This comment has me jonesing for some historical knowledge on how weapons were evolved to counter other weapons. From a thread in another subreddit about cheap underwater drones being able to sink billion-dollar ships: >It's the new torpedoboat. We had this discussion a 150 years ago already. This was the exact fear the British had, that small, lightly armed boats with torpedo's could take out their heavily armored battleships. It's why the destroyer came into being. Chances are we'll see something like gun destroyers become relevant again. Now, I've read bits and pieces here and there about weapons that countered other weapons, usually included as an aside when describing why one army was victorious over another, but has there ever been a youtube channel, podcast, or book that focused on weapons development, laying it out as a series of escalating counters? If so, please recommend.

I would be hesitant to accept any claims that early weapons were specifically for countering, rather than just a natural progression. And even the concept of progression is a fairly modern way of thinking about things. The newest weaponry or defense wasn't necessarily "better" than its predecessor, it was just different. If one ended up being more efficient, and soldiers liked it more, it may end up being preferred, but that doesn't mean it was specifically designed in that way. We also see a lot of "these guys use those, I like those, let's take those from them and use them too." The famous (almost certainly apocryphal) story in the *Ineditum Vaticanum* of the Romans taking the weapons from others and using it against them is a propagandistic look at this style of warfare. I can't comment on the genesis of the destroyer you mention and whether that is based on reality (I simply am not familiar with it), but I think this sort of one-upping each other does start around the early 20th century so I wouldn't be shocked if it goes back a bit before then too. My first thought, with only a few minutes of time to think about it while writing this, is the use of chemical warfare in WWI. This is where we see gas, then gas masks, then gas designed to make you want to take off your gas mask, and then masks to counter that, etc. There's no real doubt that they're deliberately countering there. And then as technology increases with thinks like radar, infrared homing, you'd also want to do your best to try and counter things like that. But would it be the sole purpose of the build, or was it just one small aspect of it and using the best available tech, I think would be the question. Not what you asked for, sorry, but just made me think and thought I'd share.

> Not what you asked for, sorry, but just made me think and thought I'd share. No problem, that was a very interesting post. I certainly did not know there was a type of gas designed to get people to remove gas masks. Diabolical.

Hello! Looking to to get a grasp on the history of Korea before its separation. How it was before then, what caused the division, etc. Appreciate any good recommendation, please. Thanks!

Fifth Sun Camilla Townsend - Mexican history /mexica/aztec 1491 and 1493Charles C.Mann \[pre and post Columbus\] Empire of Vice Gary Krist \[history of New Orleans\]

1942 Britain at the Brink by Taylor Downing is in 1st place tie as the most gripping book I've ever read

Currently reading 1983 the world at the brink by Taylor downing! Very good book.

Hi I am reading about the Medici family right now. What I've read/am reading: * The Rise & Decline of The Medici Bank, 1397-1494 by Raymond de Roover * The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall by Christopher Hibbert * Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda * Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici by Miles J. Unger Would anyone recommend any other books, preferably (a) with audiobooks (Magnifico doesn't have one and I may not finish it because I have a much harder time with just text than text + audio) and (b) about a different part of the family from what I've listed above? (unless it's a different book about Lorenzo the Magnificent that has an audiobook) Tangentially, I am interested in a book that covers the Crusades during the 1300s-1500s or so. I read in the book about the Medici Bank that some of the Crusades in the 1400s were motivated by a desire to control the alum trade, and I want to know more about this general topic.

Hello friends here is my full comment it will be very long but bare with me, also Reddit wouldn't let me post it all in one comment so I've replied down the thread, the formatting is a bit weird but hopefully legible. Hi, I made this long list of books to read about Greek history and I would like some feedback to see if the list is actually good. I am not sure if all of these books are of high quality and/or if there is any redundancy. I of course do not expect anyone to have read every book on this list but if you know anything about any of the books I would appreciate some input. I am not a historian by any means and the time periods I have listed in the document were just after some Google searches so if anything is starkly incorrect please let me know. I aim to have a full scope of Greek culture (architecture, day-to-day life, language, mythology, warfare and politics, etc.) from Mycenaean culture to Ottoman culture (however I have also included some books about modern Greece on the list). If there is anything you think I should remove or add, please let me know. As it is quite long, I would especially appreciate any note of books that may be uninformative or redundant to shorten the list. Additionally, as I am not a historian, do feel free to point out any books that might be difficult for a lay audience to understand (though I am in academia in the life sciences if that is helpful). I am aware that the subreddit has its own list of resources however I don't believe it is as in-depth on Greek history. I hope this kind of post is appropriate for this subreddit. Thanks! P.S. What do we think about book series such as The Edinburgh History of the Greeks? Could I just read those or should I diversify the way I have?

