Reading List
General
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The Europeans.
Simon & Schuster, 1983.Description:In the 1980s this eminent Italian scholar-journalist called for an examination of European culture and history and of the nations that must be the base of a unified Europe with one will, one voice and a unified foreign policy.
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The Pursuit of Glory.
Free Press, 2002.Description:Blanning has identified five revolutions that made the modern world: The actual American and French Revolutions as well as the metaphoric scientific, industrial, and romantic "revolutions."
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Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime.
Free Press, 2002.Description:The relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been complicated, especially in times of war. Cohen examines four great democratic war political leaders, Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill and David Ben-Gurion, and how they directed their military commanders.
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The Ascent of Money
Free Press, 2002.Description:Money makes the world go around, and this is its' story.
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War in European History
Norton, 1995 [1966-1969].Description:Wars have often determined the character of European society, and society in exchange has determined the character of wars. Howard surveys a thousand years of history and draws a broad outline of developments, which will delight the general reader.
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Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008.Description:Sheehan charts perhaps the most radical shift in Europe's history: its transformation from wartorn battlefield to peaceful, prosperous society. For centuries, war was Europe's defining narrative, affecting every aspect of life. After World War II Europe began to re-imagine statehood, rejecting ballooning defense budgets in favor of material well-being, social stability and economic growth. Sheehan reveals how and why this happened, and what it means for America and the rest of the world.
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The Great Upheaval: The Birth of the Modern World
Description:The author compares the three great revolutions of the late 18th century – the American Revolution, the French Revolution and the Russian proto-revolution. Winik shows how the protagonists of these events communicated with each other and how each revolution impacted on the next, culminating with Catherine the Great reacting to the regicide of the French Revolution by crushing the uprising in Russia and, in spite of her pro-Enlightenment leanings, further imprisoned the Russian people by tightening the bonds of serfdom, sowing the seeds that would bloom in 1865, 1905 and 1917.
Fiction
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Generations of Winter.
Morris. Vintage, 1995 [1994].Description: Trans. from the Russian by John Glad and Christopher. Written in the great tradition of epic Russian fiction, this is a magnificent saga that captures one of the most fascinating chapters in modern history – the Soviet Union between 1925 and 1945. Breathtaking in its scope, masterful in its command of historical events and its understanding of timeless human truths, the novel has been likened to a 20th Century War and Peace.
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La Comédie humaine.
BiblioLife, 2009 [1842].Description:Trans. from the French. Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and plays depicted French society between the Restoration and the July Monarchy (1815-1848). Often compared to Charles Dickens, Balzac painted a realistic, panoramic portrait of all aspects of French society.
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The New Confessions. Vintage, 2000 [1987].
Description:Boyd has created a fictional memoir of a Scotsman who becomes obsessed with making a 20th Century film version of the most famous 18th Century memoir, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions. The novel describes a complicated life lived between Europe and America from World War I through Weimar Germany to Hollywood in the 1940s.
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The Stranger.
Description:Trans. from the French by Matthew Ward. Vintage, 1989 [1942]. In this novel by one of the most influential French authors of the 20th Century, Camus uses the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach to explore what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957.
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The Brothers Karamazov.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 [1880].Description:Trans. from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. One of the greatest Russian novels tells the story of intellectual Ivan, sensual Dmitri and idealistic Alyosha Karamazov who collide in the wake of their despicable father's brutal murder. Dostoevsky poured in all of his deepest concerns: the origin of evil, the nature of freedom, the craving for meaning and, most importantly, whether God exists.
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Crime and Punishment.
Vintage, 1993 [1866].Description:Trans. from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Dostoyevsky's classic novel focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of an impoverished St. Petersburg ex-student who kills a hated, unscrupulous pawnbroker, thereby solving his financial problems and at the same time ridding the world of an evil, worthless parasite.
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Flashman: A Novel.
