toggle's challenge

Please post me any recommendations for good history books.

I'm sure I'll get to more than 75, I'm doing a history degree and get stacks of recommended reading, but it's good to keep track of what i'm reading, and maybe get some suggestions on more books to read. I'm just finishing off modules on basic archaeology, oral history and the black death till the act of union. After February, I have the 60's and a couple of Cornish heritage modules, one general and one on the mining industry.

I get most of my books through bookmooch, abebooks, charity shops and the college and local libraries. This may get a bit harder for some of the local books.

1. Renaissance Europe 1480-1520 - done
2. the archaeology of churches- done
3. The Warrior Queens : Boadicea's Chariot , Part Two - done
4. Women's oral history: the frontiers reader - done
5, the English medieval town- done
6, the medieval village- done
7, The king's cardinal : the rise and fall of Thomas Wolsey - done
8. churches in the landscape-done
9. what is history- done
10.the black death - done
11. i know why the caged bird sings -done
12. stupid white men- done
13. a documentary history of england. volume 2 -done
14. prehistoric societies - done
15. mary queen of scots antonia fraiser
16. the cornish mining industry j.a buckley
17. dude, where's my country michael moore
18. the tudors by christopher morris
19. early modern england
20. an oral history book of cornwall
21. doing oral history by rtitchie
22. 200 pages of papers on post medieval burial
23. grave concerns m cox
24. gather together in my name maya angelou
25. beginners guide to archaeology louis brennan
26. digging up the past leonard wooley
27. the heritage industry robert hewison
28. the lives of the kings and queens of england
29. the early british tin industry
30. voices of the past paul thompson
31. stannary tales justin brooke
32. mining in cornwall volume 1
33. mining in cornwall volume 3

Sounds like a very interesting journey. Welcome to the Challenge.

thankyou

Welcome to the challenge:) If I may ask, do you enjoy your history studies? I have a MA in history myself and it's nice to see if others enjoy it as much as I did:) It is nice to get a history reading tip as well since I am no longer in uni. Where do you study?

happy new year btw!

I am absolutely loving it.

I'm studying locally, in Cornwall, hence the Cornish heritage stuff. i live here, single mum with 3 kids so moving anywhere is not an option. it's not an oxbridge degree, but life is about the art of the possible.

Starred! I did Near Eastern Archaeology & Classical Studies for my B.A., and have plenty of ancient history books lined up to read this year, so perhaps we'll have some book recommendations to exchange! I could use some history & historical archaeology recommendations, I tend to dwell in the ancient past a bit too much and forget that things actually happened after about 406 A.D. ...haha!

I'm working on an MEd in Heritage Studies, which is a sort of interdisciplinary combination of history and cultural/social heritage. Sounds similar in ways to what you're doing, except mine has a bit more of a New England focus. I'm loving every minute of it! It will be interesting to see what you're reading and compare titles. Happy New Year!

Cornish mining heritage got exported pretty much worldwide along with the iners and their kit as the mines here closed down. not much into your area of the us, but certainly further west, canada, mexico, south america and australia.

i get told a lot about near Eastern archaeology, my archaeology tutor spends his summers in Lebanon, so we look a lot at what he knows from there as well as Cornish archaeology. I loved finding out about the bronze age stuff round here, there's some barrows and a possible peninsula fort within a few miles that i will have to get landowners permission to go look at soon.

My boys and I watched a very interesting DVD recently, "Standing with stones: a journey through megalithic Britain" written and presented by Rupert Soskin. It started in Cornwall and ended up in the Scottish Isles, visiting stone circles, rows, barrows, cairns, all along the way. It was fascinating! I think my boys were most impressed with finding out how much we *don't* know about what were obviously very important structures to the people who built them.

definately.

i've been to some of the sites they visited in west cornwall. simply amazing

Welcome! I'm a history buff, so it'll be fun to see your recommendations.

Welcome to the group! We have several people in the group who enjoy history. You might want to check out the 'What We Are Reading - Nonfiction' thread from time to time.

Your studies sound fascinating! To be in Cornwall amoungst so much history must be a thrill.

4. Women's oral history: the frontiers reader

5, the english medieval town
6, the medieval village
7. The king's cardinal : the rise and fall of Thomas Wolsey

Hi toggle! Good to see you in this group too!

finished the warrior queens. should finish the women's oral history book tonight

finished it at about 2am last night. I am going to try to finish the medieval village so it can go back to the library tomorrow as well.

finished it.

onto the black death

finished the black death.

tonight is to start a book on post medieval burials and a how to book on oral history interviews.

I now know very well how to do a project proposal, I've written 3 of them for a single project, had to alter because of the weather. I did suggest to my tutor she have me bonus points for being able to think of new ideas at short notice, she laughed at me.

Women's Oral History: the Frontiers Reader sounds like an interesting read - I'll watch for it. One that I've had my eye on for a while but haven't read yet is Women in Waiting in the Westward Movement: Life on the Home Frontier.

