7 ms·

The Best History Books 2018

119 points by benbreen 8y ago

kaycebasques 8y ago
Off-topic: I majored in history for my BA. For the first year out of college, I struggled to find work, and was worried that I had made a terrible choice. 8 years on, after supplementing my studies with essentially an Associate’s in CS, my view has changed significantly. Here are the most useful skills that I’ve gained from my study of history: * There’s a phrase among historians that writing history is like drinking in an oceanful of information and pissing out a cup. As a technical writer, this is obviously highly relevant to my work. But I’d venture that this skill will resonate with any “knowledge worker.” * Towards the end of the major you start thinking about historiography, which is the study of writing history. You question what kinds of primary sources writers are basing their arguments on, and what kinds of biases (or “perspectives” to use a more neutral term) these writers are bringing to their analyses. A relevant skill in this age of “fake news.” * History professors place a lot of value on concise writing. It’s obvious to me now why that would be the case, but at the time I didn’t make the connection. * I went into the major with a vague desire to learn more about how society works. In that regard the field definitely does not disappoint. I enjoyed how open-ended the field of inquiry was. Yet at the same time you have to stay somewhat grounded in reality. I.e. when you write about a topic you have to provide primary sources that validate your argument. Anyways, I don’t have any major agenda for writing all of this, other than the fact that it’s Saturday morning and I’m hyped on coffee and I figured someone might enjoy considering how studying history is still relevant to the modern workforce.
- wprapido 8y ago
  A philosophy graduate who had art history as minor here. I can totally relate to your comment!
- twblalock 8y ago
  I have an MA in history and now I'm a software engineer. I agree with pretty much everything you said. However, when people who plan to major in history ask me for advice I tell them to major in something more marketable and make history their minor. I would recommend the same thing to any prospective humanities major. The humanities are wonderful but you can be exposed to them while pursuing a marketable major that will make your life after college a lot easier.
  - kaycebasques 8y ago
    > I tell them to major in something more marketable and make history their minor. I agree with the gist of this. As I said earlier, my job prospects really opened up once I had an Associate’s in CS. So I don’t know if you necessarily must major in the marketable field and minor in the humanities. Majoring in the humanities and minoring in the marketable field worked out fine for me. But your approach is probably the safer strategy.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  I've found myself reading less and less fiction and more and more history books. The stories being real make them more interesting.
bmer 8y ago
Tom Holland is a historian? heh
bitxbit 8y ago
Jill Lepore’s These Truths was the best history book this year. Perhaps this decade.
- kashyapc 8y ago
  When you make such extraordinary subjective claims, please also bother write a small blurb as to what you found so enthralling about it. Because from I read, people are calling out this book out for its terrible bloopers and the author not doing his homework on facts.
  - bobwaycott 8y ago
    The author, Jill Lepore, has been called out for not doing her homework on facts.
    - evtothedev 8y ago
      You should give the book a shot. It's received some pretty[0] killer[1] reviews[2] from sources more authoritative than an Amazon rando. And even if you go pretty far right[3], the reviews stay largely positive. [0] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/jill-lepore-american-revolutions/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/jill-lepore-amer... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/books/review/jill-lepore-these-truths.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/books/review/jill-lepore-... [2] https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-these-truths-jill-lepore-0912-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-the... [3] https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/11/17/liberal-history-of-the-u-s/ https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/11/17/liberal-h...
      - bobwaycott 8y ago
        You appear to be alleging there is no value or merit in the pointing out of blatant factual errors by an “Amazon rando”. Lepore is well-known. It is unsurprising there would be “killer reviews” of her latest work in various publications. I’m a former—undergraduate and graduate—student of history. That Lepore’s latest work contains argument based on factual errors is a problem for a history. That there are effusive reviews does little to negate calling out factual errors and omissions. That an “Amazon rando” is one of many individuals citing the factual errors provides little insight into which review is more authoritative. In history, the facts themselves are authoritative—and far more so than the sweeping prose within which one writes about or reviews them. If a history can’t get simple facts right, the work starts to look lazy—despite its page count. When there’s a trend of factual errors and omissions—especially when the analysis and interpretation of history is built upon such errors and omissions—it severely weakens credibility. That’s not to say the book isn’t a delightful romp through the past, but a history demands diligent care with facts.
image888 8y ago
I like history.
douglaswlance 8y ago
Anyone have a suggestion for American history? I am looking for something that focuses on how America grew into the leading world power in such a short amount of time comparatively.
- ellius 8y ago
  I don't have a single book for you as that is a very broad theme, but honestly something textbook-y might be what you're looking for. Google for good surveys of American history. If you want to understand America as a world power, I would supplement a general textbook with some economic and military history. WW2 and the Cold War will be very important. A big factor in America's later dominance was the fact that so many other world powers were utterly devastated by the Second World War and could not maintain their former influence, so understanding the transformative half-century between the 1940s and 1990s will be key to answering your question. But I think you'll also be interested in the late 1800s (especially the post-Civil War period) as that is where you see some of America's industrial power really start to pick up. That's the era of major technological changes like the telegraph and railroads as well as the emergence of industrial powerhouses like Standard Oil.
- evtothedev 8y ago
  Jill Lepore's These Truths is a good survey of American history published this year. Its focus is on the notion of America as experiment i.e. Will Democracy work? What makes it possible? And the wild exaggerations that result.
- spenuke 8y ago
  Five Books just published a list this week. https://fivebooks.com/best-books/dr-patrick-porter-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-america/ https://fivebooks.com/best-books/dr-patrick-porter-on-the-ri...
- erikschoster 8y ago
  Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States from 2014 is very illuminating of the strategy of colonization and empire building in the US. It also connects the dots to the present day very well.

