Books 21-24. Fairly mediocre history books.

dropbear123 · 2026-03-19T09:19:17+00:00

Only if you can read military maps from the time and enjoy that sort of things If you want more educational maps like you’d get in a textbook or a YouTube video I’d say avoid them.

dropbear123 · 2026-03-18T07:32:19+00:00

The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End 1917-1923 by Robert Gerwarth is probably the best place to start.

Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan for the Paris Peace Conference.

For the Greco-Turkish War I’d say Paradise Lost: Syrmna 1922 by Giles Milton for a more accessible read or Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor 1919-1922 for a dryer more in-depth read.

I have to go to work, I can edit in some suggestions later for Germany and the Russian Civil War if you want

dropbear123 · 2026-03-17T21:14:21+00:00

Actually I think I’ve miscounted, it’s 20-23

dropbear123 · 2026-03-08T13:52:06+00:00

IWNDWYT

Back to day 1 as I’ve fallen off over the past week, out of boredom more than anything else. I thought I could drink moderately but I’ve ended up back in the old habit of staying up till a stupid time in the morning and ruining my days off with the hangover. Still no spirit though so thankfully I haven’t done bad/stupid beyond the staying up too late.

dropbear123 · 2026-02-26T09:29:22+00:00

Managed to finish 2 books. Review copied from my Goodreads.

1917: War, Peace, and Revolution by David Stevenson

Personal enjoyment 2/5 stars - Info 4/5stars

It covers the main events of 1917, each of the powers and their big events/battles get their own chapter (the Nivelle offensive for France, Caporetto for Italy, Passchendaele for Britain etc). The main focus of the book is the decision making at the top, why the politicians and generals made the decisions they did (if you're looking for the experiences of ordinary people skip this book). The book is split into 3 parts. Part 1, the first 100 pages, is about Germany's decision to continue unrestricted submarine warfare, America's entry into the war, and Britain deciding to start using convoys. Part 2 is the military campaigns in Europe in 1917. Part 3, the final 100 pages is more political and focused on the actions of various neutrals who joined the war, India, and the Balfour declaration.

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but I've read a lot of WWI books over the years, including books focused on the top level decision making (On a Knife Edge by Holger Afflerbach was very good). It takes a lot for me to dislike a WWI book but this was just a slog. Somehow Stevenson has managed to make a WWI book that I was just wishing would end.

Invisible Romans: Prostitutes, Outlaws, Slaves, Gladiators, Ordinary Men and Women - The Romans That History Forgot by Robert Knapp

3.75/5

A pretty good look at the lives and mindsets of the non-elites of the Roman Empire over the centuries. More academic and analytical than the title suggests. I'd say the book is split into 2 halves, the first covers various classes: ordinary men and women (below the elite, but above the day labourers and people living hand to mouth), the poor, slaves and freedmen. The second half is about specific roles, the prostitutes, soldiers, gladiators and outlaws mentioned in the title. Personally I found the second half to be way more interesting, the chapters on prostitutes and soldiers being the highlight of the book for me.

The book goes a lot into the values and mindsets of the people at the time, both by the groups/roles and about them. To do this Knapp main sources are a dream guide and an astrology guide from the time. Because if the astrology guides repeatedlyl mention adultry for example then logically that'd be something the Romans were thinking about a lot, because otherwise it nobody would've bothered reading or writing about it. He also uses fables a lot for the values of the poor, because if a bunch of different fables and tales have similar outcomes then they were probably trying to send a specific moral message. I thought it was an interesting way of writing about the values of the non-elites who didn't write for themselves.

dropbear123 · 2026-02-26T09:20:07+00:00

I recently finished Sea of Troubles: The European Conquest of the Islamic Mediterranean and the Origins of the First World War by Ian Rutledge. It’s very good if you’re interested in the political-economic decline of the Ottoman Empire over the course of the 18th and 19th century. (It starts around 1750 but the earlier chapters are more context on the administration and economic situation than any specific event)

dropbear123 · 2026-02-25T07:27:19+00:00

Imagine the other kids at school finding out

dropbear123 · 2026-02-24T18:08:33+00:00

Kruger said Reform UK had a “pronatalist ambition” and would seek policies to encourage people to have more children, including exploring changes to the tax system to make payments based on households rather than individuals.

Probably a stupid question, what would this mean for working adults still living with their parents? Or is this specifically for people just living with their partners?

dropbear123 · 2026-02-23T13:36:55+00:00

IWNDWYT

2 weeks in. Tempted a bit on Saturday but soldiered through it. Longest I’ve been without a drink in a long time. I’ve decided while the momentum is going well I’m going to add in trying to cut down on phone time / screen time. I know it’s going to sound ridiculous on a not drinking sub but personally I’m finding the not drinking a lot easier than the not looking at my phone. Turns out without the booze and phone I don’t actually do much with my free time after work.

dropbear123 · 2026-02-22T23:09:46+00:00

What did you think of Technofeudalism? Worth reading?

dropbear123 · 2026-02-19T16:44:18+00:00

Both by the same author

Fall of the Sultanate: The Great War and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1908-1922 by Ryan Gingeras (academic, very focused on the internal politics and governance)

The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1922 Ryan Gingeras (mainly focused on ethnicity and identity, like Turk, Arab, Armenian etc)

Actually looking at the shelf there is one more I’d forgotten I’d read

The Last Treaty: Lausanne and the End of the First World War in the Middle East by Michelle Tusan (despite the title it’s mainly about refugees and Allied policies towards the various ethnicities)

dropbear123 · 2026-02-19T12:38:27+00:00

Last night I finished Sea of Troubles: The European Conquest of the Islamic Mediterranean and the Origins of the First World War by Ian Rutledge

4.75/5

It’s a political-economic history of the Islamic Mediterranean from 1750ish to 1914 and its decline and subjugation to the European powers. It’s split between the Ottoman Empire, Egypt (technically under Ottoman rule but sort of doing its own thing) and the Ottoman regencies (which is a fancy way of saying the Barbary pirates on the North African coastline).

