Don't Know Much About History . . .

[Sara_ELL]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Cindy C." 
<cindysphynx at c...> wrote:

[SNIP] 

> Has anyone read any good non-fiction history books they could 
recommend?  

[SNIP}

De-luking briefly as I enjoy history almost as much as I enjoy 
reading ... well, Harry Potter books

My pet areas - 

1. The French Revolution - just because the events that occurred 
during that time, and the politicians and characters (and NOT just 
one Marie Antoinette) are at times so remarkable as to seem 
fictional. Case in point - read about the amazing life of a M. C 
Desoulins and his incredibly unfortunate choice of wedding guests, 
not to mention Charlotte Corday and well, take it from there...

Fiction - try the brilliant Hillary Mantel's " A Place of Greater 
Safety". I found it very readable (in fact it encouraged me to look 
further into the facts behind her fairly accurate fiction - what 
historical novels should encourage) and it is a fairly nice 
introduction to the era. It is as far away from those 
horrendous "Scarlet Pimpernel" books as you can get.

Non-Fiction - start with Christopher Hibbert's "The French 
Revolution" which is very readable, accurate and not the size of a 
doorstop (ie an introduction).

My favorite non-fiction historical book (ever) is RR 
Palmer's "Twelve who Ruled" which describes the men, background and 
actions of the French politicians who formed the infamous "Commitee 
of Public Safety" who ruled France during the period of the Terror 
during the revolution. It was written during the 1930's and the main 
testament to it's quality (ie historical/factual) is that it has 
been regularly republished and is referred to by most other English-
language books about the revolution.

2. The classics/Roman history 
Fiction - As mentioned before, Robert Graves' "I Claudius" 
and "Claudius the God" are brilliant (IMO, of course). If you're 
able to catch the BBC TV show that was adapted from it in the 1970s 
(with fabulous acting overshadowing the distinctly dodgy production 
values - though seeing John Hurt dancing in a blonde wig and bikini 
needs some recovering from), even better - it should be out on DVD.

Non-Fiction - go to the the source material by the Roman biographers 
Tacitus and Suetonius to find out how little of "I Claudius" was 
made up. Very, very readable - much like a tabloid account of the 
lives of the powerful and unhinged, really and just as addictive.

Happy reading!

Sara-ELL (depressed that she can't think of a single decent book 
about African history, excluding South Africa)