Don't Know Much About History . . .

[ameliagoldfeesh]

> --- 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}


A Goldfeesh says,

I know you said you weren't looking for American history but I'd 
recommend *anything* by David McCullough.  (I would love to be as 
talented as he when I grow up *g*.)

Anyway, recently I read a very interesting book, _King Leopold's 
Ghost_, by Adam Hochschild.  It is about colonial Africa, namely the 
Belgian Congo.  I was a history major, but African history has 
always been my weakest spot, and this book was a real eye-opener for 
me.  King Leopold, under a humanitarian guise, enslaved and 
plundered the Belgian Congo, eventually causing around 10 million 
deaths.

It is a very compelling book, getting into how Leopold was found out 
by some concerned missionaries, reporters and a young clerk.

One of my favorite history books which I'd recommend to anyone is 
about the very early history of the Spanish in America.  It is 
called _Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America_ by Alvar 
Nunez Cabeza De Vaca.  It is the first book written about the New 
World and it tells of the adventures which befell a group of 
conquistadors who were stranded in Florida and eight years later 
(though diminished to 4 men) made it to Mexico City in 1536.  This 
is a non-fiction book, written by one of the four men as a report to 
Charles V.  


A Goldfeesh
(who wishes she had appreciated Johnny Cash earlier, as she just 
recently bought a double CD and now knows what she had missed)