Read Distant Mirror when I got into Crusader Kings 2, great book. The Guns of August is incredible too if you haven’t read it.
Cosign that Tuchman was a great author. I’ve read A Distant Mirror, The Proud Tower, and The Guns of August (in that order).
Every time I’ve finished one of her books I think about coming here and writing a review/recommendation, but I’m too lazy.
One thing I’ll say, directed to somebody who said in this thread (I think) that they don’t find history interesting: If you’re interested in politics, you should be interested in history, for at least two reasons.
One, is that events in the past directly or indirectly shaped the world we live in now. Understanding “how we got here” is really helpful in figuring out “what the hell is going on.”
And two, learning about the political struggles of people in history can give you a lot of insights about politics today. The people who existed in the past had the same concerns and motivations we have today. They weren’t like primitive cave people; they were just as smart as us, just with less technology.
Anyway, if I had to pick one of the three to start with, I would actually go with The Proud Tower. It’s a wide-ranging survey of the world as it existed just prior to the Great War (WWI). A ton of stuff we’re still grappling with today (e.g., democratic reforms, rapid technological advances, SOCIALISM!) was happening back then too.
It’s structured as a series of chapters that each deal with a specific aspect of the world at that time, so it’s easy to read one and put the book down if you don’t feel like trying to plow through a 1000 page book all in one go. Her writing is really engaging and clear, with a great understated sense of humor. Highly recommend.
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Going to check this out. Thanks.
Cool, hope you like it.
Read this, very good. Surprised I hadn’t read Distant Mirror because I’m semi-interested in medieval history and really like Tuchman. Some may complain about this or that historical detail, but she writes grand works and you’ll know a hell of a lot more about a period for having read them.
The criticisms don’t seem to be about ‘this or that historical detail’. This is from The American Historical Review when the book came out.
Readers of Tuchman’s earlier works will be particularly disappointed to learn that her generalizations about Medieval warfare are grossly inaccurate. Her discussions of individual psychology are equally foolish. She seems to have little understanding of what motivated the people about whom she writes and generally resorts to clichés such as chivalry and individual neuroses as explanations. A Distant Mirror makes clear by what it is not that the American reading public deserves access to history that holds a middle ground between the unreadable monograph and unreliable gossip.
Then more recently a medieval european historian writing at r/AskHistorians.
It kills me that I can’t recommend Distant Mirror to people. It ought to be a masterclass in how to write engaging historical narrative that combines a close-in focus with a broad sweep of events. And there’s no equivalent, for the late Middle Ages. None.
But she manipulates the past to fit a present agenda/dynamic, draws sweeping conclusions not backed by her own evidence, ignores secondary research, and misinterprets primary sources.
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These sort of criticism don’t really bother me. Most history, or really almost anything you read, is unreliable to one extent or another, and people should be able to exercise some discernment and credit assertions and arguments as somewhere along the spectrum of reliability. Is the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism correct, complete bullshit, or something in between?
What I’ve learned so far is that Avignon bustled with people from all over, was smelly, teemed with commerce (like 250 branches of Italian banks) and the clergy throughout the land were running rackets from top to bottom (providing more context for the Reformation). Legal proceduralism was important in many areas of society, if slanted, leading Petrarch to abandon his career at a young age to focus on literature. If I finish the book and have some misapprehensions about Medieval warfare but a much broader appreciation of the society then I won’t be any the worse for wear.
Perhaps the benefit of an author like Tuchman is that she can paint a fuller picture by asserting informed hypotheses and judgments outside the range of what many academic historians would accept. If she’s occasionally incorrect it’s only because she provides a deeper and more interesting account of the time.
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don’t do it, Rothfuss is never going to finish the third book.
I keep holding off on these. Will have to read eventually.
That makes it more imperative to just read them before I die. 3 isn’t coming.
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I did get about 8 books from the library from this list. Looking forward to the jemisin series.
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Second the Three Body Problem. I’ve flown through the first two, excited to dig into the third. @TheHip41 if you liked the Expanse you may also like The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers, the first one is The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
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Eon was pretty good. Blood Music was a terrific short story that sprawled into a just OK novel. Forge of God series might be the Bear I like the best. Darwin’s Radio was nuts, I don’t buy the premise but it was entertaining.
I’ve got some science fiction recommendations for @TheHip41:
A Deepness in the Sky
A Fire Upon the Deep
Vernor Vinge GOAT.
Those two are my favorite science fiction books of all time. I also like Rainbows End a lot but seems like other people didn’t really care for it.
If you like military science fiction David Drake has a lot of good stuff.
Pournelle is one of my favorites, and I agree with GRRM that A Mote in God’s Eye is the best first contact story I’ve ever read, and one of the best science fiction novels period. I’d skip Lucifer’s Hammer and Footfall, they were fun but better used as doorstops. Starswarm I read just recently and it was very enjoyable. I like Pournelle’s other Co-Dominium stuff too. King David’s Spaceship is great, and I also liked his Falkenberg’s Regiment series but that’s probably only if you like military sci-fi.
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I read them after ASOIAF and was thrilled when i found out that i won’t ever get a proper ending for either
I liked Footfall, I enjoy aliens that have a different mind / way of looking at things than humans, and I think they did that pretty well with Footfall.
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Yeah I liked Footfall too, but I’d only recommend it if alien invasion stories get your juices going. A much, much better weird alien novel is A Mote in God’s Eye.
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Yeah, I agree that Mote is better.
Mote is great but too space opera-y for me. Moties are v cool though.
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I’m writing all of these down on an iPhone text list. Will get to them eventually.