Best ancient civilizations history books according to redditors

We found 3,714 Reddit comments discussing the best ancient civilizations history books. We ranked the 1,180 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Subcategories:

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer history books
Aztec history books
Ancient Egyptians history books
Ancient Greek history books
Ancient Incan history books
Mayan history books
Ancient Roman history books
Prehistory books
Ancient Mesopotamia history books

Top Reddit comments about Ancient Civilizations:

u/xepa105 · 109 pointsr/MapPorn

This is actually really inaccurate according to all archaeological and historical (ancient or modern) data.

For starters the scale is out of whack. The city should not stretch all the way across the peninsula. Here is a map showing how big the Troad peninsula was, Troy only occupied a small portion of it, not this huge metropolis.

Another example showing the rivers and the famed Plain of Troy.

Here it is on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/39%C2%B057'27.0%22N+26%C2%B014'20.0%22E/@39.9575,26.238889,2792m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d39.9575!4d26.238889?hl=en

There is also zero evidence of that inner harbour/lake at Troy VIIh (the "Homeric Troy") or any of the other levels of Troy. The plain was fed by a pair of rivers that converged very near Troy and flowed into the inner bay. They could use and divert those rivers, but never in such a scale. The harbours used were the natural bay where the rivers debouched and a smaller one facing the Aegean. There were also none of those little artificial lakes around Troy.

The city was also very different. For starters there was no castle with a moat around it, the citadel was a complex of palaces and religious houses that looked the same as the lower city houses only were bigger, richer, and more opulent. This is a close up of what the citadel might have looked like (of which there is a lot of excavated ground): http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/images/MiddleEast/Anatolia/Troy_City_VIh_02_full.jpg

OP is correct in saying that the citadel was once believed to be all, but that recently more has been found. However, it's not as expansive as the illustration suggests. This is the boring archaeological diagram of what has been excavated so far, and you can see the outlines of an outer wall (called the Lower City wall). It's significant, and Troy was likely one of the biggest cities in the ancient Near East (with 5,000 to 10,000 people), and the way the city is set up basically proves that the culture was a lot more Hittite than Mycenean Greek or anything else. So a lot has been learned over the past couple of decades.

This is the best and most faithful representation of what Troy VII might have looked like: http://forum.boinaslava.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=26810&d=1413378933

I love that people can be excited about Troy as the real city that it was, not just the legend, and there's a lot to still discover about it, but I think it's important to be cautious about how it's portrayed. Especially in such a historical period where archaeology is so necessary, it's easy to take a little thing, a tiny piece of evidence, and blow it out of proportion; for example seeing any evidence of using river water for crops and jumping to the conclusion that Trojans were master canal builders - there's no solid evidence of the kind. It's easy to mythologize Bronze Age civilizations, especially Troy, but reality is, unfortunately, less glamorous; however, its complexities can still blow you away if you don't expect too much from a civilization that lived 3,500 years ago.

Source: Historian with extensive research knowledge of the Late Bronze Age Near East, including Troy.

EDIT: Well, since I've been gilded (thanks for that, by the way) I'll go the extra mile and give some book rec's for those who want to know more.

Disclaimer: Most of these are very academic-y, can be quite dense; unfortunately when it comes to this topic this is the norm, but I'll spare you guys the real dull ones. I'll start with one of the most accessible.

The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss.

In Search of the Trojan War Paperback by Michael Wood.

The Trojans & Their Neighbours Paperback by Trevor Bryce.

1177 BC: The Year Civlization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline.

Greece in the Bronze Age Paperback by Emily Townsend Vermeule.

Life and Society in the Hittite World Paperback by Trevor Bryce.

u/Forlarren · 70 pointsr/movies

I wouldn't call being verbose awesome. As for the message in the text you should either read The Forever War, or watch the film again to learn why it's flowery but wrong.

> War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose.

The problem is that political purpose is often dictated by evil, power hungry, short sighted politicians (many of whom have had military experience and are often the worst when it comes to starting more pointless wars), and is counter productive to the continuation of the species (we came damn close to destroying the world many times during the cold war, like seconds away close). For a more contemporary example it was the chicken hawks elevated by military rhetoric that leveled Iraq just to hand out rebuilding contracts for their buddies, laying economic waste to both nations.

Plus I preferred Michael Ironside's delivery, juxtaposed with his missing hand. You don't need a bunch of prose to show violence as authority, "because fuck you" is it's own proof.

Other points that can be easily picked apart (and I'm not the first to do so).

> Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure" --Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was talking about rebellions and the rebellious as the patriots. The removal of tyrants, makes Heinlein's statement disingenuous at best. It's a reversal and celebration of authority, that is ironically only possible due to Jefferson's original rebellion.

> It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how—or why—he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals.

This is the Nuremberg Defense, nobody should have to explain why it's wrong.

Too many people read Starship Troopers then praise it without reading it's critiques or counter examples. Heinlein's theories haven't held up well in the years following his book. It's a good story, and a great window into the mind set of a WWII soldier, but as a model for society it's woefully inadequate.

If you really want to understand war and it's wide ranging ramifications in an easily approachable format I would suggest starting with John Keegan's: A History of Warfare. Then read Joe Haldeman's: The Forever War as a Vietnam era perspective counter example to Starship Troopers. Then try watching Verhoeven's Starship Troopers again as it was intended to be viewed, as an intelligent satire.

u/Eruptsion · 66 pointsr/funny

He got what he said pretty much word-for-word from the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. (It's not a plug; it's a bestseller.)

The author makes the point that hunter gatherers had more flexibility and more fun hunting, a lower rate of disease/infection, etc., while during the agricultural revolution, people turned to back-breaking farming work and dwelling in filthy communal cottages, while also being perpetually stressed due to their livelihood being almost entirely dependent on the weather.

I'm not saying I agree, but there's some clarification for you.

u/PrimusPilus · 63 pointsr/AskHistorians

From the Harper Encyclopedia of Military History, 4th Ed, pp. 89-90:

The typical army of the Ch'in and Han periods was a combined arms force of infantry, cavalry, chariots, and crossbowmen. The principal element had been heavy armored infantry, but increasing reliance was placed on cavalry as time went by. Shih Huang Ti did not introduce the crossbow into Chinese armies, since we know that these weapons were in extensive use as early as the Battle of Ma Ling (353 BCE). He seems, however, to have relied upon crossbowmen more heavily than his predecessors and may have been responsible for establishing a substantial contingent of mounted crossbowmen in his army. He also coordinated the employment of the reflex longbow with the crossbow, but (unlike the Mongols) does not seem to have had mounted longbowmen.

The combined arms concept seems to have been adopted for units as small as a 1,000 man equivalent of a modern regiment. Thus, the Chinese appear to have been able to deploy units capable of decentralized, independent action, as well as to combine them into large, massed, but articulated armies, in which the major units were brigades of 2 or 3 regiments. Heavy armored infantry predominated. Light unarmored infantry--archers, crossbowmen, and spearmen--functioned as skirmishers and provided security by screening flanks and rear.

The bulk of the soldiers, infantry and cavalry alike, had bronze-tipped--or iron-tipped--spears as their primary weapons. The secondary weapon for most soldiers, archers or spearmen, mounted or dismounted, was a single-edged sword nearly three feet long, suspended in a scabbard from a waist belt. All, except apparently for lightly-armed skirmishers, wore armor made up of small metal (bronze) plates attached by a form of rivent to a quilted fabric base. Some protection seems to have been provided even those without armor by a heavy quilted robe. The Chinese apparently relied entirely upon their armor for passive protection and did not carry shields.

Op. cit., p. 134:

The Han Dynasty inherited the government and military institutions of the Ch'in Dynasty. The basis of Han military power was the militiaman. Han law required males between the ages of 23 and 56 to undergo on month of military training each year at provincial training centers. Each man was also required to serve a 1-year tour with the Imperial Guards army in the capital and a 3-year tour at a frontier post. The militia was also called up during local emergencies and for foreign campaigns, such as those of Wu Ti against the Hsiung-nu.

The Roman army structure, equipment, etc under the Principate has been exhaustively documented ad nauseum in many many sources, some of which I'll list below. If asked to compare the two systems, I'd say that the Roman armies were strategically and tactically more flexible, and were by design able to be deployed from one end of the empire to the other for decades on end, versus the inherent limitations of a militia-type system. The testudo and gladius would have likely made the Roman legionary superior to his Han counterpart in melee combat.

However, the crossbow would be the central, pivotal piece of technological difference between the two armies, with its great range and its ability to penetrate virtually all known sorts of personal armor, one would have to conclude that, all else being equal, a Roman army's only chance would involve either a) surprise, or b) tactics wherein the main bodies of the legions closed the distance with the Han to precipitate a melee as soon as possible. This assumes that a crossbow bolt could penetrate the testudo, which seems reasonable, but may not have been true as a rule.

SOURCES:

Goldsworthy, Adrian. The Complete Roman Army. Thames & Hudson, 2003.

Coulston, J.C. Roman Military Equipment: From the Punic Wars to the Fall of Rome. Oxbow Books, 2011.

u/onsos · 53 pointsr/AskHistorians

Weight training is old. Touring old castles and museums you see weight training gear.

Standing armies tended to be smaller than they are now, but the soldiers would train (as they do now).

While modern training techniques are almost certainly more efficient than medieval/ancient regimes, there was considerable incentive to have stronger soldiers.

Stronger soldiers can walk with heavier loads, wear heavier armour, wield heavier weapons, throw and shoot dangerous weapons further and more accurately. Where soldiering has some prestige or privilege, there would be a tendency for tall, muscular men to be chosen.

Basic training often consisted of drill wielding heavy weapons and armour, and marching wearing armour, carrying weapons, and carrying the equivalent of up to ten days of food (not modern dried food; heavy old food). Soldiers have always been required to do labour (building impromptu fortifications, shifting heavy weapons, etc.). The work of soldiering, in a serious army, would resemble heavy labour.

Most men will get quite muscular if they work hard for a few hours every day. Some will get ripped.

All up, you could expect pre-modern soldiers in a standing army to be taller than average, and quite muscular. Some will be really quite ripped. This will be much more the case for elite units.

Source: Lots of reading, but this more recently than anything else.

u/miss_j_bean · 38 pointsr/history

A lot of people here are giving shitty answers and not helping because they disprove of your use of "dark ages."
On behalf on the internet I apologize. They are giving you crap for not knowing something you have expressed interest in learning about.
I am fascinated by the "Dark ages" and I have a history degree and I'm still using the term. I understand it to usually mean "the medieval times" or "the huge time-span that is not usually taught to the average student." Most history in public schools (at least that I've seen) tends to gloss over the time from the Romans to the early renaissance so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming that's the era you want. It's my favorite era to study for that reason - most people know so little about this 1000 year span in history.
A good starter book for you would be A world lit only by Fire I loved this book. It's not overly scholarly and is a good read.
Another great one is Mysteries of the Middle Ages... Thomas Cahill is a great writer and if this version of the paperback is anything like my copy it is a visually stunning read. I discovered him through "How the Irish Saved Civilization" which was also great.
Mark Kurlansky's books (Salt and Cod specifically come to mind) are well written, specific histories that cover parts of this time period.
I wish my books weren't still packed (recently moved) because I want to dig through the stack and share them all. :) I suck at remembering names of stuff. I recommend browsing the amazon pages section of "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" for other good recommendations.
Happy Reading!! :)
edit - just remembered this one on the byzantine empire of all the books I've read on the Byzantines, that one is my favorite.

edit I'm getting a lashing for "A World Lit Only By Fire" due to the fact that it contains historical inaccuracies.
Please read this one instead In the year 1000.
I'm not trying to recommend dry scholarly tomes, I am trying to think of books that are fun, interesting, and entertaining to read while still being informative.

u/[deleted] · 33 pointsr/AskHistorians

All my knowledge comes from the book Destiny Distrupted

Tamim Ansary goes into great length to describe the fortifications of Baghdad saying that in his opinion it was the most well defended city during that time period (at least on par with Constantinople). It was built between the narrowest part of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and had walls multiple layers of towering walls surrounding it.

In the "Islamic World" at that time Baghdad was the end all be all. It was a cultural and scholarly city, rich in trade, and arrogant with power. Up until that point Islam had spread rapidly and suffered few defeats and no demoralizing ones. The Library of Baghdad is less famous, but probably more important than the Library of Alexandria in just the sheer amount of books and knowledge that it held. Backing up these realities are the teachings of Islam that preach it is the one true religion and all must acknowledge it. The common thought was "with God on our side, how can we lose?"

So when Baghdad DID fall it wasn't just barely, it was complete and utter defeat and it destroyed the Islamic world's confidence in itself.
The Khan had no bridge with which to cross the river to continue his conquests, so he ordered the books of the library to be thrown into the river and the troops to walk across them. It was said that the river ran black for a month! The defeat of Baghdad was not a local event, but sent shock waves throughout the entire Muslim world and in the author's opinion it has never recovered. Even today Islam reviles the invading Mongols and sees nothing great about Genghis Khan or Hulagu Khan. They destroyed Islam's confidence, their knowledge, and a part of their culture.

u/jamillian · 28 pointsr/AskHistorians

I'm not the OP, but he/she may have been refering to Eric H Cline's 1177 BC: the year civilization collapsed which came out recently and does a good job summing up the textual and archeological evidence surround the Bronze Age Collapse

u/davidreiss666 · 25 pointsr/history

Confirmed that this is Lars Brownworth of the 12 Byzantine Rulers and Norman Centuries podcasts. Two very excellent podcasts.

12 Byzantine Rulers even pre-dates the History of Rome podcast from Mike Duncan.

Lars homepage and a link to his Amazon page, and his book: Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization.

Thank you for agreeing to do this, sir.

u/SentientUnivers · 24 pointsr/dancarlin

Additional Links:


Supernova in the East I (1800s-1938 CE) - Direct Link, Remastered - 4:26


Supernova in the East II (1938-1941 CE) - Direct Link, Remastered - 3:54


A State of War - FDR Speech (1941 CE) - Extra Context - 0:03


Supernova in the East III (1941-1942 CE) - Direct Link, Remastered - 4:34

Supernova in the East IV (1942-1945 CE) - Preview - 0:01


The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses - Book Link


The Hardcore History Omnibus Project - Post

u/websnarf · 24 pointsr/science

> I think Neanderthals were as intelligent as Homo sapiens.

That's a fairly minority position ...

> My speculation is that they never got 10000 years of climate stability like humans enjoyed during the Holocene.

Except they did. Neanderthals existed between 350kya and 42kya. Now look at the global temperatures for that period. So there was a warm period between 110,000 and 125,000 years ago that would be about as warm as it is now (omitting very recent climate change effects for the moment).

> OTOH, humans were lucky enough to live during a time were the global temperature remained +- 1 C for ten thousands years.

Ok, first of all, the term "humans" applies both to Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Second of all, the prehistoric agricultural theories have settled on the idea that basic domestication of cereal crops occurred in at most a few centuries; i.e., the only thing preventing homo sapiens from developing agriculture was a relatively brief period of time when climate allowed for it.

(Just look at the Kebaran -> Natufian development relative to the Bølling-Allerød interstadial and the Younger Dryas. The Ice Age stopped briefly, they tried to adopt sedentism and were on their way leaving archeological evidence, then the ice age came back, and it pwned them. And when the ice age ended for real, modern societies basically formed. This is all described in Steven Mithen's After the Ice in the "Western Asia" chapter at the beginning).

Third of all, 15,000 years seems like plenty of time (the 110,000 to 125,000 time period I was referring to) to develop agriculture even if, for some reason, you are running somewhat slower than the Natufians.

> Technologies like agriculture and writing had time to grow and develop in a relatively stable climate.

Writing follows from advanced cultures growing out of agricultural societies. That is to say, agriculture by itself is the essential bottleneck of concern, writing is almost inevitable once an agricultural society gets large and sophisticated enough.

> After 9,500 years of a stable climate and accumulation of information, the renaissance happened, from there industrialization and the Information Age happened.

Well ... as Jared Diamond correctly points out (in "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and other publications of his), it is actually geography that creates the climate stability. Basically, the Middle-East, Indus Valley, and some parts of China are basically in climate zones where one can develop long-term agriculture sedentary societies.

You only need some kind of reasonable interstadial period between ice ages, which the Neanderthals definitely experienced (and yet failed to develop agricultural societies).

u/timoleon · 22 pointsr/history

All those things?

That would be a the sizeable part of the entire late antiquity and middle ages.

If there's public library in your neighborhood, I would suggest browsing through their offerings on these periods. There's probably no one book that covers all subjects, especially not one that is accessible enough to non-historians, and doesn't cost a fortune.

On the Eastern Roman Empire, these could be a good introduction:

u/jimmythemini · 21 pointsr/AskHistorians

Based on my reading of The Inheritance of Rome by Chris Wickham, the short answer is that in the early medieval period, there wasn't a particularly strong conception in the lands of the Western Empire between a 'Roman' and 'post-Roman' era. Obviously this was even less of the case in the Eastern Empire, but I assume OP is mainly asking about the West.

In part, this is because the Western Empire fizzled out quite slowly and in an amorphous fashion, and wasn't replaced by what we might call 'coherent' nation states. Mediterranean trade - the lifeblood of the Empire - also declined terminally but very slowly. There was no set date for the Fall of the Empire as we conceive now - the Sack of Rome in 410 would most likely have been received with the same sense of shock that 9/11 was felt throughout the Western world. But at no point was it conceived as marking the end of the Roman world as 'Rome' at this point was centered in the East, and within the Italian peninsula the city of Rome had long been in decline.

Above all, 'Europeans' would also have conceived of themselves as members of Christendom, from which we can draw a pretty straight line from Constantine. So its for this reason that Charlemagne conceived of his Empire as a continuation of Rome, and not some sort of revival.

u/gloworm22 · 21 pointsr/history

Another fantastic reference for the pre-historic peopling of the Americas is After the Ice (Harvard University Press, 2006) by Steven Mithen.

While the book focuses on the worldwide rise of human cultures after the end of the ice age, the chapters on the Americas do go into some depth on the different archeological groupings of pre-Columbian era Native Americans and examine several of the sites that have challenged the Bering Land Bridge theory due to their age and lack of relation to later cultures.

u/runeaway · 20 pointsr/Stoicism

> I feel like I don't stand for anything, I don't have an identity I feel confident in.

That requires a lot of self-reflection, thinking about what you value and how/if you act according to those values.

> the person I was in high school seems alien to me now.

In a few years, you're probably going to feel the same way about the you right now.

> in the age of social media it feels like everyone's eyes are on me

Most people are too concerned with what other people think about them to spend much time thinking about you.

> I can't control what they think of me

It's good that you realize that.

