[silk] History books on Baltics / Easter Europe and South-East Asia
Hi silklisters, I wanted a few recommendations on History books on Baltics (Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania), Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and further east) and Southeast Asia (mostly Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam). I have visited some of these countries in the past but do not know much about their history (medieval times, colonisation and road to independence). Wikipedia only sates the palata so much. I would prefer travelogues or biographies as compared to drier documentary reads of history. -- Vinayak
Re: [silk] History books on Baltics / Easter Europe and South-East Asia
Thaths did a lot of travel through se asia including laos, you should find his blog someplace. Vinayak Hegde [02/02/12 16:43 +0530]: Hi silklisters, I wanted a few recommendations on History books on Baltics (Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania), Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and further east) and Southeast Asia (mostly Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam). I have visited some of these countries in the past but do not know much about their history (medieval times, colonisation and road to independence). Wikipedia only sates the palata so much. I would prefer travelogues or biographies as compared to drier documentary reads of history. -- Vinayak
Re: [silk] History books on Baltics / Easter Europe and South-East Asia
My modus operandi when traveling through SE Asia was to take my time moving through the country and reading up as much as I could on these countries. Here are some books that I liked about Vietnam. Vietnam: * A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnamhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0679724141/ - The story of the Vietnam War illustrated through the life of one of the participants in it. * The Best and the Brightesthttp://www.amazon.com/Best-Brightest-David-Halberstam/dp/0449908704/ref=pd_vtp_b_2- A former Kennedy advisor/speech writer's take that even the best and the brightest make terrible mistakes with perfectly good intensions. * Street Without Joy: The French Debacle In Indochinahttp://www.amazon.com/Street-Without-Joy-Indochina-Stackpole/dp/0811732363/ref=pd_vtp_b_4 - A very dry, academic take on the first indochinese war (leading to Dien Bien Phu and the Geneva accords in the 50's). * Vietnam: A Historyhttp://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473/ref=pd_vtp_b_1- An excellent, accessible history of the Vietnam War * Vietnam - A Television Historyhttp://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-Television-History-Everett-Alvarez/dp/B0001WTWOC/ref=pd_vtp_b_21- Not a book, but the DVD of an excellent TV series (based on the previous book in this list). * How We Won the War http://www.amazon.com/dp/0916894010/ - The Vietnam war as seen from the brilliant general on the North Vietnamese side (Vo Nguyen Giap) * The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War http://www.amazon.com/dp/0140280219/ - We've all seen the photo of that naked, napalmed girl running towards the camera. Here is her story (and through it, the story of the photographer and the war). * Brother Enemy: The War After the Warhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0020493614/- After the Americans left in 1975, another war broke out in Indochina between former allies perceived as a homogenous communist dominoes by the planners in the the Pentagon. Nayan Chanda was one of the few non-Western correspondents left in Vietnam who wrote extensively about the goings on for the Far Eastern Economic Review (RIP!). * The Pentagon Papers http://www.amazon.com/dp/007028380X/ - Reading up on what the military planners in the US knew as they were getting mired more and more into the war is fascinating to read. Daniel Ellsberg's leak of the Pentagon Papers were the wikileaks of its day. Note that this is an abridged book. The full Papers runs into a number of volumes and is not a fun read if you are not into Think Tanks and position papers. * Dispatches http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307270807/ - War reportage at its finest. A classic. * Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Sidehttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0792264657- We've seen (Doors playing on our mental stereos) the iconic photographs of the Vietnam War from the cameras of Larry Burroughs, Tim Page, Horst Faas, Henri Huet, Nick Ut and others. How did the others see the war? This book gives us a glimpse of the photos by war photographers on the Vietnamese side. I'll send my recommendations for Cambodia and Laos later. Compiling this list is proving to be time consuming. Thaths On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:16 AM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.netwrote: Thaths did a lot of travel through se asia including laos, you should find his blog someplace. Vinayak Hegde [02/02/12 16:43 +0530]: Hi silklisters, I wanted a few recommendations on History books on Baltics (Estonia / Latvia / Lithuania), Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and further east) and Southeast Asia (mostly Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam). I have visited some of these countries in the past but do not know much about their history (medieval times, colonisation and road to independence). Wikipedia only sates the palata so much. I would prefer travelogues or biographies as compared to drier documentary reads of history. -- Vinayak -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo! Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders
Re: [silk] History books on Baltics / Easter Europe and South-East Asia
I missed one other book that I really liked: * A Dragon Apparent: Travels in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnamhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/090787133X/- Normal Lewis' travelogue through SE Asia during the last days of French Indochine. Thaths
Re: [silk] History books on Baltics / Easter Europe and South-East Asia
Onwards to book recommendations about Cambodia: * A History of Cambodia http://www.amazon.com/dp/0813343631/ - A very accessible history of Cambodia from ancient times. The sections on the Angkor period is widely cited/quoted in other works about Cambodia. Chandler's Brother Number One http://www.amazon.com/dp/0813335108/ is also excellent. * Cambodia: Year Zero http://www.amazon.com/dp/0030403065/ - Father Ponchaud's book was one of the first to expose the horrors of Democratic Kampuchea. Sadly out of print and difficult to get * Any book by Ben Kiernan. His books about the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge are thouroughly researched academic tomes. May not be very accessible as a lay reader. * Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodiahttp://www.amazon.com/dp/081541224X/- The horrible truth about Nixon's secret war in Cambodia and the devastating impact it had on the country. Shawcross ruffled quite a few feathers with his Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743200284/ (also about Cambodia) * First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembershttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0060856262/- There are dozens of books written by survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime. This one is among the better written. * When The War Was Over: Cambodia And The Khmer Rouge Revolutionhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/1891620002/ - Elizabeth Becker was one of the few (iirc, only 3) Westerners allowed by the Khmer Rouge regime to visit the country * The Lost Executioner: A Story of the Khmer Rougehttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G7RAZ4/- The story of Kang Kek Iew aka Comrade Duch. I am personally fascinated by Iew's story. How does a meek mathematics teacher with so much promise turn into the Director of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison? And what is it that motivates him to be the only Khmer Rouge cadre/leader to come clean, confess his role in the genocide and atone for his sins? Would I be any different if I were in his shoes? If you want to keep up with what is happening in Cambodia today, The Phnom Penh Post http://www.phnompenhpost.com/ is an excellent English-language newspaper. The Bayon Pearnik http://www.bayonpearnik.com/ is also a decent monthly magazine - though focused mostly on the lives and preoccupations of expats. Thaths -- Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? Carl: Nuthin'. Homer: D'oh! Carl: Unless you're crooked. Homer: Woo-hoo! Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders
