Good historical sources?
- Thread starter Aus_Snow
- Start date
The Shaman
First Post
If you're planning on writing historical fiction or running a historical game with a high emphasis on recreating the period, you cannot get enough detail to do justice to the subject from general history books or "writers' guide to..." titles. You need to spend some time with (1) original sources and (2) more scholarly histories, which tend to focus more in-depth on a subject.
For a middle-Victorian-era game I'm working on, I have twenty-one books on the period and location - the two best were books written in 1874 and 1875 respectively. They give me an immense amount of detail as well as slang and other contemporary terms that more modern histories tend to leave out. For our modern military game, my bibliography runs to more than thirty volumes, including three books written during the period. There's just no match for original sources.
One publisher that I would recommend is Osprey Publishing - they publish military history books that deal with one topic in-depth. Topics range from classical Greece and Rome to Medieval Europe to Shogunate Japan to 20th and 21st century warfare. The books include tremendous detail that you would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, and most books include a section of color plates depicting clothing, equipment, armor, weapons, and so forth - this is particularly helpful if you want to avoid "dungeonpunk" descriptions of characters and their gear. I have something like two dozen different Osprey books in my library - they're really quite good.
For a middle-Victorian-era game I'm working on, I have twenty-one books on the period and location - the two best were books written in 1874 and 1875 respectively. They give me an immense amount of detail as well as slang and other contemporary terms that more modern histories tend to leave out. For our modern military game, my bibliography runs to more than thirty volumes, including three books written during the period. There's just no match for original sources.
One publisher that I would recommend is Osprey Publishing - they publish military history books that deal with one topic in-depth. Topics range from classical Greece and Rome to Medieval Europe to Shogunate Japan to 20th and 21st century warfare. The books include tremendous detail that you would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, and most books include a section of color plates depicting clothing, equipment, armor, weapons, and so forth - this is particularly helpful if you want to avoid "dungeonpunk" descriptions of characters and their gear. I have something like two dozen different Osprey books in my library - they're really quite good.
Aus_Snow
First Post
That is definitely true, and for my own part I will be officially furthering my education in this area within the next few years (when I get the time and opportunity!), but in the meantime I want to brush up on all the (recorded) 'major' events of the world and so on, then go more and more 'micro' from there - in the specific areas that interest me most. But anyway, I think if the thread is opened up fully to include suggestions of good historical sources, for all who might need them, for whatever it is they are intending to do, it will be a more useful thread overall.The Shaman said:
And yes, Osprey seem to have a good rep, and I can see why, so far (for what they cover).
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