Plume, 1984.Description:Historical fiction often provides the best illumination of a place or a time, and in this first volume of the Flashman series, Fraser - who died last year - provides a vivid and instructive view of the first Anglo-Afghan war. Here we see the disastrous retreat from Kabul in 1842 which cost the British over 15,000 lives in essentially a month's time, led by the hapless General Elphinstone. It is a tale which provides a fascinating insider's view of the British experience in the 19th century, and well worth the time of those who are studying that troubled nation today. Old ghosts rattle through Afghanistan, and this novel shows us several in depth and detail.
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Faust, Parts I and II.
Penguin, 2005-2009 [1808-1832].Description:Trans. from the German by David Constantine. Goethe's famous play, one of the greatest works of German literature, turned the legendary German alchemist into one of the central myths of the Western world. Faust is an audacious man who boldly wagers with the devil: unlimited power on earth in exchange for his immortal soul. An unforgettable parable of science and power, religion and morality.
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Dead Souls.
Penguin, 2004 [1842].Description:Trans. from the Russian by Robert A. Maguire. A comic epic of greed and gluttony that is admired not only for its colorful cast of characters and devastating satire, but also for its sense of moral fervor. Although Gogol spends much of the novel exposing the evils of the Russian gentry through absurd and hilarious satire, he also expresses a passionate love for his country.
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The Tin Drum.
Vintage, 1990 [1959].Description:Trans. from the German by Ralph Manheim. Grass begins his story in Danzig, today's Gdansk in Poland, but then a contested city on the Polish- German border. The protagonist is a twisted child with a scream that can shatter glass and a drum rather than a shadow. First published in 1959, the novel's depiction of the Nazi era created a furor in Germany. Grass uses savage comedy and magical realism to capture not only the madness of war, but also the black cancer at the heart of humanity that allows such degradations to occur. Grass was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999.
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The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War.
Penguin, 1990 [1923].Description:Trans. from the Czech by Cecil Parrott. An rambling satire depicting the adventures of a hapless soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I. He is dismissed for incompetence, only to be pressed into service by the Russians (where he is captured by his own troops). The author, a mischief-maker, bohemian and drunk, demonstrated his wit in this classic novel of the Czech character and the preposterous nature of war.
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The Castle.
Penguin, 2000 [1926].Description:Trans. from the German by J. A. Underwood. In this classic of modern literature, a protagonist known only as K. struggles to gain access to the mysterious authorities of a castle who govern the village where he wants to work as a land surveyor. The novel is about alienation, bureaucracy, and the seemingly endless frustrations of man's attempts to stand against the system.
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The Ugly American (US).
Description:A searing political exposé, published as a novel, of how America was losing the struggle against communism in the Third World due to a lack of cultural sensitivities and language skills. One of the heroes (Col. "Hillandale") was modeled on the real-life Air Force counterinsurgency expert, Lt. Gen. Edward Lansdale.
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The Man Who Would be King.
Description:Partially inspired by the very real American named Josiah Harlan, this short story tells the tale of a pair of British adventurers who seek to gain political power in Afghanistan.
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The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca.
Directions, 2005 [1955].Description:Trans. from the Spanish. Although the life of Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) was tragically brief, the Spanish poet and dramatist created an enduring body of work that remains internationally important. This selection of 55 poems represents some of his finest work. The poems are imbued with Andalusian folklore, rich in metaphor and spiritually complex.
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The Innocent.
Anchor, 1998 [1990].Description:This historical novel is set in Cold War Berlin at the time of "Operation Gold" in 1955-56, the attempt by the British MI6 and the American CIA to tunnel into the Soviet sector and infiltrate Soviet communication systems. McEwan also focuses on broader issues of the early Cold War and the opposed political philosophies of communism and capitalism.
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Caravans
Description:This romantic adventure sees an American girl marrying an Afghan engineer. This adventure also serves as a travelogue and a history lesson when the girl ends up missing and people start searching for her. This was inspired by Michener's personal travels in Afghanistan.
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Snow.
