Best single book on ...

[sihhi]

I am aware that this thread might have no responses, but in a times of severe recession,

What would be the single best (as comprehensive and accurate as possible but accessible) book on major subjects where the reader doesn't have to know anything about it before starting.

e.g.

topic American Civil War / book James MacPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom

 

[redsquirrel]

Excellent idea for a thread sihhi.

What would people suggest for

- the English Civil Wars? (I know The World Turned Upside Down is one that loads of people rave about but how accessible/much background knowledge does it need?).

- the Paris Commune.

 

[sihhi]

Excellent idea for a thread sihhi.

What would people suggest for

- the English Civil Wars? (I know The World Turned Upside Down is one that loads of people rave about but how accessible/much background knowledge does it need?).

- the Paris Commune.

One I have lent to others is Christopher Hill's Century of Revolution.

The standard Commune work is Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray's History of the Paris Commune of 1871 - but that's about a hundred years out of date - available online. There must be a better single volume work.

What's the best single one on the Ethiopian strike waves and revolution 1974-1977?

What's the best single book on the Cultural Revolution in China?

 

[Idris2002]

The Northern Ireland conflict: McVea and McVittrick's Making Sense of the Troubles.

Regarding Ethiopia 1974 - 77, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Halliday and Molyneux's The Ethiopian Revolution. Halliday was heading for Eurocommunism at that point, of course.

There was a very well received book on the effects of the revolution in southern Ethiopia, Marxist Modern, that came out about 1999, but that's strictly about one small corner of the country.

 

[bi0boy]

Druids: A Very Short Introduction by Barry Cunliffe is the best short introduction to druids.

Quite a few of the A Very Short Introduction books are good like that, but don't bother with Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction by J Allan Hobson because the author just uses it to push his own flawed theory and doesn't bother introducing the reader to the current debates in the field.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreaming-Ve...2151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364679529&sr=8-1

 

[sihhi]

The Northern Ireland conflict: McVea and McVittrick's Making Sense of the Troubles.

Regarding Ethiopia 1974 - 77, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Halliday and Molyneux's The Ethiopian Revolution. Halliday was heading for Eurocommunism at that point, of course.

There was a very well received book on the effects of the revolution in southern Ethiopia, Marxist Modern, that came out about 1999, but that's strictly about one small corner of the country.

McVea and McVittrick looks good.

Druids: A Very Short Introduction by Barry Cunliffe is the best short introduction to druids.

Quite a few of the A Very Short Introduction books are good like that, but don't bother with Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction by J Allan Hobson because the author just uses it to push his own flawed theory and doesn't bother introducing the reader to the current debates in the field.

I was thinking of comprehensive - ie long not short, as well as introductory - full books in case people spot them in a charity shop, second hand shop or boot sale.

The post-war pre-Zhiang era in China is Jean Chesneaux's The Chinese labour movement 1919-1927

20th c. Iraq to the consolidation of Baathism is Hanna Batutu's The Old Social Classes and New Revolutionary Movements of Iraq

What's the best single book on the Miners Strike? Seamus Milne's The Enemy within Thatcher's Secret War Against the Miners only really covers one aspect but does so well.

 

[articul8]

Quite a few of the A Very Short Introduction books are good like that, but don't bother with Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction by J Allan Hobson because the author just uses it to push his own flawed theory and doesn't bother introducing the reader to the current debates in the field.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreaming-Ve...2151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364679529&sr=8-1

Do you have a recommendation for something that does cover recent debates in this field?

 

[bi0boy]

Do you have a recommendation for something that does cover recent debates in this field?

I relied on a chapter of I forget which biology textbook in the end. However, I've had Counting Sheep: The Science and Pleasures of Sleep and Dreams by Paul Martin recommended to me.

 

[TruXta]

A. Abbott - Methods of Discovery: Heuristics for the social sciences. So far the best book on critical thinking for social scientists I've come across. Probably works best if you have some basic grounding in methods and social sciences.