> but I can't help but feel like most see me as a goofy, disinterested nice guy

Maybe they do, maybe they don't. There's no way for you to know what other people think about you. Even if they say they think you're goofy, there's no way to know if they're telling the truth. If you choose to believe everyone else thinks you're goofy, you can do that, but it's a choice you've decided to make. Your time is better spent trying to be the sort of person you want to be than on worrying about what other people think of you.

> When I push away those fears I instead become an asshole and don't think before I speak.

That's another choice you make. No one forces you to speak without thinking. No one forces you to act like an asshole. If you want to be a kind, virtuous person, that's in your control.

> I've read Meditation and checked out the sidebar on the topics but I'm having trouble implementing the ideas into my daily life

We generally advise that new people do not start with Meditations, as it wasn't intended as an entry point to Stoicism. It's the working journal of an advanced student, and Marcus assumes the reader is already familiar with all of the concepts.

Here's a short list of recommended places to start:

  • Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson is a practical introduction on what Stoicism is and how to implement it in your life.


  • Epictetus - Discourses, Fragments, Handbook translated by Robin Hard is a book containing the lectures of the Stoic teacher Epictetus. Marcus Aurelius studied Epictetus specifically and quotes him several times in Meditations.

  • Seneca's Dialogues and Essays, especially the essays "On The Shortness of Life" and "On the Happy Life" and Letters from a Stoic contain Seneca's useful writings on a number of topics and is another popular place to begin learning about Stoicism.
u/Juz16 · 18 pointsr/history

The Byzantines had plenty of big beefy guys standing around, so the Varangians weren't too big a problem. They were hired specifically because they were from incredibly far away (Scandinavia, the Byzantines were based mostly in Greece and Asia Minor) and didn't have any ties to the various political factions within the empire.

Source: Lost to the West by Lars Brownsworth

u/corndoggeh · 18 pointsr/paradoxplaza

I can highly recomend "The Complete Roman Army" by Goldsworthy for military related stuff.

u/patron_vectras · 18 pointsr/todayilearned

Relevant books:

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

u/UnsettledSoul · 17 pointsr/Kappa

Hey r/kappa! Since I was not chosen for the winter komike, that means I'll have more time to focus on improving my fundamentals, as well as doing more fighting game related NSFW art. Hopefully I'll be able to post here more often from now on!

I have also been reading quite a lot recently. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari has been as inspirational as lord Daigo's book to me. Highly Recommended.

u/mistral7 · 16 pointsr/booksuggestions

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

Well written and a fascinating perspective. 4.5 stars with over 5,000 reviews.

"New York Times Bestseller

A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg

From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem."

u/wes11 · 15 pointsr/AskHistorians

Systems gain in complexity until they are unable to marshall the energy required to maintain themselves. Then they "collapse" into more energy efficient entities.

This book is a fantastic illustration of the answer to your question and uses several different civilizations as case studies: [(http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345043996&sr=8-1&keywords=collapse+complex+societies)]

u/RandyMFromSP · 15 pointsr/AskAnthropology

After the Ice is a great resource. Interesting narrative style as well.

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language is also a great (although fairly technical) book about the origin and spread of the Indo-European language which had a large effect on the bronze age cultures in the area.

u/GreenStrong · 15 pointsr/AskAnthropology

A great source for this is [The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David Anthony.](http://www.amazon.com/The-Horse-Wheel-Language-Bronze-Age/dp/069114818X)

The book deal with historical, linguistic and archaeological evidence of horseback riding, the author made a major contribution as the principal investigator in the first studies of bit wear on ancient horse teeth.

When sierra1bravo mentions the horse domestication before riding, these cultures had domesticated cattle and sheep, and hunted wild horses, then began keeping horses over winter with their legs fettered. Horses don't need supplemental feed in the brutal steppe winters, as cattle and sheep do. Anthony cites a lack of diversity in the horse Y chromosome to suggest that the discovery of an unusually docile stallion may have been essential to true domestication, all horses may be descended from one stallion.

The wheel, and oxcart, were probably invented in Mesopotamia, there is evidence of trade with that culture shortly after the first signs of horse riding. Then, the steppe people learned to pack their tents and belongings into wagons and became mobile in a way no humans ever had before.

u/Red_Spork · 14 pointsr/ancientrome

If you're set on a book that's a fairly broad discussion of Rome, Mary Beard's SPQR is one of the better ones I've read, though it stops at 212 A.D. and doesn't go all the way through the fall of the Western Roman Empire, so you will want something else for that. Anytime this question comes up though, I have to add a caveat: the best introductory material on Rome I've ever found isn't a book but a podcast: The History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan. There really is no better introduction to get the basic story of the whole history of Rome from it's mythical beginnings to the end of the Western Roman Empire and in my opinion this is the true answer to your question.

u/FoxJitter · 14 pointsr/suggestmeabook

Not OP, just helping out with some formatting (and links!) because I like these suggestions.

> 1) The Magic Of Reality - Richard Dawkins
>
> 2) The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
>
> 3)A Brief History Of Time - Stephen Hawking
>
> 4)The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking
>
> 4)Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari (Any Book By Daniel Dennet)
>
> 5)Enlightenment Now - Steven Pinker
>
> 6)From Eternity Till Here - Sean Caroll (Highly Recommended)
>
> 7)The Fabric Of Cosmos - Brian Greene (If you have good mathematical understanding try Road To Reality By Roger Penrose)
>
> 8)Just Six Numbers - Martin Reese (Highly Recommended)

u/notheory · 13 pointsr/worldnews

Let me recommend to you Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. The author is a fantastic writer (as well as a narrator, the audio book is quite good), as well as being from a devout Afghan sufi family. He gives a thorough account of the intellectual and philosophical traditions of the Islamic world couched within the frame of historical events from the pre-islamic world up to modern day.

It's a good read and goes into what so unsettled the Islamic world into fundamentalism.

u/Beagle_Bailey · 13 pointsr/TrollXChromosomes

Not OP, just someone who likes reading about other cultures.

I really like Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes.

It's a nice change of pace from the Euro-centric, Christian-centric history of US schools. It's also a really good read.

u/svatycyrilcesky · 12 pointsr/badhistory

My favorite combo is Rome and the Barbarians: 100 BC to 400 AD, which argues that Rome and the Barbarians slowly developed a sort of synergy or acculturation that gradually transitioned into a Roman-barbarian hybrid society by the 400s. This is contrasted with The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, which argues that in the 400s there was a major shift in the balance of power that ultimately lead to aggressive barbarians invasions actively destroying the Western Empire. It's just interesting to me because whenever I read one of the books, I nod my head and agree 100%, and when I read the second book, I nod my head and am thoroughly convinced, and then I realize that they are arguing opposite positions.

u/houseofpuppers · 12 pointsr/linguistics

I'm almost done reading "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" and learned a lot about the Steppe theory. It's really interesting stuff.

u/omaca · 12 pointsr/ancientrome

Rubicon by Tom Holland is perhaps the most popular of recent histories. It's a very well written history of the fall of the Republic. Holland has a particularly modern style. I recommend it.

Swords Against the Senate covers roughly the same period, but focuses on the influence and actions of the Roman Army during the period. Slightly more "scholarly", but equally interesting, particularly if you have an interest in the Roman military.

Anthony Everritt's much lauded biographies of famous Romans includes the excellent Cicero and Augustus, both of also deal with the autumnal years of the Republic, but obviously in the context of these two great men and the events that they lived through. I think Cicero is perhaps one of the best biographies I've ever read. Everitt also wrote a bio of Hadrain, which I have yet to get to, and the fascinating sounding The Rise of Rome, to be published later this year.

On a more broad scale, there is Robin Lane Fox's best selling The Classical Age, which covers Greek and Roman history from the earliest times to the Fall of the Empire.

Finally, Emperors Don't Die in Bed sounds exactly like what you're looking for. It's not the cheapest book, but it does offer potted biographies of the the most famous Roman Emperors and their down-fall. Fascinating stuff!

More?

u/LIGHTNlNG · 11 pointsr/islam
u/jumpstartation · 11 pointsr/ancientrome
  • The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy (2011).

  • Roman Warfare by Adrian Goldsworhy (2005).

    From the /r/AskHistorians book wiki:

  • Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History by Christopher S. Mackay (2004). A survey primarily covering political and military history. It provides a solid understanding of events, their significance and implications on the Roman state. It covers both Empire and Republic very efficiently. (This book is required reading for history undergrads at my university)
u/adlerchen · 10 pointsr/AskHistorians

Of course. The Carolingian kingdom even used roman law, and as a direct result so did Charlemagne's 3 successor states and thus so did medieval France and the Holy Roman Empire.

And it's not like there wasn't a roman empire during the medieval period. While western Rome collapsed in the 5th century, eastern Rome did not, and the indigenous inhabitants of what we now in English call the Byzantine Empire considered themselves Romans and were considered as such by their contemporaries. When Odoacer took the crown of Rome he himself didn't claim the title of imperitor, he sent the crown to the eastern Emperor as he felt it was his rightful property. And furthermore hundreds of years after that both the Arabs and Turks called eastern Rome "Rum" and the inhabitants of the eastern Roman empire "Romans".

  • Wickham 2009 - The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000.
  • Gabriele 2011 - An Empire of Memory: The Legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem before the First Crusade.
u/TaylorS1986 · 10 pointsr/badhistory

No problem! Neolithic and early Bronze Age in Europe and western Asia is fascinating as hell! I recently read a book called The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World and it is an amazing read, packed with a metric shit-ton of archeological info.

u/also_HIM · 10 pointsr/MapPorn

On that note you might be interested in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language - it’s great.

u/zoweee · 9 pointsr/AskAnthropology

This is well towards the end of and past the period you're asking about, but I really enjoyed After the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000 - 5,000BC. It's got this interesting narrative conceit where the author conjures the spirit of a 19th century paleoanthropologist and sends him around the world to various human habitations, so the viewer sees them through his eyes and what would otherwise be a dry survey of archeological digs becomes more like a story being told by a knowledgable person. The goal is to describe how the world changed during the last great phase of human pre-history and created the conditions necessary to propel humans into civilization. One part that sticks in my head is from very early on and its how he moves from a group that live in seemingly idyllic conditions in the levant (IIRC) to another group suffering through a harsh Ice Age winter, huddled together and all with their backs to a fierce wind. The difference in mobility and group-size really stuck with me.

u/WishIHadMyOldUsernam · 9 pointsr/AskHistorians

I just finished the audio book version of this book and can't recommend it highly enough. It covers the Bronze Age collapse along with a number of theories as to its cause.

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691140898/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_6brsub0YM09VW

u/Glawen_Clattuc · 9 pointsr/asklinguistics
u/karlossalot · 9 pointsr/dancarlin

https://www.amazon.com/Hardcore-History-at-Extremes/dp/0062868047

Or on audible with Dan narrating, which is what I'm getting.

u/HereEveryDay · 9 pointsr/JordanPeterson

Stoicism and JBP's teachings go hand-in-hand from what I've seen and read.

Stoic's believe that life is fraught with suffering, which is why they detach themselves from almost everything apart from their thinking mind, including their physical body.

One of the only conflicts that I can see is that traditional stoics (Epictetus' teachings) do not advocate marriage and/or engaging with women. The die-hard stoics would rather be celibate, however they do teach with a lens that their students will have a family. E.G Marcus Aurelius is a famous Stoic who had a wife and plenty of kids.

This is one of my favourite passages from [Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)] (https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469) which does a nice job of summing up Stoicism, and there's plenty of links to JBP's teachings:

> In the event that you are haled before someone wielding the reigns of power, remember that there is somebody else looking down from above, and you have to answer first to him. [2] So he examines you: ‘How did you categorize exile, imprisonment, chains, death and disgrace, when you were in school?’

>‘I said they were indifferent.’

>‘And what do you call them now? They haven’t changed, I presume?’

>‘No.’

>‘Well, have you changed?’

>‘No.’

>‘Then define for me now what the “indifferents” are.’

>‘Whatever things we cannot control.’

> ‘Tell me the upshot.’

> ‘They are nothing to me.’

>‘Remind me what you thought was good.’

>‘The will and the right use of impressions.’

>‘And the goal of life is what?’

>‘To follow God.’

>‘And do you stand by that now?’

>‘I say it even now.’

>‘Go, then, in confidence, holding fast to these convictions. You’ll see what it’s like to be a young person with an education, alongside people who have none. I promise that you will feel somewhat like this: “Why do we serve such a long and difficult apprenticeship – in preparation to face nonentities? Is this what ‘authority’ meant? Are the courtyards, the palace staff, the guards no more than this? Was this why I sat through so many lectures? It all amounts to nothing – and I was expecting to be overwhelmed.” ’

u/alfonsoelsabio · 9 pointsr/Christianity

Here are a few specifically about the so-called Dark Ages:

The Inheritance of Rome

Barbarians to Angels

The World of Late Antiquity

u/FyonFyon · 8 pointsr/asoiaf

I'm guessing it's this one (pretty much the only thing google comes up with):
Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army

u/sab3r · 8 pointsr/AskHistorians

The biggest differences between logistics during the medieval period and the antiquity period is in the degree of political centralization of the state and the strength of the state's economy. Under Roman governance, trade stretched from all reaches of Europe and became highly specialized. But with the collapse of the Western government and the political fragmentation of the West, long distance trade collapsed and the power of the successor states weakened. This is especially important since the state needs to maintain a substantial number of supply depots, roads, communication posts, ports, and other infrastructure if the state wishes to be able to wage war for an extended period of time and over a great distance.

If you think about it, battles during the classical Roman era could see armies that number easily into the tens of thousands. However, if you look at the size of many of the more important medieval battles, they usually number from single digit thousands and in the rare occasion, they will go into the double digit thousands. See the Siege of Orléans, the Battle of Cadsand, the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and the Battle of Clontarf just to name a few. One of the exceptions to this trend, however, can be found in the medieval Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. Under their governance, they were still able to maintain well funded logistical infrastructure.

There are several monographs written by medieval experts but I don't know them off the top of my head. However, I do know of several monographs written on logistics in antiquity. The most well known book on ancient logistics is Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army, which kicked started the field of ancient logistics. For logistics in Roman history, see The Logistics of the Roman Army at War (264 B.C. - A.D.235).

u/400-Rabbits · 8 pointsr/AskHistorians

It's time once again for the AskHistorians Book Giveaway! Our lucky winner this month is Vlad! The selection of books we have available this month are:

u/SophisticatedPeasant · 7 pointsr/collapse

They don't know what they are doing.

They core of the power elite are Religious Fundamentalists.

We had so many close calls, they truly want to usher in the apocalypse via nuclear war or environmental catastrophe.

I absolutely do not buy the "but the .1% have planned this all along, they even created the various recent crises, to include GoM Oil Volcano and Fukushima, they are omnipotent!"

No. They are stupid fucking religious zealots.

This should speak a thousand words:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/861/text

Youre probably spending too much time on the internet. This is a popular, but grossly erroneous meme right now, that the .1% have planned all of this for decades, that it's an extremely sophisticated multi-faceted plan to deal with human overpopulation.

Try reading some conventional literature on the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/Thy-Will-Done-Rockefeller-Evangelism/dp/0060927232/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1487442325&sr=8-4&keywords=thy+will+be+done

https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487444280&sr=8-1&keywords=the+collapse+of+complex+societies

(The .1% of the Mayan Empire managed to trick their subjects into similarly believing that they were in control of things, that they were in direct contact with the Gods and that they could avert crop failure / food shortage by increasing human sacrifice in conjunction with the intensification of monumental architecture, right up until the very end, RE: Jared Diamond, Joseph Tainter. I'm sure members of their populace were also subscribing to a similar meme: "No, they have everything under control, they are secretly behind the maize crop failure because they want to satisfy the gods...." some other mumbo jumbo)

The narrative you espouse does nothing but continue to empower the ruling elite. This is the mythos that they wan't you to subscribe to. That THEY, through pure technological ingenuity, have command of the climate and other life-systems on this planet, and that we are powerless, and that they have a grand plan for Humanity.

They don't.

Things are spiraling out of control.

They TRULY believe in a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible.

Read this again and let this sink in, THE CORE OF THE POWER ELITE, THE SHADOW GOVT., BELIEVE IN A LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE.

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Truth-Forbidden-Steven-Greer/dp/0967323827/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487444452&sr=8-1&keywords=hidden+truth%3A+forbidden+knowledge

And you think they have a handle on what's going on?

I want whatever youre smoking dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjR7AWSmI6o

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/30/president-trumps-right-hand-man-steve-bannon-called-for-christian-holy-war-now-he-is-on-the-national-security-council_partner/

u/brojangles · 7 pointsr/AskHistorians
u/xRathke · 7 pointsr/AskHistorians

A very good, easy to read book about this whole story of the late republic is Tom Holland's Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

Now, I've read quite a bit on the period, and this might not be THE most complete or precise book, but it's very entretaining, and does a good job on telling the whole story (that, as you can see, is quite complex!).

The already mentioned Dan Carlin's podcast, Hardcore History, has a great series on this, "Death Throes of the Republic" is what got me hooked on the subject, and I wholeheartedly recommend it (also, it's free!), the 6 episodes combined are almost 13hs long, and worth every minute.

u/LarryMahnken · 7 pointsr/badhistory
u/Stoic_MOTD · 7 pointsr/Stoicism

MOTD #28: "A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation."

(Previous) // (Next One)

Seneca’s Letters are a must read for Stoics. Amazon Link

Want to read more books on Stoicism? checkout these lists: r/Stoicism’s the Stoic Reading List | Ryan Holliday’s Lists 1 & 2Goodreads

As always if you have a favorite part of Meditations or want to see any other stoic passage in future posts, please feel free to message me or comment anytime. Anyways, have a nice day/night where ever you happen to be… All the best, Chris.

u/Leveraged_Breakdowns · 7 pointsr/FinancialCareers

First, actually find a therapist.

​

Second, since you probably won't actually find a therapist (even though you should), below are a few strategies that got me through my roughest patches in investment banking and private equity:

  • Life will challenge you at every corner, a new career will also be stressful in its own right
  • Maximizing every decision leads to undue stress, learn to satisfice (Barry Schwartz TED Talk on the Paradox of Choice)
  • Learn to control your mindset to identify and note negative thought patterns (Headspace teaches Mindfulness -- try it for forty lessons and be amazed at your improved perspective)
  • Treat yourself to purposeful rest every day. You probably don't have rest time every day. But when you have a bit of a weekend or a couple hours before bed, set aside a strict portion of that time for purposeful relaxation. Don't half-work -- watch TV, play video games, do something stupid and unproductive that makes you happy and relaxed.
  • Stay fit, even if it's a couple core exercises, some foam rolling, and some stretching
  • These books helped me: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Zorba the Greek, Seneca: Letters from a Stoic, Truth in Comedy
u/test4702 · 7 pointsr/Futurology

No problem at all. A lot of people disagree with this and fight it, because the implication is that the only real solution to our problem is to force everyone to move towards the equator so they consume less energy for heating/cooling, have less kids, quit driving, basically accept a sort of 2nd-world lifestyle. Obviously this will never happen, I suspect humans will basically keep going down this path until their demise.