Vintage, 2005 [2002].Description:Trans. from the Turkish by Maureen Freely. Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, tells a story that encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of modern Turkey and successfully combines humor, social commentary, mysticism, and a deep sympathy with its characters.
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Doctor Zhivago. Translated from the Russian by Max Hayward and Manya Harari.
Pantheon, 1997 [1958].Description:Pasternak had the manuscript of this novel of revolution and civil war smuggled out of the country for publication. The book not only brings the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet era to life, it tells the stories of some of the most memorable characters to be found in all of literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958.
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Out Stealing Horses.
Picador, 2008 [2003].Description:Trans. from the Norwegian by Anne Born. In 1948 when he is fifteen Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon's sudden breakdown. The tragedy that lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys' families to gradually fall apart. As a 67-year-old man, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories flooding back and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone.
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All Quiet on the Western Front.
Vintage, 2005 [1929].Description:Trans. from the German by Brian Murdoch. Written after World War I by a German combat veteran of the trenches, this book shows the war's horrors and the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front. It persuaded many Europeans in the 1930s and later that all wars were futile and immoral.
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The Cave.
Harvest Books, 2003 [2000].Description:Trans. from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa. Cipriano Algor, an elderly potter, lives with his daughter Marta and her husband Marçal in a small village on the outskirts of The Center, an imposing complex of shops, apartments, and offices to which Cipriano delivers his pots and jugs every month. On one such trip, he is told not to make any more deliveries. Unwilling to give up his craft, Cipriano tries his hand at making ceramic dolls. Astonishingly, The Center places an order for hundreds, and Cipriano and Marta set to work-until the order is cancelled and the three have to move from the village into The Center. When mysterious sounds of digging emerge from beneath their apartment, Cipriano and Marçal investigate, and what they find transforms the family's life.
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The Reader.
Vintage, 1999 [1995].Description:Trans. from the German by Carol Brown Janeway. This troubling book deals with the difficulties subsequent generations have in comprehending the Holocaust; specifically, whether a sense of its origins and magnitude can be adequately conveyed solely through written and oral media.
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Absurdistan.
Random House, 2006.Description:This novel follows its protagonist and narrator from St. Petersburg (or St. Leninsburg as he prefers to call it) to a fictional country in the Caucasus called "Absurdistan," where a multi-sided conflict is raging.
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One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.
Penguin, 2000 [1963].Description:Trans. from the Russian by Ralph Parker. From the icy blast of reveille through the sweet release of sleep, Ivan Denisovich endures. A common carpenter, he was one of millions imprisoned for years on baseless charges, sentenced to the waking nightmares of the Soviet work camps in Siberia. Even in the face of degrading hatred, where life is reduced to a bowl of gruel and a rare cigarette, hope and dignity prevailed. This powerful novel, published in 1963 after Stalin's death, is a scathing indictment of communist tyranny and an eloquent affirmation of the human spirit. Solzhenitzyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, but expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974.
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War and Peace.
Vintage, 2007 [1869].Description:Trans. from the Russian by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. In this famous, and perhaps greatest, novel of all time, Tolstoy tells the story of five families struggling for survival during Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812-13 and the slow awakening of the Russian nation. Tolstoy, a veteran of fighting in the Caucasus and the Crimea in the 1850s, brilliantly describes individuals and societies at war and seeks to demolish the "great man" theory of history.
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The Czar's Madman
Description:This work of fiction purports to be the 1827-59 diary of Estonian peasant Jakob Mattik. The Baron Timotheus von Bock falls in love with Jakob's sister, frees his serfs and criticizes the Czar, all of which obviously mark him as a madman. Kross provides this book as a metaphor for the relationship between Russia and the Baltic states.
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The Volcano Lover: A Romance
Description:Sir William Hamilton is the British envoy to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies while his wife is the lover of naval hero Lord Nelson. Ostensibly a love story, the book also acts as an examination of 18th century life as well as perennial issues that serve to darken civilization.
