Hello my friend do u have any history book recs. Or not books I will also eat other things. I dont have much knowledge and you seem like you have taste in these things
okay yayyyy spins around in a circle
so first up what i’m currently reading:
collapse: the fall of the soviet union by vladislav zubok
you do have to take this one with a grain of salt (but then again, don’t you with everything?) as zubok is pretty liberal, but even still i find much of his analysis quite materially grounded, even if i don’t necessarily agree with a conclusion he’d drawn from it. zubok’s main thesis is that the ussr’s collapse was not so inevitable as is often claimed, and he offers a comprehensive overview of all the different factors that caused it. overall it’s one of the better (english language) books on the subject
the life of eva perón: first lady, activist, actress and philanthropist by victoria haddock
i’m not super familiar with this area of history so i can’t really compare this to anything else i’ve read… but this is a good read and i’m enjoying it thus far. haddock is also very aware of perón’s position as a woman in society and often points out when, for example, some rumor spread about her is the result of misogyny. she also emphasizes her moments of boldness which were at times seemingly downplayed by some primary sources. although one thing i do find kind of annoying is that the author is prone to just randomly dropping in sentences with no transition or lead up, but that’s more stylistic than anything
now for some books i’ve completed:
cuba: a cultural history by alan west-durán
this book has a really wide range of content and such a wide range of time and its all so fascinating… it’s also not quite organized by chronology and not quite by content matter which is kind of fun and fresh. west-durán occasionally tries to both-sides it a little but it’s not *nearly* as bad as it could be so we take these. and by nature of being a cultural history, there are so many works name dropped, it’s kind of awesome. i watched soy cuba (lit. “i am cuba”) because of this and it’s one of the greatest movies i’ve ever seen
the spanish civil war: a very short introduction by helen graham
graham condenses such a large and comprehensive array of information in such a small number of pages, it’s frankly incredible. this is honestly just one of the best (again, english language) introductions to the spanish civil war out there, in large part because graham speaks very openly and frankly about, well, the political dynamics of and surrounding the war. she details how much the uk and france were complicit in franco taking power, at one point even saying that republican spain’s (as well as the soviet union’s) main diplomatic goal as the war progressed was to try and make the uk put their strategic interests over their class interests, which is crazy because many english authors on this subject are genuinely quite sympathetic to franco. like it’s just so good
the man who never died: the life, times, and legacy of joe hill by william adler
i read this at a less marxist time in my life so i do suspect i might find the author a little too wobbly-brained were i to read it today (and even at the time there were some moments, like the author details a specific, very antisemitic remark hill made, but then iirc twice claimed that he later became less bigoted with no real substantiation which i found a bit suspicious, but anyway). this was one of the first (adult) history books i read that really stuck with me. i’m generally not a huge fan of us history, but the labor movement is an exception. and while this book is a biography, it’s also very detailed in its description of the wider world during hill’s life… this book also started my obsession with the death of aase i fucking love that song
i don’t watch too many history docs, but off the top of my head there’s the fall of communism as seen in gay pornography (1998) and the organizer (2017). the former is pretty short (and i believe it’s possible i may have already spoken to you about it?), it’s less a documentary and more a series of clips, but it’s very good at communicating this disturbing and disgusting and nauseating feeling all the same. the latter did pleasantly surprise me when i first saw it. it’s about the rise and fall of ACORN in the us (the international branches apparently still remain). i found it quite interesting although i have little else to say
other than that i guess there’s youtube channels… my first thought for whatever reason was hakim. i’m not sure why since he’s not really a history channel primarily, he just sometimes gets historical with it. but in any i’d recommend him.
there’s also that tasting history guy i like him a lot… i used to watch extra history often as a kid but i haven’t in a few years so i can’t speak to their current quality
historical fiction lightning round:
each one of these is going to have only a few sentences of explanations and each is in some way *about* its historical context, and doesn’t just like, happen to have an historical setting. also not including anything that was at the time just regular contemporary fiction
this is set in rural bavaria on the cusp between the medieval period and the renaissance, but perhaps more importantly it is a game *about* history. the title is an anglicized form of “pentimento”, and the game is about the layers of the town of tassing, from the pagans to the romans to the christians…. it’s sooooo good
and quiet flows the don (1958)
five and half hour epic about don cossacks in wwi, the russian revolution, and later civil. i only got halfway through this bc of some dvd chicanery but this is going to be my quietly flowing don summer
tells the story of jack reed and louise bryant around the time of the october revolution. jack reed is also known for having published ten days that shook the world (i was going to have a primary source section but then i didn’t want to write all that and also it wouldn’t have mattered in this case anyway bc i never read that book #lol). one thing that always struck out to me about this is there are these contrasting scenes of the internationale being sung loudly clearly during the october montage sequence, vs more confused and muddled back in the states during the cpusa split (during the first section there’s a brief sex scene between bryant and reed which is kind of awesome i think). this movie also is interspersed with some interviews from people who knew bryant and reed, was somehow funded by paramount, and is four hours long
what we tried to bury grows here by julian zabalbeascoa
i’ve spoken to you more than once about this book but for my uninitiated readers, its a novel of short stories about (mostly basques) in the spanish civil. it’s good
all quiet on the western front (1930)
i do specifically mean the 1930 version of this film since it’s better than the 2022 one in basically every respect except production quality (and even then it’s kneecapped somewhat by having been initially been recorded as a silent film). but mostly it’s just that the 2022 version is fundamentally bad at being an anti-war film. i’m willing to elaborate more on this, but this post is getting long
the motorcycle diaries (2004)
biopic that is, interestingly, based on che guevara’s motorcycle diaries. who would have thought?
the young karl marx (2017)
i believe this is the first western made film about marx which is pretty cool… the film kind of feels like it’s missing something but there are these two scenes, wherein one marx kisses engels’ forehead, followed some ten minutes later by a scene with the exact same composition and framing where von westphalen kisses marx’s forehead. so i really enjoyed that part
and on that note that’s the post over now