Here are a few things I'd recommend on the subject:

http://energy-reality.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/09_Energy-Return-on-Investment_R1_012913.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Environment-Power-Society-Twenty-First-Century/dp/0231128878/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=XQGQEPWX5X3VJY0B5S63

This professor writes a lot of good stuff on the subject:

http://www.esf.edu/EFB/hall/#publications

I guess the key concept in what you are asking about, is energy return on energy invested (EROEI). This is imo one of the most important concepts all people need to understand about energy generation. Something is only a resource, if you get more energy out of it, than what you have to put in to extract it. So for example, if it takes a gallon of oil in energy to pump one gallon of oil out of the ground, then that oil in the ground is no longer a resource.

There is a lot of debate about the true EROEI of these different types of energy production. For example this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Spains-Photovoltaic-Revolution-Investment-SpringerBriefs/dp/144199436X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358872742&sr=1-2

In which the authors do a complex analysis on the true EROEI of solar and come up with a much lower return on energy invested than others often claim. They find that in amazingly sunny areas like Spain, the EROEI is only around 2, where in less sunny countries like Germany, it is between 1-1.5, which is absolutely abysmal.

You can see this is already becoming a problem with nuclear, in particular. There have been a few nuclear plants recently that were abandoned halfway through the project, because they blew so far over the budget, and the energy/money they were putting in to build the plant to modern standards, with all of the safety regulations, etc, made it a net loss to finish the plant. So it would never generate anywhere near the energy that it would take society to build it to spec. This will likely be a trend we see as technology gets more and more complex - things just require too much of societies resources to build, to the point that it is a net loss.

Another book on this subject is from Joseph Tainter:

https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X

...who argues that the reason all societies eventually collapse, is because increasing complexity provides diminishing returns. Eventually things get so complex, that society doesn't have the energy and resources to maintain everything and to keep solving the harder and harder problems that complexity inevitably creates.

u/mayonesa · 7 pointsr/Republican

>can you please clarify your ideological position

Sure.

I'm a paleoconservative deep ecologist. This means I adhere to the oldest values of American conservatism and pair them with an interest in environmentalism through a more wholesome design of society.

I moderate /r/new_right because the new right ideas are closest to paleoconservatism in some ways. I tried to write a description of new_right that encompassed all of the ideas that the movement has tossed around.

Beyond that, I think politics is a matter of strategies and not collectivist moral decisions, am fond of libertarian-style free market strategies, and take interest in many things, hence the wide diversity of stuff that I post.

I've learned that on Reddit it's important to ask for people to clarify definitions before ever addressing any question using those terms. If you want me to answer any specific questions, we need a clear definition first agreed on by all parties.

I recommend the following books for anyone interesting in post-1970s conservatism beyond the neoconservative sphere:

u/capellablue · 6 pointsr/dancarlin

For anyone who would like to order it:

u/ludefisk · 6 pointsr/Stoicism

Well, Seneca, for instance, took 254 pages.

And, seriously - if you're concerned with this sub being short on brevity, I sincerely think that's a bummer. There's a lot of great, complicated thoughts on stoicism that can't be contained in the bumper sticker quotes that always make it to the front page here.

u/100002152 · 6 pointsr/AskHistorians

One of the best books I've read on the history of the late (Western) Roman Empire was Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. He provides a great deal of the latest research on the origins and movements of the different "barbarian" tribes and their relationships with the Roman Empire, including the Visigoths. The book is excellently written and accessible to someone (like myself when I first read it) who is new to the topic.

For more information on the Visigoths after the official end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, Chris Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 provides a very detailed chapter on the Iberian peninsula under the Visigothic kingdom.

If you do decide to check these books out, I'd recommend reading Heather first for both the obvious reason of chronology and because Wickham is a much more daunting read.

u/SynapticStatic · 6 pointsr/history

Also, check out Lost to the West, it's an audiobook by Lars narrated by Lars which covers the East, and it's pretty amazing.

u/Dawkness_Returns · 6 pointsr/ChapoTrapHouse

There's a pretty popular book about the Late Bronze Age Collapse called 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.

Seems like it might be a good read to get a grasp on what might be coming up for us.

Like Truman said, "The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know."

u/ProUsqueTandem · 6 pointsr/AskHistorians

Rubicon, by Tom Holland is a great book if you want to learn more about Roman history.
It is mainly about Caesar and his contemporaries, but almost every famous Roman of the Republic era passes the revue.

In my opinion it focuses on the most interesting century of Roman history, and is my favourite book about the Romans

u/pal002 · 6 pointsr/ancientrome

Tom Holland's Rubicon

u/lukey · 5 pointsr/collapse

Dr. Joseph Tainter has researched this issue!

He's an anthropologist who notably wrote: "The Collapse of Complex Societies."

Jump to this YouTube video to listen to a discussion of this.

u/Momoneko · 5 pointsr/history

I've been reading After the Ice as of late, can recommend

u/alexiuscomnenus · 5 pointsr/ancientgreece

For Thucydides and Xenophon I cannot recommend the Landmark series of books highly enough. They are lathered in detailed maps and explanatory footnotes, and come with a wealth of appendixes on everything from Athenian finances to naval warfare to historiography (the study of the sources themselves and how reliable etc. they are). These and all of the books I mentioned are easily and cheaply available on Amazon.

Thucydides - http://www.amazon.com/Landmark-Thucydides-Comprehensive-Guide-Peloponnesian/dp/0684827905

Xenophon - http://www.amazon.com/Landmark-Xenophons-Hellenika-Xenophon/dp/0375422552

u/reginaldaugustus · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians

>If you have time give the original by Thucydides a read.

Pretty much this.

Thucydides can be a bit difficult to read, but if you want to understand the war, you really have to read it. The Landmark Thucydides is easily the best version of it. The author basically provides explanation and assistance on each page, as well as maps and stuff.

u/MrPrimeMover · 5 pointsr/AskAnthropology

The best books in my experience have been overviews of Aegean prehistory. There's an incredible amount of scholarship, so it's really just about finding a good overview and drilling down on specific topics/sites that interest you.

For advanced undergrads/early grads the standards are typically the Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age, the Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean, and Aegean Art and Architecture.

All of these can get a bit technical, especially with regards to chronology and such. Of those three Aegean Art and Architecture is probably the most readable. There are older monographs devoted to Crete specifically, but they tend to be older (like 1960's) and quite out of date.

Are you interested in a particular phase, site, or facet of the civilization? Because that would help narrow it down. Keep in mind that there are huge gaps in our understanding of the Minoans and their culture. You aren't going to find many specifics about their culture unless you go down the road of very shaky scholarship.

If your interested in the late Bronze Age collapse (which came some time after the peak of the Minoan civilization), check out the book 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. It's new and I haven't read it myself, but it's by Eric Cline, who wrote the Oxford Handbook, so it's bound to be well researched. Might be a nice overview of part of the Bronze Age in a more digestible format.

Anyway let me know a bit more about your interests and maybe I can help a bit more. I can also dig out my old syllabi for more suggestions.

u/geekest_cat · 5 pointsr/collapse

I recommend reading the book 1177 B.C., about the bronze age collapse. It seems that its aftereffects were a bit slow to get to other places in Europe, like this Ireland case, so the process was actually gradual, but indeed that collapse was something to think about; a sort of global economy, a resource base being depleted, climate hardships, global unrest and wars...

u/nickel2 · 5 pointsr/slatestarcodex

> High-skilled 2nd-gen immigrants are indistinguishable from native blue tribers.

Sure... if you know New Haven and you see that comment about "sketchy crowds" you might guess she's prejudiced against more than "white trash."

>Okay, but at this point, what's the difference between your position and plain racism? Like, you're not demonstrating any evidence for this position (like the HBD folks do), you're not admitting other races are superior to whites (East Asians), you're just saying other ethnicities are probably evil when they aren't dumb. Or at least, that's what it sounds like to me.

I'm OK with being called racist. At this point it's clear to me that blue-tribers consider that to be the worst non-violent crime, worse than lying or cheating. Not so for me. A little prejudice is adaptive. That's why it's so common.

Of course they don't have (incontrovertible) evidence for their position, nobody's gonna get funding for that kind of thing these days (GWAS results will bring this whole argument crashing down in less than a decade). BTW I don't really read any of them besides Cochran-Harpending as those two are the only people of this time who actually know what they're talking about and are willing to write about it. Stephen Hsu too though he only writes esoterically and rarely gets into technical details on any topic. Emil Kirkegaard is decent too though not nearly as sharp or credentialed as Cochran. The co-authors of this essay are competent as well (from the GxE research I've seen by some of them) and clearly have some balls to throw out even the more haphazard hypotheses in public.

There are plenty of studies showing correlations between Euro ancestry (in Latin America, African-Americans, other places) and various life outcomes. There are studies showing it's not mediated by skin color so it's not because of colorism (independent assortment is a thing).

Not saying anything about superiority in any sense. I'm basically certain this is gonna be the Chinese century at this point (and am reading up to prepare for it). US upper middle-class may be too far gone. Economists tend to point toward the individualism-collectivism axis (1, 2) as a reason for the "Great Divergence," and these days Americans are all a bunch of conformist cowards while the Chinese are hungry as shit. I don't think of whites as the "master race." In fact, I think we've gone through 200 years straight of moderate dysgenics; not enough to explain the Asian-Euro IQ gap (and the Japanese went through their demographic transition a while ago but still score higher) so maybe we have an edge on some other factors, but it's going to be tough to stay competitive.

The idea that we should have a prior in favor of no difference is ridiculous. Only possible if you're heavily invested in social justice over truth normatively. It's been long enough with low gene flow and the differences in social structure all over the world (gene-culture coevolution) are manifest if you know any history.

For phenotypic evidence, see this behavioral econ study. The methodology is a little spare and the results not totally consistent but the fact that all the East Asian countries top one measure of dishonesty, including Japan, suggests to me it's not just a matter of comparative development. Or read this on the guilt-shame distinction. I don't know if that distinction carves reality at its joints and I don't know how you could end up selecting for honesty or "guilt," but it might be a thing. Or look at this on tax cheating. Self-reported ancestry is wonky (the type of person to identity with their English side and the type to identify with their Irish side are probably gonna be different), but maybe the Know Nothings had a point or two?

Also if you click through on that link next to "Big 5" in one of my earlier comments you'll find Nisbett notes that 2nd-generation immigrants converge some with NW Europeans on his novel personality measures but still differ noticeably. He still thinks the difference is environmental (I guess mediated by family), although I think he basically admitted the Ashkenazi-Euro gap was genetic at some point even though everything else is environmental which is kinda funny.

Or I can look at my own experience. The professors at my top 10 uni think the honor code is a joke. Don't think that was true back in the 50s. The math team at my high school got rocked by a massive cheating scandal too (why the hell would you cheat in an extracurricular of all things?). I know somebody who plagiarized an entire final project from alumni for a class in their major and is now going to a top 4 grad school in their discipline. I don't think they even know entirely why they're doing a PhD. Just "paid education."

In general my suspicion is that, in the iterated prisoner's dilemma that is life, NW Europeans tend toward playing C, while other groups tend to play D to varying degrees (more integrated immigrants are better but the gap will get smaller not disappear). You can fix that by just letting go of some freedoms (like honor codes), but it's a cost regardless.

As someone who tries to be an upstanding citizen and wants to raise my kids that way I would prefer for things to not shift toward a defect-heavy equilibrium. It might be hard to herd large masses of people with different preferences into one polity and still make things work.

I would think it would be smarter in the long run to stop pushing for the policies that are pissing people off than to try to suppress the response with moral haranguing. Tyler Cowen is a dilettante but it still might be worth it for you to read "The Complacent Class." The final passage is interesting and mostly references this book on the late Bronze Age collapse.

Pangloss wasn't right. All is not well with the world and Trump is not the worst of it. He is an epiphenomenon not a cause. The past half-century may have built the US and Europe into powder-kegs and the next 50 years are going to be far more interesting than the last. I don't have enough data yet but I have a bad feeling and I see rot.

u/Georgy_K_Zhukov · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians

Eric Cline's "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed" is a pretty solid introduction for the lay-reader. Bonus also that he has done an AMA with us before!

u/dittbub · 5 pointsr/rome
u/Oeriys · 5 pointsr/worldnews

Hard to answer that question accurately. I've read a lot of books, but it's a long time ago now. I seem to recall that SPQR - A History of Ancient Rome. By Mary Beard was interesting. /r/askhistorians has a fairly comprehensive list of books on the topic of Ancient Rome. And I am sure if you ask around in those areas of reddit you might get better suggestions than I can provide.

Also here is a list of thread about the Gracchi on askhistorians

u/HyperLaxative · 5 pointsr/entj

Discourses by Epictetus

A truly amazing book by a slave-turned-philosopher on having a mindset to face any challenges one might face.

Fun fact: The teachings of this philosopher bore a significant influence on Marcus Aurelius and his writings in The Meditations; as well as further Christian scholars down the ages as they adapted Epictetus' teachings to their own by replacing Epictetus' view of "fate" or "destiny" with one of "God".

u/Shoeshine-Boy · 5 pointsr/TrueAtheism

Personal research, mostly. I'm a big history nerd with a slant toward religion and other macabre subject matter. I'm actually not as well read as I'd like to be on these subjects, and I basically blend different sources into a knowledge smoothie and pour it out onto a page and see what works for me and what doesn't.

I'll list a few books I've read that I enjoyed. There are certainly more here and there, but these are the "big ones" I was citing when writing all the comments in this thread. I typically know more about Christianity than the other major faiths because of the culture around me.

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years - Diarmaid MacCulloch

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam - Karen Armstrong

The next two balance each other out quite well. Hardline anti-theism contrasted with "You know, maybe we can make this work".

The Case for God - Karen Armstrong

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins



Lately, I have been reading the Stoics, which like Buddhism, I find to be one of the more personally palatable philosophies of mind I have come across, although I find rational contemplation a bit more accessible to my Westernized nature.

Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters - Translated by Moses Hadas

Discourses and Selected Writings (of Epictetus) - Translated by Robert Dobbin

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius - Translated by George Long

I'm still waiting on Fed Ex to deliver this one:

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine

Also, if you're into history in general, a nice primer for what sorts of things to dive into when poking around history is this fun series on YouTube. I usually watch a video then spend a while reading more in depth about whatever subject is covered that week in order to fill the gaps. Plus, John and Hank are super awesome. The writing is superb and I think, most importantly, he presents an overall argument for why studying history is so important because of its relevance to current events.

Crash Course: World History - John Green

u/GeneralLeeFrank · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians

It's a good read for historiographies, but I'm sure ancient historians have gone past some of his theories. Nevertheless, it's still regarded as a classic.

If you want more modern books, check out: Peter Brown's World of Late Antiquity and Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire

There are different theories on the fall, you could probably go through an entire library of them. I just picked selections I had from class, as I think these were more readable.

u/methinks2015 · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians


Have you read Fall of Roman Empire by Peter Heather (not to be confused with more famous book by Gibbon)? If so, what's your opinion on it?

From that book, I got an impression that in principle Rome could have held it together if it had clear succession of strong rulers. Every once in a while a strong general like Stilicho or Aëtius would emerge, consolidate power, drive back the barbarians, and start reconquering land. Then they'd face a setback, be deposed, and a period of chaos would follow when Visigoths, or other Germans, or whoever else, would reclaim the territory and then some.

u/TheByzantineEmperor · 5 pointsr/history

Lost to the West: The Forgotten Empire That Saved Western Civilization. A great great book that really helped me learn a lot about the Byzantines. Like how we think of the Roman Empire ending in 476AD, but that was only the western half. The Eastern, more Greek half, lived on for 1000 more years! Imagine that! A Roman Empire in the Middle Ages!

u/caesar10022 · 5 pointsr/AskHistorians

The average legionary never rose very far up the ranks. However, if you knew people back in Rome or farther up the hierarchy in the army, then you had a much better chance of getting promoted. An exception to my opening sentence is the emperor Maximinus Thrax. He was a normal legionary who became emperor when his legion assassinated the current emperor and elevated him to the position.

Veterans were still very good soldiers right up through their forties.

I'm going to recommend Adrian Goldsworthy's The Complete Roman Army because it's frankly quite good and an excellent starting point into the world of the Roman military. If you want some heavier primary sources, Vegetius, Josephus, and several other writers speak in great detail on the Roman army.

u/Infin1ty · 4 pointsr/HistoryPodcast

He also announced his book release!

The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/0062868047/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ipVSDbHAWJ5PP

u/Moontouch · 4 pointsr/philosophy

For those interested in Seneca, I can highly recommend this superb collection. Reading him played a major part in sparking my interest in philosophy.

u/Ambarenya · 4 pointsr/AskHistorians

Well, in the old Byzantine Empire AKA the Eastern Roman Empire, the typical mode of inheritance was non-familial. Generally, the successor to an Emperor would be adopted early in life, serve time in the military or civic offices, and then was elevated to co-emperor, gradually taking on the Imperial roles as the old Emperor aged. The accession of Emperor Justinian I is a good example of the old mode of "Late Roman" succession.

During the reign of Emperor Heraclius, in the era of the Arab Conquests (when the Empire saw the loss of the vital provinces of Africa, Egypt, and Syria), the Empire begins its drastic "medievalization", a necessary change in order to preserve what was left of the once-great Eastern Roman Empire. Included in this transformation is the disappearance of "adoptive succession", the traditional mode of Imperial succession stretching back all of the way to the time of Augustus. During the transition period, we begin to see a tendency towards hereditary succession, which becomes fully fledged by the era of iconoclasm and which would persist in Imperial succession until 1461.

In the era of the Komnenoi, a successor was generally appointed from the current Imperial family and would be elevated to the title of "co-emperor" or "σεβαστοκράτωρ" for a time. The then-Emperor or "βασιλεύς", would rule for life, or until retirement (which surprisingly, did occur several times) at which time the co-emperor would take his place. But other than usually being from the Imperial family, there was never really an organized method of succession like in modern monarchies, and as observed during the period, there was a lot of political strife, even amongst family members.

For relevant literature, I would certainly recommend reading the Alexiad by contemporaneous historian Anna Komnena. She provides a lot of insight into the events that occurred in the Imperial court during the Komnenian period.

