considered a "scholarly" book, Benson Bobrick's "Angel in the Whirlwind" is a well-researched and written account of the American Revolution. Bobrick spends about 100 pages setting up what life was like in colonial times. He covers the important political issues of the day, and covers the war from both sides of the Atlantic (though, naturally, mostly from the Colonial side).

I'd call it a history of the revolution from the ground up, instead of from the top (the leaders) down. You get a great sense of what it was like to be just a regular joe in Colonial America at the time of the Revolution. And Bobrick's narrative is sharp and compelling, so it's a very fun and fascinating read. I highly recommend it. You might find it easier to get through than many of the more hefty "scholarly tomes," and is actually a good place to start learning about early American history.

[AnAmericanMother]

The 1953 Nobel prize in literature was not awarded for any specific work of Churchill's, but for his work as a whole or in general. The WWI history is in 4 volumes, I think (it's upstairs & I'm too lazy to run up). He also did a history of his great ancestor the Duke of Marlborough.

[Petronski]

I know this topic is about books, but HBO's production of Band of Brothers was the best damned miniseries ever produced for television, and is now out on DVD at Wal-Mart for $85.

Did you catch that, Santa?

[PJ-Comix]

While not meeting your criteria, the Robert Caro books on LBJ and his previous one on Robert Moses of NYC are fascinating.

BINGO!!! Those are the BEST!!!

[rednekelmo]

for a good over view of world history I like Isaac Asimov's Cronoligical history of the World.he breaks history up and helps your understnding of who what when and were of history

[Teacher317]

Balint Vazsonyi's "America's Thirty Years War" is an excellent comparison between the current liberal/progressive movement in America and the Marxist movement in Eastern Europe. It also details how each philosophical line started in England and France (Rousseau et al), and how tiny differences in basic founding beliefs can make HUGE differences in the after-effects a few generations later on.

[Teacher317]

It's #1 on my list.

[cloud8]

I got a 5 volumne, 1902, set of History of the American People by Woodrow Wilson at a garage sale for a buck.

I got mine for free...inherited from my grandfather. What's remarkable about HOAP is that Wilson included many documents and copious illustrations. Pretty good for 100 years ago. For example as I type I have vol. 3 open to p. 93 with the title page of Thomas Paine's Common Sense opposite. Here is what Wilson says of it: "...no writing ever more instantly swung men to its humor. It was hard to resist its quick, incisive sentences, which cut so unhesitatingly to the heart of every matter they touched; which spoke, not the arguments of the lawyer or the calculations of the statesman, but the absolute spirit of revolt, and were ... direct and vivid in their appeal.... They were cast, every one, not according to the canons of taste, but according to the canons of force, and declared, every one, without qualification, for independence." Doesn't that beg you to go find a copy of Common Sense and read it for yourself?

[bert]

Since all the past is prelude, like Janes Mitchner, you have to start at the beginning.

Therefore, Will Durant is the place to go. "The Story of Civilazation" is in 11 volumes but tells you in plain but elegant prose why we are here today. They are cheap in used book stores. It all matters.