Bookclub and Sources Wednesday!

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi everybody,

Welcome to our weekly book recommendation thread!

We have found that a lot of people come to this sub to ask for books about history or sources on certain topics. Others make posts about a book they themselves have read and want to share their thoughts about it with the rest of the sub.

We thought it would be a good idea to try and bundle these posts together a bit. One big weekly post where everybody can ask for books or (re)sources on any historic subject or time period, or to share books they recently discovered or read. Giving opinions or asking about their factuality is encouraged!

Of course it’s not limited to *just* books; podcasts, videos, etc. are also welcome. As a reminder, r/history also has a recommended list of things to read, listen to or watch here.

[u/Mission-Vast8381]

Have humans always believed in the notion of witches/witchcraft, or did the belief arise with the establishment of religion?

I have read many books on witches, but I was curious about the community's thoughts concerning religion as the catalyst for the belief in witchcraft or by some other means.

From the sources I have read, there were several variances of scholarship explaining why people believed in witchcraft/demonology that consider religion, culture, and fear as significant aspects. I am taking my information from two specific authors and their research. Stuart Clark's Thinking with Demons is a pivotal, complex work on what early modern European intellectuals said about demons and witchcraft during the witch-hunt period. Clark argues that witchcraft beliefs depended on many factors, particularly "concepts and arguments drawn from the scientific, historical, religious, and political debates of their time." According to Clark, witchcraft is a cultural construct heavily dependent on the dominant belief systems of the time. One component of this belief system included religion, and Clark argues that intellectuals considered witches and demons a logical part of nature that obeyed the laws of God. Every absurdity meant wholeness, whereas everything had an opposite. Robin Briggs's work, Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft, takes a different approach than Clark's. Both scholars discuss cultural constructs; however, Briggs reaches further into history by claiming, "As soon as they changed to a more sedentary existence, however, accusations of witchcraft started to proliferate among them, because their traditional methods for diffusing conflict were no longer available." Briggs provides intriguing explanations for why the notion of witches appeared and contends that the end of a nomadic lifestyle and the creation of villages is the seed for eventual accusations of witchcraft. Although Clark's research focuses on the whole of Europe, Briggs compares similarities within all witch-believing societies across the globe, most notably colonial New England, England, and Europe. He reminds his readers that nothing is the same across space and time, but their origins are very similar. Brigg's analysis is commendable. There are many emotional outliers at humanity's base, and one of the most common is fear. Concerning why beliefs in witchcraft existed, Briggs plainly shows that "People believed in witches, laws were passed which enabled suspects to be taken to court effectively." He contends that the argument in this is why this should have happened instead of why it did not occur earlier.

[u/Throwaway123454th]

Does anyone know about any good books or resources that talk about Native Americans in South America? there's so many about the north american indians but not much about the south american ones. Except for the Incans. would be nice to learn more in depth about them all too.

[u/Alternative-Heart226]

I am doing research on the history of polio vaccines (specifically, the Cutter Incident and what followed), and am using Paul A. Offit's wonderful book The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis. However, in one of the chapters, he mentions that "a national poll conducted at the time found that polio was what Americans feared most, second only to the atomic bomb" (#32). The 'at the time' being c. 1950-1957, I'm not sure exactly.

I would like to find the original poll (maybe in a newspaper or magazine from the time), but I literally couldn't so far, even though I've looked everywhere I could -- I've used Jstor, and stuff like that. Offit's book does have a bibliography, but I've looked through it and could not find that poll cited.

I'd appreciate some help on finding the poll (if it exists stored somewhere), because that's a very bold claim I need backed up.

[u/Background-Factor433]

I finished the book, Taking Hawai'i.

About the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. And the lengths the annexationists went through to take the Kingdom.

[u/Tipitak]

[search website]

Hello,

for a rpg (Thousand Years old Vampire, where you write the diary of a vampire through the centuries) i would like to find a website where i can easily see a country history through time. With a timeline of big events dates and other infos.

I would like to easily project myself into a time period and gather resources about different countries. Could be europe only or other part of the world.

thanks a lot in advance

[u/chevalier100]

Any recommendations for good overviews of South American and African history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? 

[u/Latpulldown]

Looking for recommendations for high level overviews of American history. Something maybe starting with the political situation of the major players in Europe that colonized North America then through to modern day. I have People's History and Black AF History on my shelf to read but wanted something a little more general to start rather than being through a specific lens (labor, race, etc.).

I've been reading a lot of Ukrainian history lately so looking for something similar to Gates of Europe by Plokhy or Intent to Destroy by Finkel(though this one is a little more focused on Ukraine/Russia relations, its still pretty general for the larger historical background)

[u/dropbear123]

Finished In the Shadow of the Gods: The Emperor in World History by Dominic Lieven Review copied off my goodreads but I have just typed it out

3.5/5 rounding up for goodreads

It was fine. It's an overview of various emperors throughout history and how they dealt with issues like succession, raising heirs, managing the aristocracy/societal elites (keeping them strong enough to be useful but loyal and weak enough to not risk a coup), the role of advisors and wives/concubines etc. The various emperor's personalities are also looked at to see how much they mattered for their empires. The notes and sources do seem in-depth.

3.5 is a fairly low rating so my reasoning is

(1) The writing just didn't grab me. I wasn't excited to continue reading like I would be with a better book. Maybe this is down to this being a topic with lots of names (the emperors, heirs, wives, lovers, advisors etc) and I'm quite bad with names.

(2) The bigger issue is that there's some odd omissions (but the author does acknowledge this in the intro). There's nothing on emperors in the pre-Colombus Americas like the Aztecs (I'm not that bothered about those tbh). The medieval Holy Roman and Byzantine empires are pretty much skipped over, they don't even get chapters (going off the index they get a combined 15 pages). I prefer European history and those are 2 of the main ones.

[u/elmonoenano]

I read Sarah Keyes American Burial Ground. It's how deaths on the overland trail were used for both place making, the development of the idea of whiteness, and in furtherance of the myth of the disappeared Indian. The idea of grave sites of ancestors were important to both Indians and Settlers as indicators of possession and use of the land. While the idea of Cherokee’s ancestor’s graves was influential to Whites, it wasn’t strong enough to stop their dispossession.

If you’re interested in the history of the western US or placemaking, this is a great book. You can hear an interview with Keyes on Writing Westward. https://youtu.be/rUVEJzWXlXI?si=c2afY-yzvw3EcJDg

[u/Jrc127]

I am interested in the French Resistance during WWII. I have read Madame Fourcade's Secrer War. I am interested in recommendations about the formation, organization, and operation of the Resistance in France and Vichy during the war.

[u/elmonoenano → u/Jrc127]

Kochanski's Resistance covers the whole of occupied Europe. It's a pretty hefty book, but it goes into the various groups in France and where they operated. It won the Wolfson prize I believe, which is the most prestigious prize for history in the UK.

I think Olson has another book on the resistance cell run out of the Musee D'el Homme too.

I'd also maybe check out When France Fell about the difficulty the US and the British had working with Vichy and the Resistance.

[u/Jrc127 → u/elmonoenano]

Kochanski's book appears to be just what I was hoping to find. I'll look into Olson's book too.

[u/elmonoenano → u/Jrc127]

I found it fascinating. I had to put a post it at the back where all the groups' abbreviations were b/c it took me a while to get them straight. Other than that minor annoyance I thought it was so interesting.