The Republic of Heaven

I searched this board but I can't seem to find this thread...although I kind of have the feeling that I started it already? Anyway, I've hardly read any non-fiction and I would like to.

Here are two that I would recommend to the highest degree:

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond. Jess, this is one for you, and anyone interested in race, history, anthropology, and the like. He covers all of human history from a scientific point of view and manages to keep it as entertaining as it is insightful.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down:A Hmong Child, her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, Anne Fadiman. It's a medical anthropological book, which sounds dry, but I actually cried at the end of it, it was so moving. I know people deplore the state of journalism these days, but this book is a model of what a good journalist can accomplish, if he or she has an equal degree of empathy and objectivity.

Any recommendations?

An African In Greenland by Kpomassie Tete-Michel. I read it when it was recommend to me by Pullman and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond. Jess, this is one for you, and anyone interested in race, history, anthropology, and the like. He covers all of human history from a scientific point of view and manages to keep it as entertaining as it is insightful.

For a competing perspective consider The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes. In my opinion neither Landes nor Diamond convincingly dispels the argument of the other, so I think it's important for students to read both and form their own views.

**EDIT: My suggestion that Landes be read as a companion to Diamond was not intended as an endorsement of his argument. I'm happy to send a critical review of either book to anyone who contacts me by PM. (02/07/08)

**EDIT: Changed link to The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. (02/08/08)

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond. Jess, this is one for you, and anyone interested in race, history, anthropology, and the like. He covers all of human history from a scientific point of view and manages to keep it as entertaining as it is insightful.

For a competing perspective consider The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes. In my opinion neither Landes nor Diamond convincingly dispels the argument of the other, so I think it's important for students to read both and form their own views.

I suspect we come from two different schools of thought, but I would think that you wouldn't need Diamond's argument to dispel the argument of the other. I agree, people should read them both, but if they can't see through Landes' prejudices, then they should carefully examine their own. (And don't say Diamond is prejudiced too. His book is an answer to the older prejudices of the field.)

The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Century

That's a good place to start.

Several publications produced rival lists, and I've linked contributions from the über-liberal CounterPunch and the über-conservative National Review so we can celebrate diversity to the greatest extent possible. There are many excellent non-propaganda books on each, but others are, well, see number 100 on the National Review list:

CounterPunch: Best 20th Century Non-Fiction (English Only).

CounterPunch: Best 20th Century Non-Fiction in Translation (Translated).

National Review: Best 20th Century Non-Fiction

Not a book, but I have just found this online collection of socio-political essays, which I am loving. It is entirely possible that this is one of those cultural phenomena which is new to me but everyone else already knows about. (That happens to me a lot.) It is very entertaining at any rate, and I wanted to share.

Oh, and a disclaimer I suppose... It contains material relating to and expressing opinions about issues regarding (but not limited to) sexuality, feminism, religion, racism, popular culture, patriotism and political correctness. Basically it is essays on a whole bunch of issues about which people tend to get their knickers in a knot. And most of it is not PG. Just so you know.

I very rarely read non-fictin stuff either, and when I do I have a tendancy to lean towards biologist-type autobiographys like:
Dian Fossey - Gorillas In The Mist
and Joy Adamson - Born Free

I would recommend any history book by Norman Davies. My two favourites are Europe: A History, which looks at European history from non-'Great Power' perspectives, and The Isles which is about Britain and Ireland but focuses a lot on Ireland, Wales and Scotland, rather than the usual focus on England.

I also love A Peace to End All Peace.

I like history books that read more like a story and could add many more to this list.