The History Book Club discussion

Here is a thread to post any of your suggestions. If this is too public a forum; also feel free to post a PM to one of the moderators instead.

We are happy to discuss your ideas.

Bentley

Folks, I am wondering if you would be interested in having a current events thread; it sounds like an interesting add-on. Since today's current events become tomorrow's history. Let me know.

Bentley

I think it is a great idea. So far we have to post current event comments on the Off-Topic area, and we do get into current events often enough that I agree that it warrants its own thread.

Virginia, that is what I was thinking too; it would free up the Off Topic Cafe for other interest areas. Thanks for giving me some input.

Bentley,

I'm not sure this is the right place to mention this but I keep missing a couple of topics on The History Book Club, to be honest.

Maybe it's because I'm fond of this/these periods in history, but I miss a corner dedicated to Medieval History and to Modern History. I'm not sure how many of us would be interested in such topics and I for one cannot compromise with keeping it alive and running at a decent enough speed.

The History Book Club has sections and topics covering most of the eras or set of events, which is great and very well thought of but I'm missing those two periods.

It's just a suggestion really, but I'd appreciate it if you gave it some thought.

Thank you in advance and keep up the good work.

Manuela

I will of course Manuela...let us discuss this via PM later this week or early next so that I can understand what your ideas are.

Ok Bentley, thank you.

SUGGESTION FROM VINCE; SECONDED BY PATRICRK:
Hi Harry

Welcome aboard!

I have been thinking - but am very behind for now (with reading among all other things) that adding some industrial history reading or biographies might be an interesting addition to the range of reading we are doing.

Any interest from others?

Maybe biographies on Ford, Rockefeller etc?

In any case you will find that you will be welcome to the group.

Vince

The second from Patricrk:

Vince wrote: "Harry wrote: "Hi.......My name is Harry.............I hope I am posting this message properly.(ie. in the right spot)I hav always been a history buff. As you may note from my book list I like autom..."

yes, I would be interested.

Vince we have a suggestion area (this is the thread) and I have moved your comment here; the other area is for intros and welcomes only. Thx.

We can add your suggestion to the list. The moderators are already tapped out; if you or Patricrk would like to volunteer to help out with an area like that I can advise either one of you what the moderating duties are all about, etc.

Also, all books thus far have been ones voted for by the group. We do have an Other Book Discussion area also where I would be happy to set up a thread for a book you are interested in moderating so there are many options that I would be happy to discuss with either you Vince or Patricrk; but moderating duties here are at the very least a commitment and we take those responsibilities very seriously. We have expanded those areas where folks have stepped up to the plate and have wanted to help out.

That is why we have been able to offer The Presidential Series, an expansive Military History area, an Historical Fiction area, our usual weekly spotlighted thread, the US Supreme Court area, etc. and soon an Open Courseware group.

We are always looking for moderating talent and folks who would like to help out.

Bentley

Are either of you interested in making the commitment to moderate a biography section on let us same former industrialists, leaders in the industry sector like a Ford or a Rockefeller. We do have some guidelines that all moderators must follow and I would be happy to discuss these with you if you are willing to make the commitment.

Hi Bentley, would many people be interested in a thread on discovery and great explorers of our time?

That sounds like a great selection; let us see if we get any takers.

I have an idea for a thread:

Favorite opening lines

(to a book - novel, most likely)

That sounds like a good one too Garret.

I am not an historian by formal training, but in my field (International Relations), history is my laboratory.

I love the categories in the History Book Club and appreciate all the time and energy that Bentley, Alissa, "Ausi" Rick, and everybody else who have made this the best board on Goodreads (the only one I follow, in fact).

Since I am not an historian, I hesitate to make recommendations to those who are, so please indulge me kindly with two suggestions.

First, The New Historicism has become increasingly influential among some hsitorians, as presented in the works of:

by Stephen Jay Greenblatt, New Historicism. Literaturgeschichte als Poetik der Kultur
by H. Aram Veeser, The New Historicism
by H. Aram Veeser, The New Historicism Reader
by Catherine Gallagher, Practicing New Historicism

Second is the so-called Peoples' History school, most famously popularized by:

by Howard Zinn, A Peoples' History of the United States

But also

by Hayim Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People
by Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, The Congo: From Leopold to Kabila: A People's History

by Ray Raphael, An everyday history of somewhere, being the true story of Indians,: Deer, homesteaders, potatoes, loggers, trees, fishermen, salmon, & other living things in the backwoods of northern California,

Etc.