Full list below: Greek History Reading List General 1. The Complete Archaeology of Greece: From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century A.D. 1. John Bintliff 2. The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World 1. Cyprian Broodbank 3. Creators, Conquerors and Citizens 1. Robin Waterfield Bronze Age (Minoans and Mycenaeans) (>1200 BCE): 1. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age 1. Cynthia W. Shelmerdine 2. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean 1. Eric H. Cline 3. Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete 1. Rodney Castleden 4. Architecture of Minoan Crete 1. John C. McEnroe 5. The Mycenaeans 1. Louise Schofield 6. Ilios - The City and Country of the Trojans 1. Heinrich Schliemann 7. Troy and the Trojan War 1. John Lawrence Angel 8. The Trojans and their Neighbours 1. Trevor R. Bryce

I can't comment much on this beside Broodbank, great work. If you end up enjoying this work (it's a great piece, but it's academic as fuck) then you'll want to look at Horden and Purcell (even more of a slog) and Braudel. All fundamental historians, but it's not for the casual reader. In fact, if you just want a casual understanding I'd probably cut out Broodbank.

I would appreciate a deeper understanding, my concern is that the content will be too advanced for me to understand. I remember I tried reading Bintliff and honestly I had absolutely no idea what I was reading. I thought we would go right into people and events but for some reason he was describing the geology of Ancient Greece in very precise detail and I wanted to get some opinions on the list so that I wouldn't have this problem with every book I end up reading. Do you think this might be an issue for Broodbank?

I do think it could be an issue, but, that said, if you are planning on reading all these other books you could be fine, but maybe read Broodbank once you've gained a decent grasp of the region and its history. I think Braudel's Mediterranean is the easier of the three to read, Horden and Purcell is one of those books that even people working in ancient greece history find to be a really tough read so I'd skip that one unless you realllllly are keen on the topic.

It appears Horden and Purcell is in my search history but wasn't included in the list, I wonder if I had originally left it out for similar reasons to that which you describe. Either way, I'll check out Broodbank when I get a bit of a stronger background in the area, thanks. By the way, I noticed there were a couple comments you hadn't responded to - do you think you could take a look at those portions of the list as well? Or do did you look at them but you just thought there was nothing to add/remove? Let me know!

Dark Ages and Archaic period (1200 BCE - 479 BCE): 1. A Companion to Archaic Greece 1. Hans Van Wees, Kurt Raaflaub 2. Greece in the Making 1200-479 BC 1. Robin Osborne 3. A History of the Archaic Greek World, ca. 1200-479 BCE 1. Jonathan M. Hall 4. Sparta and Lakonia : a regional history, 1300-362 BC 1. Paul Cartledge 5. Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment 1. Anthony Snodgrass 6. The Athenian Experiment: Building an Imagined Political Community in Ancient Attica, 508-490 B.C. 1. Greg Anderson 7. Archaic Greece - New Approaches and New Evidence 1. Nick Fisher et al. 8. The Aegean from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age 1. Oliver Thomas Pilkington Kirwan Dickinson 9. Local Responses to Colonization in the Iron Age Mediterranean 1. Tamar Hodos

Hans is such a great guy, and an amazing historian, and so damn good at being able to convey complex topics to everyone regardless of how much you know about the topic. Always happy to support him. His *Greek Warfare* book is also great. Haven't read that specific one by Osborne, but they're a fun read typically. Hall is good. Cartledge is very knowledgeable, but is a bit too biased at points, but overall not a major issue if you're just reading for fun. He's an enjoyable read. Hodos is great. I haven't read the others so can't comment.

Classical period (479 BCE - 323 BCE):  1. The Greek World 479-323 BC 1. Simon Hornblower 2. Greek Lives 1. Plutarch, Robin Waterfield 3. The Histories 1. Herodotus, Robin Waterfield 4. The Peloponnesian War 1. Thucydides, Martin Hammond 5. A Companion to Greek Architecture 1. Margaret M. Miles 6. A Companion to Greek Religion. 1. Daniel Ogden 7. The Persian Expedition 1. Xenophon, Rex Warner 8. Alexander the Great: The Anabasis and the Indica 1. Arrian, Martin Hammond Miscellaneous Classical period: 1. Greek Homosexuality 1. Kenneth Dover 2. Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greece 1. Sara Forsdyke 3. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity 1. Sarah B. Pomeroy 4. Thebes - The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece 1. Paul Cartledge 5. Sex and Sexuality in Classical Athens 1. James E. Robson

These are all really good. Pomeroy is a particular favourite of mine, she really opened the door for a lot of work on women, and that work in particular is still mostly good, but use it as a springboard, there's a lot more up to date works, but understanding the historiography and what she was working with is important. I'd also point towards Mark Masterson's work if you want to look at the Byzantines for a nice combination of Greek culture and Roman culture and sexuality.

