Best History Books

8 thoughts on “Best History Books”

1. Isn’t the Fischer book mostly a cultural history of the representations of Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, rather than a history of the event itself? I love his books on Paul Revere and on the waves of English immigrants to America, but I haven’t looked at this one.

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2. The Court of the Red Tsar and Young Stalin, both by Simon Sebag Montefiore. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Anyone read his others?). Nixonland by Rick Perlstein. Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk. The River of Doubt by Candice Mallard. The Orientalist by Tom Reiss. The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. Ivan’s War by Catherine Merridale.
   Ok, that should keep everyone busy for a couple of weeks. (And no Nazi books from me either, despite my academic background.)

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3. I like Frum’s “How We Got Here: The 70s” a lot, because it really does explain how we got from the 50s to the 70s. So many things, both good and bad, came from the movement toward a more expressive, individualistic culture, from the move away from mayonnaise and canned soup-based recipes to the decay of the more buttoned-up Mainline Protestant churches. And stretching the category of “history” a bit, I’d throw in Lileks’s “Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice” and “Interior Desecrations.” (I haven’t read his food books, but they’d fit in here, too.)
   I also like Matthew Sweet’s “Inventing the Victorians.” Sweet’s thesis is that Victorians were very much like ourselves, and he does an awfully good job problematizing the treatment of Victorians as the strait-laced, censorious Other.

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4. Our current interest is American history — any suggestions for that, especially anything readable by a child? (who reads at a high school level)?
   I suspect an entire book about the crossing of the Delaware wouldn’t fly, though.

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5. I really liked Page Smith’s series, which starts with A New Age Now Begins (though I skipped the first two and started with The Shaping of America). I was taken by how many of the points of contention from the early 19th century are still around today. It also covers a period that’s very interesting but always neglected in classes. The series is solid narrative history with a grand sweep, but be warned, they’re doorstops. Also, they’re out of print, but readily available used or in libraries.

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6. How about “Maryland’s Canada: A History of Delaware.”

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7. The Fischer book contains a long appendix on cultural representations of the Crossing. However, really it begins as a social history of the British, the Hessian, and the American armies, then turns to leadership styles and how they interacted with the cultural background he’s laid down. This is followed (as I remember) by the political/military context of the uprisings along the Delaware, discussing how occupation policy radicalized the population. Then we get to the actual battles, and some discussion of POW-treatment and different opinions of the Rules of War among the three parties.
   I’ve read four of Fischer’s books, and Washington’s Crossing is by far the best.

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8. Thanks for the mini-review of Washington’s Crossing, Ben; I’ll definitely have to check it out.

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