119 points by benbreen 8y ago

Off-topic: I majored in history for my BA. For the first year out of college, I struggled to find work, and was worried that I had made a terrible choice. 8 years on, after supplementing my studies with essentially an Associate’s in CS, my view has changed significantly. Here are the most useful skills that I’ve gained from my study of history: * There’s a phrase among historians that writing history is like drinking in an oceanful of information and pissing out a cup. As a technical writer, this is obviously highly relevant to my work. But I’d venture that this skill will resonate with any “knowledge worker.” * Towards the end of the major you start thinking about historiography, which is the study of writing history. You question what kinds of primary sources writers are basing their arguments on, and what kinds of biases (or “perspectives” to use a more neutral term) these writers are bringing to their analyses. A relevant skill in this age of “fake news.” * History professors place a lot of value on concise writing. It’s obvious to me now why that would be the case, but at the time I didn’t make the connection. * I went into the major with a vague desire to learn more about how society works. In that regard the field definitely does not disappoint. I enjoyed how open-ended the field of inquiry was. Yet at the same time you have to stay somewhat grounded in reality. I.e. when you write about a topic you have to provide primary sources that validate your argument. Anyways, I don’t have any major agenda for writing all of this, other than the fact that it’s Saturday morning and I’m hyped on coffee and I figured someone might enjoy considering how studying history is still relevant to the modern workforce.

wprapido 8y ago
A philosophy graduate who had art history as minor here. I can totally relate to your comment!
twblalock 8y ago
I have an MA in history and now I'm a software engineer. I agree with pretty much everything you said. However, when people who plan to major in history ask me for advice I tell them to major in something more marketable and make history their minor. I would recommend the same thing to any prospective humanities major. The humanities are wonderful but you can be exposed to them while pursuing a marketable major that will make your life after college a lot easier.
- kaycebasques 8y ago
  > I tell them to major in something more marketable and make history their minor. I agree with the gist of this. As I said earlier, my job prospects really opened up once I had an Associate’s in CS. So I don’t know if you necessarily must major in the marketable field and minor in the humanities. Majoring in the humanities and minoring in the marketable field worked out fine for me. But your approach is probably the safer strategy.
WalterBright 8y ago
I've found myself reading less and less fiction and more and more history books. The stories being real make them more interesting.

bmer 8y ago

Tom Holland is a historian? heh

bitxbit 8y ago

Jill Lepore’s These Truths was the best history book this year. Perhaps this decade.

kashyapc 8y ago
When you make such extraordinary subjective claims, please also bother write a small blurb as to what you found so enthralling about it. Because from I read, people are calling out this book out for its terrible bloopers and the author not doing his homework on facts.
- bobwaycott 8y ago
  The author, Jill Lepore, has been called out for not doing her homework on facts.
  - evtothedev 8y ago
    You should give the book a shot. It's received some pretty[0] killer[1] reviews[2] from sources more authoritative than an Amazon rando. And even if you go pretty far right[3], the reviews stay largely positive. [0] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/jill-lepore-american-revolutions/ https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/jill-lepore-amer... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/books/review/jill-lepore-these-truths.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/14/books/review/jill-lepore-... [2] https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-these-truths-jill-lepore-0912-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/books/sc-books-the... [3] https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/11/17/liberal-history-of-the-u-s/ https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/11/17/liberal-h...
    - bobwaycott 8y ago
      You appear to be alleging there is no value or merit in the pointing out of blatant factual errors by an “Amazon rando”. Lepore is well-known. It is unsurprising there would be “killer reviews” of her latest work in various publications. I’m a former—undergraduate and graduate—student of history. That Lepore’s latest work contains argument based on factual errors is a problem for a history. That there are effusive reviews does little to negate calling out factual errors and omissions. That an “Amazon rando” is one of many individuals citing the factual errors provides little insight into which review is more authoritative. In history, the facts themselves are authoritative—and far more so than the sweeping prose within which one writes about or reviews them. If a history can’t get simple facts right, the work starts to look lazy—despite its page count. When there’s a trend of factual errors and omissions—especially when the analysis and interpretation of history is built upon such errors and omissions—it severely weakens credibility. That’s not to say the book isn’t a delightful romp through the past, but a history demands diligent care with facts.

image888 8y ago

I like history.

douglaswlance 8y ago

Anyone have a suggestion for American history? I am looking for something that focuses on how America grew into the leading world power in such a short amount of time comparatively.

ellius 8y ago
I don't have a single book for you as that is a very broad theme, but honestly something textbook-y might be what you're looking for. Google for good surveys of American history. If you want to understand America as a world power, I would supplement a general textbook with some economic and military history. WW2 and the Cold War will be very important. A big factor in America's later dominance was the fact that so many other world powers were utterly devastated by the Second World War and could not maintain their former influence, so understanding the transformative half-century between the 1940s and 1990s will be key to answering your question. But I think you'll also be interested in the late 1800s (especially the post-Civil War period) as that is where you see some of America's industrial power really start to pick up. That's the era of major technological changes like the telegraph and railroads as well as the emergence of industrial powerhouses like Standard Oil.
evtothedev 8y ago
Jill Lepore's These Truths is a good survey of American history published this year. Its focus is on the notion of America as experiment i.e. Will Democracy work? What makes it possible? And the wild exaggerations that result.
spenuke 8y ago
Five Books just published a list this week. https://fivebooks.com/best-books/dr-patrick-porter-on-the-rise-and-fall-of-america/ https://fivebooks.com/best-books/dr-patrick-porter-on-the-ri...
erikschoster 8y ago
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States from 2014 is very illuminating of the strategy of colonization and empire building in the US. It also connects the dots to the present day very well.