• Happy May Ray Day! 🌞😎🌻🩳🇩

History book recommendation?

G

Guest

Guest
OK readers, I need a book(s) recommendation.

I owe one son some birthday gift books. He enjoys non-fiction, especially ancient history, including even obscure stuff like the Peloponnesian wars, and other seemingly weird reading choices for a millennial.

From suggestions here (and, uh, things I want to read that are as yet unavailable at the library) I will order copies of:

The Lost City of the Monkey God (thanks Frozentripper)

And Miracle at Philidelphia (thanks Steve)

One more good history read suggestion and I wil. . . . .I mean my son will be rich in reading material. Which he can lend to me just in time for a long trip

Suggestions?
 
I am a huge fan of reads on early European explorers tackling the vast wastelands of Canada prior to the mid 1800's. Folks like John Rae, "Fatal Passage", by Ken McGoogan. Or Samuel Herne or...
I have used the thread on CT here, 'what are you reading' for many good finds seconded by folks here with similar interests. A fast perusal online or the print catalog from Piragis NW, will also give some good ideas about those reads pertaining mostly to North American exploration and voyaging.
 
Everyone, at least once in his or her adult life, should read a book about the life of the most influential person ever to walk the earth. Because it can change one's life.

There are hundreds of books about this person, embodied in three scholarly and often contradictory "historical quests" over the past 250 years. Many of these books are very academic, highly footnoted, long and dry. This one is written in an easy-to-read popular style, has sold millions of copies, and now has a 2016 revision:

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, by Lee Strobel
 
The Lewis and Clark expedition.... read through some of Lewis and Clark's original written material years ago, and still have not seen more.

This book was a NYT best seller in 1996 so probably worth a look. The title seems a little over the top, "Undaunted Courage" and I hope it isn't written in that kind of style. Maybe there are excerpts online somewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undaunted_Courage
 
Here are four eclectic history reads for you to consider:

- The Eternal Frontier: The Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples/Tim Flannery
- His Invention So Fertile: a life of Christopher Wren/ Adrian Tinniswood
- A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmstead and America in the 19th Century/ Witold Rybczynski
- Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire/ Peter Stark
 
Well dang, those were some wonderful recommendations. I now have seven belated birthday books on the way that, from reading the synopses, I am sure my son will enjoy.

I know I will enjoy them as well, and he can’t very well read all seven at once. Hee, hee, hee.

One hardback, a couple new paperbacks and a couple cheap used:

Lost City of the Monkey God
Miracle at Philadelphia
The Path between the seas
The Eternal Frontier: The Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples
His Invention So Fertile: a life of Christopher Wren
A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmstead and America in the 19th Century
Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire

Those will make a helluva nice birthday present stack for a reader, and some promising non-fictions to own.

Thank you all very much for the suggestions
 
I have to add one other recommendation, Mike, The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. Learned a lot that I didn't know about the Wrights and what they went through to begin the era of mechanized flight.

But I also learned that a canoe was involved.

In September, 1909, Wilbur Wright was preparing for his first flight in New York and his first flight over water. Asked if he was taking any precautions in case he was forced down on the Hudson River, he said rubber tires didn't make sense...

"So I have gone back to my old plan of mounting a canoe under the center of the machine, well forward."

He then added, "Of course, I do not expect to come down."

On September 28, "...about nine o'clock, [Wilbur] took off on a 7 minute practice run, circling Governor's Island, the white and silver Flyer looking as always except for the 14-foot, canvas-wrapped, red canoe that hung beneath." Thus the newest form of transportation was making its debut over American waters with one of the oldest forms conspicuously in readiness, in case of trouble."

The canoe manufacturer wasn't mentioned.
 
Last edited:
My copy of Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" finally arrived at the library yesterday, and had me glued to it last night for fifty pages. Easy to see why it was a best-seller. The river travel hasn't even started yet in the quest to find an all-water route to the Pacific. Lots of surprising details from the late 1700s so far, the little things that pull you in for some sense of being there.
 
The Lost City of the Monkey God (thanks Frozentripper)
Click to expand...

The Lost City of the Monkey Gods was his selection to commence reading. He had been eyeing it in a bookstore a few days before, so thanks, great suggestion.

I have a couple of library books to finish before a trip, and then I’ll pick one or two from that stack that will provide a couple week’s worth of reading material.
 
I just started reading a book last night that already has me fascinated and ready to devour the rest of it. It is "The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World" by Andrea Wulf. This guy Humboldt changed the world as we know it, and most of us have forgotten who he was. He was one of those guys way ahead of his time. It's no wonder his name is all over the map. I'll let you know how the rest of the book turns out.

-rs
 
You could always try something by John McPhee...he usually good for "obscure" mixed in with a little history.

Sorry if I missed his birthday 😉
 
DaveOR said:
Here are four eclectic history reads for you to consider:

- The Eternal Frontier: The Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples/Tim Flannery
- His Invention So Fertile: a life of Christopher Wren/ Adrian Tinniswood
- A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmstead and America in the 19th Century/ Witold Rybczynski
- Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire/ Peter Stark
Click to expand...

DaveOR’s picks have all been been top notch so far.

The Eternal Frontier was a fine read, the American megafauna stuff was fascinating if somewhat familiar, and the peopling of the continent equally so. It dragged at the end a bit, perhaps from over familiarity with the more recent history subject.

Astoria has been wonderful so far. I’m half way in and thoroughly enjoying it. My son enjoyed it immensely.

His Invention So Fertile and A Clearing in the Distance are eagerly awaited in the wings, as is Miracle at Philadelpia. My history reading son enjoyed those as well.

The Path Between the Seas bogged down in the middle with French financing scandals, and I speed read the boring middle parts. The first third and last third were great.

Thanks Dave, I haven’t lacked for non-fiction reading material in months. With that kind of recommendation record The Wright Brothers in now on my list as well.

Both son and I have read everything we could get our hands on from McPhee. One of my favorite American authors; no one else could make Geology interesting. Coming into the Country, and Encounters with the Archdruid are among my favorites. McPhee is an American treasure; prolific, and always readable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McPhee

Strider, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World is on the list now as well. Thanks.
 
FWIW, other McPhee favorites from that Wiki list:

The Pine Barrens
The Crofter and the Laird
Looking for a Ship
The Founding Fish
Uncommon Carriers
And of course The Survival of the Bark Canoe

All of those deserve space on a reader’s library shelves, especially if you can pick up a used paperback copy for the cost of a daily newspaper.
 
Weird ancient history? "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army" by Donald W. Engels. Explains Alexanders seemingly stunning world conquest from the point of view of a man with a hungry army to feed... definitely gives you a different perspective on ancient warfare.
 
Seeker said:
Weird ancient history? "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army" by Donald W. Engels. Explains Alexanders seemingly stunning world conquest from the point of view of a man with a hungry army to feed... definitely gives you a different perspective on ancient warfare.
Click to expand...


Thanks Seeker. Used paperback copy ordered.

That seems perfect for my ancient warfare history reading son. When it comes in I’ll just leave it on his pillow. And be next dibs up.
 
Been reading Nathaniel Philbrook lately. "Mayflower" and "Bunker Hill" segue nicely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mike McCrea
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West
Replies
1
Views
580
stevet
stevet
G
Library Bookmark Reviews
Replies
4
Views
772
Guest
G
G
Micro-Histories/Biographies of Things
Replies
1
Views
571
Guest
G
G
Best Books of 2019
Replies
2
Views
704
Guest
G
G
Pass around Chestnut Canoe history book
2
Replies
28
Views
3K
Robin
Robin
Back
Top