Some recently-published books, such as Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire and Lost to the West, both provide well-written overviews of the history of the period. These will help you get a feeling for the Byzantine political scene in the High Middle Ages.

u/Celebreth · 4 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Interesting idea! Coming in from /r/AskHistorians here :)

Unfortunately, I have some ehhhh news for you. You've got the right armour for a legionary in the time period of the Principate (ca. 30 BCE -ca. 200 CE - the first lorica segmentata that we've found was made in ca. 6 CE). So we'll base you off of a Roman from the time of the Principate! Here's a picture of a centurion who was killed in Teutoburg. Note something about his armour - he's depicted either wearing a muscled cuirass (rather common for tombstones when the person portrayed is wearing armour) or lorica hamata - or chain (the detail may have worn away). It's commonly believed that this was the panoply for the Roman Centurion. Note the lorica hamata rather than the lorica segmentata, the medals across the chest (they were the equivalent of modern...well...medals), the greaves (Which may have been a later addition in the Principate, as a response to the Dacian falx. The gladius is sheathed on the right side of the soldier (whether it was a legionary or a centurion), while the scutum (shield) would be wielded in the left hand. Finally - the belt. This might not seem like a big thing today, but the belt was HUGE - it was essentially the Roman badge of honour for being in the military. If you saw someone wearing one of those trademark belts, they were part of the army. Finally - the helm. Make sure you (as another user noted) get a true helm, rather than the mass-produced "infantry helm." Imperial Gallic is the more generic type (As shown in the picture), and a centurion would have a transverse crest. If you'd prefer to go for the look of an optio, you could do the vertical crest - but that part isn't confirmed, and we have no proof to support it.

Next thing to remember! No beard.

If there's more you want to know about the centurions of Rome, just let me know! I'm a bit short on time, which is why I'm cutting this short, but I'll be happy to give you a complete outline as soon as I can! If you're interested in more without listening to me ramble, check out The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy - it's a complete, EXTREMELY well written book that details every aspect of the Roman army, focusing most on the Principate.

u/BrandoTheNinjaMaster · 4 pointsr/collapse
u/cliffhanger1983 · 4 pointsr/collapse

Great post OP..I plan on reading that book next. It will be my 35th collapse book..And its only six dollars on kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691168385

u/Darragh555 · 4 pointsr/history

Tom Holland's Rubicon is a really good narrative history of the last two centuries BCE. It mostly focuses on the fall of the Republic and includes the civil wars but there's a few chapters that go back earlier than that too. One of my favourite books in general!

edit: formatting

u/hl_lost · 4 pointsr/islam

You dont think history is full of such examples of arab 'kings' and 'princes' doing shit like this for petty gains? The 40th descendant of prophet Mohammed secretly allied with british against the turkish caliphate in WW I so him and his descendants would form the next caliphate over all the arab lands. He literally begged them for what? so he can call himself a Caliph.

Read Destiny Disrupted https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Disrupted-History-Through-Islamic/dp/1586488139 to see what the 'Muslim' rulers of the past behaved like. Much like today they used Islam to benefit themselves. The Salman's, the Saddam's, the Mubarak's, the Bhutto's, the Shah's of the muslim lands are not a modern phenomena. Their brand of retard goes back a long, long way in Muslim history.

u/chewingofthecud · 3 pointsr/CapitalismVSocialism

> Does the development of increasingly sophisticated institutional organizational structure within such movements happen to all human institutions whatsoever?

Yes.

> What implications does this have for the capitalism vs socialism debate?

A lot. The long term implications for increasing complexity in social institutions are dire. The most authoritative work I'm aware of on this topic is Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies. The TL;DR is that complexity offers diminishing returns as it scales upward. But scale upward it must; with the necessity to handle complexity better than your competitors (effectively an organizational "arms race"), you've got a recipe for cyclical history.

Neither socialism nor capitalism escapes this problem. However the two have proven variously effective by the way they handle complexity. Capitalism, unafraid of hierarchy, is able to handle it via the mechanism of emergent or spontaneous order which is more in keeping with the way complex systems self-regulate in the natural world. Socialism on the other hand, (wherever and to whatever extent it has been attempted) typically reverts to an ad hoc and hastily cobbled together imposed order when its egalitarianism proves fractious, destabilizing, and unworkable.

EDIT: In case it's of interest, there's a school of thought ("neoreaction") which has spilled alot of virtual ink on the idea of building governance and information structures in parallel to those representing power. See: the true election and the antiversity and the plinth.

u/endtimesranter · 3 pointsr/collapse

I'm a determinist - evolution & thermodynamics so the stuff I like best deals with the big picture - Why are humans the way they are?. Most can't deal with it and that's not a choice either.

......

Straw Dogs by John Gray (book)

......

15 Big Ideas From Straw Dogs And John Gray (The Philosopher)

......

https://selfhacked.com/2014/10/07/review-straw-dogs-john-gray/

.....

Adventures In Flatland - 4 Essays by Dave Cohen. Chocked full of links to relevant research that demonstrates the humans are not in control of anything.

......

  1. http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2014/10/adventures-in-flatland.html

    ......

  2. http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2014/10/adventures-in-flatland-part-ii.html

    .....

  3. http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2014/11/adventures-in-flatland-part-iii-1.html

    .....

  4. http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2017/03/adventures-in-flatland-part-iv.html

    .......

    Denial: Self-Deception, False Beliefs, and the Origins of the Human Mind by Ajit Varki and Danny Brower (2013)

    ......

    https://un-denial.com/denial-2/book/

    ......

    Human domination of the biosphere: Rapid
    discharge of the earth-space battery foretells
    the future of humankind

    .....

    https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/pnas-2015-schramski-1508353112.pdf

    .....

    Specific examples - The Collapse of Complex Societies
    by Joseph Tainter

    .....

    https://www.amazon.ca/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Joseph-Tainter/dp/052138673X

    ....

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0R09YzyuCI

    .....

    There's more, but all that is needed is to understand that the humans are abstract and insatiable reward seekers incapable of turning it off. Nobody's fault, just evolution. Sure there are some who are behaving badly and will cause much harm to others, but that too is part of the human condition. Has always been there and always will. I think that the humans being at there very best could only have ever resulted in stringing out the industrial cancer a handful of decades longer. Seriously, a creature who was ruled by logic would have stopped destroying their life giving and sustaining biosphere a long time ago. Humans are not that creature.
u/Hermel · 3 pointsr/TrueReddit

My favorite is The Collapse of Complex Societies by Prof. Tainter. It describes in detail how bureaucracy contributed to the collapse of various ancient empires, e.g. the Roman empire. The main thesis of the book is that bureacracy normally grows and only very rarely and in the face of catastrophic events decreases. And that eventually, every society will collapse under the weight of its own bureaucracy.

u/vakerr · 3 pointsr/DarkEnlightenment

In case you're not aware Tainter has a whole book on this topic.

> looting the stored solar energy of other nations

I think this is being done as well through the dollar. Everybody needs it for trading, and the US gov inflates away their holdings.

> difference between a conservative and a liberal

More often that not the left is destroying order and complexity. In a way that may even be a needed balancing force eliminating fossilized, unnecessary complexity. Except the contemporary left has got way too much power, gone way too far, and for some time it's been destroying desperately needed order and complexity.

I had another thing stuck in my mind. Tainter pointed out how innovation was not typical human behavior, and how there were long periods without any technological change or improvement. At first glance Kurzweils idea of self-reinforcing speedup answers this. But I wonder if there's some other genetic/cultural/energetic influence, some switch that got thrown.

I'd also love to hear Kurzweil and Tainter debate Tainter's point about research picking the lowest fruits and then hitting diminishing returns and slowing down.

u/Narrator · 3 pointsr/Economics

A great book if you're interested in this kind of thing is Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter.

u/Richardcm · 3 pointsr/collapse

Joseph Tainter suggests Rome collapsed because the increasing complexity of the bureaucracy required to organise it couldn't be sustained. Our society does depend on cheap energy; whether it will be the collapse of the energy supply that brings society down, or the collapse of organisation (possibly as a financial collapse, as Nicole Foss suggests) is going to be one of those things that's only obvious after the event.

u/plankton_gobler · 3 pointsr/philosophy

Maybe they should read Into The Wild or read about hunter gathers back 20,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age and realize how much effort there is to truly living off the land.
Have a read of this book for a bit more info

http://www.amazon.com/After-Ice-Global-History-000-5000/dp/0674019997/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211761944&sr=8-1

u/Louis_Farizee · 3 pointsr/Judaism

I haven't read it myself, but this is the book everybody recommends when this question comes up: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0825436559/ref=pd_aw_sim_sbs_14_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TRDYYESNHZ2DE7D8QV8T&dpPl=1&dpID=51NrgC7XX4L

This book, which I have read, has some useful insights too: https://www.amazon.com/History-Warfare-John-Keegan/dp/0679730826

u/persiangriffin · 3 pointsr/totalwar

Reading John Keegan is what really got me into history, especially The Second World War. I strongly recommend any avid TW player pick up A History of Warfare.

u/DaGoodBoy · 3 pointsr/fantasywriters

A History of Warfare by John Keegan [Goodreads] Gives a clear understanding of how different cultures influence military organization and tactics. I was looking for a book to help someone who doesn't have a military background (me) understand and describe how the military and culture intersect and influence each other.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda [Goodreads]. Uses an interesting, anthropological POV to describe an alternative view of perception and reality. Very handy if you want to create a magic system that does not conform to clearly explainable rules of logic and order, but is still believable and self-consistent.

u/handlegoeshere · 3 pointsr/asoiaf

It seems to me that the two strengths of the series are world-building and character depth. If this is your favorite series, you probably like it for one or both of those things.

If you like it for the world building, I recommend history books such as the History of the Peloponnesian War or A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century.

If you like complex characters, then the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. Another strength of asoiaf is that it isn't too heavy handed regarding magic in the story, and this is a strength of the Mistborn series too.

u/JohnnyBsGirl · 3 pointsr/books

Around 8 pages of The Landmark Thycydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. It is a very dense read, but I am enjoying it.

u/lacedaimon · 3 pointsr/badhistory

It's always been a difficult area to write a single book on, because there are so many factors, such as understanding each empire of the time, and what the general atmosphere was regarding trade between empires.

It's funny that you ask though, because a really great book on the very topic recently came out, and it's called "1177 B.C. The Year Civilization Collapsed.".

The boldness of the author Eric H. Cline to attribute an exact year, to me, at first seemed ridiculous, but after reading the book, I'm convinced that he's right. It's a fairly short 200 page book, and I enjoyed every page of it.

One thing, if you haven't researched "The Sea Peoples", I would recommend having at least a small understanding of who and what they were and did. It's not completely necessary, but it's helpful. This is due to the fact that so many people like to attribute the collapse of the late bronze age to them, when in fact there are many factors that play into the "systems collapse" that occurred in the late 13th, and early 12th century B.C.

Here's an Amazon link for the book:

http://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691140898/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398200849&sr=1-1&keywords=1177+b.c.+the+year+civilization+collapsed

Here's a wikipedia link to the "Sea Peoples".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_peoples

The entire topic of the collapse of the bronze age, is one of the most fascinating that I have encountered. What's even more incredible is that so few people know it ever happened.

I've spent a lot of time researching, and studying the topic, and if you have any questions at any time, feel free to ask.

u/tcoop6231 · 3 pointsr/history

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)

If you want to learn about early civilization, this is a good book.

u/Davylow · 3 pointsr/linguistics

Historical linguistics was too deep for me too until I listened to a podcast on the subject, and after the first 20 episodes I was so fascinated I went back and listened to them again. Now this week I'm nearing the end of those for the second time, but as of today there are over 70 episodes total. Anyway, to your questions:

> If humans have been in Europe for hundreds of thousands of years, how could so many languages over the continent be connected to a single language spoken so recently?

Language is spread from cultures that dominate or influence other cultures for whatever reason: winning wars, economic power, being a key trading partner, religious influence, technological influence, etc. Or it could just be the speakers of the language moving from one place to a previously unoccupied place. In the case of PIE the reasons kept changing over the years, but in the beginning it spread because of Economic and military power. The PIE people had (a) domesticated horses, which other peoples did not, (b) a genetic mutation for lactose tolerance which allowed them to produce and consume much more calories per acre, (c) wool/weaving technology since their latitude caused their domesticated sheep to grow longer wool. They therefore also had (d) the luxury of being isolated from other cultures due to their ability to live on the Eurasian steppes where others could not, so they had a long time to expand their power and population without interference. All of this turned into military might and economic advantages that were unsurpassed in the region and allowed them to invade and dominate a successively wider area. In later years some of the other language-spreading factors also came into play.

> When we theorize about PIE, do we also theorize about neighboring dialects?

Yes. But in this case the PIE culture tended to wipe out their neighbors without much blending of the conquered languages, because that was their style and they could pull it off. Remember all those advantages they had. After the establishment of the language families (Hellenic, Italic, Germanic, Celtic, Indic, Balto-Slavic, etc) you see some blending with other languages because there was cultural mixing instead of just complete domination.

> A lot people think it was spoken by a people in the Caucuses, right?

More likely North of the Caucasus mountains. Here's a map.

> So do they think that this one language was basically a superstrate language, dominating everywhere from England to Iran (with help from people like the Romans)...?

Yes, that is exactly what they think. It was a superstrate language beginning in the Eurasion steppes that spread into a huge multi-continental region. What's interesting about English in particular is that it is composed of several different offspring of the original PIE: Germanic, Italic, Hellenic and Celtic. So English represents a re-merging of the original proto-language to a great extent.

> ...or was *PIE a part of a contemporary language family that already covered a great deal of land? If that's true, successful theorizing about PIE would land us at one really random lect of a language spoken ~three thousand years ago. Right?

There is a tremendous amount of evidence; linguistic, archeological and historic, that refutes this possibility.

By the way I just bought this book which I plan to read over the Christmas break. It was recommended in the podcast I mentioned earlier.

Edit: Spelling (photo → proto) and a little grammatical clarity

u/smilebreathe · 3 pointsr/whatisthisthing

In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations.

This book.

u/tfmaher · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

Oh, man, there's a lot of great literature about ancient Rome. It really depends on what part of that era you want to focus on, but my favorite non-fiction are:

  1. Rubicon by Tom Holland. Really beautiful telling of the death of the republic. Great.

  2. Augustus by John Williams.

  3. Plutarch's Lives. Now before you poo-poo this one because it's from an ancient source, let me just say that it's an incredible bit of writing on several famous Romans. Very readable and highly entertaining.

  4. The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius. Although it's biased due to political and family connections, still highly readable and gives good insight into the culture of the time from someone who was (not quite) there.

    I hope this helps!
u/hjrdmh · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

I just got finished reading Rubicon, by Tom Holland, which was great. It goes into quite a bit of detail on the Roman constitution, and how political life worked before the breakdown of the Republic. A few minutes ago I just needed to double check which assemblies voted for which offices, so I popped over to wikipedia. The articles on the Century Assembly and the Tribal Assembly are fantastic. I'm half way through reading about the Century Assembly now, and there's a tonne of stuff in there I didn't know.

I'm always on the lookout for a book about just about the Roman Republic's constitution, or basically the legal mechanics behind its political system. I have yet to find one, so if anybody out there has any recommendations I'd love to hear them. Most books on the period supply a chapter or two on the subject, which I always gobble up with enthusiasm.

u/Ron_Santo · 3 pointsr/books

Everyone seems to like Rubicon

u/TheHorrahTheHorrah · 3 pointsr/history

Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary. Easy read, consistently interesting, and a good primer for anyone looking to learn about Islamic history.

u/Mac8v2 · 3 pointsr/unexpectedjihad

I am Catholic and learned most of what I know about Islam though university classes and independent research. I can give you a list of books I have read about Islam that will get you started.

Oxford English Koran
Obviously the primary text is important to have and the book is pretty small. Much smaller compared to the bible.



Hadith of Bukhari: Volumes I, II, III & IV


Half of Islamic law is derived from the Koran and the other half from the Hadith. The Hadith is the collection of events, and quotes by Mohammad and his followers. This book is huge and you shouldn't try to read the whole since it is just list quotes and who they are by. But it is a good reference source and something to page through.

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources
Biography of Mohammad using historical sources. Good reference.



Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes



Brief 350 page run of Islamic history until now as told by a Muslim. I felt the book was a bit preachy and accusatory towards the end but I read it 6 years ago so my memory might be hazy. Still a good read if you want to try to understand how mainstream moderate Muslim scholars see things. It has a good bibliography too.




There are probably a bunch of other ones I am forgetting. Take a look through Amazon and see what else they have. I would only buy books from university presses or published by academics though. They can be dense and difficult but they are peer reviewed which is important since there is so much anti-Islam, pro-Islam publishing out there.








u/ASnugglyBear · 3 pointsr/booksuggestions

This is fantastic. He has written one book about Rome as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Before-Beginning-Roman-Republic/dp/1610397215

The audio quality at the beginning of THoR is meh, but he really gets that down, as well as his presentation by about 8 episodes in.

His Revolutions podcast is superb as well, but not at all about Rome.

u/Sylar_25 · 3 pointsr/totalwar

Well I am not sure if it would count as pop history or not but The Storm Before The Storm it highlights a very under-covered part of Roman history. Not the fall of the Republic, but the event and the people that led up to it's collapse. It's written by the creator of the history Rome podcast and is both well researched but is written in a very consumable way.

u/mrhaleon · 3 pointsr/news

There’s a lot of good original sources, but if you want an easy read that focuses on this period, I recommend The Storm Before The Storm, by Mike Duncan. It talks about the late Roman Republican period, from the Gracchi brothers through Sulla. This is the generations just before Pompey and Julius Caesar - the people who essentially created the conditions that allowed Caesar to do what he did. It even has a forward that talks about parallels to today (Duncan was finishing the book during and just after the 2016 election).

If Duncan’s name is familiar, it’s because he is the creator of the History of Rome podcast, which is an awesome (and quite long) summarization of Roman history and culture from the founding through Constantine. I loved it and heartily recommend it to anyone who likes history and podcasts.

u/ChitinMan · 3 pointsr/nfl

I’m reading SPQR right now since Roman history is cool and I don’t really know much about it aside from what you pick up in popular media like Gladiator

u/FlavivsAetivs · 3 pointsr/Imperator

The standard textbook history right now appears to be The Romans: From Village to Empire.

Klaus Bringmann's A History of the Roman Republic also still seems to be the standard introduction to that period (i.e. the time period of Imperator).

If you want to read about the end of the Roman Republic and Caesar/Augustus, it's hard to turn down Caesar: Life of a Colossus which is great for the general reader, alongside his Augustus: First Emperor of Rome.

He also writes pretty solid books on other major Roman figures, such as In the Name of Rome: The Men who won the Roman Empire.

If you want to get a pretty good introduction to Roman History, but more of what life was like for the average citizen, SPQR by Mary Beard is actually a good choice.

Older, but still solid, is Peter Garnsey's The Roman Empire: Economy, Society, and Culture which covers a lot of things Beard doesn't.

For the Roman army, Adrian Goldsworthy's The Complete Roman Army is a solid introduction.