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Ali and Nino
Description:DSet against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution, this is the story of a love between an Azerbaijani Muslim boy and a Georgian Christian girl. Written in 1937, this book displays life in the Caucasus before Soviet homogenization.
Ancient Greece
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the Anabasis
PUBLISHERDescription:After their employer is killed in battle, Xenophon has to lead 10,000 Greek mercenaries out of the depths of Persia across deserts and mountains to the safety of Greek cities on the Black Sea. An examination of one of the great leadership efforts of history.
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The History of the Peloponnesian War
Description:This history of the war between two alliances led by Sparta and Athens is considered one of the earliest Western scholarly works of history and has provided a standard for historians which remain valid today. It is also famous for discussing the "Melian dialogue" which speaks to relations between powerful and weak states.
Rome
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The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire
PUBLISHERDescription:This 6-volume work is considered to be the first modern history of Rome and is considered to be a model of objective approaches and use of references. He proposes that the decline of the Roman Empire was caused by the loss of civic virtue
Byzantine Empire
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The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire.
Description:The Byzantine Empire prevented forces from the Middle East from attacking mainland Europe from the end of the Roman Empire in 476 to the fall of Constantinople in 1453, allowing Europe to consolidate governance enough to survive the attacks which followed.
Medieval Europe
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The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. 2 vols
PUBLISHERDescription:The Enlightenment was a decisive moment in the development of the trans-Atlantic world in the 18th Century. Gay describes the philosophes' program and their views of society. His masterful appraisal provides insights into the Enlightenment's critical method and its humane and libertarian vision. The first volume was awarded the National Book Award in 1967.
1815-1914
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The Struggle For Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918
PUBLISHERDescription:The revolutions of 1848 heralded an era of unprecedented nationalism, which culminated in the collapse of the Habsburg, Romanov and Hohenzollern dynasties by 1918. In this classic study in diplomatic history, Taylor shows how the changing balance of power determined the course of European history.
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Waterloo: A Near Run Thing .
Description:In one fateful day Napoleon had lost both his army and all hope of recovering his empire. David Howarth has recreated the battle as it appeared to the soldiers on the ground that day and seeks to answer some of the enduring questions as to French behavior on the battlefield.
Europe & America
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Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order.
Vintage, 2004.Description:Europe, Kagan argues, has moved beyond power into a self-contained world of laws, rules, and negotiation, while America operates in a "Hobbesian" world where rules and laws are unreliable and military force is often necessary. Tracing how this state of affairs came into being over the past fifty years and fearlessly exploring its ramifications for the future, Kagan reveals the shape of the new transatlantic relationship.
First World War and Aftermath
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The Guns of August
Description:This book is about the first month of the First World War
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Paris 1919: Six months that changed the world
Description:Who stayed in which Chateau in Paris? How did the Kurds win and lose their homeland? Which Allies spied on each other? This book answers these questions and more in a detailed discussion of the negotiations at the end of the First World War.
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Military Innovation in the Interwar Period
Description:The story of the development of what are now the major pillars of modern combat: from aircraft carriers to submarines and the emergence of amphibious landing capability; the development of mechanized combined armed warfare; and the development of radar and strategic bombing campaigns by the seven major military powers.
Second World War & Aftermath
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The Second World War. 6 vols.
Description:One of the most important non-fiction works of the 20th century, this definitive work written as a memoir by a leading participant of the war won Churchill the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
Cold War & Aftermath
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A World Transformed.
Viking, 1999 [1998].Description:Former President Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, tell the story of the extraordinary series of international events that took place during the end of the Cold War. They use behind-the-scenes accounts of critical meetings in the White House and of summit conferences and insights on the importance of personal relationships in diplomacy. Bush and Scowcroft candidly recount how the major players sometimes disagreed over issues and analyze what mistakes were made.
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The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century. 2d ed.
