Recommended reading for civ players

[DaveV]

Thanks to those that recommended Guns, Germs, and Steel. A fascinating read.

[Everyman]

It seems to me that the most relevant reading for a Civilization player is a good general world history text -- a text that explains how various developments in culture and technology lead to the expansion of civilization. The best general world histories I know of are William McNeil's "Rise of the West" or "World History" or J.M. Roberts "A Concise History of the World."

Here's an excerpt from McNeil's "World History":

"[The ALPHABET] democratized learning by allowing ordinary men to master the rudiments of LITERARY."

Hey, a few more developments like that and you're well on your way to MONARCHY.

Does anyone happen to know if the game designers for Civilization II used a particular text book for their ideas?

[Fiji]

i remember that there was a bibliograpy in the CIV I manual ... but after 3 moves (as in go from one home to another ... not move all your pieces 3 times), I'll be damned if i know where it went.

I'd put forward "red storm rising" by Clancy ... but not his other works.

in red storm clancy writes like (almost) an impartial observer, in his later works, he becomes such a flagwaver that it quickly becomes quite nausiating(sp?).

red storm realy makes you think twice before ordering your armour divisions into an open field ... yes, i sometimes actually care about the people who are in my army, to bad you don't get any points for that.

also, swordpoint is a good read (don't remember the writer)