Reddit reviews Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

I'm going to be lazy and simply repost a post of mine from a year ago. :)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a well deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A combination of history, science and biography and so very well written.

A few of my favourite biographies include the magisterial, and also Pulitzer Prize winning, Peter the Great by Robert Massie. He also wrote the wonderful Dreadnaught on the naval arms race between Britain and Germany just prior to WWI (a lot more interesting than it sounds!). Christopher Hibbert was one of the UK's much loved historians and biographers and amongst his many works his biography Queen Victoria - A Personal History is one of his best. Finally, perhaps my favourite biography of all is Everitt's Cicero - The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician. This man was at the centre of the Fall of the Roman Republic; and indeed fell along with it.

Speaking of which, Rubicon - The Last Years of the Roman Republic is a recent and deserved best-seller on this fascinating period. Holland writes well and gives a great overview of the events, men (and women!) and unavoidable wars that accompanied the fall of the Republic, or the rise of the Empire (depending upon your perspective). :) Holland's Persian Fire on the Greco-Persian Wars (think Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes! Think of the Movie 300, if you must) is equally gripping.

Perhaps my favourite history book, or series, of all is Shelby Foote's magisterial trilogy on the American Civil War The Civil War - A Narrative. Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read.

If, like me, you're interested in teh history of Africa, start at the very beginning with The Wisdom of the Bones by Alan Walker and Pat Shipman (both famous paleoanthropologists). Whilst not the very latest in recent studies (nothing on Homo floresiensis for example), it is still perhaps the best introduction to human evolution available. Certainly the best I've come across. Then check out Africa - Biography of a Continent. Finish with the two masterpieces The Scramble for Africa on how European colonialism planted the seeds of the "dark continents" woes ever since, and The Washing of the Spears, a gripping history of the Anglo-Zulu wars of the 1870's. If you ever saw the movie Rorke's Drift or Zulu!, you will love this book.

Hopkirk's The Great Game - The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia teaches us that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I should imagine that's enough to keep you going for the moment. I have plenty more suggestions if you want. :)

Another book recommendation is Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West by Tom Holland.
This book starts much earlier in the history of the Persian and Greek empires and explores some of the events that led up to the war between the two civilizations. The second half of the book then dives into the events of the up-comning 300 movie.

I just finished reading

https://www.amazon.com/Persian-Fire-First-Empire-Battle/dp/0307279480/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521417830&sr=8-1&keywords=persian+fire&dpID=51%252BTf7-2OeL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

and was surprised to learn that most of the Persian navy was the Phoenicians and the maritime people on the Turkish coast

Persian Fire by Tom Holland. Holland is a fabulous writer. His book Rubicon (about the fall of the Roman Republic) is one of my favorites. Persian Fire, which I'm reading now, is about the Greek-Persian War.

I read a pretty comprehensive book on the subject: Persian Fire by Tom Holland. Never completely finished it, but the opening chapters had a lot to say about Cyrus the Great and his role in shaping the Achaemenid dynasty.
http://www.amazon.com/Persian-Fire-First-Empire-Battle/dp/0307279480

Persian Fire is very good.

I just finished reading Rubicon and Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor back to back. Very enjoyable follow on read.

I'm hoping to read Holland's Persian Fire soon.

I would also highly recommend Lords of the Sea about the birth of the Athenian Navy.

If you like narrative history and are interested in the American Civil War, nothing beats Shelby Foote's trilogy. Historians correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's generally pretty accurate and very entertaining.

I don't recall enough off the top of my head to answer this well, but this book has a lot of info about the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, and the Persians' later interaction with the Greeks