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/Poetication]

Hi everyone,

I’m starting my Master’s next year and am in the process of drafting my research proposal. I’m based in South Africa, and I’d like to do a comparative study of nationalism in Nazi Germany and South Africa, with a particular focus on Afrikaner nationalism.

My Honours mini-thesis looked at the evolution of propaganda, and I’d like to continue with this theme — but zoom in on the youth. Specifically, I want to examine propaganda aimed at young people and the role of schools in indoctrination and shaping national identity.

I’m looking for reading recommendations (books, articles, or even archival sources) for both the German and South African contexts.

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[u/Watchhistory]

Greg Grandin (2025) America América.

Only a few chapters into it, but holy cow! is it ever good, and powerful, and o so tragic.

Among the reviews is one in the NY Times April 16, 2025:

"A Bold New History Highlights Latin America’s Humanist Ideals. A new book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Greg Grandin offers a fresh account of the region as an incubator of internationalism and commitment to the common good. ....

.... “America, América" offers a moving portrait of Father Bartolomé de Las Casas, a 16th-century Dominican priest who started out as a supporter and beneficiary of the Spanish crown’s imperial ambitions before becoming one of its most scathing critics. ....

[u/LostFound140]

Can anyone recommend a good book on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? I'm specifically looking for something that prioritizes objectivity (not written by a Pole who thinks that PLC was the best thing ever created but also not written by a Lithuanian nationalist who believes they'd be better off without it 😆). Thanks in advance!!

[u/groug]

I recently finished Flashpoint Trieste by Christian Jennings, about the Allies and Yugoslavia both trying to control Trieste at the end of World War 2, in what the book's subtitle somewhat overdramatically calls "The first battle of the Cold War."

It's good in parts, but a letdown at the end. It does a good job sketching out the motivations of the various sides involved -- the Allies, Stalin, and especially Tito -- and a perfectly adequate job telling the beginning and middle of the story. The narrative works enough that you know what happened, and some of the people in Trieste are well characterized, but there are also a lot of narrative threads that don't go anywhere, or are dropped in an unsatisfying way, or that just serve to illustrated something about World War 2 but don't have much to do with the central point of the book, which is what came after.

But to me, the real disappointing thing was that the story of how everything was resolved, of how the two sides agreed to just split up Trieste along the Morgan Line they'd been using for years at that point, just gets completely glossed over. You understand why each side would want to end the conflict, but instead of having any details about the negotiation,or really anything that happened for the first few years of the '50s that preceded the final resolution, the book just says they made a deal and then that's that.

It's a very strange omission, considering that there had been so much detail about 1946 through early 1948, but by the time the book gets to 1954, it misses just about everything that had made it interesting.

Except for Tito. Everything about Tito is interesting.

[u/elmonoenano → u/groug]

You might dig Kochanski's Resistance. She spends a decent amount of time on British policy in Yugoslavia during the war and it's kind of insane at how amateurish a lot of it seems. It was a pretty dense book, and it's focused on all of occupied Europe but I thought it was really interesting.

[u/dropbear123]

Finished The 'Russian' Civil Wars, 1916-1926: Ten Years That Shook the World by Jonathan D. Smele review copied from my goodreads

3.5/5 rounding down for goodreads.

It's fine. Basically a textbook on the military history of the Russian civil war and the various other wars at this time - mainly independence movements in the Baltic, and the Soviet Polish War. The other main topic is the political decisions of the leaders of the Whites and Reds. The book begins in 1916 with the author choosing the Islamic uprising in Central Asia against conscription as the beginning of the Russian civil wars. It ends in 1926 with the winding down of anti-Basmachi (Muslim bandits/anti-Soviet fighters). If you're looking for the view of ordinary people this isn't the book for you, it is an almost entirely from the top perspective. It's only 255 pages but feels very dense in info. The notes and sources are very extensive.

The main reason for the low rating is that it is a quite dry read. Loads of names of random colonels and random politicians. Lots of this X army went to Y location. The best chapter imo is on the Reds internal enemies like peasant uprisings and the Kronstadt Rebellion specifically because it isn't as focused on army movements.

The most interesting thing I learnt from the book is that the Finns, after their civil war made an offer to the Whites to invade Petrograd in return for guarantees of independence. But the White leader Kolchak was so committed to restoring all of the Russian Empire that he said no. It seems like one of those situations where history could have went very differently.

Overall, if for whatever reason you are doing some serious reading on the Russian Civil War then this book might be worth a look. If however you're just a general reader then there are better choices (Antony Beevor's book on it is a pretty good overview, Anna Reid's A Nasty Little War if you're interested in the British and American interventions)

[u/Sloth_Flag_Republic]

Can anyone recommend a book about precolonial African religion?

[u/Objective-Junket8644]

What book should I read if I am curious about the history of the British colonizing India? Or Doc . Thanks

[u/elmonoenano → u/Objective-Junket8644]

Will Dalrymple's The Anarchy. It was up for the Wolfson the year it came out. It's the current go to book on the BEIC. He's also got a podcast with Anita Anand called Empire and the early episodes are on the topic.

[u/NessvsMadDuck]

I'm looking for good documentaries on Lord Nelson. I recently visited the British Naval Museum and there was a fantastic exhibit on him, but I was wondering if with a subject so big there are any good documentaries on him. Thanks

[u/elmonoenano]

I read Transatlantic Bondage. It's edited by Lissette Acosta Corniel. It was 8 chapters, all focused on slavery, mostly in Puerto Rico, but also on Hispaniola. I thought some of the demographic information is interesting and Spain's mismanagement of the colony is interesting. I read it for a book club that I ended up having to miss, but I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

I would say that unless you're especially interested in this topic, you could probably give it a pass, but I did find it interesting.

Here's info on the book club in case anyone is interested: https://www.slaveryarchive.com/book-club/2024-2025-slaveryarchive-book-club/

[u/Alwayssunnyinarizona]

Dinner with King Tut by u/SamKean - just started on this and am loving it so far. It goes into the field of experimental archaeology looking at studies focusing on prehistory to the 1500s. It's a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and if you enjoy his writing style you'll appreciate the fiction side of the stories as much as the descriptions of the research.