Atlantic Monthly Press, 2004 [2003].Description:Cooper shows that the greatest question facing post-modern states is how to deal with a world in which missiles and terrorists ignore borders and where alliances no longer guarantee security. He argues that when dealing with a hostile outside enemy, civilized countries need to revert to tougher methods from an earlier era: force, pre-emptive attacks and deception if we are to safeguard peaceful coexistence throughout the civilized world. He also advocates a doctrine of liberal imperialism that advocates that post-modern states have a right to intervene in the affairs of modern and pre-modern states if they pose a significant enough threat.
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The Cold War: A New History.
Penguin, 2005.Description:The dean of Cold War historians his definitive account of the global confrontation that dominated the last half of the 20th Century. Drawing on newly opened archives and the reminiscences of the major players, Gaddis explains not just what happened but "why" from the months in 1945 when the United States and the Soviet Union went from alliance to antagonism to the barely averted holocaust of the Cuban Missile Crisis to the maneuvers of Nixon and Mao, Reagan and Gorbachev. Brilliant, accessible, almost Shakespearean in its drama, this book stands as a triumphant summation of the era that, more than any other, shaped our own.
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Berlin 1961: Kennedy,Khruschev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth.
Putnam Adult, 2005.Description:Kempe provides an excellent weaving of modern post-War German and Soviet political history coupled with the reactions of the Eisenhower and Kennedy National Security teams to the events leading to the rise of the Berlin Wall
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Post War
Description:One of the ten best books of 2005, this expansive work succeeds in telling the story of Europe since the end of WWII. The events of this time period have shaped the face of the modern world, and everyone interested in modern Europe should read it.
France
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Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon's Grand Armée.
Da Capo, 1997 [1988].Description:Napoleon used his Grand Army to dominate Europe for over a decade. Elting examines every facet of this incredibly complex human machine: its organization, command system, logistics, weapons, tactics, discipline, recreation, mobile hospitals, camp followers, and more.
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A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962.
New York Review Books, 2006 [1977].Description:The Algerian War brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture. Today it looks like a full-dress rehearsal for today's struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity.
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Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution.
Knopf, 1991.Description:The author devotes his considerable narrative and scholarly gifts to the French Revolution and to the transformation that permanently altered the face of Europe. Schama presents an ebullient country before the revolution, vital and inventive, infatuated with novelty and technology. He argues that the Old Regime fell not because it was stagnant but because it was moving too fast. Unlike Marxists and new historians, Schama stresses the importance of individual events and people. He detects the emergence of a patriotic culture of citizenship in the decades preceding 1789 and explains how citizenship came to be a public expression of an idealized family.
British Isles
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How the Irish saved Civilization
Description:While mainland Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, monks and scribes in Ireland laboriously and lovingly preserved the West's written culture. Then they were key players in spreading that knowledge throughout the mainland once stability had returned.
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Queen Victoria's Little Wars
Description:Continuous warfare during the Victorian Age quadrupled the size of the British Empire. This is the story of that warfare that ranged across the entire globe. This book describes military expeditions, little wars, rebellions, and mutinies that marked the British 19th century as well as the people who fought them from 1837-1901, the age of the "Pax Britannica"
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The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery
Description:This book discusses the Royal Navy within a framework of the elements of national and international power as it rose to become the greatest navy in the world, and how it entered into decline as the nation no longer had the resources or the need to support it.
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The Honourable Company
Description:The British East India Company developed the concept that became the modern multinational corporation. From running factories on the coast in Asia to running the entire colony of India, from providing limited convoy security to running their own army, the Company was admired, feared and hated across the globe.
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Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power
Description:Ferguson boldly recasts the British Empire as one of the world's greatest modernizing forces. In this important work of synthesis and revision, he argues that the world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The spread of capitalism, the communications revolution, the notion of humanitarianism, and the institutions of parliamentary democracy – all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population and culture from the 17th Century until the mid-twentieth.
Belgium and the Netherlands
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Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance.
Penguin, 2007.Description:A revelatory look at what happens when political Islam collides with the secular West. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that insulted the prophet Mohammed. The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.
