Historical Study Books

I devoured this book in one sitting! What fun to learn obscure facts! If you enjoy learning the quirky side of history, you'll love all of these books.
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This book provided a few interesting stories but, nothing awe inspiring. I would have to read stories / contributions from other ethnicities for a more balanced approach. But I guess that why it is called "his story".
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This book gives little snippets of history information. Each subject gets a few short, well-written paragraphs, plus a few accompanying illustrations. A lot of the stories are of the "If he'd only turned left instead of right, history would be...
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Kennedy vindicates the editors' choice to devote an entire volume of the Oxford History series to the long decade of depression and war: 1929-1945. He demonstrates that the stresses and changes visited on the nation during this time are equally...
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David M. Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 is simply not a very good book. On one level, it is a meticulous, informative accounting largely of the political history of the New Deal. It is full of...
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David Kennedy's "Freedom from Fear" is a very uneven read. It is as if the section on the Depression was written by Kennedy and the section on WWII was assigned to a graduate assistant. The Depression segment is well enough done. It contains...
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This history of Scotland and Ireland and the effect its immigrants had on the US is fascinating and rich with detail and description. A must read for people of that descent and to anyone who enjoys a well written history and political analysis.
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As a Scottish Highlander having read widely on Scottish history this book was the most infuriating i have ever read. The only possible reason this book could be recommended would be to raise awareness of the disgraceful ignorance and mythmaking...
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"Born Fighting" by James Webb is a strange book by a troubled man. Ostensibly, it is about the Scots-Irish and how they shaped America. It is actually a tersely written, deeply personal account of what it means to be a descendant of Scots-Irish...
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Amazon has listed "World History for Dummies" as a computer/tech book. This is obviously a mistake. It is a history book.
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I couldn't go past 100 pages. What I read was written in a very disorganized way. It keeps going back and forward in time which makes it very difficult to follow. Then it will go through hundreds of years in a paragraph while devoting a lot...
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World History for Dummies is valuable if you have already read more extensive literature on world history. In that respect, I would recommend it as a refresher, a tool to jar your memory of more indepth texts.

Major advancements in western...
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Both of you who have read any of my other reviews about college and university history books know that I like to gripe about the lack of academic quality in this genre, particularly regarding the histories of individual institutions. This book is...
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Guy Debord's THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is one of the most widely quoted and important works of the past fifty years. Society as spectacle has become one of the most frequently used descriptors for modern consumer society and the media that...
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I'm not sure if the translation is confusing, or the ideas being presented are confusing, or both. But this philosophical book is a lot of words written without saying much. I'm writing this because I purchased the book after reading the 17...
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Debord was a key member of the Situationists, that notable group of Parisien flaneurs (well, drunks, to be frank) who thought that by traversing the patchwork of the city on foot they could bring down the imposter structures of capitalist society...
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This was not an easy read, but it was worth it. I received my MBA in 1976. Much of this book was an explanation of the effects of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) on current investment practices. He assumes that the reader is well versed...
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Maybe this is a great intro to classic theory, but then there is something wrong with classical thinking.

My one-star rating is for his "forgiveness" of the Long Term Capital Management gang, since no one could have predicted what...
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Bernstein still is not able( or willing) to carefully weigh the additional historical and empirical evidence that has been presented since 1996,when his " Against the Gods " appeared,concerning the reliance of " modern " finance theory on...
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Walking With Grandfather: The Wisdom of Lakota Elders
This is a very special book, in my opinion.It sets out to address the myths that have been propagated because of fear and predudice surrounding the history of the white incursion into...
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I first bought this book on a whim during my political science college days, but found great enjoyment and lasting insights. It's been a regular re-read on my shelf for the last 15 years. Most of all, the book unveils the themes of innovation,...
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Is book is basically a compilation of other peoples writings with bits of the authors commentary sandwitched between them. Little to no insight. If you want to learn about modernity this book is not for you. If you've already read the work by the...
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