The history thread

[Techno Natch]

I've recently read "Catherine the Great" by Robert Massie and it was bloody marvellous. Some of the love stories felt a bit boring, but it was all relevant. Reading about Serf history and the Pugachev revolt have made me want to learn more about this era of Russian history.

 

[Stringy]

Lucy Worsley did a BBC mini-series on Russian history recently. I only watched one episode but it was really good and I'll watch it when I have more time.

I have been reading The Silk Roads: A New History of the World lately. It's history as told from the perspective of the east. It can be difficult to follow in parts because it presupposes a lot of knowledge without introducing it properly, i.e. names of former empires and places with no geographical context but some parts are good. I found the stuff on the rise of Islam, slavery in the east and Roman Syria to be very interesting. There there was some stuff on the Vikings in the east which I didn't know. It's a shame that Frankopan's prose isn't more accessible because although I want to know more about these histories, reading is so challenging.