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King Leopold's Ghost
Description:This disturbing book details the rape of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium, where literally millions of people died through overwork or subsumed into a reign of terror.
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Rembrandt's Eyes.
Knopf, 1999.Description:This biography charts the troubled painter's rivalry with the worldly, successful Peter Paul Rubens. It is also an in-depth portrait of 17th Century Holland, politically and socially.
Germany
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A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People.
HarperCollins, 2004.Description:The Romans used the word "German" as early as the 1st Century BC to describe tribes in the eastern Rhine valley. Nearly two thousand years later, the richness and complexity of German history have faded beneath the long shadow of the country's darkest hour in World War II. Ozment gives us the fullest portrait possible of the German people from antiquity to the present, holding a mirror up to an entire civilization – one that has been alternately Western Europe's most successful and most perilous.
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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
PUBLISHERDescription:The definitive record of Nazi Germany
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In the Garden of Beasts.
Description:This book is a vivid portrait of Berlin during the first years of Hitler’s reign, brought to life through the stories of two people – the US Ambassador to Germany and his daughter, Martha. Both become players in the exciting and dangerous events that mark Hitler’s rise to power, culminating in the events of one murderous night, later known as “the Night of Long Knives.”
Italy
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The Italians.
Description:The author delves into the “Two Italys”, the one which produced global luminaries and the one which is marked by corruption and underdevelopment. A must read for those who seek to understand the dichotomous life of Italy and its’ people.
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Gomorrah A Personal Journey into the Violent International Empire of Naples' Organized Crime System .
Description:A groundbreaking bestseller in Italy, this is a gripping account of the decline of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network with a large international reach and stakes in construction, high fashion, illicit drugs and toxic-waste disposal. Known by insiders as "the System," the Camorra affects cities and villages along the Neapolitan coast. Gomorrah is a bold and important work of investigative writing that holds global significance, one heroic young man's impassioned story of a place under the rule of a murderous organization.
Spain and Portugal
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The First Global Village: How Portugal Changed the World
Description:A lively book about Portugal's role in world history as well as global culture and society. It covers Portuguese history from their formation of the first global empire to modern times.
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The New Spaniards. 2d ed. Penguin, 2006 [1986].
Description:Modern-day Spain is changing at bewildering speed. In less than half a century, a predominantly rural society has been transformed into a mainly urban one. A dictatorship has become a democracy. Hooper's portrayal explores the causes behind these changes, from crime to education, gambling to changing sexual mores, creating the essential guide to understanding 21st Century Spain: a land of paradox, progress, and social change.
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The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge. Rev. ed.
Norton, 2007.Description:Preston, the world's foremost historian of Spain, has written the definitive work on the Spanish Civil War. Tracking the emergence of Francisco Franco's brutal (and, ultimately, extraordinarily durable) fascist dictatorship, he assesses the ways in which the war presaged World War II.
Central and Eastern Europe
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The Hapsburg Monarch, 1809-1918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary
Description:The history of one of Europe's most famous houses, Taylor talks about the last century of the largest multicultural empire in European history. Mainly a political history, it also discusses social and intellectual history as well as examining the impact of nascent nationalism on the empire.
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Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present. Rev. ed.
Oxford University Press, 2001.Description:Davies provides a key to understanding modern Poland in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation's history. Beginning with the period since 1945, he travels back in time to highlight the long-term themes and traditions which have influenced present attitudes.
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To the Castle and Back.
Vintage, 2008 [2006].Description:Trans. from the Czech by Paul Wilson. A dissident playwright-turned-statesman, Havel led central Europe out of communism and into the twenty-first century before stepping down as Czech president in 2003. With this book, Havel reflects upon his 14 years at Prague Castle, combining retrospective commentary with excerpts from memos written to his staff while in office.
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Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin.
Description:Stalin and Hitler had competing visions of the frontier between greater Germany and greater Russia. They wielded frightening power to advance their goals and killed about 14 million Eastern Europeans between them. A solid comparison of the Nazi and Soviet systems, their visions and approaches.
