A Shot in the Dark

[gnomi]

Because you are all such well-read, intelligent folks, I turn to you, my collected friends, for book selections. I've been doing a heck of a lot of non-fiction reading these days. And I'm using our public library more than I probably have since we moved to Brookline 9 years ago. So now I'm looking for suggestions of books to read on the following subjects:

-- The sack of Rome
-- Medieval France (I figure I've read about the Bourbon kings and am now reading about the period through the Merovingian kings, so I need something to bridge the historical gap)
-- Development of European country boundaries up to the Middle Ages (I keep getting stymied while reading these books on French history because the books don't include maps, and I'm very, very, very fond of maps).

Eh, and toss in anything else you think I should read. My to-read list is extensive, but I'm always looking to add to it.

(yeah, I'm a big, honkin' history geek. I admit it.)

Comments

[cheshyre]

I keep getting stymied while reading these books on French history because the books don't include maps, and I'm very, very, very fond of maps
Don't have any book recommendations, but I second that frustration. I'm trying to read a history of London that has a similar problem. Talking about travel from Westminster to the Tower doesn't make sense if one doesn't have a firm grounding on where they are in relation to one another.
Unfortunately, the only check-outable maps I've been able to find in the library are in modern tourism books, which are far from ideal.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

It's nice to know I'm not the only one who wants to know where these things are, not just that they exist. If I find a good historical map of London, I'll let you know.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Read Mayflower Bastard, by David Lindsay.

Also The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough.

and (though it's fiction) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Read Mayflower Bastard, by David Lindsay.

Also The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough.

Ooh, thanks! I'll have to look for these in my local library.

and (though it's fiction) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

I've actually read the first ~30 pages of this. I was unable to finish it (was very offended by the whole tone Diamant took toward the mitzvah of mikvah, sufficiently so that I was glad that I'd borrowed the book and hadn't paid for it. Others' mileage may (most likely widely) vary).

[magid.livejournal.com]

There are atlases of medieval history out there. I know Penguin has one, and I think there's at least one other sitting on a shelf at home (I can't seem to come up with a title for the life of me, though).

If you haven't read it already, Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror is very interesting (which reminds me I should check out her other stuff).

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll have to look for the Penguin atlas. Mmmm...atlases. :-)

And I'll look for the Tuchman book, too. Thanks for the recommendation.

[cheshyre]

You know, while I was doing library searches, I kept thinking of the word "map"; I didn't consider looking up "atlas"es.
Googling just now, I found for you: Medieval Sourcebook: Maps which may help you with the shifting borders.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It looks like a site that will require much exploration. Just what I love.

[half-double.livejournal.com]

Sack of Rome? Yeah, I have a nice Italian leather purse I could loan you. Ba-bum-bum.

No, really, I have nothing. But I promise to ask PF, who was a French major in college & should be able to come up with something on medieval France. At least, I imagine she should. Hmmm. Probably shouldn't promise things on her behalf, should I?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I've ben making "grocery sack of Rome" comments in my head and wondering if there's any relation between "sack o' Rome" and "Sacagawea." Yeah, I'm odd. :-)

And if PF has any suggestions of books, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

Haul out the *big* dictionary for this one.

[half-double.livejournal.com]

Turns out PF will not be much help, as the only books she's read on Medieval France were in Medieval French. She does recommend anything by Chretien de Troyes, if you can find a good translation. If you can't find a good translation, she's offered use of her Old French dictionary, claiming that OF is close enough to MF to get by. I said that if anyone I know would teach themselves Medieval French to read a history book in its original language, it would be you, but that, even for you, that might be pushing it.

[cheshyre]

Medieval is before my usual reading habits, but I recommend anything by Giles Milton, who always manages to find really interesting tidbits of history. His main medieval work is The Riddle and the Knight about the fanciful but true(?) adventures of Sir Mandeville. He's also written several nutty stories about early explorers in Elizabethan England, to America and to Japan, and the spice trade. Here's a passage I excerpted from one of his books, just to give you an idea of his writing style. Very fun.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I love this sort of "crazy-sounding but true" type of history tidbit. I'll be sure to look for Milton's books. Thanks!

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

Most of what I read, other than fanfic, is nonfiction these days, and I love late antiquity and medieval histories. Here are some books I thought were great:

The Age of Robert Guiscard: Southern Italy and the Northern Conquest (The Medieval World) by Graham Loud;

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life (Ballantine Reader's Circle) by Alison Weir

Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing by Carole Collier Frick

Wessex in the Early Middle Ages (Studies in the Early History of Britain) by Barbara Yorke

Ruricius of Limoges and Friends: A Collection of Letters from Visigothic Gaul (Translated Texts for Historians Series, Vol 30)

Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 (History of Europe (St Martins Pr)(Paper)) by Roger Collins

The World of Late Antiquity Ad 150-750: Ad 150-750 (Library of World Civilization) by Peter Robert Lamont Brown

Women in the Middle Ages by Joseph Gies

Michael Grants books on Greece and Rome are first rate, and you still can't beat Gibbon for reading about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire *G*.

I also really enjoyed: Fall of the Roman Empire by Bob Grant - I think Scribner is the publisher.

Hope some of those click *G*.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Wowzers! Thanks for this great compendium of reading material! They all look fascinating.

not non-fiction, but...

[(Anonymous)]

These aren't nonfiction, but I, who have little interest in the fall of Rome and surrounding times, have been swept away by Gillian Bradshaw's historical novels: Imperial Purple, The Beacon at Alexandria, The Bearkeeper's Daughter.

Try them anyway! :)
marymary

Re: not non-fiction, but...

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ooh - thanks! I'll be sure to check them out!

Virgins of Venice

[sokmunky.livejournal.com]

Virgins of Venice (I forget the author) is a well researched, fast reading overview of the convent system in Venice and its political/ social/economic role. I found it to have a fairly balanced perspective.
It's just come out in trade paperback, and should be available at the library or any general bookstore. I've read my hardcover copy twice already.

S.

Re: Virgins of Venice

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! Books that people read multiple times are always good bets. :-)

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Haven't read much medieval history lately, but I can recommend a good book about the Great Molasses Flood.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I've heard a number of recommendations for that book, and I've been meaning to seek it out. Thanks for the recommendation and the reminder!

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Found I still had this comment... just curious, have you had a chance to check out the "molasses flood book"? :-)

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Actually, I have it requested at the Brookline Library. They're bringing it in for me from Bedford (all 3 copies that Brookline has are out).

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I'm glad it's doing so well! If you have trouble getting it, maybe I can lend you my copy.

[zmook.livejournal.com]

I am quite fond of:

_Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages_, Frances and Joseph Gies. Which is more or less what the subtitle says. It is not as well known as it should be that the European technological revolution started well before the Renaissance.

_A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance_, William Manchester, does a very lively job of explaining what it really meant to live in medieval Europe.

and on a different subject, there's my favourite history book,

_The Wealth and Poverty of Nations_, David S. Landes, which is a survey of world history for the last millenium. And not a survey in the sense of feeling obligated to mention piles of trivia without explaining what any of it means, but one that seriously tries to draw the big picture. ("The discovery of the New World by Europeans was not an accident. Europe now held a decisive advantage in the power to kill. It could deliver its weapons wherever ships could take them; and thanks to new navigational techniques, its ships could now go anywhere.")

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Thanks! All of these are available at my local library, too. On to the "to read" list they go.