As I say, I'm not a professional historian, so excuse me if I have overlooked important titles in my short lists.

Thanks, Vheissu. Are you recommending a topic be opened up to the study of field of history?

Is there a category for the time of Exploration and Discovery? Is there something for early settlements? Not just colonial America (US), but Canada as well?

Interesting - so you are looking for something in the American History segment for Exploration and Discovery; and I guess you are thinking that American History would not cut it - because you would also like a Canadian segment. Maybe what I should do is set up a folder for Exploration and Discovery and then have two subsets; let me think about it but a good point.

Bentley, North America might work just as well if you wanted to put in an ending date. Some of the early settlement and interaction, both trade and military, didn't exactly acknowledge any boundary. I don't have enough knowledge to suggest a date certain, but something like 1750 "feels" like people were starting to recognize differences.

Maybe by continents - North America, South America, intercontinental? Then you would not have to define it by era. Just a thought. I like the topic idea.

Bentley, this very early period is included in your Topic "Introduction - American History". Had I looked there to start, I probably would not have suggested this. But to be honest, I think of "American" history as being US History. Maybe all that needs doing is expand/retitle this folder.

I have been thinking about some type of adventure section/segment. With books on sea disasters, survival at sea, shipwrecks, escapes, etc. I usually enjoy reading these types of books and would love to discover new ones.

Sounds like a good idea Tomp, I enjoy books on the same subject as well

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Bentley, this very early period is included in your Topic "Introduction - American History". Had I looked there to start, I probably would not have suggested this. But to be honest, I think of "Ame..."

I see your point; let me think about it and see what might work out best. I think American history is viewed as US History; even though it is called American; I will get something up.

Tomp wrote: "I have been thinking about some type of adventure section/segment. With books on sea disasters, survival at sea, shipwrecks, escapes, etc. I usually enjoy reading these types of books and would lov..."

Are you talking about non fiction books? True stories and/or documented history, correct?

Because we really are doing series already that deal with that kind of thing (historical fiction).

I was thinking strickly non fiction books. Stuff like Endurance and The Bounty to name a few.

by Alfred Lansing

by Caroline Alexander

i dont want to limit to just sea based stories.

Interesting. Let me think about it. The problem that we have sometimes is that by introducing too many interest areas that then the assisting moderators also are overloaded. If we set up this interest area, would this be something that you wouldn't mind helping out with.

In another group saw a topic 'Recently acquired books'. It might be a nice topic to add to the 'MY BOOKS AND I' section.

That sounds like a good idea Tom.

Seeing that we have turned over the page to a new year. I thought a thread dedicated to our favorite book we read last year and why it tickled our fancies might be fun.

That is a good idea.

Bentley wrote: "That is a good idea."

Happy to set up the thread If you like Bentley.

Michael, I set up the threads for organization purposes. But thanks for the suggestion which I will follow through with soon.

I think most folks who participate in the discussions know that we have a Book as a Whole thread where spoilers can be placed and the glossary at the very least and usually quite a few supplemental spoiler threads.

But having said that the non spoiler threads are just that: weekly non spoiler. When a note is moved; a post states that a move has taken place. Also, if you want to place a note in a non spoiler thread that you have a spoiler post in the glossary that might be pertinent; we have done that too.

Glossaries are spoiler threads and some folks do not want to look at spoilers until the end; other folks like yourself frequently go to any one of the spoiler threads and of course then they have been forewarned. It is a matter of personal preference. But non spoiler threads are just that.

We do discuss spoilers in this thread in the Help Desk section:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

Best to check out where spoilers should go first; otherwise you run the risk of the posts being moved.

All moderators realize this and act accordingly; we try to be uniform, fair and consistent.

I did update the thread to reflect even more current language. And I understand your point of view. I think reading spoiler threads are a matter of preference and we have both for each set of readers and group members. As you can imagine, it is supremely difficult to please everybody all of the time; so that is why we have the rules and guidelines so that we can at least try to be consistent across the board.