The Balkans
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Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat.
PublicAffairs, 2001.Description:Clark recounts his experience as SACEUR leading NATO's forces to a hard-fought and ultimately successful victory in Kosovo in 1999. The problems posed and overcome in the war in Kosovo – how to fight an air war against unconventional forces in rough terrain and how to coordinate U.S. objectives with those of other nations – are the problems that America faces in today's world.
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The Balkans, 1804-1999: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers.
Penguin, 2000 [1999].Description:Glenny provides essential background to recent events in this war-torn area. He offers profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence and vividly explains the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania.
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Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History.
St. Martin's, 1993.Description:Kaplan completed this enthralling political travelogue just as communism in Eastern Europe was being overthrown and Yugoslavia was disintegrating into violent chaos. From the assassination that set off World War I to the ethnic warfare that swept Bosnia and Croatia in the 1990s, the Balkans have been the crucible of the 20th Century – the place where terrorism and genocide were first practiced as tools of policy.
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Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo.
Brookings Institution Press, 2000.Description:After eleven weeks of bombing in the spring of 1999, the United States and NATO ultimately won the war in Kosovo. Serbian troops were forced to withdraw, enabling an international military and political presence to take charge in the region. But was this war inevitable or was it the product of failed western diplomacy prior to the conflict? And once it became necessary to use force, did NATO adopt a sound strategy to achieve its aims of stabilizing Kosovo?
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Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
PUBLISHERDescription:Hatred, martyrdom and impending doom all mark this book that demonstrates the author's love for Yugoslavia during the run-up to WWII in the Balkans.
Scandinavia & the Baltics
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A History of Scandinavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland
Description:This wide-ranging book discusses the inter-dependence and rivalry within the different groups over the last millennium. It also addresses specific topics across the region such as the relationship between church and state and the impact of outside actors, especially during times of conflict.
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A History of the Baltic States
Description:A general history of the Baltic States, this book discusses the entire history of the area, covering the times where the nations were both independent and occupied and dominated by outside forces.
Russia Soviet Union and Central Asia
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One Soldier's War.
Grove Press, 2009Description:A searing portrait of the Russian experiences in Chechnya as told through the eyes of a conscripted soldier. Winner of multiple prizes, this story shows the brutality of counter-insurgency operations gone very, very bad; as well as providing a harsh portrait of the Russian military culture in the 1990s. Brilliant, honest, and beautifully written, this is a must read for anyone thinking through savage war in a harsh place, or seeking to understand the Russian need for military reform.
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Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943.
Description:Hitler attacked Russia in 1941 and enjoyed large-scale success for two years. The battle for Stalingrad was the turning point, where the Nazis lost an entire Army Group in an epic battle that produced almost 2 million casualties between the two combatants. The Wermacht never recovered from these major losses.
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The Caucasus an Introduction
Description:An introduction to one of Europe's most interesting regions, this compact primer is the result of personal travel in the region. This area is particularly important in that it has seen recent wars which continue to simmer as none of the underlying causes have been addressed.
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A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End
Description:Kenez writes a brief but complete book about the 75-year history of the Soviet Union, emphasizing economics, culture and ideology. His analysis shows that the flawed structure of the economy and the total lack of ability to change doomed the Soviet Union.
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The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.Description:Lucas offers a harrowing portrait of Russia from 1999 to today as well as a sobering political assessment of what the new cold war will mean for the world. A long-time journalist for The Economist, Lucas brilliantly anticipates what is in store for the new Russia and what the world should be doing.
Turkey and the Ottoman Empire
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Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World
Description:In the 16th Century the West was involved in a "clash of civilizations" with Islam under the Ottoman Turks. The key was the control of the Central Mediterranean, which in turn centered on the island of Malta. What Stalingrad was to the Eastern Front, Malta was to the Mediterranean struggles of Christendom versus Islam. The several-month long slugfest to determine who would dominate the Mediterranean is described in detail. The book also describes the subsequent naval campaign where the Ottoman Empire tried to make a comeback, culminating in the naval battle of Lepanto
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Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire.