However you'll want to break that down into several books if you want to go deeper:

Roman Military Equipment by MC Bishop and JCN Coulston

The Roman Imperial Army of the First and Second Centuries AD by Graham Webster

A Companion to the Roman Army by Paul Erdkamp

For the collapse of the Western Roman Empire I'd recommend both Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians combined with the more scholarly Guy Halsall's Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West.

For the forgotten half of Roman History, often mistakenly called the "Byzantine Empire," it's hard to cover with just one book, but Warren Treadgold's A History of the Byzantine State and Society has become the standard reading. John Haldon's The Empire that would not Die covers the critical transition during the Islamic conquests thoroughly.

Of course I have to include books on the two IMO most overrated battles in Roman history on this list since that's what people love:

The Battle of the Teutoberg Wald: Rome's Greatest Defeat by Adrian Murdoch

The Battle of Cannae: Cannae: Hannibal's Greatest Victory is sort of the single book to read if you can only pick one. However, The Ghosts of Cannae is also good. But if you actually want to go really in depth, you need Gregory Daly's dry-as-the-Atacama book Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War. When I say dry as the Atacama, I mean it, but it's also extraordinarily detailed.

I'd complement this with Goldsworthy's The Punic Wars.

For other interesting topics:

The Emergence of the Bubonic Plague: Justinian's Flea and Plague and the End of Antiquity.

Hadrian's Wall: Hadrian's Wall by Adrian Goldsworthy

Roman Architecture: Roman Architecture by Frank Sear (definitely a bit more scholarly but you can probably handle it)

I may post more in addendum to this list with further comments but I think I'm reaching the character count.

u/T62A · 3 pointsr/mexico

Yo recomiendo el libro 'Sapiens, a brief history of human kind', que básicamente es un ligero y agradable recuento de la historia del humano a partir de los primeros rastros del homo sapiens, habla de la expansión del humano por el mundo, su etapa nómada, su revolución agrícola, evolución de; sus sistemas de gobierno, escrituras, monedas, mitos, etc. Básicamente lo que te enseñaron en primaria pero ahora sí pones atención xD, aparte más detallado.

https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari-ebook/dp/B00ICN066A/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=

u/rogueink · 3 pointsr/MoneyDiariesACTIVE

Does he listen to Dan Carlin’s podcasts? He just came out with a book that your uncle may like


The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062868047/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NvQ1Db4FGJDN1

u/CrimsonCuntCloth · 3 pointsr/minimalism

Thanks for sharing your story.

As far as book recommendations go: (Marie Kondo)[https://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing/dp/1607747308] gets a lot of praise, although I haven't actually read her myself (There was an interesting episode of the Tim Ferris podcast featuring her that was some good listening, and I like the systematic approach to decluttering).

Slightly tangentially: stoic philosophy fits well with minimalism, with other related ideas about how to live. Both Seneca's Letters and Epictetus' Handbook are good introductions.

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. ”
― Seneca

u/ericxfresh · 3 pointsr/BettermentBookClub

off the top of my head:

Meditations, with The Inner Citadel as a reader

Letters from a Stoic

A Guide to the Good Life by Irvine

Do The Work by Pressfield as well as The War of Art by Pressfield

Managing Oneself by Ducker

Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl

What Predicts Divorce by Gottman

Nicomachean Ethics

Models by Manson seems to be popular on reddit

So Good They Can't Ignore You by Newport, as well

I'm currently reading Triumphs of Experience by Vaillant and find it insightful.

u/illegalUturn · 3 pointsr/Stoicism

I flick between Robert Dobbin's and Robin Hard's, but spend more time with Dobbin's. It feels a bit more immediate and impactful for me:

https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469

If you can afford it, get them both - they're both fantastic.

u/frizbee2 · 3 pointsr/skyrim

reddit.com/r/Stoicism

The philosophy she's advocating sounds a great deal like the teachings of Epictetus the Stoic. I highly recommend his work.

u/dokh · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

Few things focus on just that period, so far as I can tell. Fewer if you want it written for popular audiences; lives of Charlemagne are thick on the ground, but before him, there's not much. Bachrach's Early Carolingian Warfare is good for the military side of things, mostly focused on Martel's army. It's dense, and written primarily for academics, but if you're interested in how a Roman-style military worked in post-Roman Europe (and in particular the military that brought about a lot of the consolidation of what would become the Holy Roman Empire), I know of nothing better.

More layman-oriented, The Carolingians: A Family who Forged Europe by Riche is a broad history of the entire Carolingian dynasty, focused mostly later but has some relevant bits. And I hear good things about The Age of Charles Martel, but haven't read it myself.

Also, The Inheritance of Rome is excellent; it's broad in geographic scope, so not limited to the Frankish-ruled realms, but it starts with a Western Roman Empire in decline and continues until two centuries after Charlemagne was given his Imperial title. It's pretty much the best introduction to early medieval European history I know of.

I wish I knew a good biography of Charles Martel to recommend. (For that matter, if anyone else knows one, I'd love to read it!) The Franks had already expanded a bit before he became Mayor of the Palace, and continued to do so after his death, but it was during his tenure that the largest, fastest period of expansion and consolidation of Frankish power occurred; he's also of course known for the battle of Tours, which helped make the Pyrenees the northern border of an otherwise-expansionist al-Andalus. (I am not a fan of great man history for the most part, but Charles Martel was at the center of a lot of big events.)

u/Integralds · 3 pointsr/AskSocialScience

Here is some stuff I recommended recently, which itself links back to stuff I recommended less recently.

> I am most interested in is medieval european economics so anything specific to that time period/area would be even better.

Oh, that's different and interesting.

A good general history of early medieval Europe is Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome, 400 to 1000. Amazon link. That might be a little early for you, but he has a great chapter on economics and society therein.

This book picks up where Wickham leaves off and apparently focuses solely on social/economic affairs, but I have not personally reviewed it so I can't vouch for its quality.

u/lichlordgodfrey · 3 pointsr/KotakuInAction

I was going off of what I remembered - the info is from this book, The Fall of the Roman Empire

I apologize and may have gotten some things wrong (or maybe a lot). Edit I'll stand by my post, not even strikethrough - downvote please for inaccuracies, if you've the time, point out said inaccuracies (though it was a really dirty/fast summary).

u/riffleman0 · 3 pointsr/CrusaderKings

I just finished reading Lost to the West, and it was a very fascinating and in-depth look at the broad history of the ERE as well as all the number of colorful and interesting people who sat on the throne. Although it does do some time skips, and glosses over some of the less important or less interesting emperors, I still enjoyed it none the less.

u/detarame · 3 pointsr/AskHistorians

Alexander is tremendously well known for his logistical expertise. Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army is one of the go-to texts about military logistics in the ancient world.

http://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Great-Logistics-Macedonian-Army/dp/0520042727

u/Abominati · 3 pointsr/worldbuilding

I'd recommend this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Great-Logistics-Macedonian-Army/dp/0520042727

Its a great introduction to the nature of logistics and is relevant for any pre-vehicle period as frankly, the equations don't change.

u/crbowen44 · 2 pointsr/dancarlin

10/29, available for preorder now though! The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062868047/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_eR6IDb1KDCW45

u/tpelly · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

Also eager for Dan Carlin’s upcoming book -

The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062868047/

u/Mattchops · 2 pointsr/dancarlin

Yeah, it's also printed. Here's the link on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062868047/?coliid=I1TL1B0KYFYLUU&colid=30402EL2VVDSL&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Paperback and hardcover are both listed.

u/articleofpeace · 2 pointsr/Fitness

It depends. If you're looking for personal reasons then you don't really need academic works: I'd stick to the main ancient figures - Zeno of Citium (the 3rd C philosopher, not to be confused with the 5th C presocratic Zeno of Elea), Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius. No complete work of Zeno's has survived so we're stuck with fragments, but there's a lot of Seneca (his Epistles, or 'Moral letters to Lucilius' are available for free in archaic but readable translation here) - there's a Penguin Classics collection of them too but it's incomplete so I wouldn't recommend it - but you could always pick that up for the better translations and just read the that are missing in the archaic online translation I linked above. On Epictetus the Discourses and Handbook as well as his fragments are collected in a new World Classics Epictetus: Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (which is very cheap: ~$7) and in a modern translation. I strongly recommend that. Marcus Aurelius you already have covered.

But there are probably some select academic works that might be useful to you:

  • Ierodiakonou, K. (1993), 'The Stoic division of philosophy', Phronesis 38:57–74.

  • Long A. A. (1978), 'Dialectic and the Stoic sage', in his Stoic studies, Cambridge, UK: CUP, 85–106.

  • Sellars, J. (2013), The art of living: The Stoics on the nature and function of philosophy^3, Bristol, UK: Classical.

    I've uploaded the PDFs of the two articles here.^[1][2] I can get away with this as educational under UK copyright laws - but you'll have to get the book yourself from your library because that isn't covered.

    If you get through all of that and still want more then feel free to PM me and I can point you in the right direction.
u/jermizzle · 2 pointsr/nursing

Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140442103/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_X054CbP3Q9RF4

Stoicism is a philosophy that helps counter your emotions. In turn, keeping you more level headed especially in dire situations

u/GreenWizard2 · 2 pointsr/Stoicism

I have read through two different versions of Seneca's Letters. The first version I read was Letters from a Stoic. I thought that it was decent, even though it only contains a selection of Seneca's Letters. It got me interested enough in Seneca to seek out more of his work.

I then read through the Loeb editions of Seneca's moral essays, and while I did enjoy them for the most part, I found the translation to be a little dry, perhaps old fashioned, for my tastes, and I ended up returning them. I also cannot read Latin, so having Latin on the reverse side of the page was of little benefit to me besides the coolness factor.

Note that Seneca's works are for the most part divided into 3 sections, his Letters (Epistles), his Essays (Dialogues), and his Tragedies. This confused me for a while as I was not sure what I would be getting with certain books.

I second version of Seneca's Letters that I read through was Letters on Ethics and in my opinion the translation is excellent. To quote the book itself "the translations are designed to be faithful to the Latin while reading idiomatically in English". The footnotes are also extensive and insightful. This is however, potentially one of the most expensive versions of Seneca's letters you will find out there, so you might want to try and find it at a book store first and read through it. Amazon's "Look Inside" does let you read through a large portion of the Introduction as well as the first few letters, so you could try to use that to gauge your interest.

That being said, Seneca is currently my favorite of the 3 Roman Stoics to read, however I do enjoy reading from all 3 Roman Stoic authors for different reasons.

u/BookQueen13 · 2 pointsr/AskHistorians

You might like The Inheritance of Rome for more information about that. It was one of my textbooks for my early middle ages course. The author makes some really good points about the collapse, or rather "unwinding", of the Western Roman Empire and the deteriorating relationship between East and West. If I remember correctly, there were some chapters solely on the Byzantine Empire as well.

u/ciarogeile · 2 pointsr/europe

I'm currently finishing this: "Brian Boru and the Battle of Clontark, by Seán Duffy. It's excellent.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18181699-brian-boru-and-the-battle-of-clontarf

This one, "Diarmait King of Leinster", by Nicholas Furlong, is also fairly interesting and covers a slightly later period:
https://www.amazon.com/Diarmait-King-Leinster-Nicholas-Furlong/dp/1856355055

There is a chapter in "The Inheritance of Rome", by Chris Wickham, which also deals well, albeit briefly with this period in Ireland and is quite nice in how it compares Ireland to other polities.
https://www.amazon.com/Inheritance-Rome-Illuminating-400-1000-Penguin/dp/0143117424

u/Cyradis · 2 pointsr/books

It's on Gutenberg, as it's out of copyright. Volume 1 is here.

It's extraordinarily long--there are actually 6 volumes. The copy you're looking at on Amazon must be heavily abridged. This is a classic, but it also has some ideas that have since fallen out of favor with historians. (Still worth reading if you have the time.)

As an early medievalist, I would argue that Rome doesn't so much of collapse/disappear as fragment heavily, and then the fragments change into something else.) I'd suggest reading Chris Wickham's "Inheritance of Rome" or Julia Smith's "Europe After Rome: A New Cultural History." This is just to give you an alternate perspective.

The last two I don't think are available as ebooks...

u/Guckfuchs · 2 pointsr/AskHistorians

The Constitutio Antoniniana which granted Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire was issued in 212 AD and there is quite a lot of Roman history after that. Soon follows the so called “crisis of the 3rd century” between 235 and 284 AD throughout which the empire was shaken by internal as well as external problems. Next comes Late Antiquity, a period which has attracted a lot of scholarly attention in recent decades. It saw some huge changes like Christianity’s rise to dominance or the final partition of the empire into a western and eastern half that you mentioned. And while the western part already disappeared throughout the 5th century the Eastern Roman Empire would survive for a long time further. The rise of the first Islamic caliphate in the 7th century AD cost it much of its territory and caused further transformations. This surviving remnant of the Roman Empire, now centred around Constantinople, is usually called the Byzantine Empire. Its eventful history would continue through the entire Middle Ages until 1453 AD when it was finally conquered by the Ottomans. So all in all there is more than a millennium of further Roman history to cover.

u/superherowithnopower · 2 pointsr/Christianity

It's a massive load of bantha poodoo, and only goes to illustrate the person's ignorance of history.

You might take a look at a book called Atheist Delusions: the Christian revolution and its fashionable enemies by David Bentley Hart. He addresses basically this exactly line of reasoning and dismantles it.

Another fun book is The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather. That's a more secular work, focused on the history, not on Christianity, though you simply cannot discuss the end days of the Western Roman Empire without addressing Christianity in some sense. It will give you a bit more context as to 1) why, exactly, the Empire fell, and 2) what led to the so-called Dark Ages.

Here's a hint, though: The reason most any knowledge at all was preserved during the "Dark Ages" was due to its being preserved both in Christian monasteries in the West and in the Christian Byzantine Empire in the East (the Renaissance being partly kicked off by the flight of Byzantine humanists to the West as the Turkish invaders were approaching Constantinople).

In fact, the Medieval Period was very much not a time of stagnation; there were advances in metallurgy and agriculture, for example, the latter, combined with a period of warmth, led to a population boom which, ultimately, led to the devastation of the Black Death, which caused a massive upheaval in European society helping to pave the way to the modern world. Also cannons!

u/plsTRUMPavengeBERNIE · 2 pointsr/worldnews

Rome fell because they let millions of barbarians into their territory in a failed bid to increase their tax coffers.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195325419/brusselsjournal-20/ref=nosim

u/rkmvca · 2 pointsr/AskHistorians

The podcast comprises large chunks of his book Lost to the West. While Popular History, it has gotten good reviews all around, including from academics. I recommend it.

By the way, there is another ongoing podcast, History of Byzantium, which goes over the same territory but in more detail. It is done in the same mold as the famous History of Rome podcast, and is quite good. I also recommend it.

u/justhereforacomment4 · 2 pointsr/DesignPorn

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-Forgotten-Byzantine-Civilization/dp/0307407969


easy read, pretty pop-history but still a decent introduction.

u/benjermanjoel · 2 pointsr/Catacombs

I'm looking forward to reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-Forgotten-Byzantine-Civilization/dp/0307407969/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334803636&sr=8-1

Also check out this article: http://blog.acton.org/archives/11693-review-how-the-byzantines-saved-europe.html

Byzantium, in brief, was the pinnacle of European civilization prior to modern times due to its location and strength. While surviving for a millennium, the empire had intimate contact with other cultures and traditions, as well as a long history of recording and transmitting ancient texts. While the Franco-latins were busy de-Christianizing the west and the Catholic Church subverting Christian doctrine and culture to their theocratic hegemony, Byzantium flourished and sustained itself as Christian Rome. Consider the following: No other region or society has had three successive stages of history. Western Europe has ancient, medieval, and modern. The rest have ancient and modern. The latter being characterized by western hegemony since the so-called "Holy Roman Empires". Food for thought!

u/Lookmanospaces · 2 pointsr/YouShouldKnow

Coincidentally, I finished reading this book last night. I'd highly recommend it as a brisk, light read that gives a great overview of the Eastern Empire.

Fascinating stuff.

u/BamaHammer · 2 pointsr/TrueChristian

I've all but stopped coming to this sub.

The idea that Christianity is a matter of opinion and personal interpretation has done immeasurable harm to those truly seeking Christ. Without guidance, "every man his own Pope" quickly becomes every man his own god, and his own holy writ.

I genuinely despair for the honest one seeking Christ that comes to this place in hopes of finding Truth. So much half-understood Scripture, so much heresy masked as "this is what I feel is true," and so much outright mental illness using the name of Jesus where someone else might use Xenu or Bigfoot.

This post will get downvoted all to hell and back, but to the true seekers, I say: don't look for Christ on an anonymous internet forum. Read the Epistle to the Romans – this new translation is amazing. Read Lost to the West, a great book on the history of the early Church in context of the Eastern Roman Empire. And find a church where you can be guided properly.

u/Learnincurve · 2 pointsr/books

I fear I made the titles up, roman warfare and the complete roman army might have the information you seek though.

u/HatMaster12 · 2 pointsr/worldbuilding

Since it looks like you're interested in some general overviews, I'm going to recommend books that give just that. If you're looking for books that go more in depth on Roman topics, I'm more than happy to supply some.

For a brief introduction to Italian history in general, I would recommend Valerio Lintner's
[A Travelers History of Italy]
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/1566565219/R1B2MURVDQWPAT/ref=mw_dp_cr?cursor=2&qid=1407607391&sort=rd&sr=8-1). This offers a great overview of Italian history for someone with little exposure to the topic. It will show you plenty of topics you might want to investigate further.

As general overviews of Roman history (survey-level books that provide a contexualized narrative of Roman history), I'm going to recommend two books. [The Romans: From Village to Empire: A History of Rome from Earliest Times to the End of the Western Empire] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0199730571/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1407608174&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40), by Mary Boatwright and others, and [Ancient Rome: A Military and Political History] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0521711495/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1407608616&sr=8-1), by Christopher Mackay.
Boatwright's book provides an excellent in-depth overview of the general trends of Roman history, from the origins of the city of Rome itself until Late Antiquity. Though focusing on the political development of the Roman state, there are decent introductions to social and cultural history of the Empire. As the title implies, Mackay's work presents a survey-level overview of the political and military history of Rome, with emphasis placed on the Republic and Principate.

The best introduction to the history and workings of the Roman military is [The Complete Roman Army] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0500288992/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1407609072&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40) by Adrian Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy is one of the leading Roman military scholars, and provides an incredibly readable yet detailed overview of the Roman army. Seriously, if you read only one book on the Roman military (but please don't!) read this.

While much more academic than the other books I've recommended, Arthur Eckstein's [Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0520259920/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1407610158&sr=8-1) is the preeminent text on the rise of Rome. Using ideas from the modern Realist school of international relations, Eckstein argues that Rome became preeminent in the Mediterranean not because they were "tougher" than other states, but rather because they more effectively understood and exploited the power dynamics of the Mediterranean world. This is probably not the easiest book for someone just being introduced to Roman history, but if you can get through it it'll be worth it.