Blurb

Abbott helps social science students discover what questions to ask. This exciting book is not about habits and the mechanics of doing social science research, but about habits of thinking that enable students to use those mechanics in new ways, by coming up with new ideas and combining them more effectively with old ones.

A critical review can be found here http://fpitici.web.wesleyan.edu/Review of Abbott.pdf
Another one http://cfd153.cfdynamics.com/images/journals/docs/pdf/cs/p9.pdf

And I found a chapter online http://www.humanscience.org/docs/Abbott (2004) Methods of Discovery 7.pdf

 

[butchersapron]

Russian Populism: Franco Venturi - Roots of Revolution: A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in 19th Century Russia

 

[Firky]

A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn. Available in comic book form and as a traditional novel. Brilliantly written and one of the most accessible books I've read. I thought whoever came up with the idea of turning it into a comic had an inspired moment.

I've never read the graphic novel version, lent it to someone on here and never got it back.

 

[Firky]

Link:

http://libcom.org/library/peoples-history-of-united-states-howard-zinn

 

[Firky]

.q

 

[seventh bullet]

Russian Populism: Franco Venturi - Roots of Revolution: A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in 19th Century Russia

Brilliant book.

 

[Jeff Robinson]

Are there any books that help with applied algebra in philosophy (if that's the right term for it). I've had no formal education in philosophy but I enjoy reading the odd book or article. However, I generally get stumped when I come across all the if P>X(O) = <¬3 X~(00) type stuff. Any beginner's guide type shit on that stuff?

 

[toggle]

i should really be asking my supervisor this stuff, but he's away atm, so you get the questions.

1/ best book on the boer war.

2. best book on how parliament actually worked (covering the victorian era). I'm looking for things like the effect of parliamentary conventions and how the PM was chosen and how the gvt was changed.

 

[Santino]

Are there any books that help with applied algebra in philosophy (if that's the right term for it). I've had no formal education in philosophy but I enjoy reading the odd book or article. However, I generally get stumped when I come across all the if P>X(O) = <¬3 X~(00) type stuff. Any beginner's guide type shit on that stuff?

Symbolic logic? This is what most philosophy undergraduates will buy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Languages-Logic-Introduction-Formal/dp/155786988X

 

[sihhi]

i should really be asking my supervisor this stuff, but he's away atm, so you get the questions.

1/ best book on the boer war.

2. best book on how parliament actually worked (covering the victorian era). I'm looking for things like the effect of parliamentary conventions and how the PM was chosen and how the gvt was changed.

A L Morton - CPGB historian on the Victorian era?? - Boer War dunno. Good questions

Re A People's History of the United States, brilliant writer but the work is not comprehensive impossible if you try and cover around 500 years in one book. It mixes it all up and kind of collapses into talking about "the system", mixed on the second world war too.

 

[xslavearcx]

Symbolic logic? This is what most philosophy undergraduates will buy: http://www.amazon.com/The-Languages-Logic-Introduction-Formal/dp/155786988X

Dang - i got recommended Hodges logic which was horrible .... Now on the secure 'foundations' built from that, im sweating whilst alternating my way through Howson's logic with trees and Bowstocks intermediate logic. I can't get my head around inductive proofs - my exams looming ever closer, and i want to cry Maybe if i came upon the above book id not be in this terrible situation just now...

 

[xslavearcx]

Nobody's mentioned David Harveys delightful book on neoliberalism...

 

[JimW]

One I have lent to others is Christopher Hill's Century of Revolution.

The standard Commune work is Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray's History of the Paris Commune of 1871 - but that's about a hundred years out of date - available online. There must be a better single volume work.

What's the best single one on the Ethiopian strike waves and revolution 1974-1977?

What's the best single book on the Cultural Revolution in China?

For the CR you can't go far wrong with The Chinese Cultural Revolution Reconsidered - Beyond Purge and Holocaust I reckon, set of essays by various different authors (Arif Dirlik's in there, for example) so has the advantage of remnding you the history's not one neat narrative. Meisner's Mao's China and After is probably the single book on PRC history I recommend if asked.

