AH.Com History Book Club

We are a website devoted to discussing history (albeit primarily through the prism of what might have been). So it makes perfect sense that we should have a book club devoted to reading popular history* books. Anyone interested?

If so, I've got three history books that I still haven't got around to digging into, that I'd love to discuss as I read:

<list snipped, reposted as part of larger list below>

Any interest?

*straight non-fiction history, not AH
 
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I don't mind the idea, although as a college student with an uncertain income, I probably won't be able to buy that many books :p

Also, my 2 cents here, but I hate Anne Applebaum. I read Gulag, and she appears to cherry-pick statistics and is part of the "the Soviets were worse than the Nazis" trend in modern historiography.
 
I don't mind the idea, although as a college student with an uncertain income, I probably won't be able to buy that many books :p

You also might -- might, mind you -- be able to find (some of) them at your local library.

Also, my 2 cents here, but I hate Anne Applebaum. I read Gulag, and she appears to cherry-pick statistics and is part of the "the Soviets were worse than the Nazis" trend in modern historiography.

We can take that as a negative vote for that book, then?
 
I don't mind the idea, although as a college student with an uncertain income, I probably won't be able to buy that many books :p

Also, my 2 cents here, but I hate Anne Applebaum. I read Gulag, and she appears to cherry-pick statistics and is part of the "the Soviets were worse than the Nazis" trend in modern historiography.

I read Iron Curtain last month. I can't speak for Gulag or other Applebaum works, but there was a... sense of focusing on Soviet excesses and crimes, and just... leaving the Nazi wrongs in a nebulous, vague "they happened" realm. I think it would have been more interesting and illuminating to do a better job of highlighting the transitions between the two regimes than the Soviets just stuffing ex-death camps with their own undesirables.

Overall, I did find Iron Curtain an interesting read for the novice on the subject, and it was readable and competently put together.

Re: the Soviets are worse: I can't really speak for the historiography of the postwar era as I'm not that well versed, but I would imagine it's because:

1) The butcher bill is bigger
2) The Soviet empire was bigger and lasted longer
3) The Soviets legitimately threatened life on Earth with their arsenal (as did the US, of course)
4) The West had a lot longer to hate the Soviets than they did the Nazis
 
Well, for those interested, right now I'm looking at what books AH.com members already own. The following titles, being popular, might be a place to start:

  • Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson
  • Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956, by Anne Applebaum
  • The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • The Histories, by Herodotus
  • The First World War, John Keegan
Note: responses for this thread for showing interest in titles for a book club; if you want to say that you own one these, or really any, titles, please respond in the linked thread.
 
Given that a few AH.com members already own a copy, I was thinking of doing Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. Any interest there? For those who don't happen to own a copy, I imagine it should be available through most public libraries (in the US anyway).

EDIT ADD: Here's a link to the thread.
 
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I read Iron Curtain last month. I can't speak for Gulag or other Applebaum works, but there was a... sense of focusing on Soviet excesses and crimes, and just... leaving the Nazi wrongs in a nebulous, vague "they happened" realm. I think it would have been more interesting and illuminating to do a better job of highlighting the transitions between the two regimes than the Soviets just stuffing ex-death camps with their own undesirables.

Overall, I did find Iron Curtain an interesting read for the novice on the subject, and it was readable and competently put together.

Re: the Soviets are worse: I can't really speak for the historiography of the postwar era as I'm not that well versed, but I would imagine it's because:

1) The butcher bill is bigger
2) The Soviet empire was bigger and lasted longer
3) The Soviets legitimately threatened life on Earth with their arsenal (as did the US, of course)
4) The West had a lot longer to hate the Soviets than they did the Nazis

After doing a quick Wikipedia search, turns out that Anne Applebaum is from a Polish Jewish family, which probably leaves her somewhat bias. Most Polish academics are fiercely anti-Soviet, not for ideological reasons, but nationalist ones. Also, the USSR didn't exactly treat the 'refuseniks' very well, but it's obviously nothing compared to how badly the Nazis treated the Jews.

She is also married to the Polish foreign minister Sikorski. She also said that Polanski is being treated too harshly for his crimes and that criticised the Western response to the Crimean Crisis by saying that Europe and its allies should not allow "the existence of a corrupt Russian regime that is destabilising Europe".

Yeah, I'm not liking her any more than I did before...
 
Given that a few AH.com members already own a copy, I was thinking of doing Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson. Any interest there? For those who don't happen to own a copy, I imagine it should be available through most public libraries (in the US anyway).

EDIT ADD: Here's a link to the thread.

Count me in for a book club. I don't own a copy of Battle Cry of Freedom but my local library does so I'm set there. Although for what it's worth I'd be interested regardless of the book chosen (presuming my library has a copy).
 
I'm reading The Rise of American Democracy, of which I finished about 1/3 of the book awhile ago, and All The Presidents Men, of which I picked up last week and am halfways through. RoAD has plenty of potential POD's from the Jeffersonian era to the Lincoln era, but is slow to get through as it goes into great detail. AtPM is kinda boring for me, not much that could be changed in the long run and something I just want to get over ASAP.

PODS I've found in RoAD:
*Jackson supports Adams in the 1824 election as he'd planned to do (I started a thread which had limited feedback, and just started up an election game with that as the POD)
*Clay gets 3rd place in EV 1824, manuvers his way into the White House (and incur the wrath of the 5 out of 6 people who voted against him).
 
Hmm... I am thinking of one book right now maybe 'Postwar: A History of Europe". Quite fascinating in what happens after Europe, and details aspects of starting with Europe just after the end all the way just post-end of Cold War.
 
Hmm... I am thinking of one book right now maybe 'Postwar: A History of Europe". Quite fascinating in what happens after Europe, and details aspects of starting with Europe just after the end all the way just post-end of Cold War.
I'd support this. Nothing against Battle Cry for Freedom, but I think the American Civil War is one of the most-covered topics in any historical group I've been in, so it'd be nice for a change of pace.
 
Having just updated the list of who has what, I found the most popular books (after the McPherson we just read) are Keegan's book on WWI and Herodotus. Since I'm among the owners of the latter, I'd prefer Herodotus for our next choice; any interest here?

Alternatively, for those who've been following the McPherson Book Club, has reading about the Civil War put anyone in a mood to read about anything in particular next? Or maybe somebody else has a different suggestion?
 
Having just updated the list of who has what, I found the most popular books (after the McPherson we just read) are Keegan's book on WWI and Herodotus. Since I'm among the owners of the latter, I'd prefer Herodotus for our next choice; any interest here?

Alternatively, for those who've been following the McPherson Book Club, has reading about the Civil War put anyone in a mood to read about anything in particular next? Or maybe somebody else has a different suggestion?

Maybe the Federalist Papers? It's neatly split up into a bunch of chapters (each only a few pages long), and for arguments that go on a few chapters it's still easy to read all of those at once. It would give me a good reason and motivation to go back and finish it, so that's my vote!
 
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