Book recomendation!
Hey /his, does anyone have a good book (or link to a documentary) on the history and politics of the middle east/ other muslim countries and islamification.
I am pretty well read in islamic doctrine and ideology, but i lack historical/ political understanding, which is pretty bad in discussion whenever "they just did this because the americans did..."
Thanks in advance.
Someone suggest me a book on the History of Zoroastrianism and/or the life of Zoroaster/Zarathustra.
>>909335
thanks. I just finished "thus spoke zarathustra", but i have no idea about the actual historical person
>>909325
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes is really good.
https://mega.nz/#!vZVGwAAb!hsYaMnp3FOFi5jvrxypxt9Ci6VN1Hg8J-Oqmn8mAWRo
>>909848
wow, thanks mate
something about medieval history?
>>911040
Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 by Chris Wickham
Medieval Studies: An Introduction by James M. Powell
The Making of the Middle Ages by RW Southern
The Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History by Ole Jorgen Benedictow
The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation by Ian Mortimer
Life in a Medieval Village by Francis and Joseph Goes
A Brief History of the Hundred Years War by Desmond Seward
The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950-1350 by Robert Sabatino Lopez
Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce A.D. 300-900 by Michael McCormick
The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (Studies in Social Discontinuity) by Immanuel Wallerstein, Edward Shorter and Charles Tilly
http://pastebin.com/u/jonstond2
There are plenty of medieval European topics in this ^
>>911115
Francis and Joseph Gies*
>>911115
NOICE
thanks, man
Audiobooks?
the only book you need
>>912180
Baiting should be a bannable offense.
>>912180
I tip my fedora to you
>>909848
This looks great, thanks
>>912180
>literally makes the "who created God then???" argument
>>913814
Don't they know that's off limits???
>not being bread pilled
>anno domini MMXVI
>>913912
>>913864
It just shows that Dawkins doesn't understand what he's talking about when it comes to theology and philosophy.
>>913814
This is actually legit argument. God exist because there should be some kind of cause for everything! Except in case God of course! Because fuck logic and stop asking questions, God is strong magical entity who needs no cause. You can see how this ends up being used in discussion.
>>914268
>what is alpha and omega
>what is the nothing itself nothings
>>914268
>I believe that something can come from nothing, and this makes sense. No, we've never observed this, but it's true because reasons.
Pretty autistic t b h f a m
>>914268
Theologians have already dealt with that problem.
Everything that has a beginning needs a cause. The universe has a beginning so it needs a cause. God does not have a beginning and therefore it doesn't need a cause.
Also, "The explanation of God's existence lies in the necessity of His own nature." God's existence is necessary, but the universe still needs an explanation.
Even if you think all of this is bullshit, it still shows that Dawkins wasn't thinking very hard when writing The God Delusion, considering that he ignored all this and thought that "God needs a creator" was a valid argument.
>>914322
>>914305
>>914272
>Theologians have already dealt with that problem.
Those "theological explanations" are quite simply special exceptions. They only work if you allow for a special category which is not subject to rational logic. Any theologian who rests his case on these cheats has no basis to criticize anyone for proposing an argument.
I think this shows how intractable this problem is because they rest entirely on opposite axioms or premises, I just wish the "theologians" would admit that their case relies entirely on the abandonment of logic and take the credibility hit. Instead they dance away as if they "won" the argument.
>>914377
So are you saying it's irrational for something to exist without a creator? Cause that's what it sounds like you're saying.
You believe that the universe doesn't need a cause, but you believe that God needs a cause. It doesn't make any sense.
>>914406
The "creator" conclusion just seems so anthropic and peculiar. It's like a very simple "people craft things, the universe is a thing, so a person must have created it." In this case the "Person" is super magical off limits "alpha and omega" idea, or whatever poetry. Strikes me as indeed too convenient.
Comparatively, the Big Bang Theory has a similar metaphysics to it, as there is a "timeline" of sorts where the fundamental properties are manifesting. But anything "before" that is undetectable, similarly "off limits". We could speculate if we wanted to: maybe the "creator" was there and cause the big bang, maybe not. But it is categorically impossible to physically detect anything in that realm. As far as I remember reading about it.
I just dislike the glib nature of the discussion, it always strike me as arguing backwards from entrenched positions.
>>914451
>In this case the "Person" is super magical off limits "alpha and omega" idea, or whatever poetry. Strikes me as indeed too convenient.
The ontological arguments of Anselm and Descartes try to prove that God is a perfect and all powerful and such.
>>914475
That's compounding the problem even further, proposing something existing outside the universe, then assigning an infinity of attributes to it. The basis for this exercise is to justify a causality model. If you are invented these outlandish premises at some point you should just revise the model. Its a fun hypothetical but why would you ever want to commit to this as a belief.