Basic Books, 2006.Description:In this magisterial work, Finkel lucidly recounts the epic story of the Ottoman Empire from its origins in the 13th Century through its destruction on the battlefields of World War I.
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Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds. Rev. ed.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.Description:In the first edition of this widely praised book, Kinzer claimed that Turkey was the country to watch. It is poised between Europe and Asia, between the glories of its Ottoman past and its hopes for a democratic future, between the dominance of its army and the needs of its civilian citizens, between its secular expectations and its Muslim traditions. In this revised edition, he adds much important new information on the many exciting transformations in Turkey's government and politics, and also shows how recent developments in both American and European policies have affected this unique and perplexing nation.
Israel Palestine, & Lebanon
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Peacekeepers at War: Beirut 1983 – The Marine Commander Tells His Story.
Potomac Books Inc.,2009.Description:On October 23, 1983, nearly simultaneous suicide truck bombings killed 241 U.S. peacekeepers in their barracks at the Beirut International Airport (BIA) and 58 French paratroopers at their headquarters two miles north of BIA. In this long-awaited book, the Marine Corps commander of the U.S. Multi-National Peacekeeping Force that was destroyed by terrorists in Lebanon tells his story for the first time. Together, these suicide bombings comprised the largest nonnuclear explosion ever recorded and are now recognized as a seminal event leading to the current war on terrorism. Such acts of war revealed a new, highly effective tactic, which complemented the terrorist's strategic goals—the withdrawal of the peacekeepers and Western influence from Lebanon and a change in U.S. policy.
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1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War.
Yale University Press, 2008.Description:Morris, an Israeli historian, has written a history of the foundational war in the Arab-Israeli conflict that is groundbreaking, objective and deeply revisionist. A riveting account of the military engagements, it also focuses on the war's political dimensions. He probes the motives and aims of the protagonists on the basis of newly opened Israeli and Western documentation. The Arab side – where the archives are still closed – is illuminated with the help of intelligence and diplomatic materials.
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Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Oxford
University Press, 2002.Description:Oren has written a thorough analysis of the events that combusted to produce a maelstrom in the Middle East. He traces the origins of the Six-Day War to several causes that were in no way resolved by the conflict, and underlines one of its effects – the Israeli conquest of the Sinai Peninsula and the West Bank – that remains a subject of controversy today.
Libya
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South From Barbary: Along the Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara.
Description:After visiting Tripoli the author wanted to cross the Libyan Sahara by camel. South from Barbary is the story of his 1,500 mile journey. The caravan of two explorers, five faithful camels and a series of Touareg and Tubbu guides undertook a grueling journey across some of the most difficult territory on earth, and an exploration of the slave trade.
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In the Country of Men.
Description:Nine-year-old Suleiman el-Dawani watches Khadafy's 1969 September revolution. Things go bad when the like Revolutionary Committee focuses on his family. The brutality that follows impacts everyone.
Horn of Africa
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Djibouti.
Description:Oscar-winner filmmaker Dara Barr and her assistant travel to the Horn of Africa to film Somali pirates. They get good footage but we also get to see how they live their lives during the visit.
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The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World.
Description:Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. It is difficult to get there. The government has been built out of anarchy. In this book Jay Bahadur, a journalist who dared to visit the area, gives us the first close-up look at the hidden world of the pirates of war-ravaged Somalia, including the history of Somalia, local attempts to create stability in Puntland, and descriptions of life as a Somali pirate.
Afghanistan
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Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden
Description:The story of CIA's involvement in the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks
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The Great Game
Description:This superb book tells the story of the competition between Russia and Britain in Central Asia. Starting with the Russians having a foothold on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea and the British in India, it vividly describes the efforts and counter-efforts at the top of the world.
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