I'm reading Comment on écrit l'histoire by Paul Veyne. It is about what is history and how historian make it.
I'd be interested in what he has to say. He is very Foucauldian, isn't he?
My reading for this month:
On the fiction front, I have finally completed Mary Renault's Alexander Trilogy, reading
Fire from Heaven, the first one, years after I read the other two. I love these books and I think Renault is the best historical fiction writer in the last 50 years, particularly for her ability to avoid any sort of presentism while still portraying such complex, human characters. My one complaint is that she idolizes Alexander a bit much, he is the epitome of a Mary Sue, although that's sort of the point. His romance with Hephaistion is moving, but not as much as the romance in her best ancient book,
The Last of the Wine. 4/5 Highly recommended reading
Fire from Heaven if you have any interest in ancient history at all.
I also read G.K. Chesterton's epic poem
The Ballad of the White Horse, about Alfred the Great's defeat of the Danes. Quick read and a galloping metre, pretty enjoyable poem.
On the non-fiction front, I read Wayne Lee's
Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare 1500-1865. Lee explains how armies develop restraints on warfare by analyzing four case studies: the English in Ireland in the late 1500s, the First English Civil War, southeastern Amerindian warfare in the 1700s, and an anti-Indian campaign by the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Lee shows how armies could have different ways of fighting versus rebellious subjects, "brotherly" enemies, or people they perceived to be barbarians, which modified the cruelty shown. American Continental soldiers, for instance, treated Indians mercilessly, were harsh with Loyalists, and very chivalrous against Redcoats. All these examples weaved into each other, too, for instance experience in Ireland informed how English soldiers treated Native Americans.