History self-study recommendations

I'm looking for recommendations on history books. My knowledge of history, both world and US, is atrocious and I'd like to improve it for both self-edification and to improve my understanding of current world events, including the US elections, especially when discussing various issues with family, friends and strangers.

What I'd like to do is develop a sort of US and world history curriculum for myself, starting with more general sources to give me a good overview from ancient to modern times and then dig deeper into interesting areas. While I'd like to focus more on the US, since I live here and a deeper knowledge of it would be of greater utility, I definitely want to get a broader understanding of the rest of the world (i.e. our future targets).

I definitely want to read Rothbard's Conceived in Liberty and Kinzer's All the Shah's Men, and a recommendation I've received is David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace. Also, there's an interesting discussion at Amazon right now about the Crusades, so a good book on that might be valuable. Those should be a good introduction to the Middle East. I've also got Denson's Reassessing the Presidency and I did read (a couple of years ago, could stand re-reading) DiLorenzo's The Real Lincoln and Woods' P.I.G. to American History.

I'd appreciate any recommendations people here might have with regards to both books worth reading and perhaps a good way to organize them into a coherent self-study "program". Or at least references to sources that could help me with that.

By the way, I'm not leaving economics out of the mix. I've got Rothbard's Man, Economy & State and America's Great Depression, Griffin's The Creature from Jekyll Island, and Mises' Socialism, plus a couple of others. Recommendations here are also appreciated but not as necessary right now as the history.

Justin 

I going to grad school for early American history next year and I'm putting together a list myself. Some suggestions:

Essays in the History of Liberty: Selected Essays by Lord Acton - Lord Acton was the greatest classical liberal historian in the 19th century. He covers many topics.

For a concise overview of the Revolution, try The American Revolution by Gordon Wood

The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn is an excellent source for the role of ideas in early American history. You'll notice Rothbard praises the book in Concieved in Liberty.

Alan Pell Crawford's new book on Jefferson, Twilight at Monticello is great.

I recently finished Justin Raimondo's biography of Rothbard, An Enemy of the State. Very good, it covers a lot of topics. Raimondo has a lot of priase for Rothbard's History of Economic Thought, which I recommend also.

Also remember Tom Woods's 33 Questions and DiLorenzo's How Capitalism Saved America.

Honestly, Rothbard is fantastic in inter-weaving history and economic theory... You can learn alot in many fields from Rothbard.  History of Economic Thought (2 vol) will be great Rothbardian additions as well.  In fact, Rothbard has an amazing bibliography of Historical research.  

History is a very broad subject, both in terms of world history and U.S.  As long as you can cut through the statism in some of them, the information is still fantastic.  Rothbard even pointed out, some of the best historians were Marxists.  So I'll throw out a few of my favorites in various areas, and I'll try to make sure I include only the better writers.

U.S. History

1. David Mccullough - Its a treat to read almost anything he writes.  He has a rare combination of scholarship and talent for prose. 
2. John Lewis Gaddis - Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War
• Gaddis is a first rate Cold War Historian, and this book is a wonderful exposition of the development of the containment strategies the U.S. employed in the post-WWII world.  It should be noted that World War II and Cold War history is the most important literature to read if you want a good idea of the mindset of our current foreign policy.
3. Brian Doherty - Radicals for Capitalism: A Freeweeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement
• This may not be exactly the kind of history you are looking for, but it still has some facinating history involved.
4. Bernard Porter - Empire and Superempire: Britain, America, and the World
• Great analysis of the American Empire
5. Robert Higgs - Crisis in Leviathan... and pretty much everything else he's written.

World History

1. Gerhard L. Weinberg - A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
   
• This book is absolutely amazing... it is arguably the best book on World War II, especially as it provides a global perspective
2. Linda Colley - Britons
• A nice modern history of the British.  She discusses the development of the British "identity" and such.  Definitely a provocative read. 

Also, you may want to check out the media section here on mises.org.  A gigantic database of audio-lectures are on there.  Robert LeFevre has some great history lectures, as well as Woods, Higgs, DiLorenzo, Rothbard, and many others.

I find that they are very nice to carry around on the iPod, or to listen to while doing a mindless activity, or whatever... its a nice way to be semi-productive when you aren't being productive.

For the pre-revolutionary period, I recommend Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fisher.

Check out Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy by William Watkins for the history of the Jeffersonian states' rights tradition.

As I'm sure you know, one of the main objections you will hear about capitalism is the so-called gilded age where the "robber barons" ran wild. Burton Fulsom's The Myth of the Robber Barons is indispensable in refuting the standard tale.

For the Great Depression read Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression for the Austrian theory of how it started and for the statist policies of Hoover. Check out Jim Powell's FDR's Folly for focus on Roosevelt.