Since you mention Venice, I have a book in mind that might be useful, but I'm blanking on the title. I'll get back to you if I can find it ( I'm on mobile right now). I hope you find these titles useful, and if you need any other recommendations please let me know!

u/Bloaf · 2 pointsr/preppers

If the coin flip wasn't chaotic, no one would use it as an example of randomness. The question, which I think is not nearly so clear, is whether or not the "potential war event" we're thinking about is that strongly affected by such waves of change. Are we obsessed about the chaotic nature of the ripples and waves in a pot, but asking about the likelihood of the pot freezing? There are people who do believe that there is a kind of civilizational thermodynamics at play underneath the chaotic particulars, which means that at least some kinds of societal turmoil ignore these day-to-day crises.

u/Numero34 · 2 pointsr/metacanada

Yeah.

There's actually a book on this topic, iirc it was called Demosclerosis, and it was supposedly (haven't read it myself) how civilizations fail as government becomes more complex because of continued expansion, which ultimately results in an inability to respond to a disaster situation, eg economic, natural, etc., when they arise, resulting in the destruction of that civilization. Or something to that effect.

https://www.amazon.ca/Demosclerosis-Silent-Killer-American-Government/dp/0812926323/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474740487&sr=8-1&keywords=demosclerosis

Actually, I think it may be this book The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter

Also the effect of creating an irrelevant barrier to entry for other businesses to meet the demand for said business.

Typical prog-think though.

u/bbartlog · 2 pointsr/worldnews

Shitty book. Diamond tells some stories that are poorly supported by archaeological evidence in order to support his foregone conclusions. A better book on the same topic is http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X

u/GadsdenPatriot1776 · 2 pointsr/collapse

Personally, I think the American Empire is declining. Sir John Glubb had a wonderful write up of this, and I have copied his conclusion below. The full PDF can be found here and it is only 27 pages long.

Glubb looked at eleven empires over the course of history. I copied a relevant summary from the end. The pdf is online here.

> As numerous points of interest have arisen in the course of this essay, I close with a brief summary, to refresh the reader’s mind.

> (a) We do not learn from history because our studies are brief and prejudiced.

> (b) In a surprising manner, 250 years emerges as the average length of national greatness.

> (c) This average has not varied for 3,000 years. Does it represent ten generations?

> (d) The stages of the rise and fall of great
nations seem to be:

> The Age of Pioneers (outburst)

> The Age of Conquests

> The Age of Commerce

> The Age of Affluence

> The Age of Intellect

> The Age of Decadence.

> (e) Decadence is marked by:

> Defensiveness

> Pessimism

> Materialism

> Frivolity

> An influx of foreigners

> The Welfare State

> A weakening of religion.

> (f) Decadence is due to:

> Too long a period of wealth and power

> Selfishness

> Love of money

> The loss of a sense of duty.

> (g) The life histories of great states are amazingly similar, and are due to internal factors.

> (h) Their falls are diverse, because they are largely the result of external causes.

> (i) History should be taught as the history of the human race, though of course with emphasis on the history of the student’s own country.

The real question is how technology will either speed up, slow down. or prevent the same thing from happening to America.

I also recommend the following books:

The Collapse of Complex Societies, By Joseph Tainter

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail, By Jared Diamond

Overshoot: The Ecological Basis for Revolutionary Change

Finally, when it comes to survival information, I highly recommend www.survivalblog.com. To me, they are the best of the best.

I also would like to plug Radio Free Redoubt (podcast) as well as AmRRON (American Redoubt Radio Operator's Network).

u/bogus · 2 pointsr/conspiracy

I am guessing you didn't read the article or any other article on Orlov's blog about the inevitable collapse of empires, so here's a snippet that might give some perspective on your "new things that are so different" statement --
>based on Joseph Tainter’s theory of diminishing returns on complexity—or diminishing returns on empire.

Not "history repeating itself", but a theorem that takes the quantifiable increasing complexity of empires over time and proves that diminishing returns on investment (in the empire) will inevitably lead to collapse.

This premise is not about history repeating itself, but rather about a overwhelming likelihood that the mathematics of complexity will precipitate a collapse.

I haven't read Tainter’s book but you might want to pony up $44 and give it a read:
>http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X

u/demoiselle-verte · 2 pointsr/ArtefactPorn

There are a lot of theories on collapse of complex societies which are really interesting archaeologists at the moment, though probably not as interesting as Atlantis myths. The basic principle is that societies have the capacity to be resilient based on how "healthy" their system is - economically, politically, environmentally, etc. When too many of those things are out of whack, they become vulnerable to things like floods and droughts. The 4.2 kiloyear event theory ("Megadrought" theory) is a really interesting and scientifically supported theory, which caused collapses all over the world. Joseph Tainter and Jared Diamond are both experts on collapse theory, though their books can get a little depressing at times. Always happy to give recommendations though, people usually only get to see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to archaeology!

u/Concise_Pirate · 2 pointsr/NoStupidQuestions

So you're looking for hundreds of pages of open-ended history? Sounds like a tall order for an NSQ question. :-)

You might enjoy this book.

u/Telepathetic · 2 pointsr/AskAnthropology

Why 37,000 years ago? That sounds like a rather specific age and suggests that you have a more specific question in mind. For example, are you interested in Homo sapiens/Neanderthal interactions? At that distant age, archaeologists find sites that give us snippets of behavior, rather than definitive knowledge of what everyday life was like, so your question would be hard to answer. I can say with some certainty though, that life would have been very different in different parts of the world during that time period. Modern humans were living throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia at that point, and each continent would require different adaptations.

My own research interests don't usually extend that far back in time, so I can't think of a good readable book detailing sites from 37,000 years ago. The best one I can recommend is After the Ice, which discusses how human life changes during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene around the world.

Yes, I still spell "Neanderthal" with the "th." I'm stubborn like that. Just because the German spelling changes doesn't mean the English usage needs to follow suit, in my opinion.

u/pepperbridges · 2 pointsr/portugal

"The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War Paperback" by Robert B Strassler - > Esta é a melhor edição de todas em inglês, com o texto do Tucídides. Há outros livros, tipo o do Kagan, que também são muito bons, e explica o que se passou a partir de várias fontes (Tucídides incluído).

Se queres mesmo ler Tucídides em Português, opta pela edição da Gulbenkian, é a melhor (já não me lembro do preço, mas era um bocado caro), já foste ver se na Gulbenkian está disponível?

u/Re4XN · 2 pointsr/Metal

> Peloponnesian Wars

This for something lighter and this for something a bit drier. I think these two books are the standard recommendations when approaching the topic.

u/halfascientist · 2 pointsr/boardgames
u/truupe · 2 pointsr/worldnews

Finished this book last fall... The Horse, the Wheel, and Language...and is a fascinating account of PIE, yamnaya, etc. It borrows quite a bit from Mallory's "In Search of the Indo-Europeans" which is a good read too.

u/Gaargod · 2 pointsr/aww

There is a theory about Proto-Indo-Europeans (who were the 'origins' for Germanic, Celtic, Latin, Greek, Indian, Russian and western Chinese races) that they 'grew up' on the steppes to the west of the Caucasus mountains (and, importantly, over them shortly after. It's where we see the first horse-drawn chariots too).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horse-Wheel-Language-Bronze-Age-Eurasian/dp/069114818X

u/Grumpy_Cunt · 2 pointsr/ireland

That's really the crux of it - Ireland ended up speaking a Celtic language but the dispute is whether this was a result of wholesale population replacement (i.e. invasion, extermination of indigenous non-indoeuropean speaking peoples as in, say, Europeans in North America) or as a result of a relatively small number of high-status settlers becoming culturally or technologically dominant to the point that the non-indoeuropean population adopted their way of life and language more or less voluntarily (more like how English displaced Irish in Ireland or local languages in India by becoming the high-status language of business, education, politics etc.).

This new genetic evidence seems to give us an idea that steppe people (who would have spoken a PIE dialect, the very ancient ancestor of Gaelic) had reached Ireland by about 2,000 BCE which is the at the early end of what has been postulated.

THIS is great book about this era if you're interested.

u/RabiesScabies · 2 pointsr/atheism

Hey, I'd really strongly recommend the Yale OT MOOC. I'm a lifelong atheist and history nut doing it just for fun, and it is awesome. The Prof is a respected scholar, it's not some anti-theist spouting BS.


She basically analyzes the OT as a piece of historic literature a la Shakespeare. You learn about the cultures in that region, where/how a lot of the bible stories got incorporated in the Jewish tradition, etc.


Bonus, if your parents are Christians this would probably make them happy while supporting your exploration. I ordered the main book she recommends and just watch the videos/wiki and feel like I'm getting LOTS out of it.


But yeah, the period you're asking about is the neolithic. I also strongly recommend 1177 BC to get a sense of how archaeology works, how we reconstruct the record, etc. It's absolutely fascinating!

u/Barking_at_the_Moon · 2 pointsr/history



After the collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the Med basin, there was an interregnum that lasted until about 900BC. Athens and other Greek communities were part of an area-wide renaissance and though Athens proper was small it eventually had an outsized impact as it became an economic powerhouse that ruled over a wide area. As the economies of the area recovered, Athens succeeded more than most and money is what pays for a wide range of elevated arts and sciences such as those you listed.

Eventually, War and Pestilence came for mighty Athens but by then the histories had been written.

u/SincerelyOffensive · 2 pointsr/slatestarcodex

This is a great idea. Please definitely post your list when you've got it compiled.

In addition to some of the other books that have been recommended, I suggest the slightly more unconventional 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed for a rather interesting look at a period in ancient history that I think is generally poorly covered. ("There were some civilizations like Egypt and Sumer, and they rose and fell, and look, it's Aristotle!") It really helps contextualize a lot of the ancient Mideast - who coexisted and what their relationships were, not just who was the Big Dog one after another.

It will also help break up the monotony of all the other books reading the same, because it's not organized like a traditional history book: instead it's organized almost like a play, with a cast of characters, a "prologue" and "epilogue," and several "Acts" describing key sequences of events! Despite that, the author is a pretty well regarded archaeologist at GWU, and it was published by Princeton University Press.

u/Proteus_Marius · 2 pointsr/history

Eric Carle wrote 1177 BC; The Year Civilization Collapsed. He covers a lot of history leading into and resulting from the collapse. In those discussions, he relates a very interesting theory on the sacking of Priam's Troy and why.

u/Skookum_J · 2 pointsr/history

It’s heavy on the ancient; before the Greeks & Romans, though at the peak of Egypt. But, 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed is a really cool book about the really ancient world, & how the different civilizations interconnected & dealt with each other & how the whole thing came crashing down during the Bronze Age collapse.

The author has also done a video giving the short hand account of things if you want a kind of preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRcu-ysocX4

u/Exegete214 · 2 pointsr/enoughpetersonspam

https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691168385

This is probably the best, as in most accessible and most up-to-date book on the subject out right now. One of the exciting things about this collapse period is that archeology is still finding new evidence. For example: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-luwian-hieroglyphic-inscription-bronze-age.html This is new evidence about the composition of the Sea Peoples from late 2017! And not uncontroversial, since the idea that the Sea Peoples were a west Anatolian confederation is far from universally accepted. After all, these inscriptions speak of this confederation attacking to the east, but the destruction also came for the Mycenaeans to the west. In twenty years we may have an entirely different understanding of what happened.

Though what we know for certain is very striking, and that is that nearly every city on the Mediterranean from Greece to Sinai was destroyed within a few decades, wiping out several societies and crippling those that survived. I just can't imagine a more compelling historical mystery.

u/umbama · 2 pointsr/worldnews

If you'd like something covering a later Roman period, the collapse of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, Tom Holland's 'Rubicon' is very good for non-specialists.

Review in The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/nov/08/featuresreviews.guardianreview10

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Rubicon-Last-Years-Roman-Republic/dp/1400078970

u/airchinapilot · 2 pointsr/movies

I read a good popular history of Rome at that time called The Rubicon: The Last Years of the Republic. It was fascinating seeing the visuals on screen while reading the book. The same characters. Roughly the same events.

u/ovnem · 2 pointsr/history

If you like Monty Python you should like Terry Jones' books. Post-Python he became a medieval historian and written Medieval Lives, Barbarians, and The Crusades. I just read Barbarians (about those who the Romans called barbarians) recently and loved it.

Rubicon by Tom Holland is an excellent account of the fall of the Roman Republic.

I'm currently reading Warriors of God by James Reston about the 3rd Crusade. Its very entertaining but lacks footnotes so I doubt its accuracy. Still for a casual understanding of the 3rd crusade I recommend it.

If you're interested in military history check out Osprey Publishing. These books are very specific but also only 90 pages or with great illustrations.

Finally, if you're looking for historical fiction check out Bernard Cornwell whose written tons of historical novels. He's best known for the Richard Sharpe series about the Napoleonic wars but has also written on Anglo-Saxon England, the American revolution, and elsewhere.

u/MSamsara · 2 pointsr/explainlikeimfive

I don't know much about the subject, but I can point you to a book that might be able to.

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland is a book that details the later years of Rome and its fall. I haven't read it myself, but I've heard good things about it from other redditors. If you're into this kind of stuff, I suggest giving it a spin.

u/SacredVoine · 2 pointsr/politics

There's a book called Rubicon that did a pretty good layperson's version of it.

I think you may see some parallels.

u/doctordeimos · 2 pointsr/ancienthistory

Rubicon by Tom Holland.

u/ODBC · 2 pointsr/asoiaf

Man I love the ASOIAF series. It truly got me into history.

After I learned that the Wall was inspired by Hadrian's Wall, I read a book about that.

If you haven't read Rubicon by Tom Holland, it's a great if fast-paced introduction to Roman history, especially the end of the Republic leading into the Empire. Reading ancient history especially really made me appreciate fantasy for its foundation in history of a simpler time.

u/pushkar000 · 2 pointsr/worldnews

this is a great book on the history of islam, egagingly written as an introduction to the religion and its history for casual readers. he writes with pretty much no bias. highly recommended.

u/OfficialCocaColaAMA · 2 pointsr/educationalgifs

Yeah, I was just making a stupid joke.

As for the Islamic view of Genghis Khan, it depends on perspective. Genghis Khan was tolerant of Muslims and even sought after their intellectuals. But he also destroyed their populations. A lot of the estimates of the deaths caused by Genghis Khan's conquest are exaggerated, but that doesn't really affect the perception in much of the Muslim world. There are also a lot of dubious claims as to Genghis Khan's brutality.

It's true, from any perspective, that the Mongol conquest put an end to a long period of Muslim prosperity. Since the days of Mohammed, they had seen very few serious military losses. The common belief among Muslims prior to Genghis Khan was that their prosperity and military success was undeniable proof of the validity of their beliefs. They felt that Allah had blessed them with the ability to win battles and spread their religion. So Genghis Khan turned their world upside down.

All of my understanding of Genghis Khan and Muslim history come from Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, both of which I highly recommend.

u/SuchPowerfulAlly · 2 pointsr/ChapoTrapHouse

He wrote a book about the beginnings of the fall of the Republic. Haven't read it myself, but I've heard good things.

Now, I have listened to the podcast, and I enjoyed it.

u/steveotheguide · 2 pointsr/Conservative

I know I'm in someone else's space right now, but I'm gonna make a recommendation. If you follow the Revolutions podcast or the History of Rome podcast, the man who did both of those just finished writing a book on exactly this topic.

Mike Duncan is a great historian, his stuff is always well researched, and his opinion is always heavily flagged as opinion not historical fact. I heartily suggest that you get yourself a copy of his book, The Storm Before the Storm: the Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic.

It's literally exactly what you're looking for.

u/Aetylus · 2 pointsr/dataisbeautiful

It a metaphor comparing *America* to the late Roman Republic. You can read the details here: https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Before-Beginning-Roman-Republic/dp/1610397215

u/FecklessFool · 2 pointsr/Philippines

The Storm Before The Storm by Mike Duncan

​

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Before-Beginning-Roman-Republic/dp/1610397215


It's to help pump me up for Imperator which releases on Steam in a couple of hours.

u/fduniho · 2 pointsr/askphilosophy

Natural laws are not imposed on man like the prescriptive laws imposed by a government. I am capable of disobeying state-imposed laws, and the justice system is in place to take care of people who do, but I am unable to disobey the law of gravity. It is simply a fact of nature that gravity works as it does, not a prescriptive law imposed on man by an institution. The same goes for other natural laws.

Besides that, an institution is something instituted by people. In Sapiens, Noah Yuval Harari talks about how we create fictions that help shape how society works. One example is money. Money works because we all agree that it does, not because of any property inherent in the stuff we use for money. This would be an example of an institution. Likewise, the family is an institution among humans because of agreement among humans that it is one. Cats also mate and have children, but for them, there is no institution of the family, because they are unable to consider it as such and agree on making it one.

The power nature has over us is not due to how we think about nature, and we don't have the option of violating natural laws. Nature is a concrete reality we are subject to, not an institution.

u/gglebq · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Is a nice one , I suppose it's good for reading at work if you have kindle (The physical book can be a little uncomfortable because of its size)

​

And there's also an audio-book if you're interested in that

u/Korinto · 2 pointsr/CasualConversation

Sapiens History of Humankind

Currently reading that. It's really interesting to learn about all other other ape species and how Homo Sapiens interacted with them.

u/cleverprankster · 2 pointsr/finance

My two favorites of the year:

u/shazie13 · 2 pointsr/Random_Acts_Of_Amazon

I would like this ebook.

Thank you.

u/boob123456789 · 1 pointr/collapse

Collapse = A society can be said to collapse when it undergoes a rapid and substantial loss of an established level of socio-political complexity. This, according to Tainter, is always a political process. It stems from the destruction and decay of social organisations and institutions. He gives a list of the kinds of things you can expect to see less of in a society undergoing collapse. These include: less social stratification and differentiation, less economic specialisation, less centralised control, less trading and economic activity and less production of ‘cultural epiphenomena’ such as monuments, buildings, and artworks (Tainter 1988, 4)

​

It's not my definition twit. It's the definition according to Joseph Tainter which any collapser worth their salt would fucking know. I'm done here. Go somewhere else, you do not belong. You don't even know the definition of this place.

u/EntropyAnimals · 1 pointr/collapse

I don't know if these are essential, but I have Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies and Too Smart for Our Own Good: The Ecological Predicament of Humankind, but I can't comment on the quality of scholarship in these books. I'm at the mercy of their perspectives. Also, we're not "too smart for our own good". We're just smart enough to be incredibly stupid.

u/Blindweb · 1 pointr/taoism

Speaking of Archaeology... The future will be dominated by conservatives - The Collapse of Complex Societies. We're already on the downslope of industiral society.

u/15blinks · 1 pointr/AskReddit

The Horse, the Wheel and Language is a really excellent book about the origins of the Indo-european peoples. Did you ever wonder why so many of our ancient gods were sky and/or thunder gods? Why Iranian, English and Norse are all one big language family?

