Vol2HKL
2021-09-06 23:33:53
Book list: General
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The Human Past by Chris Scarre (ed.): A very readable, although also very expensive, overview of all of human history from an archaeological perspective. It's very detailed, and used as an introductory book in many universities. Still updated. - Find on Amazon
How Humans Evolvedby Boyd and Silk: Everything is also discussed by The Human Past, but Boyd and Silk have slightly different opinions and reading both keeps you updated not only on 'how it was' but most importantly what the current debate is and what arguments are used. Also very readable and almost compulsory for everyone into 'evolutionary anything'. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
Why the West Rules, for Now by Ian Morris: An excellent overview of both Western and Eastern history. Morris combines a readable style and an ability to explain historical concepts in an easy manner with a historian's rigor. An excellent introduction to the topic of historical studies. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
A History of Western Society by McKay, Hill and others, 2016: A good overview, picks up where The Human Past left off (with an overlap in antiquity) and provides the historical, rather than archaeological, perspective. Very readable, and though it's a textbook and thus most suitable for students (with plenty of 'summaries' and lists of important key words), I'd still recommend it to people who are interested in history without having access to the formal education (and to archaeologists who only study prehistory!). - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
A Little History of the World by Ernst Gombrich. It is essentially a summary of human history to around the 1930s. I read this when I was younger - it's aimed perfectly at interested children, and manages to be accessible and entertaining without being condescending. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
Cities by John Reader. A social history of the development of cities - particularly good chapters on the Renaissance and Mexico City stick in my mind. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester. It's a very interesting history of the Atlantic Ocean, and particularly of the relationship between Britain and the Americas. It is somewhat similar to Kurlansky and Bryson's work but still enjoyable. Winchester has also written a book on the invention of the dictionary - I haven't read it but it's supposed to be excellent. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
The Mediterranean in the Time of Philip the Second] by Fernand Braudel. Possibly the most important work of history of the 20th cen. I probably wouldn't argue this, but my point is the case can and has been made. It's a major major work -- and tremendously written. When we talk about Jared Diamond, we're talking about big, long, slow processes as determining the shape of history. That's Braudel, in a nutshell--except he tried to deal with everything from trade, warfare, religion, urbanism, naval technology, culture, individual agency, etc. He may not have succeeded in explaining everything, but he literally changed the game in France in the 1950s and 60s (and 70s in America, when his work was translated into English). - Find Vol 1. on Amazon / Vol. 2 - Find Vol. I on Bookshop.org
Empires of the Word by Nicholas Ostler. A great work of general world history for the general public. Exploring history through the lens of languages give a new perspective on many eras. As a bonus, a historian's work is often based around reading primary sources - knowing why the primary sources are in a particular language helps you appreciate them all the more. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
Energy in World History by Vaclav Smil. The authoritative work on the thermodynamic aspects of the world economy from prehistory to the modern era of fossil fuels. If you want to know how many kilowatts a Roman mill could output, and why we used coal for eons but never realized its true value until the Industrial Revolution, this is your book. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power by Daniel Yergin. Describes the history of the oil industry beginning in the 1800s through the 1990s. Combines many historical narrative types to create a sweeping, global narrative of how oil has impacted all aspects of society. Particularly good at explaining the science aspect of the oil industry--how oil is found and produced, how oil varies from region to region, etc. - Find on Amazon - Find on Bookshop.org