Hi Bentley I was wondering if a "What are we listening to" might be a good thread to add to the Audiobook section.

Great suggestion.

A forum on Indian history would be good.

Are we talking about Native American history (we do have a folder for that) or are we discussing India?

The history of India would indeed make for an interesting additional thread. I will keep this in mind after I set up the skeleton for the China folder.

Thank you so much for your suggestion.

It would be more precise to say the Indian sub-continent. But it would be interesting to lead off from a few books on the subject.

Give me a heads up if you need any book suggestions.

First of all abclaret: I do not need the sort of explanation you gave. In fact, we already have a folder on the history of Southern Asia so we covered that idea: been there and done that.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3...

If you would like to post ideas for any books; please by all means post them to the link above if you so choose. If you are looking for a thread simply on India which is of course was what I was asking; we did not have a single dedicated thread (although we had a folder dedicated to all of Southern Asia for quite some time).

But if you were referring to America's Native American population then we already had a folder where you could add your books there which was also what I was asking. I did not get a precise answer to my question; but I can read between the lines.

So since you seem to want to be precise but were not; I hope this post explains that we already have what you requested the first time.

I personally do not need any book suggestions; thank you; but feel free to add some or any using our guidelines for citations for the group and its members (if you so desire). Maybe you did not see the folder when you posted asking for "a forum on Indian history".

We are always happy to see and hear from everyone regarding their suggestions. I also just began a single thread in the already existing History of Southern Asia folder which has been sitting in the site unused for some time - a thread for India. So you can add to the already existing general Introduction thread for the History of Southern Asia or you now can add to the new single thread for India - whichever you prefer.

Ciao,

Bentley

Sorry overlooked the Southern Asia folder.

No problem abclaret; glad that we could be of assistance. We look forward to your posts about recommended books either in the Southern Asia folder (the introductory thread) and/or the new thread dedicated to India that I set up for you.

If you could expand the European section of The History Book Club to include Spain > Spanish Civil War and Russia > Russian Revolution. I could add something to that.

Hi abclaret, there is a section set up for the Russian Revolution in the Military History thead:

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

You could add some suggested reading there if you like :)

My suggestions: The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Volume 2On HistoryThe Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth CenturyA People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present

John,

I am not sure what these suggestions are all about. Are they for books you recommend others to read, the group to read?

In any case, this is not the correct thread but I will be happy to move to the appropriate thread once you explain. However, doing citations like you did make it impossible for anybody to know where the first title ends and the second one begins. That is one of the reasons that we have guidelines for citations.

Also, we add book covers, author's photo and author's link when doing citations.

For the first one, there was no author's photo available but the citation should look like this: (I put in both volumes)

by Fernand Braudel

by Fernand Braudel

For the next one, there was also no author's photo available so you have the bookcover and the author's link as follows:

by Fernand Braudel

And the list continues:

by Eric J. Hobsbawm

In the above correct citation, you can see the bookcover, the author's photo and the author's link as it ideally should be.

by Mark Mazower

For the above, the author's photo was not available.

Howard Zinn

For this one all three required elements were available.

John, our guidelines require the type of citations that I did for you; if you are having any difficulties doing them we will give you all of the help you need; but they are not optional.

Please let me know why you placed these book selections here so that I know where to move them. Thanks, these are fabulous books.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
I had this book recommended and am glad that I picked it. As I think about this book about WW2 survival in an Japanese POW camp - and unofficial terror camps -- I am reminded of Victor Frankl's "Mans' Search for Meaning" - but without the psychology. How does a man survive brutal conditions and remain human? I'm only halfway through the book and am in awe of Louie's coping ability. I don't recommend reading this book at night unless you can stay up late and sleep in the morning. I can't put it down.

Joe, thanks for the recommendation.
Make sure when you cite books and authors that you do so in accordance with the club's guidelines. It should always be book cover and author link, and when available also the author photo. Your post would look like this:

Laura Hillenbrand

Viktor Emil Frankl

The club's guidelines are there for the enjoyment and benefit of all our members and we appreciate your attentiveness to following them.

thanks.