My favorite genre; non-fiction history is featured in this challenge. I have a weakness for memoirs and WWII history so I am going to try and branch out into other history. Memoirs won't count for this challenge, so I will be searching out top notch historical books to use for this sail across the oceans blue. Goal will be a scholarly 6 books; I certainly hope to sail past this mark. However a good weighty history book can take some time to get through and absorb all the details. So I will set a pace of one book each two months. Book Rules (click the image a the right to be transported to Fanda's blog and sign-up) | 2014 History Reading Challenge |
1. Pick one or more History books written by historian(s)—must be pure non-fiction; historical fiction is not allowed.
2. It has to be a work through investigation and researches, and not only collecting and listing historical data.
3. Biography is permitted, but not Autobiography, as I think autobiography lacks the objectivity of a history.
Pick Your Historian Level
- Student : read 1 to 3 books
- Scholar: read 4 to 6 books
- Historian: read 7 or more books
List of books will be posted by 12-31-13 for this challenge after the read more link. I need to look through the history book I am eyeing for next year and decide which books count as scholarly history.
It is now time to embark upon a quest into the past and discover a treasure trove of information. Deciding has not been an easy task, but I have selected some books written by people established as historians. I have tried to spread around the topics and time periods covered. I have other history books on tap for this year heavily centered on the Napoleon era and my favorite WWII era as well.
1. Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz: Egyptologist Barbara Mertz comes with a few identities; she writes the Amelia Peabody mystery series under the pen name Elizabeth Peters and writes romantic suspense novels as Barbara Michaels. This history book takes us back to the daily lives of ancient Egypt as we explore their homes, workplaces and temples. Life is viewed from royalty to commoner, priests to slave, and mummification to making papyrus.
2. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester: Simon Winchester attended Oxford to become a geologist, he uses this knowledge to mix science and history to describe the events of Krakatoa and the aftermath left behind. The massive destruction wasn't limited to that day and place; it was felt around the world and for years.
3. Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen by Alison Weir: Historian Alison Weir sheds some limelight on the original Elizabeth, Elizabeth of York, grandmother to Henry VIII daughter Elizabeth I.
4. Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free by John Ferling: John Ferling was a professor of history at the University of West Georgia and is regarded as a leading authority on American Revolutionary history. This work focuses on the struggle that went on during the Continental Congress that led to the Declaration of Independence and ventures across the sea to London where sympathizers with America agonized over how to deal with this rebellion.
5. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman: In this selection Barbara Tuchman transports us to medieval Europe and tells of the daily lives of serf, noble and clergyman.
6. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark: Being that this is the 100-year anniversary of World War I's beginnings I decided I needed to include a book for this war. I was leaning towards The Guns of August by Tuchman, but since I included her with choice five I felt it necessary to select another historian. Clark leads us on a journey of the events that led to the outbreak of war across Europe.
[Notice: Original posting 2013-12-20 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: 2014 Reads, Challenges, History,Non Fiction
1. Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz: Egyptologist Barbara Mertz comes with a few identities; she writes the Amelia Peabody mystery series under the pen name Elizabeth Peters and writes romantic suspense novels as Barbara Michaels. This history book takes us back to the daily lives of ancient Egypt as we explore their homes, workplaces and temples. Life is viewed from royalty to commoner, priests to slave, and mummification to making papyrus.
2. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester: Simon Winchester attended Oxford to become a geologist, he uses this knowledge to mix science and history to describe the events of Krakatoa and the aftermath left behind. The massive destruction wasn't limited to that day and place; it was felt around the world and for years.
3. Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen by Alison Weir: Historian Alison Weir sheds some limelight on the original Elizabeth, Elizabeth of York, grandmother to Henry VIII daughter Elizabeth I.
4. Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free by John Ferling: John Ferling was a professor of history at the University of West Georgia and is regarded as a leading authority on American Revolutionary history. This work focuses on the struggle that went on during the Continental Congress that led to the Declaration of Independence and ventures across the sea to London where sympathizers with America agonized over how to deal with this rebellion.
5. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W. Tuchman: In this selection Barbara Tuchman transports us to medieval Europe and tells of the daily lives of serf, noble and clergyman.
6. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark: Being that this is the 100-year anniversary of World War I's beginnings I decided I needed to include a book for this war. I was leaning towards The Guns of August by Tuchman, but since I included her with choice five I felt it necessary to select another historian. Clark leads us on a journey of the events that led to the outbreak of war across Europe.
[Notice: Original posting 2013-12-20 at Plethora of Books Blog: http://bookchallenges.weebly.com]
Tags: 2014 Reads, Challenges, History,Non Fiction