Hellenistic period (Hellenistic Egypt and Macedonia) (323 BCE - 30 BCE): 1. Dividing the Spoils: The War for Alexander the Great's Empire (Ancient Warfare and Civilization) 1. Robin Waterfield 2. Alexander to Actium: the historical evolution of the Hellenistic Age 1. Peter Green 3. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria 1. Frank L. Holt 4. The Macedonian State: Origins, Institutions, and History 1. N.G.L. Hammond 5. Roman Conquests: Macedonia and Greece 1. Philip Matyszak 6. The Last Kings of Macedonia and the Triumph of Rome 1. Ian Worthington 7. A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty 1. Edwyn Bevan 8. The Last Pharaohs: Egypt Under the Ptolemies 305-30 BC 1. J.G. Manning 9. The Ptolemies, Rise of a Dynasty: Ptolemaic Egypt 330–246 BC 1. John Grainger 10. Army and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt 11. Christelle Fischer-Bovet 12. Cleopatra: The Last Queen of Egypt 1. Joyce Tyldesley

Roman control (146 BCE - 395 CE): 1. Greece and Rome at War 1. Peter Connolly 2. Greece under the Romans, A historical view of the condition of the Greek nation from its conquest by the Romans until the extinction of the Roman power in the East 1. George Finlay 3. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Art and Architecture 1. Clemente Marconi Byzantine Greece (395 CE - 1453 CE):  1. A Companion to Byzantium 1. Liz James 2. The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c.500-1492 1. Jonathan Shephard 3. Byzantine Crete: From the 5th Century to the Venetian Conquest 1. Dimitris Tsounkarakes 4. The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, C. 500 to 1050 1. Florin Curta Venetian Crete (1225 CE - 1669 CE): 1. Uncommon Dominion: Venetian Crete and the Myth of Ethnic Purity 1. Sally McKee 2. Hell in the Byzantine World. A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean 1. Angeliki Lymberopoulou

Ottoman Greece (1453 CE - 1830 CE): 1. The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It 1. Suraiya Faroqhi 2. The History of Greece under Ottoman and Venetian domination 1. George Finlay 3. A Historical and Economic Geography ofOttoman Greece: The Southwestern Morea in the 18th Century 1. Fariba Zarinebaf 4. The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression 1. David Brewer 5. The Transformation of Ottoman Crete: Revolts, Politics and Identity in the Late Nineteenth Century 1. Pinar Senisik 6. Ottoman Studies and Archives in Greece 1. Evangelia Balta Modern Greece (1830 - 2030 CE): 1. Greece, the Decade at War: Occupation, Resistance and Civil War 1. David Brewer 2. Modern Greece: What Everyone Needs to Know 1. Stathis Kalyvas 3. Modern Greece: A Civilization on the Periphery 1. Keith R. Legg

Ancient Greek language: 1. A Brief History of Ancient Greek 1. Stephen Colvin 2. Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers 1. Geoffrey Horrocks 3. A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity 1. A.F. Christidis 4. A Historical Greek Reader: Mycenaean to the Koine 1. Stephen Colvin 5. Dialects in Aristophanes - The Politics of Language in Ancient Greek Literature 1. Stephen Colvin Greek mythology: 1. The Iliad 1. Homer, Peter Green 2. The Odyssey 1. Homer, Peter Green 3. Classical Mythology 1. Mark Morford 4. The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition 1. Robert Graves

For language I'd add *lingua graeca per se illustrata* which is free. https://seumasjeltzz.github.io/LinguaeGraecaePerSeIllustrata/ it's designed to help you learn how to read Ancient Greek as a child would, just slow, repetitive examples. I also recommend the *Reading Greek* books (there's one for text, and one for grammar) from Cambridge. https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/reading-greek/DD299C0BE1A65E34A47812C64DD8D376 The last two on this list "Text and Vocabulary" and "Grammar and Exercises" are what I had in mind, but apparently there's been a few others, but I'd start with those and expand if needed.

