I'll throw in War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals, also by David Halberstam. It is a very insightful look into the policies and pitfalls that came out of the early '90s.

Yeah, I'm not that familiar with the Hudson Valley school, but one hypothesis would be that they saw the impressionist paintings from London and Paris (which were indeed polluted), and imitated the style.

A related question popped up here, and I was surprised not to find more recent works, so I hope someone can add other suggestions.

Besides the Jarrett title mentioned there, Harold Nicolson's The Congress of Vienna relates the contributions of the various principals, but after 77 years that's getting pretty long in the tooth.

For the perspectives of individual players it might be worth consulting biographies: there's a recent sympathetic reappraisal of Metternich by Wolfram Siemann, but sceptics might be left unconvinced that he was the visionary suggested.

Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen of France and England. Mother of empires, by Sara Cockerill. I was disappointed to learn that alot of the "white myth " stories are just that. Stories. She lived a remarkable life, but she was far from the Amazonian warrior queen that many of us have been told about. Excellent read and expertly researched.

Does anyone have particularly good books/podcasts on pre-Columbian North American tribes such as the Mississippi?

wonderful book. i’m not biased.

A list or various books that I recommend.

A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility by Taner Akcam

The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust by Heather Pringle

The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War by Lynn H. Nicholas

The Dancing Plague: The Strange, True Story of an Extraordinary Illness by John Waller

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham-Dixon

Bernini: His Life and His Rome by Franco Mormando

The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G. J. Meyer

Rembrandt’s Eyes by Simon Schama

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama

The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

India: A History by John Keay

China: A History by John Keay

Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe by John Julius Norwich

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I just finished Malcolm Gaskill’s Ruin of All Witches: Life and Death in the New World. It’s the story of the witch hunt in Springfield Massachusetts in 1651, but it starts with the founding of the plantation and it’s an incredible exploration of what life was actually like there in the 1600s. He perfectly captures the hothouse atmosphere of exhaustion, boredom, anxiety and gossip that led to the witch accusations, but I also don’t think I’ve gotten a better portrait of what life was like for the Puritans.

It really well written too, and sometimes unexpectedly funny. Somehow I did not expect >!the most damning accusation to be based on a pudding!<

A podcast that I like is Literature and History, by Doug Metzger. It's about the history of English literature! He covers stuff chronologically, starting off with cuneiform, since you can't talk about literature without talking about the birth of writing. I've just finished up the season where he talks about Roman literature! It's very cool, he has his PhD in American literature of the 1800s (I think, don't quote me) and it is peer-reviewed! Amazing educational podcast.

depends on when you’re looking at— four quick recommendations :)

if you’re interested in just before the 20th century, Victorian America: Transformation ls in Everyday Life 1876-1915 is fascinating and has everything you want, while the murder of Helen Jewett is a nonfiction exploration of a famous murder case and has a lot of day-to-day information.

If you’re interested in colonial, Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale is all about the daily life of a colonial midwife, mostly her diary. I just finished Malcolm Gaskill’s Ruin of All Witches which is about the witchhunt in 1651 Springfield Massachusetts and it is absolutely packed with information about daily life, what people did, what their lives were like, what they eat, all the stuff you sound interested in!

I really enjoyed James Rives’ Religion in the Roman Empire, which is academic but very well-organized & readable.

Hi! Thomas Segrue’s Origins of the Urban Crisis looks at how and why Black migrants from the South became concentrated in the Northern inner cities and what led to the 1960s and 70s riots in cities like Detroit… It’s a great overview of the politics and economics of segregation in the 20th century in the north. If you’re interested in segregation in the south, you really still can’t do better than Woodward’s classic The Strange Career of Jim Crow, which is also incredibly readable (it was written in the 50s, so it’s a little old-fashioned, but Woodward was trying to combat the argument of the south that segregation was natural and had always existed, and instead to explain its history).

Lisa McGirr’s Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New Right is also a great book, she looks at the emergence of the new right from Goldwater through the southern strategy to Reagan, although she focuses more on the sort of grassroots side of it.

McGirr and Segrue are both academic writers, but very readable imo.

Alan Brinkley’s Voices of Protest: Coughlin, Long, and the Great Depression was written for a popular audience and has a lot on Huey Long’s run for president versus FDR. Overall it’s really good, although I think he isn’t really fair to the Irish-Americans, but that’s probably partly because my grandparents were Irish-Anerican and they despised Coughlin.

David Halberstam - The Best and the Brightest. Looks at members of the US government that came into office with JFK in 1961 (and continued to serve with LBJ after 1963) and their failure to come to grips with the Vietnam War.

Edwin Black - War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race.

Eric Rauchway - Why the New Deal Matters.

Landon R.Y. Storrs - The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left.

Robin D.G. Kelley - Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists during the Great Depression.

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On the podcast front: The Rest is History podcast just did a really good multi-part series on Ronald Reagan.

'The Poison King' by Mayor is a fun read about one of the most enduring Roman antagonists: Mithridates of Pontus.

>I thought a bastard could inherit if the king had no issues or siblings or close relatives (uncles, 1st/2nd cousins)

Not in France. Now, if they couldn't find any heir (which would be impossible by the late middle ages, everyone noble in Europe was related to everyone) mayyyybe but as I said when you get past the 11th century everyone is more or less related to everyone and can reliably prove it.

>i have read somewhere that Henry VIII didn't have any legitimate son until...well...Edward VI popped out and before that he was planning to designate Henry FitzRoy (his bastard through Elizabeth Blount) as his heir.

Is this somewhat true?

As my example may suggest I studied French history (specifically the 17th century), I know nothing about English royal history, sorry.

Highly recommend. Hardcore stuff if you're into that. Also would suggest following it up with Heart of Darkness (fiction)

May not be exactly what you’re looking for but Last of the Blue and Gray: Old Men, Stolen Glory, and the Mystery That Outlived the Civil War by Richard A. Serrano may still be of interest.

In addition to A Concise History of Belgium by Guy Vanthemsche, I highly recommend King Leopold's Ghost for a great, though tragic, read on Belgium's colonial management of the Congo. It's a must-read.

A couple that stand our for me:

April 1865 - The authors thesis is that one month represented a "fold" in history. A focused take on the events rather than a general history. I had read many books on the U.S. Civil War and related persons, but this offered new insights that I had not considered previously.

Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace - From a historical perspective, it is really interesting and places some world events in context. Great histories of both men and their relationship. For senior military officers, I expect you may agree with me that the author got it wrong by describing Marshall as Eisenhower's "commander". Eisenhower eclipsed Marshall, but respected him as a mentor and friend and valued his input. It highlighted the amazing impact that Marshall had on the Army and the Department of Defense. Despite what I considered a significant shortcoming of the book, I think the rest redeems the book and makes it a worthwhile read.

I highly recommend Hannah Arendt's The Origins lf Totalitarianism and Federicho Finchelstein's From Facism to Populism.

King Leopold’s Ghost is more African history than Belgian history but it still may be of interest.

Hmmmm, maybe Roman Art by Donald Strong and Roman Art and Architecture by Mortimer Wheeler?