Just passed through a busy phase in my life, and now I am in dire need of reading a few books – preferably non-fiction. I have always been a STEM guy, but since a few years, I have slowly gained interest in some other disciplines – like History, Economics, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science etc. In my school days, I was an avid quizzer and a trivia nerd, but I find that I lack knowledge in multiple subjects (like those mentioned above). So I wanted some good book recommendations on the above subjects.
The books shouldn’t be very academic, but neither should it dumb down things much and should be fairly practical. Also I know that books on these subjects can be very politically biased, so please keep the recommendations fairly neutral, and they shouldn’t be too uncommon either.
Below I further explain the kinds of books I would like to read \[Sorry for making this too long 🙁 \] –
\*\*HISTORY\*\*
Here it should make sense to mention that I am from India, so maybe you can recommend some books on India. I recently read a few books by William Dalrymple – they are great and not very biased. I want books on a certain period in history, and not on very specific events or the autobiography of a person. This is probably the only subject I mentioned, that I have decent knowledge in, so I wouldn’t like to read books on general world history.
Another thing – I read Guns, Germs and Steel a while ago, and had a question in mind. The book explains why Sub-Saharan Africa, America and Oceania had primitive technologies but does not explain why it was only the Western European countries that got so powerful around the 18th century. VERY broadly speaking, Europe, the Middle East, India and China were roughly at the same technological level in the Middle Ages, yet why did the other places (especially India) did not get their own equivalent of the Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution? Even though this is a difficult question, with probably a complex answer, is there any book explaining that?
\*\*Economics, Philosophy, Sociology\*\*
These are subjects that I have practically no knowledge, except the names of the pioneers in these fields and maybe a brief knowledge about their contributions as I have read a few articles and watched a few video essays on YouTube. As a beginner, I am somewhat hesitant to read books dealing with a particular author or theory only to avoid getting too influenced by it, before knowing about the other side.
\*\*Politics\*\*
I read regularly about the domestic Electoral Politics of India (and occasionally other countries as well) and International Politics, but I would like to read something on the “theoretical” stuff – like Political Philosophy, Political Science, International Relations.
PS – Feel free to give me recommendations on other subjects (including Fiction) or at the intersection of above-mentioned subjects, if you think they would interest me. Thanks! 🙂
by Homo_Sapiens_Indicus
2 Comments
I just finished my second book from Vaclav Smil and have really enjoyed them both:
Numbers Don’t Lie
How the world really works
Google will give a better summary than I can tbh
GG&S is tricky because it’s got some serious flaws, and some racial bias to say the least, but it’s hard to find something that counters it just because he’s chosen such a strange question to start with. You’re also a bit off that they were all at the same level in the Middle Ages— the Arab countries, India and China were far ahead of Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
But if you’re looking for a big overview that considers India in particular, Sven Beckert’s The Empire of Cotton is phenomenal. He uses the trade in cotton and growth of the textile industry to examine global politics and economics, starting by looking at the way that Europe’s need for international trade shaped its governments and militaries, leading to exploitative imperial countries seeking new markets and labor, including of course India along with the Americas.