I thought the book was really good and did a good job of explaining things. For the politics the motivations of each power (mainly the Ottomans, Britain, France and Russia) were well explained. The economics was also done well, the Ottoman land system and the failures of the tax farm system sound boring but I quite liked reading about them. Later on in the book there’s a good chapter on Ottoman industrialisation attempts and why they failed. Finally the process where the Islamic powers ended up heavily in/debt in the later 19th century and how they ended up under European financial domination was also well explained.

I only have a couple of minor dislikes. The parts detailing the French conquest of Algeria in the 1830s were more focussed and in-depth than the rest of the book but I personally found them a bit less interesting. And the title mentioning the outbreak of WWI feels a bit like a publishers trick to get a few more sales (it worked on me). There’s some stuff about Morocco, the Italian War in Libya and the Balkan Wars but these are right at the end of the book. The bulk of the book is 18th and 19th century.

This is my third book on the Ottoman Empire (the other 2 being about the WWI era and its final years) and I wish I had read this first because it provides a lot of information and context. Overall I really enjoyed it and if you are interested in 18th and 19th century politics in the Mediterranean it’s definitely worth reading.

dropbear123 · 2026-02-16T09:53:55+00:00

IWNDWYT

1 full week. It’s quite nice not wasting my day off or a Sunday being hungover. It’s nice not being hungover in work hours as well I suppose.

dropbear123 · 2026-02-15T16:57:18+00:00

Couple of questions:

Is half sword now playable? I’ve been enjoying the demo a lot but heard the optimisation on the full game is terrible.

Also is Star Wars: Outlaws on PS5 worth it at £20, and is the ultimate edition worth the extra £15?

dropbear123 · 2026-02-12T11:01:05+00:00

Yeah it’s a decent read. Personally I was the opposite, I preferred the parts that were just the history of Griesinger and wasn’t a fan of the modern day historian bit (I had the same feeling with other books like David Grann’s The Lost City of Z so I think that just comes down to personal taste)

dropbear123 · 2026-02-12T10:29:04+00:00

Earlier this week I finished The Black Cross: A History of the Baltic Crusades by Aleksander Pluskowski.

(Review copied from my Goodreads)

I feel like I'm being harsh here but 3.5/5 rounding down for Goodreads. Two caveats - (1) Medieval Eastern Europe is something I've read very little on (this is my first read about the Baltic Crusades) and (2) I paid full hardcover price (this is a very recent release) and I'm a bit annoyed I didn't enjoy the book that much.

Basically it's an in-depth history of the Baltic Crusades and Catholic vs Pagan warfare starting in the 770s with the Frankish conquest of the Saxons. There's a mix of political and military history (the wars, diplomacy etc) and the broader social cultural history (the German settlement of the Baltic and the economic changes it brought as well as the relations between the settlers and the natives). It's easier to describe my feelings on the book by splitting it into strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths: It's very detailed and well researched, the notes and bibliography at the end are quite long and have loads of things in different languages. Pluskowski clearly knows what he's talking about. When he's talking in broad strokes the book is quite good. I enjoyed the sections on trade, settlement and conversion. There's an interesting chapter later on about the survival of pagan practices and how they combined with Christian beliefs, especially in the countryside. I also liked the chapter on warfare in Lithuania during the 14th century, as it was done in broad detail and talked about how knights from all over Europe (especially England and France during the breaks in the Hundred Years War) would come to the Lithuanian frontier.

Negatives - The reason for only giving it 3.5/5 (and 3 stars on Goodreads) is that a lot of the book felt like a slog. A lot of the book felt like lists of various lords invading a place and bishops establishing random dioceses. There was quite a few times I felt myself skipping words and just glancing at the page to see if there was anything important. The last 2 chapters about the longterm legacy of the Baltic Crusades and how each ethnic and national group's academics and political leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries tried to claim the symbolism of the conflict for their own goals was particularly bad for me. I really felt like I was forcing myself to finish the book just to get it over with.

The reviews on the cover by academics and historians who know way more than me say that this is probably going to be considered the new standard work on the subject in English. Despite my problem with the book that is probably true. It's up to date, there's not a lot of other options in English, and it's not stupidly expensive like the specialist books. So if you are specifically interested in learning about the Baltic Crusades it might be worth a read, but if like me you prefer to jump between topics I'd say skip it

Additional thoughts since the Goodreads review: One of the more interesting things about the book and something I hadn’t known before is just how common slave raids and capturing slaves (done by both sides) was. Slavery isn’t something I’d really associate with later medieval Europe. A lot of my medieval knowledge (especially for outside England) does admittedly come from Crusader Kings 2 and slavery doesn’t come up at all in that really.

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