World History

[Admin]

Discuss books concerning World History here.

[Bob]

Thank you very much for setting this up for those who want to expand  into World History.

[Bob]

Now---any suggestions for the first book we want to discuss? Let's just start out by exchanging views on topics or books we want to go over?

I just read pieces of RIVERS OF GOLD by Hugh Thomas and as usual it was a good Thomas production on the scale of CONQUEST. It a tome, but readable. There's also a new book out THE KING, THE KAISER AND THE CZAR which I just ordered, but haven't seen yet, but which is an interesting topic. Then there's one out on THE LONG MARCH which I just saw today.

I'm into Soviet History at times and recently read STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED CZAR.

Lastly, BASILICA a history of the building of St. Peter's Basilica. This one is out in paperback

Please add to the suggestions.

[thanatopsy]

I'm not sure that I'd like to participate in this particular forum but, like you, I love Spanish and Russian/Soviet history. The Stalin book certainly sounds quite interesting.

[weezo]

I, too, am glad to see this forum. I know very little about Russia, and am already spent out on books for this month, so I may just sit this one out on the sidelines.

In the meantime, I recently got The Discoverers and will be reading that, so I may have some questions or comments. I think, Bob, you quoted from it quite a bit during 1421.

[Donotremove]

I have recently read Planet of Slums by Mike Davis, Blessed Unrest: How The Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken, and have re read A World Lit Only By Fire by William Manchester (trade size paperback).  I am reading Chalmers Johnson's triolgy Blowback, Sorrows of Empire, Nemisis, which is kind of American History but it isn't exactly.

[weezo]

Donot,

Your readings sound much more like what I would like to pursue than those about Russia that Bob suggested.

Last night I finished "The Glorious Defeat" about the US-Mexican war and how the Mexicans resisted a negotiated peach in favor of losing a war to preserve their "national honor". It was interesting to see how democracy was repeatedly subverted by the elite who refused to allow their "common people" to gain knowledge through education to become an effective part of their own government, as well as the duplicity of the Catholic Church in keeping "the peasants in their place". No wonder so many Mexicans seek the freedoms already in place in this country. Yet, we too, are threatened by the arrogance of the elite who would thwart the interests of the "common people" in order to attain and keep power. "The Glorious Defeat" bring home how precious and fragile democracy really is. We need to remain ever vigilant that the government by the people and for the people does not slip away from "the people".

[thanatopsy]

http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Against-Memoir-Nadezhda-Mandelstam/dp/0375753168


Perhaps the definitive reading on the futility and evil of the Stalinist regime.

[Bob]

I'll look at the books donotremove suggests.

[Donotremove]

Bob, my reading list was not a suggestion list. I was just checking in here to let folks know I'm an interested participant and/or bystander to this new World History discussion.  My reading choices very seldom cross any readers here, or any other site I join in discussions with other "readers."  I never have seemed to run into a group that reads along the same lines as I do.  But that's okay.  Now and then something comes along . . . .

Salt by Kurlansky is one of the most stimulating world histories I've ever read.  I'm getting ready to read it again.  Now that I think of it, Kurlansky, in Cod, mentions how the Basque already had crude on-the-beach fishing/curing stations in the New World by the time the Portugese and others got there.  I imagine fishermen discovered lots more territory than they ever got credit for.

I will suggest that it might be time for people to get out their copy of Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly and read it again.

[madupont]

Might be, donotremove. I've got my copy. In the meanwhile, I am proceeding with Peeling the Onion, which is not in the Food Matters but in Nonfiction for which I received a reply from admin(sure hope that really is )

[Donotremove]

Maddy, as far as I can tell. you are reading and discussing Peeling the Onion by yourself.  I haven't seen anyone pick up on it, except for a few comments way back there.

[bosox18d]

Donot,I read both Salt and Cod but isn't Kurlansky also the author of "Basque History of the World" also(or some title close to that)

[Biz]

donotremove - how was the Hawken book? I read "Ecology of Commerce" about 10 years back and was particularly moved by it.

On the subject of World History, recently finished "The Black Jacobins", which was a fascinating, if overly detailed and somewhat tendentious, account of the Haitian rebellion at the turn of the 19th century.

[weezo]

I've started a list of books for me to order when my money frees up again. The March of Folly sounds like a good starting point, and I also like the idea of Salt and Cod.

I've read the discussion on the caravels in The Discoverers, and wonder why anyone would want to compare them to the large Chinese Junks described in 1421. The caravels were much smaller than many of the trading ships used on the Mediterranean, since their purpose was different. They were not designed to carry large numbers of people or large amounts of trade good. The caravels were designed for making the return trip against the wind, while the junks were intended to be guided by wind and current. The junks were expected to circle the world, not to go out a bit further than last time and explore a little bit more. The Discoverers does describe the beginning of the African slave trade.