Can anyone recommend me a good English language book on the history of modern Taiwan, or China's warlord period?
Wheelock's Latin.
>>914507
Warlords
While Dikötter 2008 (cited under Historiographical Surveys) attempts to rescue the warlords from their usual bad press, most interpretations of their role still stress the negative side of their role. Pye 1971 and Nathan 1998 are more theoretical attempts to elucidate the nature of warlord politics. McCord 1993 focuses on the factors leading to the militarization of Chinese society in the 1910s. Several of the best works, in particular Sheridan 1966, Gillin 1967, and McCormack 1977, are biographies of the major northern warlords. Lary 1974 covers the most important group of southern warlords. McCord 2014 is one of the most recent works on the topic and focuses on central China.
Gillin, Donald G. Warlord: Yen Hsi-shan in Shansi Province, 1911–1949. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.
>Biography of a North China warlord who, more than others, promoted industrialization in his domain. Yan Xishan (Yen Hsi-shan) 阎锡山 remained, however, a conservative, and his program was the last gasp of the Tongzhi Restoration policies of the 1860s. Yan’s lack of a social base in the peasantry constrained his resistance to the Japanese invasion.
Lary, Diana. Region and Nation: The Kwangsi Clique in Chinese Politics, 1925–1937. Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974.
>Study of the Guangxi warlords in the Southwest, who were to become particularly important after the partial reunification of the country in 1927 and who remained prominent up to 1949.
>>914912
McCord, Edward A. The Power of the Gun: The Emergence of Modern Chinese Warlordism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
>Study of the origins of warlordism in the 1910s. Focuses on Hubei and Hunan. Warlordism was not inevitable and should not simply be traced back to the mid-19th century. Rather, it resulted from the inability of political factions to manage their differences and from their too easy resort to violence.
McCord, Edward A. Military Force and Elite Power in the Formation of Modern China. New York: Routledge, 2014.
>Major recent study of warlord phenomenon, focusing on central China (Hubei and Hunan). Argues for the pervasiveness of war as a theme in the emergence of modern China.
McCormack, Gavan. Chang Tso-lin in Northeast China, 1911–1928: China, Japan, and the Manchurian Idea. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1977.
>Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin) 张作霖 was the dominant warlord in Manchuria until his murder in 1928. This is an excellent portrait.
Nathan, Andrew J. Peking Politics, 1918–1923: Factionalism and the Failure of Constitutionalism. Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1998.
>Study of the politics of the warlord period by a political scientist. His model of factionalism (leader-centered, dyadically structured, clientalism-based structures) has also been used to examine post-1949 Chinese politics. Factional politics operated within a broad ideological consensus.
Pye, Lucien W. Warlord Politics: Conflict and Coalition in the Modernization of Republican China. Praeger Library of Chinese Affairs. New York: Praeger, 1971.
>General study of the warlord period by a political theorist. Stresses “realities of power” rather than ideologies. Argues that warlords were, on the whole, rational and pragmatic men operating in a situation of tension between the restoration of a monolithic political structure and a more open style of politics.
>>914923
Sheridan, James E. Chinese Warlord: The Career of Feng Yü-hsiang. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1966.
One of the classic studies of a warlord. Although still using militarist methods, Feng Yuxiang (Feng Yü-hsiang) 冯玉祥 had social reformist aims, influenced by both Confucianism and Christianity. He adopted a personal and paternalist style of rule, flirted with communism but never advocated social revolution, and became increasingly an anachronism.
Is this Edith Grossman translation the recommended version for Don Quixote?
>>915762
>autobiography of brigitte gabriel
Her life story is fucking terrifying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvlWPN4Wf5Y
>>915762
It got bad after "understanding the threat of islam"
I also like how you made a book like the Quran one of the beginner books
>>915862
>It got bad after "understanding the threat of islam"
how exactly?
>I also like how you made a book like the Quran one of the beginner books
You can't argue well about christianity either if you haven't read the bible, or about evolution if you haven't read a biology textbook....
>>915907
I feel as if it might be too biased
Better to let readers read narratives that aren't too biased and let them make a conclusion from there
Alright, I kind of agree with you on the second point, but it does help to know the true context of the revelations beforehand or while reading it
>>915916
>I feel as if it might be too biased
it is. No question. It's my selection of "anti islam" books basically, with no intention of giving off a well rounded non-narrative-driven picture of islam (because i truly belive, that most non-muslims will come to a anti-islam stance even when they just read the trinity so there's no point in being unbiased/subtle). Some more nuanced than others. They are all quite good books though
>>915762
>>914268
the problem is not the argument itself but rather it is not an argument, it points fingers rather than address the actual issue, where does the universe come from?