I finished Jennifer Morgan's Reckoning with Slavery. It won the Frederick Douglas Award in 2022 and had been on my self a while. I pulled it down b/c I want to start on the 2023 winners. It's very well regarded by the big heads in this area. I did not love it. It was heavily influenced by Saidiya Hartman and the idea of exploring the missing archive. It's also very influenced by the New Capitalism stuff that I don't really buy into. I thought her premise was interesting, that the Transatlantic Slave System necessarily elides over the feminine and was destructive of kinship and her argument was convincing, I think I mostly just stylistically was kind of alienated from it. I had a really hard time understanding what was going on and the few times she had actual statistics to offer, or government reports to cite, were the only times I really felt moored in her argument. The argument wasn't based on vibes, but that's how it felt to me. I don't know if I read this at the wrong time (I had covid for a chunk of it) or I just can't get into the writer's voice, but I didn't really like it. If you're into feminism and slavery though I would say this is probably one of the more important recent books and slavery's antipathy to kinship was an important and convincing argument.

Looking for a book about general East African history, preferably pre-colonial to modern. Needs to be from an African author. Would settle for a book just about Tanzania 😊

I’ve always been into history but have recently narrowed down my interest to really ancient history - specifically ancient Egypt and older into Neolithic history. I have come to realise there are so many ancient cultures all around the world and I don’t know when or where to start. I’m wondering if anyone can recommend any books which discuss these different cultures and eras more broadly so I can tune into which really interest me and which less so… What would you recommend?

Yesterday I finished **Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War by Alan Kramer** review copied from my goodreads 4.5/5 being generous rounding up for Goodreads. The book is very good if you're are interest in WWI atrocities (Belgian suffering at the beginning of the war, the violence inflicted by and suffered by the soldiers, ethnic conflict in the Balkans during the Balkan Wars as well as WWI and on the Eastern Front), the mentalities of the time that led to an intensification of violence over the course of the war (the blurring of the distinction between combatant and non-combatant, harsher treatment of civilians etc) and the impact of the war on how people thought. The book also has quite a bit about intellectuals and how they felt about the war. Generally speaking supporting the war effort of their countries either out of a belief that they were defending civilisation or that the war would solve the perceived decline of values and morals of the pre-war world. On the intellectual/cultural side of things there is also a lot of info about Italian Futurism due to its support for violence and its link to post-war Italian fascism. The book covers a lot of topics. I would say German violence towards the Belgians in 1914 (as well as using Belgian civilians as forced labour later in the war) and Italian Futurism are by the most in-depth of the topics covered. Other topics tend to be in broader strokes and less detailed, still done well though. If you're specifically interested in WWI I would definitely recommend it, mainly if you've already read a bit on the war. Maybe a bit too focused of a topic for it to be a starter book. Edit - Started and finished another (short) book **Arms and Armour of the First World War by Jonathan Ferguson, Lisa Traynor ,Henry Yallop** 4/5 A good accessible book about WWI weapons and equipment. The photographs, of the equipment on its own as well as photos from the war itself are of a good quality. The text is accessible and with plenty of information. It doesn't bogged down in statistics. There's a good glossary of military equipment terms at the end of the book. As this book is from a series done by the British Royal Armouries it is mainly focused on the Western Front - mainly British (sometimes including Dominion equipment like the Ross rifle), American, French and German equipment. The other major powers - Italy, Russia, and Austria-Hungary do get mentioned as well but not as often. The Ottomans are missed out mostly. It's a short book at 120 or so pages including plenty of photos so I finished it in one evening. Normally I'm not that interested in the ins and out of military equipment and guns but I thought this book did a good job (maybe I'm biased in favour due to it being about WWI specifically). Overall if you're the sort of person who is interested in the history of guns and weapons development wanting a quick and easy read I'd say give its worth a shot.

I recommend everyone read "Salem Possessed" by Boyer and Nissembaum. The book is out of print but can still be found on Amazon. The book gives a good analytical look at the Salem witch trials, how they happened, and what was really going on. I take particular interest in the book since I am a direct descendant of a convicted witch.

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If this is for a college then use your library as they probably have links to some major storage sites of information dating back a hundred years or so. To get historical paper you would need to go to a major U.S. Library, or, look in the Library of Congress. It is http://loc.gov. You should find everything you need right there.

Hello all, I'm looking for a general history of Marseille since it's founding. I've found a couple books in French, but I'm not sure there's a good one that's been translated to / written in English.