Thanks muddy, I've put that on my wish-list. i'm always interested in history of ordinary people.

adding :

a documentary history of england. volume 2

*Starred*

Hi Toggleknits! I also study history, though my focus is on Russia/Soviet Union. I'm working on my PhD at the University of Chicago. My younger brother is a medievalist; he got his MLit at the University of St. Andrews. I know for a fact that he has a huge library of medieval history (and a large collection of medieval weaponry as well), so I will pest him for book recommendations.

British history is kinda my guilty pleasure history, for those moments when Russia starts to bug me. How is The King's Cardinal? I read Wolf Hall a few months ago, so now I'm a bit re-obsessed with the Tudors. And they aren't history books, but have you ever read Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle? They are a time commitment, but I'm a huge fan.

I have quicksilver on my 'to read' shelf at the moment. it's just finding the hours in the day that i really have trouble with.

I actually came here to post that I had finished the king's cardinal. it is hard going, 650 pages worth, but it gives a lot of information about the relationships and a slightly different perspective on the rivalries. The author states that with Wolsey as Anne's best hope of getting the divorce through the church, why would she be campaigning against him? His views make a lot of sense, there is more to their relationship than the portrayal of the as leaders of rival factions suggests.

I feel that reading this particular book has opened up a further door towards gaining a more complete understanding of the complexities of the people and their relationships.

haven't ben here a while. been busy though.

15. mary queen of scots antonia fraiser
16. the cornish mining industry j.a buckley
17. dude, where's my country michael moore
18. the tudors by christopher morris
19. early modern england
20. an oral history book of cornwall
21. doing oral history by rtitchie
22. 200 pages of papers on post medieval burial
23. grave concerns m cox
24. gather together in my name maya angelou
25. beginners guide to archaeology louis brennan
26. digging up the past leonard wooley

27. the heritage industry robert hewison
28. the lives of the kings and queens of england
29. the early british tin industry

You have been busy...well done! The Heritage Industry sounded interesting till I looked at Amazon - only 4 copies (used) and cheapest is $98. Ouch!

The author is a big barrel of cynicism. I think they have a point in some areas, but they really don't seem to want to find any good in anything. However, it is surprisingly apolitical, they heap disgust on all governments.

I didn't like the price either. I got my college library to get it for me on an interlibrary loan. I won't buy books over £20. most of mine are of abebooks for under a fiver inc postage or are from bookmooch.

30. voices of the past by paul thompson

I love history and particularly social and economic history, and oral history, too. Do you have to request a lot through inter-library loan?

this is the first time I've had to, the college library is really quite good and we are expected to get a lot of the stuff we read from online journals. However, if i need ILL, i can have up to 30 a year before they start charging me costs.

I also delved into the local history room at my local library. picked up 8 books there yesterday evening.

31. stannary tales by justin brooke.

series of short articles about people ending up in court over mininig rights and equipment and mine shares. industry did attract it's share of con artists

32. mining in cornwall volume 1
33. mining in cornwall volume 3
34. cornish mining

35. voices of the cornish mining landscape

anyone notice a bit of a theme here?

barely ;-)

should be clearer by the end of the week.....

36. A miner's tale
37. voices of the cornish mining landscape
38. distory

39. the black death
40. study skills

#37: Was the Study Skills book helpful?

working through it, and a book on essays for dyslexics.

i'm getting 60-68% in my essays, but y tutor said she dosen't recognise me in what i'm writing, she is surprised i'm not getting better grades. therefore my problem is not what im learning, it's writing anything.

and yes, i do write better when i' writing formally, its just hard work, so i don't bother unless its something graded.

I have daughters who will be entering college this year and next, so I am on the lookout for books that will prove helpful to them. Thanks for the info!

I think colleges often do a lot of these books in their libraries. it's probably worth looking at a few of them, before choosing, but the stella cotrell is reasonable.

so is:

41writing an essay

42. modelling the middle ages
43. bond men made free
44. theatres of memory

#41: Thanks for the recommendation of Writing an Essay. I will look for that one too.

45. the rebel sell
46. a really tedious book on the heratage industry
47. 100 pages of PDF files on the 60's
48.the 60's unplugged
49. the unsung sixties

#44: The Sixties Unplugged looks pretty good. Did you like it?

very much so. the author has definite opinions on some of the people involved, it's a refreshing change from some fairly dry academic books.

50. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World
51. museum politics

#46: Thanks for the input. I will look for the book.

52. How to Improve your Assignment Results
53. 100 or so pages of printed paper on churchill and ww2
54. never had it so good

55. the death of christian britain
56. who owns objects
57. 150 pages on national identity and heritage

58. who do we think we are
59.right wing women
60. pawn of prophesy
62. queen of sorcery
63. magician's gambit
64. caves of steel
65. wintersmith

took a couples of days off the course books and read some easy stuff just for me. quite refreshing.

#50: Glad you got a chance for a breather. Did you like the David Eddings books?

yep. read them before, but it's nice to have some easy reading sometime.

66.the whole woman
67. white heat

#52: it's nice to have some easy reading sometime

Definitely!

68. the long march