Rating: 8.2/10. This history book covers the period of early English history from the beginning of the Roman settlement of the British Isles up until the Norman Invasion, which marked the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. This age after the fall of Rome until the Norman Invasion is generally considered the Dark Ages of England;…
Category: History
Perfecting Sound Forever by Greg Milner
Rating: 8.2/10. Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music by Greg Milner Book about the history of recorded music from the earliest audio recordings until the present day. It begins with the famous tone tests used by Edison starting around 1915 where they placed a phonograph on stage alongside a live singer and…
Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson
Rating: 8.4/10. Book covering the history of the Polynesians and how we came to know about them. The prologue begins in the Hawaiian Islands, first discovered by Cook in 1778 (one of the last major European discoveries. Cook’s arrival coincided with a festival, so he was initially warmly welcomed, but he was later killed there….
Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky
Rating: 8.0/10. A history of the cod and its overfishing, one of the most catastrophic crashes of species caused by human activity. Previously, cod was so abundant that it was said you could almost walk across the water standing on the fish. However, after centuries of overfishing, the population has been reduced to near nonexistence…
China’s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty by Mark Edward Lewis
Rating: 7.5/10. An academic history book about everything you wanted to know about the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), considered one of the Chinese Golden Ages, is organized by topic and written in a fairly academic tone. It may be a bit long-winded for a casual audience, as it makes an effort to be detailed rather…
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy
Rating: 7.6/10. Book about the history of Ukraine from ancient times until 2021, when the book was written. Ukraine was always on the frontier between Europe and Asia, for most of his history, the area was known as “Rus” or “Little Russia”, but they rarely ever were able to form their own state, rather they…
Stanley Park’s Secret by Jean Barman
Rating: 7.7/10. Stanley Park’s Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point by Jean Barman Book about the history of Stanley Park in Vancouver, specifically the people who lived there for several decades after the area was officially designated as a park. Today, Stanley Park is marketed as a pristine wilderness,…
Maximum Canada by Doug Saunders
Rating: 8.2/10. Maximum Canada: Toward a Country of 100 Million by Doug Saunders Book about the history of immigration in Canada. Today, Canada is recognized as one of the most multicultural countries in the world, but Canada has only been multicultural fairly recently, since the 1960s. In the 19th century, Canada was set up as…
Agricola and Germania by Tacitus
Rating: 7.8/10. Fairly short book containing two minor works by Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived in the first century AD. The two works, Agricola and Germania, were written around the same time but on two different topics. Agricola describes the career of the author’s father-in-law, Julius Agricola, a general who conquered Britain and served…
The Fate of Rome by Kyle Harper
Rating: 8.3/10. The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire by Kyle Harper Book about the fall and decline of the Roman Empire. The decline of the Roman Empire can be analyzed from many angles: Officially, the Roman Empire was invaded by barbarians and the last emperor was in 476 AD,…
Viking Age Iceland by Jesse Byock
Rating: 7.4/10. Book about the history and societal structure of medieval Iceland, particularly the period from the earliest settlement by people from Norway (~870AD) until about 1200AD. All of the arable land was quickly settled within about 60 years of the island’s first settlement, leading to lots of disputes and feuding over the land; details…
Against the Grain by James C. Scott
Rating: 7.5/10. Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott Book about the neolithic revolution and how early states arose out of hunter-gatherers. The traditional narrative is that the invention of agriculture enabled the formation of larger, more complex states, and this is the first step on the road…