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History Resources
As with the list of all-purpose History threads in which most of the links below were found, this list is also incomplete. There are additional history resources on the various pages of Resources for Writers.
Ancient World
Football and Fragmentary Poetry: “These are pictures of football players with translations of ancient poetry placed underneath them.”
Tausret, the female pharaoh:
- //Tausret: Forgotten Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt//; Richard H. Wilkinson, ed.
- Callender, V.G., "Queen Tausret and the End of Dynasty 19," in Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 32
- Dodson, Aidan. //Poisoned Legacy: The Fall of the 19th Egyptian Dynasty//
Biographies of Alexander the Great
//Sughaim Sine//: Homosocial Nipple Sucking In Ancient Pagan Ireland
A 10-minute rock epic about the Battle of Nesactium, sung in contemporary Istrian slang
Cicero’s Phillipics:
- M. Tullius Cicero, Orations, The fourteen orations against Marcus Antonius (Philippics), C.D. Yonge, Ed. Perseus Digital Library — uploaded by one nonny to Zippyshare (.azw3, .epub, .mobi formats)
- Cicero recorded by LibriVox (including the //Phillippics//)
- "À Monsieur Ousquémont-Hyatt, à Gand" by Alphonse Allais (Cicero railing against the Catalina brothers for riding tandem on a bike)
Cicero's //Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished.// “Antony's grandfather was a famous orator - and Cicero's hero? Cicero wrote what was basically a fanfic featuring him.”
Books by Patricia Southern: //Mark Antony: A Life// (one nonny does not suggest getting the much-too-abridged combined Antony & Cleopatra edition); //Augustus//; //Roman Britain//
//Caesar: Life of a Colossus// by Adrian Goldsworthy
"The Ambush that Changed History," about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. The article draws on Peter S. Wells's //The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest// (PDF).
//Sandman//, "August" issue (originally #30), features a dark!Caesar story about Octavian. It’s part of the “Distant Mirrors” series, which also covers the French Revolution, Emperor Norton, and Haroun al-Raschid; these stories and others were later collected in the paperback Fables and Reflections.
//A Brief History of the Private Lives of the Roman Emperors// by Anthony Blond
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2942927-a-brief-history-of-the-private-lives-of-the-roman-emperorsMatrons of Awesome series of posts about Roman women
Fuck Yeah Alcibiades, which among other things contains 19th-c. Socrates/Alcibiades fanart
Clip from John Woo’s //Red Cliff//, which depicts the Zhuge Liang “Straw Boat Borrows Arrows” story
Byzantium
Middle Ages
- Discussion of two different translations of Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book
15th & 16th Centuries
- Ex Urbe, a blog by the historian Ada Palmer, who focuses on the Renaissance
- //Sisters to the King// by Maria Perry, about Margaret and Mary (Rose) Tudor
- Chin P'ing Mei, 16th-century novel, “written as a scathing critique of the corruption and immorality of the late Ming Dynasty” — //New York Times// article; weepingcock excerpts
17th Century
- Shivaji Bhonsle, Indian warrior king: Wikipedia; how he and his son escaped the Mughal emperor; his close friend Tanaji Malusare; his warrior iguanas; defending himself with tiger claws
- Christina, Queen of Sweden: Wikipedia; trailer of //The Girl King//
- Julie “La Maupin” d’Aubigny: Kelly Gardiner; Rejected Princesses; Jim Burrows; Robert Malcolm clutching his pearls over her
- //Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy// by Judith Brown. (Actually extends well beyond the Renaissance into the 17th century.) “The lesbian part is the most eye-catching, but it's definitely not the nuttiest part of the story- the nun in question only got caught because she started proclaiming that Jesus was visiting her in visions, and that she was married to him on the astral plane in Heaven.”
- Fox tossing (warning: cruelty to animals)
18th & 19th Centuries
- Frederick the Great, “the Potato King of Prussia — A story immortalised in potato prints by the NYT itself!”
- //A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812//, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. “Ulrich is the person who coined the famous ‘well-behaved women don't make history’ quote (in this very book, in fact) but her meaning was the opposite of how it's come to be used- she was talking about how ‘well-behaved’ women like Martha Ballard rarely had their accomplishments recorded, even though they were integral parts of the community.”
- //Haikus érotiques: Extraits de La fleur du bout et du Tonneau de saule//, Anonymous; translation/commentary by Jean Cholley
- Many NSFW links for Japanese haikai, ladies and dildos.
- Lord Byron was, um, “built like a pony.”
20th Century
- Tavoukdjian, Serpouhi. //Exiled - Story of an Armenian Girl//
- //The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices//, by Xinran. Women’s lives under the Communist regime
- //Below Stairs// by Margaret Powell, which inspired the series Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey. “Powell worked as a housemaid in the 1920s, and wrote several scathing memoirs about the experience. This is the first one.”