Looking for some /his/ comics, preferably set in antiquity.
In particular, does anyone know the source of the pic here? >>916002
>>915916
>I feel as if it might be too biased
That's the idea. It's a list more suited to someone with a political platform about opposing Islam, so /pol/, than it is a list for someone more concerned about /his/ or even /rel/.
>>917412
Here's first version, just a rough cut of the Quran-Sirat-Hadith trio to start off the primary sources. The Quran picks are all English translations of high quality but of varied interpretations depending on the author and bias. I could add some bullet points or a short blurb under each to further describe their focus but I maybe the subsection summaries are good enough. For the Sirat/Hadith I went for most of the earliest reporters/chroniclers, all have English translations running around in print or online (maybe a pastebin could be useful to gather links).
Tafsirs may be superfluous, but they could be a good place to start the next section, followed by scholarly books on the study and critique of Hadith, then some primers on Islamic Law, and finally a section for major historians and their works.
What should be cut, what should be added, and why?
>>909335
i recently got a hold of "in search of zarathustra" or something like that, it might just be a travel book though where some historian treks around iran. not heavy academic stuff but a good intro
Anyone have some Roman history recommandations?
>>916043
more like artbooks, but beautifully made. The first one is about evolutionary history too, so not really what you're looking for, but i don't know anything else
>>918021
Inheritance of Rome by Chris Wickham is pretty good read on the very end of the Roman Empire and the fallout across the various regions of the empire over the next few hundred years.
>>911115
This is great, but I want something concise about early and late medieval history. Like an "all in one" for a layman.
I'd like a book that focuses on Spain from early antiquity to post Roman era. Every book on Spain I've found is either
-Muslim Spain
-Reconquista
-Spanish Civil War
But nobody ever talks about what they were up to before the Muslims showed up.
>>918693
perhaps look for something about the Whole Iberian Penninsula ?
>>918693
>muslim spain
http://pastebin.com/WzdNxB71
>reconquista (this is a crusades bibliography but theres a section dedicated to spain(
http://pastebin.com/7h8fASgv
>spanish civil war
http://pastebin.com/WGqYYVGS
I'm getting into politics, so I want to arm myself with knowledge first as I'm studying engineering which has little to do with it.
What are some essential classics?
If it matters, I'm from Serbia, so a few books on Yugoslavia/Balkans could be useful.
Can someone recommend me some books about Scandinavia?
Preferably less to do with vikings, and more just the general history, but anything is fine.
I want to learn more about Phoenician history/ mythology. Does /his/ have any book recommendations?
>>918511
the first book is just for you, then
>>920969
>Phoenician
"Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization" has a pretty good summation on the history of Carthage, the phoenician city-state.
>>915762
Seems pretty agenda driven.
Any really good biographies you guys can rec?
I think I'm going to check out Guevara, Also Known as Che.
Really fun read, reminds me a lot of the Cold War.
>>918937
Wow, you are either being rude or didn't read his post at all.
>>921697
Kek I didn't read the post, thought this was a generic recommendation thread. Regardless, the book is still a good read.
>>921703
fuck. I didn't read his post at all rofl. only saw the list of topics and figured he wanted books on those.
>>918693
roger collins- visigothic spain, is good for post-roman era.
I'm not sure if there exists a single book that covers the history of "ancient spain". Best bet is to look through the following bibliographies and search either "spain" or "hispania"
Roman Army
http://pastebin.com/iiyMSsDP
Roman Empire
http://pastebin.com/ibgv0LH6
Roman Cities
http://pastebin.com/PN4dRtGe
>>921816
also see pics related for Roman conquest of Spain, its relationship to imperialism, and its incorporation into empire
>>921426
you interested in any period in particular?
>>920969
this
>>921114. great read
also
Lancel, Serge. 1995. Carthage: A history. Translated by Antonia Nevill. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
>Particularly good on the archaeology and material remains of the city of Carthage. New edition with new maps, illustrations, and introduction by Richard Miles
Miles=same author of Carthage must be destroyed
>>921712
>thought this was a generic recommendation thread
well, it is (now)
>>922342
its not necessary. Mile's book does a good job describing some of the mythology (though its not comprehensive iirc)
Could someone make a list for Orthodox Christianity?
>>922565
I think some of this is Orthodox core.
Also, I've seen people suggest The Orthodox Church and The Orthodox Way.
>>909325
The Turner Diaries
Mein Kampf
Nature's Eternal Religion
The Lightening and the Sun
>>923378
>Klassenism
>>923378
>The Turner Diaries
more of an action book than /his/ desu~