I also love After the Ice. That's another approachable archaeology/prehistory book. The author does an amazing job of imagining what life was like as the great sheets of ice retreated and humans began to settle in villages. Just imagine the changes in how people saw their world as they gave up tens of thousands of years of wandering to settle in one place and learn how to coax a living out of the land.

u/malpingu · 1 pointr/books

Whilst I second John Keegan's A History of Warfare for the longer historical perspective, I recommend Robert R. Leonhard's The Principles Of War For The Information Age for a view on how classic strategic doctrine should change to be adapted for warfare in our time.

u/Under_the_Volcano · 1 pointr/booksuggestions

These 2 span a huge range of recorded (and pre-recorded) history rather than a single era, but are two of the history books I've learned the most from:

Plagues & Peoples by William McNeill (the -- often subtle & surprising -- influence of infectious disease on political and social issues throughout history).

A History of Warfare by John Keegan (exactly what it sounds like, from prehistorical hunter-gatherer bands to modern armies; chock full of fascinating & oftentimes-counterintuitive observations that you probably didn't get in a high school or college intro course).

u/roland19d · 1 pointr/reddit.com

Not to jack your thread but I would like to put in a plug for John Keegan. He is a wonderful author and has a terrific style of writing (usually a combination of narrative and analytical) that is very hard to put down, once started.

Edit: And his A History of Warfare is an excellent read as well.

u/Alkibiades415 · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

Do you want to stick with Roman stuff? Because Thucydides (history of the Peloponnesian War) is amazing. It is dealing with Greece centuries before the Romans got going, but really fascinating. This is a great way to read it as well, with lots of maps and diagrams and such.

If you want to stick with Roman: Caesar Civil Wars is ok, but I think you find it less compelling than Gallic Wars. You might enjoy the early books of Livy, about the beginnings of Rome. The Roman historian Sallust also has two different monographs: one of the War with Catiline and one about the Jugurthine War in Africa. The latter one might be of interest to you. link

u/CuriousastheCat · 1 pointr/history

I'm interested in this period too and have seen recommended for the immediate aftermath and wars 'Ghost on the Throne' and 'Dividing the Spoils'. If you're interested in the wider historical aftermath for the period and have the appetite for a 1000 page tome then you might want to look at 'From Alexander to Actium'.

​

Unfortunately for this time period (the 'Hellenistic Period') we don't have a good narrative history from early sources like we do for some other periods. Herodotus, Thucydidesand Xenephon tell us the story of Greece from roughly 500-362, then we have a frustrating gap for the rise of Philip II (Alexander's father and seen by many ancients as more impressive than Alexander), then various accounts such as Arrian's of Alexander's conquests 336-323. But then there's a big 60 year gap after Alexander until Polybius's histories start in 264 (by which time this is the story of how the Successor Kingdoms and Carthage alike are ultimately defeated by Rome).

[Links in para above are to excellent scholarly versions: Landmark editions in particular are fantastic with maps, good footnotes and annexes etc. But as these are all ancient and so out of copyright you can probably get old translations for free on kindle etc.]

u/Erithal · 1 pointr/Minecraft

I also recommend the Landmark Thucydides, if you are willing to branch out into ancient Greek classics; it's a certainty that Caesar was familiar with him. This book was another of the texts for my college course, and has maps of the ancient landscape so you can follow along with his description of the Peloponnesian War on an accurate map of the landscape of the time. Without these maps, it would be a wall of text, but being able to trace the movements of the armies with your finger eases the litany of troop deployments amidst unfamiliar geography.

u/indianawalsh · 1 pointr/neoliberal

This is a version that includes copious explanatory notes and maps to help you along. Each paragraph is summarized in the margins, even.

Any translation of Thucydides is going to have readability issues; he's tough to get through even in the original language and the process of translation only exacerbates that issue.

u/fectin · 1 pointr/history

USN war college uses this as a textbook:
https://www.amazon.com/Landmark-Thucydides-Comprehensive-Guide-Peloponnesian/dp/0684827905

For a surprisingly good overview of history generally, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/Cartoon-History-Universe-Volumes-1-7/dp/0385265204

u/FoxPanda32 · 1 pointr/paganism

Like davemidrock said, most of your ancestors are Indo European and a lot of experts and scholars have put together a few well researched reconstructions/hypothesis's of what that original culture would be like and their gods. Here's a few books to start with:

https://www.amazon.com/Search-Indo-Europeans-J-P-Mallory/dp/0500276161

https://www.amazon.com/Horse-Wheel-Language-Bronze-Age-Eurasian/dp/069114818X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4FZR86TV92PSQ8B7PSG9

https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Ancestors-Practicing-Religion-Proto-Indo-Europeans-ebook/dp/B00JF6RKXK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Deep+Ancestors%3A+Practicing+the+Religion+of+the+Proto-Indo-Europeans&qid=1568890408&s=books&sr=1-1*** I have not read this one but I have heard good things about it. It really get's into the whole deity and myth thing.

With Indo-European beliefs you generally get the twin creation myths, an earth goddess, sky god and of course sun/moon deities. It seems with the earth goddesses, it not really an earth goddess that embodies the whole world (although it can be) but more of a local or regional goddess of the land. The problem with that is that most of the land deity's names have been lost to time, unless otherwise recorded (like Arduinna for the Ardiennes area). I'm nowhere near where Arduinna was first honored but she is what I lean toward as far as a goddess. However, I'm actually working through outdoor meditation on perhaps learning what my local land goddesses name is. My first instinct was to find the local indigenous name for the land spirit/goddess, but again, that's been swallowed by the mists of time. So even I have my struggles lol. I think you can figure this out with mindfulness, meditation, patience and reflection. Good luck!

u/srslykindofadick · 1 pointr/history

The Horse, The Wheel, and Language might be up your alley. It's focused quite a bit earlier than Genghis Khan, and is pretty heavy on some fairly dry archaeology, but there's a lot of really interesting insight on the development and reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language and how its speakers affected the cultural development of India, Iran, and Europe.

My personal favorite chapter takes you through the development of a methodology used to determine when the Steppe peoples first mastered horse-riding, which involves looking at the wear patterns on horse teeth from thousands of years BCE and comparing them to wear patterns on modern horse teeth after they've been trained using various materials for bits.

u/mikeber55 · 1 pointr/history

The End of the Bronze Age Princeton University Press https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691025916/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdo_t1_.XcJBbE2K75XH

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World https://www.amazon.com/dp/069114818X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_C1cJBbZV1V1W6

u/IwillMakeYouMad · 1 pointr/linguistics

I read in the book The Horse, the Wheel and Language that the author explains that sometimes nomadic groups in Africa would defeat other groups of people and then establish their language as the one "with prestige". Could it be possible that it happened there?

u/Evolving_Dore · 1 pointr/cursedimages

Honestly a lot of my knowledge just comes from reading online. The Norse aspect of what I wrote comes from this site. A few books I've read that are relevant are Heather O'Donoghue's From Asgard to Valhalla which is about the development of Norse myths and their influence through time. Religions of the Ancient World I haven't read but I read a similar book by the same author (which I can't find) for a class and it was a good overview of ancient religions. Here are some books on Indo-European culture that seem reputable but I haven't read them. 1 and 2

u/Leisureguy · 1 pointr/wicked_edge

Oh, yeah, I love reading. I use Abebooks.com quite a bit. Here's a wonderful crackpot book that's simply fascinating: Julian Jaynes's The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Extremely intriguing.

And a non-crackpot book I highly recommend is by David Anthony: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Eye-opening and fascinating.

u/pentad67 · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

I can't give an expert answer in this but it's been 13 hours and no one else has answered you, so I will just point you to this book. Basically, the cultures around the Caspian Sea, like the Sredny Stog cultures and later peoples in the same area, from around 2500-5000 BC are considered to be the earliest, judging from wear-marks on teeth or other signs in burials.

u/ClassLibToast · 1 pointr/SimPharaohate

Oh my god me too man. I recommend reading through the https://www.ancient.eu/ site if you haven't already. There is also this book about the Late Bronze Age collapse I enjoyed some time ago, maybe you would like it. It's great that we share this passion!

u/Zeriell · 1 pointr/kotakuinaction2

I can relate to that to be honest, I like the incidental details of history like what normal people ate, how they lived, etc more than what king ruled when and who he conquered, although admittedly that might be because the latter just gets way more coverage.

The most interesting parts of that book in my opinion are where they quote a farmer telling his son how to farm, or the hilarious dialogue of pessimism.

Also for the heck of it I might as well link that dry book I mentioned. I didn't like it because it spends most of its time trying to conclusively decide why something happened and then comes to no conclusion, but it did win a lot of rewards and it has decent amounts of info on the bronze age collapse so maybe you'll like it more than I did.

u/fauxRealzy · 1 pointr/mealtimevideos

This is a really fascinating era. There's a book I've been meaning to read about this time period: 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed

u/kwabina · 1 pointr/videos

So, from what I have read recently that Sea Peoples exploited a lot of situations. But, more recent evidence has shown this is really only substantiated in Palestine and a couple of other places. A lot of the other cities that fell had no evidence of Sea Peoples before or after in those regions.

For more information:
https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turning/dp/0691168385/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481215852&sr=8-3&keywords=bronze+age

u/RobSpewack · 1 pointr/aSongOfMemesAndRage

You won't get any disagreement from me. I'm on my second full re-watch, and I begrudgingly stopped it to watch the last 2 eps of GoT S3 and the S4 premiere.

If you're a fan of Rome, check out Rubicon. I bought it based on the recommendation of some folk from the Rome subreddit, and I haven't been disappointed. As a strict show watcher, I get the feeling reading Rubicon regarding Rome is going to be a lot like reading the ASOIAF series after watching GoT. All those little gaps in knowledge, all those things briefly mentioned...all spelled out in glowing prose.

If you have any interest in learning about the Gracchi, Sulla, young Pompey, young Cicero, or the rise of Caeser before the show starts, you'll love Rubicon.

u/NLight381 · 1 pointr/history

For anyone looking for an easy and entertaining introduction to this period, I highly recommended Rubicon by Tom Holland

u/erkomap · 1 pointr/serbia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh7rdCYCQ_U

Poslusaj video ukoliko imas vremena.

Svi izvori upotrebljeni u ovom videu:

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307700763/?tag=freedradio-20



Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of An Empire by Simon Baker
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1846072840/?tag=freedradio-20


The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
http://www.amazon.com/dp/039305974X/?tag=freedradio-20


The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire by Anthony Everitt
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812978153/?tag=freedradio-20


A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0871404230/?tag=freedradio-20


Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400078970/?tag=freedradio-20


The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195325419/?tag=freedradio-20


The Twilight of American Culture by Morris Berman
http://www.amazon.com/dp/039332169X/?tag=freedradio-20


The Fate Of Empires by Sir John Glubb
http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf

u/Blizzaldo · 1 pointr/videos

https://www.amazon.ca/Rubicon-Last-Years-Roman-Republic/dp/1400078970

Holland combines the cultural, political and military history of Rome into a fast-moving narrative. It starts with a summary from the creation of the Republic through the Gracchi brothers up to the beginning of the Social Wars, then settles in to thoroughly explore the end of the Republic.

u/skeptidelphian · 1 pointr/totalwar

Some of the good Rome books I've read over the years:

In the Name of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy

Caesar: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy

The Complete Roman Army by Adrian Goldsworthy

Rubicon: the Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome by Alberto Angela

Now, as someone lucky enough to have lived 6 weeks in Rome, the best prep is to somehow get yourself to La Città Eterna and visit where it all went down. The Palatine Hill and the Appian Way are places with less tourists and allow you to contemplate the power and splendor of Rome.

u/NyQuil_Delirium · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

It's not explicitly about the conflict in the Middle East, but Destiny Disrupted provides a ton of good context for the Islamic perspective.

u/tinkthank · 1 pointr/videos

By who? We're told by our media that it's basically the Shi'as vs. the Sunnis. Anyone who picks up a book on Islam and Islamic history will see that there is more to Islam and Muslims than a bullet point summary.

Yes, the vast majority of Muslims are Sunni. They're divided into 4 schools of Islamic thought, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali. The Shi'ites aren't a sect by themselves. 13% of Muslims in the world are Shi'i, and they're divided into further sects such as the Twelvers, the Zaidis, the Ismailis, Alawites, etc. 80% of those 13% of Shi'ites are Twelvers. Then you have the Ibadi sect, which is roughly 1% of all Muslims, mostly concentrated in Oman and pockets in North Africa.

Those are the traditional sects, the newer "sects" consist of Salafis, Ikhwani fundamentalists, Progressives, Secularists, etc. Most of these newer sects are more of a response to the political situation in the Muslim world over the past 100 years or so. Almost all the newer sects were born towards the end of the colonial era to the present era.

If you want to have a comprehensive view of Islam that is easy to read and understand for a non-Muslim, I would suggest reading Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary

If you don't want to read a book, then check out r/Islam's wiki page that covers this topic in a well written and easy to understand manner

http://www.reddit.com/r/islam/wiki/theology#wiki_what_are_the_sects_of_islam.3F

u/chootrangers · 1 pointr/worldnews
u/SuchStealth · 1 pointr/history

"Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes"

>In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe-a place it long perceived as primitive and disorganized-had somehow hijacked destiny.

It's truly a classic, a must-read and it's on Amazon for 10 bucks.

u/costofanarchy · 1 pointr/shia

I forgot to add this in my other comment (which focused on academic books), but if you want a really easy but informative/accessible read, perhaps comparable to Lesley Hazleton's book, you might want to check out Tamim Ansary's Destiny Disrupted, which is a history of the world through Islamic eyes (not exclusively focused on Shi'ism) though. I'd recommend the audiobook specifically, as it's read by the author.

u/cryptovariable · 1 pointr/news

The problem is that most readily available books are written through the lens of 9/11. That's what people want to read about, and that is what is on authors' minds. 9/11 is one link in the chain.

Older books that take a more in-depth approach are difficult to find or very expensive.

Jihad In Classical And Modern Islam: A Reader is a book that takes a broader approach but is difficult to find. The edition I read was from the mid-90s.

A good recent book is Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes

I agree with this review:

>The European outline of history has always been the westward succession of leadership, from Greece to Rome to northern Europe to America, a viewpoint of manifest destiny that has justified much imperialism and jingoism. An Islamic history, Ansary says, would be an expansion from a center, rather like ripples spreading from the event of the Hijra in 622 AD, an expansion that should have been destined to encompass the whole world. For the first thousand years of this history, it was perfectly plausible for the most educated classes of Islamic societies to maintain such a viewpoint, Ansary maintains. But then that 'destiny' was disrupted by the unforeseen economic and technological revolutions of the rude barbarians of Europe. Such a perception of history, as a calamitous disruption of the proper order of things, underlies the resentment and hostility of Muslims throughout the Middle World toward the West.

and

>The second half of the book depicts the delayed, astonished, dismayed recognition throughout the Middle World that the despised barbarians of the West had stolen history, thwarted destiny, invaded and infiltrated and corrupted - yes! corrupted! - Islamic civilization. Ansary's analyses of European developments will surely seem simplistic and imbalanced to readers with detailed knowledge of their own cultural history, but then perhaps that's how it all looks from another world. More significant for American readers will be his accounts of the evolution of various responses in Islam to the pressures of westernization, ranging from secularism to fanaticism.

Had I reviewed that book I would have written something nearly identical.

u/flagamuffin · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

Thank you very much. I think my professor's source was Ansary's Destiny Disrupted, which we've been reading as a sort of overview of Islamic history. I'm enjoying it, although it doesn't profess to be a history book exactly.

u/RUacronym · 1 pointr/Unexpected

If we're comparing ourselves to the Roman Empire timeline than we're probably somewhere near the fall of the Republic which could be attributed to the reasons you mentioned. But the golden age of the Empire lasted a good 200 years after that, so we still have a good time ahead of us.

The guy who did The History of Rome podcast wrote a book about this very period in the Empire just before the fall of the Republic.

u/gedankenexperimenter · 1 pointr/Cortex

A random selection of non-fiction recommendations for /u/MindOfMetalAndWheels:

u/ezk3626 · 1 pointr/DebateAChristian

> Shortly afterward, the Roman Republic ended.

Mike Duncan of the History of Rome podcast fame wrote a history of the two generations before Caesar. The history of Rome was filled with class warfare and the fall of the Republic happened many times in its history.

u/yugias · 1 pointr/ColinsLastStand

I have always been fascinated with ancient Greece. I'm currently more than half way through Ancient Greece, Pomeroy et. al so a natural progression would be reading something on the roman empire.
I've been eyeing SPQR. It is a widely praised book, so it could be a good substitute of "The Storm Before the Storm", although it covers a wider period. "The Storm Before the Storm" also looks good, and I would be more than willing to read it. "Red famine" and "1491" also attracted my attention, I remember hearing about "1491" in Rogan's conversation with Colin.

u/alriclofgar · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

As a general rule, historians love books -- and this one, if he hasn't read it already, is a great text for someone who loves Rome: https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225

Beyond that, it's hard to give advice without knowing him. Possible gifts could include books, movies, documentaries, games, jewelry and other reproductions, militaria, or real (or replica) Roman coins.

I'm personally always fond of reproduced artefacts, and you can get pretty much anything depending on his taste. For myself, the perfect gift would be some reproduction Roman pottery or glass -- but I'm always looking for something cool to eat or drink out of, and other people like other sorts of things so it's difficult to advise without really knowing him.

u/fluffy_warthog10 · 1 pointr/Gunpla

Get out of my head.

For the last week or so (I recently read a new history of Rome and have been wanting to do an 'imperial' paintjob on a model. Apparently there's already a white/gold Zaku in "Build Fighters Try," so I was thinking of adding violet stripes onto gold trim on a white background to resemble a Roman senator or priest's toga.

u/RepublicanFoetus · 1 pointr/politics

I promise, I do not receive any remuneration from this link:

https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225

This book is amazing, even if you're not into Roman poop. Audiobook available too.

I was washing dishes today and listened to it again, chapter six, for the, hmmmm, fourteenth-time?

u/callmejay · 1 pointr/INTP

You should read Sapiens.

u/manatee1010 · 1 pointr/DebateAnAtheist

I think the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind might be an enlightening read for you. Particularly the first half has great information about the emergence of religion and how certain religions came to be dominant in the world we know today.

u/javalikecoffee · 1 pointr/politics

It’s not a mistake. A good read of which one chapter talks about the purpose of corporations and limited liability and the social good it creates: Sapiens

(Obviously within limitations; eg corporate vale should be breached under fraud and certain circumstances)

u/VaeSapiens · 1 pointr/Polska

Ostatnio Dan Carlin znany z swojego niesamowitego podcastu wydał książkę

u/MusicandWrestling · 1 pointr/short
u/suninabox · 1 pointr/philosophy

Just read Seneca Epistles 1 and Episltes 2.

