Hello,
I was searching for a good historic book about the England. For a good book I mean very understandable, clear and neat in his thinking and that presents the facts in a coherent and true way. I mean, something that isn't just the fact, like a wikipedia article, but something that makes your interest grow.
As an instance, I may say that a book of this kind about the USA is
"A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present" by Zinn
(
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-Un...0060838655 )
Thank you in advance guys
I don't know of any books you're looking for, but I have one problem with your request:
Quote:that presents the facts in a coherent and true way
Unfortunately, most history is written by the winners of wars, and the ones with power. Just because it's in a book (this is addressed to all of you wikipedia haters out there) doesn't make it true. It merely implies that it is true to the writer of the book
Anyway, good luck finding one
Are there none on amazon?
I didn't mean that, I just don't want to read it on wikipedia because it's totally different by reading a book in prose. Firstly, it's more accurate (wikipedia can't be like 100-200 pages of text); secondly, I find Wikipedia sometimes too straight-forward (well, that's how an Encyclopedia should be).
I agree with you, History is written by winners, and I, by being a southern Italian, know this. On our books we are forced to read the history of the great 'hero' Giuseppe Garibaldi who 150 years ago 'saved' our land by unifying it. To be honest, he just conquered it, killed and raped our women, burned our cities, took our money and killed and imprisoned people who opposed him by calling them 'briganti' (it means like bandit). Though, there are books who talk about this, supported by documents.
I know what you mean, history is quite relative, what I want though is just know the English history, 'cause we don't deepen it very much in our classes, we just do the main events, revolutions and wars unlike the italian and roman history.
I'm going to buy this one
http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Britain-...sh+history
Do someone know it? I hope to find it in Amazon Italy
(2012-09-07, 09:59 AM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ]I don't know of any books you're looking for, but I have one problem with your request:
Quote:that presents the facts in a coherent and true way
[undefined=undefined]Unfortunately, most history is written by the winners of wars,[/undefined] and the ones with power.[undefined=undefined] Just because it's in a book [/undefined](this is addressed to all of you wikipedia haters out there) [undefined=undefined]doesn't make it true.[/undefined] It merely implies that it is true to the writer of the book
Anyway, good luck finding one Are there none on amazon?
Then it is not History, the sources would be most unreliable.
A key point of history is the reliability and usability of the source and that there is enough evidence to prove something as being "true".
That's why an English report on the WWI trench warfare in France is not an usable source or to search for an accurate answer, nor is the source reliable. ( It however is usable in the case of, how did British soldiers experience, or how were the conditions on the French side of the trenches in WWI )
Source: Me, I'm a history teacher so I 50% of what I do is justification of material.
Wow, seeing as how that quoting turned out, think there is a bug in MyBB
History is often written by the winners. Not so much modern history, because of the increase in global awareness, and multiple points of view (the media from many countries reporting on the war in Iraq for example).
But if you go back, a long way back, history was often written entirely by 1 scholar. Thus it is fairly unreliable. Everybody has prejudices.
Without getting this into a religious debate, many of the stories from the bible depict historical events, but many are highly unlikely to have happened. The same goes for many historical texts. If a king wins a war, he is in control of the land, and thus can influence how the battles were recorded. He could also destroy key evidence. It happens in the modern world too. Governments hide key records and information, and that piece of "history" never gets told, or it gets altered.
Also, that bug is pretty weird
And, tracing back to the Roman times for example, with the leader of the legions, every campaign had his historiographer who wrote everything exalting his leader or army
So yes, history is supported by proofs, but we found out only recently that Napoleon edited his vote numbers on an official document (although he had won anyway) just to make the other nations frighten of his power
If you want to go that far back but want detail (that's not a text book) you'll probably have to get multiple books.
I just read this, by the way I ordered that book - I'll let you know in... 800 pages
Poor guy, reading so much about our terrible terrible country.
AHahah If you want I can lend you a book about Italy!