Sorry it's taken me a while to respond. Thanks for all of the great suggestions! I did find some good threads/posts here with lots of other ideas.

One thing I'd like to do is to come up with a list that covers basically from the dawn of man to today, kind of a 30,000 foot view of history in order to better understand the the big-picture context of events, eras, geography, etc. For example, one interesting book I found is Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. However, before trying to read that, it seems like it would be a good idea to have a general understanding of how Europe got to where it was in the 1300s.

I might be making this harder than I need to and should just pick up a book and start reading.  Actually, I'm reading Griffin's The Creature from Jekyll Island right now. My sister, who majored in Economics, didn't know the Fed is really only a bank cartel and not a government agency. But then again, she didn't study Austrian Economics. 

@lkassab, btw, Amazon has Weinberg's A World at Arms new for $8.10, so I may just have to go ahead and get that one. Thanks, that sounds like just the level of detail I need!

Thanks again for all of the ideas.

Justin

The Outline of History, subtitled The Whole Story of Man, is a book by H. G. Wells published in 1919. Wells was very dissatisfied with the quality of history textbooks at the end of World War I, and so, between 1918 and 1919, produced a 1,324-page work which was published in serial softcover form in 1919, with the first hardcover edition appearing in 1920. The book met with popular acclaim and massive sales.

Full text of the 1920 edition of The Outline of History

Wow, that's impressive! And from this review at Amazon, it sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks, Junker!

Justin

 Not sure how interested you are in Balkan history but John V.A Fine's books on the Balkans are great.  People here might be interested in the village / Boyar system of taxing in the Byzantine empire and how that often lead to rebellions like the establishment of the Bulgarian kindoms and later the Serb run ones.

 Also interesting is how Nationalism was not really important to the ethnic groups there.  It didn't matter much which nationality controlled the area but what mattered was taxation.

"A civilization is not conquered from without until it is destroyed from within."

Will Durant, is pretty good. He does a great job of looking at normal folks. I also like his metaphysics, preaching love and kindness wins me over. Well if you havn't checked any of his work, aside from his history of civilizations opus magnus, Lessons of History, and The Story of Philosophy, are fun too.

"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes and fears rather than with their minds."

Junker:

The Outline of History, subtitled The Whole Story of Man, is a book by H. G. Wells published in 1919. Wells was very dissatisfied with the quality of history textbooks at the end of World War I, and so, between 1918 and 1919, produced a 1,324-page work which was published in serial softcover form in 1919, with the first hardcover edition appearing in 1920. The book met with popular acclaim and massive sales.

Full text of the 1920 edition of The Outline of History

Having Well's work myself I can concur with Junker but would also add the following:

1) Charles Rollins 4 vol. work on ancient history published in the early 1700's.  Yeah, I know it will be hard to find but worth it as I was able to do so and have the 4 volume work in my personal library and yes it's an original from the 1700's.  Rollins helped to shape the understanding of the ancient world in his time and thus is also helped to shape the thinking of those people who shaped the establishment of our own society and culture of the revolutionary period.  Obviously over the years, even more has been learned of the ancient empires and civilizations but at the time, this work was of major influence.

2) Gibbons, Decline and Fall of Roman Empire.  Again, a major influence of thought published in the middle of the American revolutionary period.

3) This one may be a little tough as the Federal Gov't discontinued it's printing over 30 years ago.  The document is entitled Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the American States.  It is IMO a treasure trove of information with the numerous founding documents of this country including the actual debates of the Constitution as recorded in notes by a number of men present at the time. 

As I've looked at our own history of the last 400 to 500 years on these shores, I've been compelled to look further, much further back in time as what we do and think today has it's foundations well in the past.  Understanding them helps IMO to understand ourselves today and why we do and believe certain things.  Another subject I highly encourage is the study of religion.  I know in this place that I'll get good and justified arguments when I say, of all things worthy of study, religion will be the most eye opening of them all.  And yes that would include the study of economics.  Try arguing the cause of hard asset backed money on the principle of honest money without the foundational premise of "Thou Shalt Not Steal."  Never put the cart before the horse as they say!

From the time the hunter gatherers of early man stepped out of what some might call the "Garden of Eden" period or the "Neolithic Revolution" period where we moved into agriculture and the formation of fixed settlements ie civilization as some would call it, religion has played a more dominate role in society than any other common element.  Religion can and has shaped the political as well as the economics of man throughout time and I believe it's of most importance in understanding it in all it's phases, manifestations and belief systems in order to better understand the spread of human civilizations and it's means and ways of doing so.  This again is why I rank the study of ancient civilization at the top over any other study.  This study also naturally propels one forward directly into more contemporary historical periods which leads one directly to our present time and all that is associated with it.

