-
12 votes
-
“But the ancient Greeks didn’t *sound* Irish…” On capturing voice in historical fiction
12 votes -
Writer, woman, playwright, spy: Aphra Behn, author of Oroonoko was the first known woman to be paid for writing in English
8 votes -
From Red Riding Hood to Beowulf: On the essential role of literary reimaginings
10 votes -
When Virginia Woolf wrote about early women writers, she was unaware of or underestimated a few published Elizabethan women
8 votes -
Join me on the path to Twilightenment
27 votes -
Researchers reveal lost library of Charles Darwin for the first time
10 votes -
Seismic City by Joanna Dyl: an economic class and political history of the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
5 votes -
The ambitious plan to open up a treasure trove of Black history
8 votes -
How Nellie Bly and other trailblazing women wrote creative nonfiction in English before it was a thing
12 votes -
Trials of the witchy women: Across seven centuries, women have been accused of witchcraft—but what that means often differs wildly, revealing the anxieties of each particular society
13 votes -
The kingdom of books – In 1977, an eccentric book lover formed a micronation for book lovers
11 votes -
Anna Atkins' photographs of British algae
13 votes -
Someone discovered a new pen name used (probably) by Louisa May Alcott in the 1850s
11 votes -
Choose Your Own Adventure - 45 years ago, one kids book series taught a generation how to make bad decisions
25 votes -
In WWII paperback books were mobilized to improve morale
9 votes -
Our favorite outdoor adventure books for every US state
8 votes -
The Canterbury Tales Project collated the Canterbury Tales original manuscripts. It translates each line into modern English and reads it aloud into the way the text wold be read in its own time.
16 votes -
Subversive, queer and terrifyingly relevant: six reasons why Moby-Dick is the novel for our times (2019)
23 votes -
IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation
32 votes -
Why 'The Hobbit' is still underappreciated, eighty-six years later: A Culture Re-View
16 votes -
Review, commentary, analysis based on four books featuring the history and misuse of statistical data
7 votes -
Three medieval tales about adventures to the Moon - from three different cultures
12 votes -
More than thirty years after its publication, picture book Daddy's Roommate has once again found itself the target of censorship
13 votes -
Thousands of Yiddish pulp fiction stories finally seeing the light of day
15 votes -
Man of the people: The history and context of Aleksandr Afanasev’s collection of obscene Russian folktales
4 votes -
The Summer Book (1972) – Tove Jansson's novel about love, family and nature, will make you nostalgic for your own childhood
5 votes -
Recommended books on African American history for non-Americans
Hi all. As the title says, I'm looking for recommendations on books about African American history. I'm Irish and I know the basics about the civil rights movement and some other bits through...
Hi all. As the title says, I'm looking for recommendations on books about African American history. I'm Irish and I know the basics about the civil rights movement and some other bits through documentaries like 13th . Outside of that I've realized that my understanding of what African Americans have been though over the last couple of hundred years is pretty piss poor. I'd really like to educate myself a bit more, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
22 votes -
When reading historical books, how do you keep track of timelines?
I've recently become interested in exploring history. However, though I am usually quick to read and process large amounts of information in other genres, I find myself struggling with the dates...
I've recently become interested in exploring history. However, though I am usually quick to read and process large amounts of information in other genres, I find myself struggling with the dates in history books. For example, here's a excerpt from the book I'm currently reading [1]:
During this period, tsarist policy was contradictory along its Western borders. In Finland, a Parliament was convened in 1863 for the first time in fifty-four years. In 1860, its own currency, the Finnish markka, was introduced, initially tied to the Russion rouble before being tied to the value of silver from 1865, which enabled the Duchy to trade more easily with the West. By 1906, Parliament had passed 400 separate pieces of legislation, and by 1883, Finnish had equal status as a language to Russian.
It takes me surprisingly long to process this; my mind struggles to put together the timeline and most relevant facts. This style is used throughout the whole book and others like it, where multiple dates (and names or facts) are mentioned in a short piece of text, often in seemingly random order. This makes it difficult for me to truly get something out the book -- either I don't remember the information well afterwards or I can't relax while reading because I'm constantly puzzling it together.
For people more familiar with historical works: are there any tricks to this? Does it perhaps get easier in time, when you become more familiar with the genre (similar to keeping track of the characters in fantasy books like Game of Thrones)? Or do some people have a natural affinity for dates, same as others have a mind for numbers or for languages? Looking forward to hearing your opinions and experiences.
[1] N. Taylor, "Estonia, A Modern History", 2nd edition, C. Hurst & Co, 2020.
Update: This was my first post here, and I’m loving the thoughtful replies. Here’s a summary of the tips so far:
- Combining specific dates into a higher level time periods, e.g. start/middle/late century.
- Using historical dates with a personal meaning as anchors to keep an overview of the time period.
- Paying special attention to the first line of each paragraph, the first section of each chapter, and the first chapter of each book, which should be a summary of the following paragraph, chapter, and book, respectively.
- Writing or drawing your own timeline of events, outside of the book.
- Adding context information to your own timeline, based on understanding why each event occurred in that time and that way.
17 votes -
Leo Tolstoy on finding meaning in a meaningless world
10 votes -
Alice in Wonderland’s hidden messages
11 votes -
Borges and $: The parable of the literary master and the coin
1 vote -
‘The Norse Myths That Shape the Way We Think’ by Carolyne Larrington – from Tolkien to Marvel, the huge influence of Norse myths on modern culture
2 votes -
Join the Counterforce: Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern epic Gravity’s Rainbow at fifty
6 votes -
The most important year in the history of science fiction is 1973, because that’s when science fiction ended
8 votes -
The first ordinary woman in English literature. The life and legacy of the Wife of Bath.
5 votes -
The real nature of Thomas Edison’s genius
6 votes -
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
6 votes -
‘The Book of Disquiet’ is the weirdest autobiography ever
5 votes -
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice, & 150 years of gay vampires
5 votes -
Forgotten archive of medieval books and manuscripts discovered in Romanian church
10 votes -
Don’t feel like a dummy for loving the Dummies guides: The history of the Dummies guides
7 votes -
The economist who knows the miracle is over
9 votes -
‘I just wanted my life to end’: The mystery of Agatha Christie’s disappearance
5 votes -
Is alternate history science fiction?
8 votes -
The book that sank on the Titanic and burned in the Blitz
7 votes -
Book review of A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression
7 votes -
To break a book: Bibliophiles as book enemies
4 votes -
Welcome to Arrakis - Dune lore explained
8 votes -
A story about living in nature and the value of culture captures the spirit of Finland – Lizzie Enfield explores the remarkable legacy of 'Seitsemän veljestä'
9 votes