I had a book on the Commune by Stewart Edwards which I recall was well done but it's ages since I read it and couldn't swear to that, plus since it's the only one I've read not much of a position to judge.

 

[Pickman's model]

i should really be asking my supervisor this stuff, but he's away atm, so you get the questions.

1/ best book on the boer war.

2. best book on how parliament actually worked (covering the victorian era). I'm looking for things like the effect of parliamentary conventions and how the PM was chosen and how the gvt was changed.

1: pakenham's popular

 

[Hollis]

Feminism?

 

[DRINK?]

A young wizard at boarding school?

 

[toblerone3]

The evidence for man-made climate change ?

 

[october_lost]

Deng xiaopeng/neoliberal reforms in post-Mao china?

Early Chinese labour movement?

 

[JimW]

Deng xiaopeng/neoliberal reforms in post-Mao china?

The Meisner book I mentioned would cover that well, I reckon: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Mao's-China-and-After/Maurice-Meisner/9780684856353
He added that new part, "Deng Xiaoping and the Origins of Chinese Capitalism: 1976-1998" in a revision.


He apparenlty also did a monograph called The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1994, review here but I've not read that myself.

Early Chinese labour movement?

Can't think of a single book I've read for an overview on this, but Elizabeth Perry did a book on communist orgainising at Anyuan ( http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271906 ) that I've read a chapter of (all i could find for free ), which was good and looked at the pre-existing worker's orgs, and her book on workers in Shanghai in the CR is excellent too. She might be worth googling or look at her bibliogrpahies.

 

[sihhi]

The Meisner book I mentioned would cover that well, I reckon: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Mao's-China-and-After/Maurice-Meisner/9780684856353
He added that new part, "Deng Xiaoping and the Origins of Chinese Capitalism: 1976-1998" in a revision.


He apparenlty also did a monograph called The Deng Xiaoping Era: An Inquiry into the Fate of Chinese Socialism, 1978-1994, review here but I've not read that myself.

Can't think of a single book I've read for an overview on this, but Elizabeth Perry did a book on communist orgainising at Anyuan ( http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271906 ) that I've read a chapter of (all i could find for free ), which was good and looked at the pre-existing worker's orgs, and her book on workers in Shanghai in the CR is excellent too. She might be worth googling or look at her bibliogrpahies.

Elizabeth Perry is heavy duty - which is the best?

Rebels and Revolutionaries in North China, 1845-1945 (1980);

Chinese Perspectives on the Nien Rebellion (1981);

The Political Economy of Reform in Post-Mao China (1985);

Popular Protest and Political Culture in Modern China (1992);

Shanghai on Strike: the Politics of Chinese Labor (1993)
Urban Spaces in Contemporary China: The Potential for Autonomy and Community in Chinese Cities (1995);

Putting Class in Its Place: Worker Identities in East Asia (1996);

Proletarian Power: Shanghai in the Cultural Revolution (1997);

Danwei: The Changing Chinese Workplace in Historical and Comparative Perspective (1997);

Chinese Society: Change, Conflict, and Resistance (2000);

Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China (2002);

Patrolling the Revolution: Worker Militias, Citizenship and the Modern Chinese State (2006);

Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China (2007);

Mao's Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China (2011);

Anyuan: Mining China's Revolutionary Tradition (2012).

I think Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China is a key work running from Taiping to the Deng era.

 

[JimW]

Elizabeth Perry is heavy duty - which is the best?

Only read the Shanghai CR book (Proletarian Power) and that chapter on the Anyaun I mentioned (and a couple of articles too), so can only solidly recommend that first one.
ETA: Didn't realise she'd done (edited?) something on the Nien Rebellion, earlier history but don't know much about it beyond the very basics so wouldn't mind reading that.

 

[october_lost]

Shanghai on Strike: the Politics of Chinese Labor (1993)

This is the one I wanted to read in particular.