history

Put me on a path to read all sorts of history, evolutionary biology, and linguistics books.

Intense story of Shackelton’s 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica.

My first Stephenson novel, and likely his second best after The Diamond Age

The history of Portugal’s colonization in the Indian Ocean. Does a really good job of showing how out of their element the Portuguese were, how they got incredibly lucky to be able to establish a multi-century foothold in Asia.

Walks through the evolution of soccer tactics in Europe from the 1990s to 2020, with a focus on countries that influenced the game the most: The Netherlands, Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and England.

A detailed history of the settlement and development of south Florida, focusing on the environment impact on the Everglades. Before this book, I didn’t have a great notion of just how young most of Florida is, it was a sparsely populated backwater up until recently (now it’s a highly-populous backwater).

A history of Angola’s civil war as seen through the eyes of a Polish journalist.

This book does a great job of laying out just how much the Sackler family laid the groundwork for the opioid crisis and then managed to evade accountability for it. Depressing, but well-written.

Title sounds like a a cheesy romance, but it’s actually a true story about exploration in the Amazon jungle.

A bit dated now, but some interesting stories about the French wine industry in the 80s. Drags at times with random stories though.

Basically a 300-page long New Yorker article about the history of the semiconductor industry

There is very little new here if you’ve read Guns, Germs, and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee, both of which I recommend over this