 JMO and best wishes with your future studies!.

wkmac, 

I've recently picked up both volumes of The Outline of History from Barnes & Noble (next on my list after I finish The Omnivore's Dilemma) and tonight I was looking at two other books that caught my eye, one of which is thanks to your post.

The first is Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean, which looks very good both from perusing and from its reviews at Amazon.

The second is a condensed (1300 pages!) version of Gibbons, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375758119. Since I'm looking right now for the bigger picture, this seems a more reasonable route than the entire monster work. :)

As for Documents..., it's easy to find online versions. So thanks for the reference.

Justin

jcl:

wkmac, 

I've recently picked up both volumes of The Outline of History from Barnes & Noble (next on my list after I finish The Omnivore's Dilemma) and tonight I was looking at two other books that caught my eye, one of which is thanks to your post.

The first is Egypt, Greece and Rome: Civilizations of the Ancient Mediterranean, which looks very good both from perusing and from its reviews at Amazon.

The second is a condensed (1300 pages!) version of Gibbons, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375758119. Since I'm looking right now for the bigger picture, this seems a more reasonable route than the entire monster work. :)

As for Documents..., it's easy to find online versions. So thanks for the reference.

Justin

 

Thanks for the heads up Justin.  My interests of late has been more to the religious with focus on Pre-Abrahamic Sumer/Mesopotamia and then how coming forward these ancient beliefs molded the monotheistic beliefs that spawned Persian Zorasterianism and thus Judaism, Islam and Christianity. I'm also very interested in Pre-Roman Northern European religion and cultural customs.  The Romans and the later Christian Church IMO did a pretty good job of smashing old ways so there's not a mountain of info but I still find it of interest.  Your suggestion as it relates to Middle/Near East history may prove worthy of investigation.  Thanks again!

mac

I found particularly interesting from the Mises bookstore Hayek's The Counter-Revolution of Science as regards the origins of socialism in France and the influence of Saint Simon's and Comte's ideas on Hegel. I also recommend Van Creveld's The Rise and Decline of the State. 

Looking outside the Mises bookstore, I have found to be very enlightening Property and Freedom by Harvard historian Richard Pipes, The Anglo-American Establishment by Carroll Quigley of Georgetown U, and The Prize by Daniel Yergin about the history of oil and, more importantly, the creation of the countries and governments of the Middle East by Anglo-American oil interests. Also, Pieces of Eight by Dr Edwin Vieira, Jr is the most complete monetary history of the United States ever written chronicling from the legal perspective the slow devolution of the US from ideas of Jefferson and Madison as subverted by Hamiltonian mercantilist interests to those of fascism, in which Rothbard is cited favorably by the author.

The Role of Religion in History by George Walsh is a good examination of that subject, The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman shows the rise of irrationalism as accompanied the assention of the Christian church and the simultaneous rejection of Aristotelianism, and Hitler's Beneficiaries by the German historian Gotz Aly explains the machinations of Hitler's fascist economic policies of plunder and murder country by country and that they were widely accepted by the German populace as long as they were receiving the spoils of war.

Good:

 Property and Freedom by Richard Pipes
FFF: Review by Ebeling (1999)

The Anglo-American Establishment by Carroll Quigley on-line (PDF 1.5 MB)

Wikipedia:
[list]
Daniel Yergin
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (1991)

Not so good:

The Role of Religion in History by George Walsh
Amazon: Review-2 stars! (Review - of interest to those familiar with Objectivism)

The Closing of the Western Mind by Charles Freeman
Bede: Review - explains something that never happened and manages to get the explanation wrong

Hitler's Beneficiaries by Gotz Aly
Amazon: Review - his thesis is one of cause and effect, but the effect predates the putative cause

Knowing the history of Europe during the 19th century, which is to say from the start of the French revolution to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, is absolutely essential to making a defense of liberty.

You have to know about these topics:

The overthrown of Louis XVI
The First Republic and the Terror
Napoleon in Italy and Egypt (first western venture into Arabia)
The First Empire and the march to Moscow, the Confederation of the Rhine, total war
The Concert of Europe against Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna
The Restoration and peace
The liberal revolutions of 1830 and 1848
The constitution of the Austro-Hungarian empire
The second French Republic and second French Empire
The wars of German unification and the war of 1871
The constitution of the German Empire (Second Reich) and German conservative socialism
The wars of Italian unification and the constitution of the Kingdom of Italy
The imperial scramble for Africa
The transformation of the East India Company into the Empire of India

Knowing these events is essential to understanding what took place in Europe from 1914-1945. Any book that gives you just the facts will be fine. Even Wikipedia articles will get you far along.