I'm reading "The Rise and Fall of North American Indians: From Prehistory Through Geronimo," by William Brandon. Quite good so far. I like the subject matter, of course, and Brandon has an engaging style. If the topic interests you, it is worth picking up.
On the topic of good history books, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is considered by some to be among the greatest books ever written.
I checked out the Amazon page on that, and it looks great. I'll keep an eye out for it the next time I'm at the book store. Do you happen to know of any good books on Ancient Greece?
I don't. I haven't read much on ancient Greece. Most of what I've read concerns the UK, or Norse peoples, or the New World (particularly the latter), since those are my primary interests. I need to branch out and read more history of other parts of the world. I'd like a good history of China, for example.
@Steerpike: if you have interest in indigenous history in the Americas, I have a couple of recommendations (which you may have read) for the American southwest: War of a Thousand Deserts (Brain DeLay) and Shadows at Dawn (Karl Jacoby). DeLay's book focuses on how Apache raids into Mexico in the first half of the 19th century changed American perceptions on what is now the American Southwest, and how these perceptions fueled the Mexican-American War. Jacoby's work looks at a single massacre of indigenous peoples in Arizona in the late 19th century, examining it from multiple perspectives. Both are solid works.
The ones I've heard are good, they were on my reading list at University but I never got around to them, are : Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenic Times by Thomas R Martin Ancient Greece: A History of Eleven Cities by Paul Cartledge A History of the Classical Greek World: 478-323BC by P.J Rhodes And also contemporary sources like Xenophones' 'History of My Times', and Thucydides' 'History of the Peloponnesian War' are well worth checking out. Good translations of them can be found easily by my best friends at Penguin Classics (I swear, I'm not on their pay roll) and also you'll be able to easily find these texts translated online, though I can't vouch for the quality of the translations sometimes - Project Gutenberg will be worth consulting.
I loved Nathaniel Philbrick's Sea of Glory, about the US Exploring Expedition. It was this expedition that supplied many of the items in the Smithsonian institution. The extent of the journey (Canary Islands, Antarctica, Chile, Easter Island, the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific) during that time period is really pretty amazing to think about. I really like history books, although mostly what I like is US-based history since roughly 1912. Sometimes I'll go a tad earlier, though. Another one I loved was called Power, Faith and Fantasy, which is about the US history in the Middle East since the American Revolution.
Thanks. I just remembered another Ancient Greek writer of history. Herotodus is his name. I remember this because I saw a 16th or 17th century Latin translation of his book in a used book store not too long ago. It was selling for something like $20,000.
That's amazing. Imagine having that book! I've heard of Herotodus but I've never read him. I'm aware his reputation is solid though, he's a canon-classic. When in doubt, trust the canon. I think that might end up becoming my motto.