These two include pretty much everything you'll find in Letters from a Stoic, which is one of the best books.

I highly recommend the letters on the Shortness of Life, On the Torment of Death, and On Rest and Restlessness.

You can pretty much ignore ignore anything he has to say about factual aspects of the universe, since by that time the Ionian scientific revolution had already started to fade, so there isn't much of value there, although Seneca tends to take a refreshing humility to the limits of knowledge, although occasionally he over steps the boundaries of what is reasonable to claim to know (specifically about the nature of "Nature").

u/runit8192 · 1 pointr/minimalism

Seneca's Letters from a Stoic is a great philosophy book that has many suggestions on how to live a simple and fulfilling life. It was written ~2000 years ago, but it still blows me away at how relevant the material is to today. Here's the translation I have read: http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103

u/Catafrato · 1 pointr/LucidDreaming

This is a very good video introduction to Stoicism.

The main ancient Stoic books that have survived are Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, Epictetus's Discourses and Enchiridion, which is basically a summary of the Discourses, and Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and Essays. All these editions are relatively new translations and, in Seneca's case, abridged, but they will give you an idea of what Stoicism is about. I suggest you first read the Enchiridion (it is no longer than 40 pages) and then the Meditations (around 150-200 pages), and then dig deeper if you get interested.

There are other ancient sources, and quite a lot of modern work is being done currently, but those are the ones I suggest you begin with.

Then there are very active modern Stoic communities, like /r/Stoicism, the Facebook group, and NewStoa, with its College of Stoic Philosophers, that lets you take a very good four month long course by email.

The great thing about Stoicism as a way of life is that it has neither the blind dogmatism of organized religion nor the ardent skepticism of atheism. It puts the soul back in the universe, in a way, and, on the personal level, empowers you to take responsibility for your actions and to take it easy with what you cannot control.

u/Pithy_Lichen · 1 pointr/AskMen

Epictetus and Seneca are the two other big names in stoicism, although I'll cop to not having read either (or Marcus Aurelius - my reading list is seriously backed up).

u/exmos_gf · 1 pointr/exmormon

Yes!!!

Philosophy: Love of Wisdom.

I've found that the stoics, especially, are really great. The Greeks were constantly looking to answer the question of "How, then, should we live?" It's the same question that we look to answer as we turn away from a TSCC church, isn't it? You can read one of Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" every day in place of scripture and get more out of it than you ever did from BoM.

u/ctolsen · 1 pointr/philosophy
u/Sector17 · 1 pointr/minimalism

Seneca: Letters from a Stoic.
Short letters from Seneca, a wise Roman statesman and the tutor and political advisor of the Emperor Nero.

Really well written, poetic letters with many words of wisdom in them!

  • It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
  • A great fortune is a great slavery.
  • Money, which ever since it began to be regarded with respect, has caused the ruin of the true honour of things; we become alternately merchants and merchandise, and we ask, not what a thing truly is, but what it costs
u/Corsaer · 1 pointr/AskReddit
  • Currently reading The Discourses of Epictetus. (Philosophy, Greek Stoicism)

  • Last book I read was The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. (war, gore and testosterone that takes place in the year 40,000)

  • Emergency book to be always kept in the car until I finish it is The Living Dead. (zombie anthology)
  • Toilet book Whitman: Poetry and Prose. (my favorite poet)

    I'm kind of all over the place it seems.
u/Human_Evolution · 1 pointr/Stoicism

Penguin Classics is the most recommended. I finished it a few months ago and loved it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469

u/rockyrook · 1 pointr/Stoicism

I’m not 100% confident in my response as I’m trying to recall from memory ... I don’t have my books with me now.

The Enchiridion is just the handbook and really good summary of his Discourses. It is a book on its own. It is included in the Penguin classics addition of Discourses and selected writings: https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=epictitus&qid=1551101547&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I will add too that if you are looking to buy this book, I would suggest you go with the Oxford World Classics edition. Penguin leaves out whole chapters in Discourses, while Oxford has all of them: https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Fragments-Handbook-Oxford-Classics/dp/0199595186/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=epictitus&qid=1551101610&s=gateway&sr=8-4

u/milophilomilo · 1 pointr/Stoicism

I would highly recommend starting with Epictetus and Socrates.

Stay away from the popular marketing stoics of our age, as they teach that stoicism is not about exalted truth and virtue, but that it is about lying to gain power, fame, fortune, and money. That is the exact OPPOSITE of True Stoicism and a sign of our times.

Many good recommendations here: http://twitter.com/philocowboy

"Instead of the lying marketing stoics and foolish professors, read Epictetus who honored Socrates: https://www.amazon.com/Discourses-Selected-Writings-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449469/ "

u/admorobo · 1 pointr/suggestmeabook

The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating The Dark Ages 400-1000 covers The Carolingian Dynasty as well as other ruling powers throughout the time period.

u/Its_all_good_in_DC · 1 pointr/MapPorn

My favorite book on the subject is The Inheritance of Rome by Chris Wickham. The book is very detailed and it was thoroughly eye-opening to read.

u/CMStephens · 1 pointr/history

This book: The Inheritance of Rome is a rather good one on the time period.

But yeah, as said, there's 1100 years of history. Man didn't have to 'rediscover reason' - that's way too simplistic.

u/TacticusPrime · 1 pointr/MapPorn

Eh, no, not many. If you want a good overview of the end of the Roman system and the transition to various "feudal" ones I would suggest this book.

u/grashnak · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

If you're looking for a broad survey book of the time period 400-1000, I would recommend Chris Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome (2009)

Great book. Goes a little beyond (a lot beyond) Italy to basically talk about every part of the Roman Empire, plus some stuff in Ireland and Scandinavia for comparative purposes, but really gives you a good broad sense of everything going on in the post-Roman world.

u/Daynebutter · 1 pointr/ancienthistory

I've been listening to Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather. He goes into detail on the multiple factors of why it fell and focuses on the human element of it through personal accounts of the time, and how modern historians understand it.

Here is the link to the paperback version:

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195325419/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Ps2pDbWPZ9QQS

u/Leadpipe · 1 pointr/AskReddit

There's an awful lot of fiction in this thread. My reading tends more toward the classical history end of things.

Favorites in this regard are:

Caesar: Life of a Colossus

Ghost on the Throne

The Fall of the Roman Empire

u/Irish_machiavelli · 1 pointr/changemyview

You are clearly a “true believer” in your own system, because you are defending an abstract concept with passion and vigor. Not necessarily a bad thing, but own up to it, because that's what you're doing and that's what you advocate; a non-existent system; you know, like heaven or nirvana. With that said, let’s try to grapple with a couple chunks of your reasoning.

First off, it's not bullshit. You are advancing a theoretical model that has, by your own admission, never existed. So then, how is one supposed to critique this model in a way that you can't defend in some equally rhetorical way? One probably cannot, therefore it's on par with a religious ideology. However, I’m going to give it a try, because I like to think people have the ability to change positions when confronted with new arguments.

On the Roman bit, I’m not critiquing that you didn’t write a thesis, I’m saying you lack nuance because you clearly don't know what you're talking about, yet insist on debating me on the particulars of a system of which you lack a sufficient amount of knowledge; again much like a religious argument against something like evolution.

Patronage was the dominant societal glue that transcended the fall of the republic into the era of empire. That’s not just my position, that’s the position of almost every Roman scholar who has written on the topic. Further, the only scholars that I’ve read who disagree are also the ones who also believed in the genetic inferiority of the “barbarians.”

“Corruption” is like the devil/Satan of your way of thinking. It’s a throwaway term that can be used to vilify everything, but actually means nothing. On that note, monarchy is still the norm, and I'd bet you'd agree, but the problem is that you agree for the wrong reasons. A strong executive branch was central to the Roman Republic and it is central to our own system, because the framers were essentially obsessed with the Roman model. In fact, the attendees of the Constitutional Convention debated the merits of a triumvirate, when figuring out how the Executive branch would function. So, in saying it was outside the scope of the debate, I was attempting to allow you to politely bow out of a topic in which you are outclassed. It is well within the scope, but I just don’t suppose that the finer points can be debated meaningfully until you attain more knowledge on the topic. Rest assured “corruption” is not really the answer you think it is.

So, you see, your understanding of Roman history doesn't require a thesis, but guess what? Corruption is baked into the entire system. The Constitutional framers knew it, just as the Romans did. Corruption is part of the political process, and arguably is the political process itself.

Now, let’s move away from Rome, and talk about your proposition itself. Am I defending our democracy as it stands? Of course not; it has many problems. However, you’re seemingly more interested in rhetoric than logic, so let’s play the rhetorical game. Democracy is bullshit, because the people don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Guess who ordered that Socrates be put to death? Guess who wanted to maintain segregation in the south? Guess who has stood in the way of LGBT rights? It wasn’t a monarch, the corporate system, or any other abstract evil; it was the people.

Now more rhetoric: What system has higher quality? I’d say your model is totally lacking in quality, because it would assure majority rule. You think of the people in highly vaunted terms, but you should not. The people are every bit as tyrannical and misguided as the leaders that they elect, and that’s the true problem with our current system. Our government is designed, in part, to safe guard the minority against the very system you advocate. Could the civil rights bill have been passed with your system? No. Nor could any of the other laws founded on progressivism. The majority doesn’t know shit about shit. PERIOD. Your majority rule concept is shallow, but that’s no matter, because you know in your heart of hearts that you’re right. You know; just like the religious.

“actually, yes it does. my approval +50% of people.” Okay, so do I really need to point out the flaw here? You say we don’t have a democracy, then say you plus 50% is required for approval. I struggle to articulate the silliness of this statement, so I guess I’ll merely say that you know exactly what I was saying. You advocate a non-existent system, yet democracy has and does still exist. Therefore, your definition is completely irrelevant. Also, what if me plus 50% agreed you’re totally wrong? Would you still be wrong, or would you suddenly advocate Gandhi’s position that “the truth is still the truth in a minority of one?” Hmmm…

So, have I come across as a condescending dick? Yes. Is there a purpose behind it? Yes. I believe a lot of the same things you do, but when you run around talking about invisible chains and the subverted will of the people, you make progressives look just as dogmatic as ultra conservatives, because you are advancing a belief, not a logical argument. Below is a list of books I’d suggest you read, if you really, REALLY want to know about the topics upon which you currently so freely expound, and the ones which have informed my viewpoint. Your dogmatic tone and the fact that I have little faith that your viewpoint is changeable makes me trust that you’ll need to have the last word on the topic, so I’ll give it to you. However, I do implore you to actually allow the holes in your way of thinking to bother you… at least some day.
Here’s the list
http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Roman-Republic-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140449345

http://www.amazon.com/The-True-Believer-Movements-Perennial/dp/0060505915

http://www.amazon.com/Brilliant-Solution-Inventing-American-Constitution/dp/0156028727

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fall-Roman-Empire-Barbarians/dp/0195325419

u/WanderAndDream · 1 pointr/ancientrome

This is one of my favorite books on Roman history, and it focuses closely on the relationship of the Empire and the Germanic tribes on its borders. It's written in an engrossing narrative style and is very easy to read.

"The Fall of the Roman Empire" by Peter Heather.

https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Roman-Empire-History-Barbarians/dp/0195325419/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

u/Hezekiah_the_Judean · 1 pointr/history

Here are two possible books. One is "How Rome Fell" by Adrian Goldsworthy: http://www.amazon.com/How-Rome-Fell-Death-Superpower/dp/0300164262

And here is "The Fall of the Roman Empire" by Peter Heather: http://www.amazon.com/The-Fall-Roman-Empire-Barbarians/dp/0195325419

u/qwteruw11 · 1 pointr/history

Alexander of Macedon 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography

https://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Macedon-356-323-B-C-Historical/dp/0520071662

Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-West-Forgotten-Byzantine-Civilization/dp/0307407969

Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War (General Military)

https://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Desert-Ancient-General-Military/dp/1846031087

u/Deadhydra · 1 pointr/fantasywriters

May I recommend the following book

Its absolutely essential reading for all questions of movement and supply.

I would say though that for a warband (assuming something Viking-esque) that 20-40 miles per day sounds reasonable (depending on terrain and availability of supplies obviously). 20 miles standard, up to 40 miles if they are really, really pushing it (and don't assume they can keep it up for long).

I am assuming they are on foot. On horse it's a different story. Different breeds of horse have different levels of stamina. But the average horse is generally more delicate than the average human. If your warband ride their horses for 40 miles in a day they are likely to have a lot of dead horses.

I've heard a figure quoted of about 12-15 miles per day with horses - if you want to keep them fit and healthy.

Yes, yes, I know various horse nomads could do more than that. As I said, different breeds of horses.

u/spike · 1 pointr/history
u/petrov76 · 1 pointr/AskHistorians

What's your thoughts on "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army" by Donald Engels?

https://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Great-Logistics-Macedonian-Army/dp/0520042727

u/traumazein · 1 pointr/collapse

Read Tainter on the Collapse of Complex Societies, and then come back here:

https://www.amazon.ca/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Joseph-Tainter/dp/052138673X

u/Buffalo__Buffalo · 0 pointsr/philosophy

>For those interested in Seneca anybody ever, I can highly recommend this superb collection. Reading him played a major part in sparking my interest in philosophy.

FTFY

u/slomo68 · 0 pointsr/MensRights

Not entirely true... Read Tainter's _Collapse_of_ComplexSocieties for (in my view) a more nuanced explanation. Tainter's argument is basically that societies collapse when their investments in marginal complexity become more costly than their benefits. In Rome's case, the investments in hierarchy and military power paid off when Rome was able to expand its territory and loot vassal states, but when the frontier was sufficiently remote and poor, the benefits did not justify the costs. At that point, the Roman empire "collapsed", in the sense that its political structure dropped down to a level of complexity that matched its needs.

u/Just_Call_Me_Cactus · 0 pointsr/Military

Read this back in high school.

u/Discoamazing · 0 pointsr/history

By far the most interesting and well written "popular history" of republican Rome that I've read is "Rubicon" By Tom Holland.

He paints a beautiful picture of the city itself and life within it, as well as of the various people who lived there.

Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Rubicon-Last-Years-Roman-Republic/dp/1400078970

I highly recommend that you look over the first few pages at least, you'll be hooked right away.

u/Wylding · 0 pointsr/Christianity

Here’s a professor at Cambridge...check it out https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=GF7KG2HEHPB7148QEDFZ

If this isn’t up to your standards, perhaps you’re not honestly searching for the truth.

u/Tennarkippi · 0 pointsr/AskThe_Donald

Because humans have agreed upon rules that have evolved to be socially beneficial. This set of rules could take the form of cultural norms, language, or a constitution. What's important is that these systems (usually) exist because the confer some type of net benefit to the community that adopts them. In this case we can weigh the pros and cons of allowing non-citizens to vote in school board elections:

pro: They have more control over how their child is educated.

con: Inherent cultural norms could mean they advocate for a less effective education system.

And we can weigh the pros and cons of allowing non-citizens to vote in presidential elections:

pros: greater representation of the total world (idk I'm kinda reaching for this one)

cons: China can just decide our president.

Because we want a system that does the most good for citizens of the US we can easily say that allowing non-citizens to vote in presidential elections is bad. I'd argue that allowing non-citizens to vote in school board elections is much more up for debate.

If you're interested in the argument I was trying to present in the first paragraph I recommend Sapiens. The way Harari explains cultural norms is incredible! :)

Edit: grammar

u/pointmanzero · -1 pointsr/Shitstatistssay

>Your being friends with a relatively high-profile engineer really does not make your plans more coherent.

Oh my holy titty fucking christ. Continually harping on the "you have not explained this to my satisfaction" without specific questions is getting old. I am honestly not sure about what part of my plan is not coherent. Honestly. the inability to accurately describe what is inside my mind to others is my single greatest failing as a human being and I readily admit that.

  1. Incorporate and prepare for resource allocation.
  2. Begin online media campaign to raise awareness and accept resources.
    3.Build first facility to demonstrate feasibility of tech and iron out design complications yet to be realized. (this includes the Hughes-001 a scout drone of my design) Which will serve a variety of functions including safety and scientific purposes.
  3. Introduce long range drone designs and test feasibility at the now SLE-0001.
  4. Optimize agriculture production. (I plan to fly in Ron finley and Carleen Madigan and compensate them for their time) Train the first OFH agriculture specialists and prepare them for exponential growth.
  5. Begin deployment of decentralized manufacturing grid. Supporters will receive 3D printers in their home that they can use for free but we can also remotely command to print parts we need. This is crucially essential to building the sheer number of drone chassis that will be needed within a very short amount of time.
  6. Strategically build out SLE-0002 SLE-0003 SLE-0004 etc... There is a reason why I have been going around for the past 2 years securing hundreds of acres of land. I plan to fucking use it.
  7. Connect SLE's using the long range drones in a metropolitan area. (this may take several years to do the first time)
  8. Begin Operation POLR (exponential growth through the path of least resistance)
  9. Begin A.I. program.


    Do you want me to give you my business plan word for word so you steal it? No thanks.

    > Can you honestly look at what you've typed here about the deployment of the Macedonian army and not understand why someone would think you are delusional?

    Not if that person is smart enough to understand that historical reference and the significance of the acheivment. Unheard of at the time.

    > If your plans really made sense you would be able to convey the gist of them in a way that similarly made sense. Yet you haven't... or were you going to claim again that I'm too stupid to understand it?

    Help me to help you Let me just walk you through every single facet of my plan so that you can run to Oprah and declare it your idea. If you have specific questions just ask them and I will try to help you.

    >So here you are claiming and claiming again that you and whoever are working on something that will revolutionize everything! while simultaneously shitting all over anyone skeptical of your claims and anything that contradicts you. Please take another moment to think critically about why people have responded to you the way they have.

    I am not pitching perpetual motion. Just an overall societal vision of using soon to be common technologies to disrupt industries and establish a new parcel delivery system that generates excessive energy surplus as a by product using less than 10,000 supporters out of 7 billion potential supporters. Culminating in a connected one world automated drone grid. This is why I am waiting for you to have an aha! eureka! moment.

    The reason why you believe I am insulting your intelligence is because I have explained this plan countless times and (I would estimate) less than 5% of people get it. And these are really smart people I talk to.
    So I have developed a callousness to the nay sayers.
    I don't have time to explain to you the way I see the world. You are probably not capable of ever getting it. And that is ok.

    You would think a human being that have been alive for the rise of cell phones would be more receptive to the possibility of this.

    >Perhaps you should combine this thought:

    Oh are you a therapist now?