Comments on: What Historical Literature Must I Read?

By: Susan Hildinger Hoerner

Susan Hildinger Hoerner — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:46:10 +0000

Grant, with the wide area you are interested, “government / constitutional history, civil rights, and World War II,” there is much to read. On WWII, which was my father’s favorite subject, what are you interested? Personal narratives of what it was like being a war? Hitler, Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt’s thoughts? The actual military correspondences? The list goes forever.

I am interested in government ethics. I have read Hobbes, Machiavelli, Thucydides, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Paine, Federalist Papers, and many others, things my Dad would never have read.

By: Michael Park

Michael Park — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:06:42 +0000

“History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”? Ahh… the rise is a far better subject – particularly the vicious, if unedifying, Triumvir Wars. Ditto the era that followed Alexander the Great: far more interesting than the conqueror.

As the ancient era is my bent I’d have to suggest the “BBC World” history ” The Peloponnesian War” by Thucydides and the “Fox News” history “Hellenica” by Xenophon. How to write a proper history whilst being pedantic and occasionally sanctimonious would see you reading Polybius.

In the modern era, the standout book,for me, of recent years is Graubard’s “The Presidents”.

By: jamarston001

jamarston001 — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:13:31 +0000

Voltaire’s “Candide,” Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto,” and Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” come to mind from my reading list in college and graduate school. Others include Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics. Interesting thread.

By: Sylvia Kurtz

Sylvia Kurtz — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:49:42 +0000

Common Sense and The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine; The Federalist Papers; Roots by Alex Haley; The Jungle by Upton Sinclair; A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry; Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.; All the President’s Men by Bernstein & Woodward; Night by Elie Wiesel; The Life of Frederick Douglas — and that’s just off the top of my head!

By: spencercourt

spencercourt — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:00:14 +0000

I’m not one to read much fiction, and i notice you are not distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction.

On the fiction side, I enjoyed the Confessions of Nat Turner; not sure why that was never made into a film…

On the non-fiction side, I’d say The Gulag Archipelago is a “must” for the way it portrays a side of the Soviet Union that was its version of the Holocaust.

Also, Edgar Snow’s “Red Star Over China” is a “must” since his is perhaps the classic account of the Chinese Revolution.

For sheer tenacity, Harrison Salisbury’s “900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad” is very good.

By: Pim Griffioen

Pim Griffioen — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:27:20 +0000

Prof. Jan Romein: The Watershed of Two Eras. Europe in 1900. Translated from the Dutch by Arnold J. Pomerans. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1978; 783 pages (first paperback edition 1982). With a biographical and bibliographical introduction by Harry J. Marks.