What are some books within the philosophy/social theory genre that you would recommend? Incidentally, what history books have piqued your interest ? — regardless of its origin
Wisteria: Hrrngh trying to recall everything I've read in my philosophy classes... If you can finish Anti-Oedipus before I do I will personally mail you a gold star sticker. In more general terms, I think Kierkegaard is neat but it's from a weird "he has aura" bias just because I'm fond of existentialism and his stuff about despair and whatever.
Siluri: Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison and Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism Is a Humanism are a good place to start. It’s really hard to avoid existentialism in contemporary media, even if it's something that isn't explicitly spoken of. Oh, and obviously The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, since that talks about the psychological effects of colonization and the struggle to decolonize. History books are difficult, I don't remember authors, only topics.
Wisteria: I doubt Charque's The Twilight of Imperial Russia or Simpson's The Lusitania are what you're looking for, anon, so I'm not going to be helpful either! If we can go back to philosophy, Plato's Symposium is a no-brainerrrr—Euthyphro is a section from that that's really dear to me.
Siluri: Fork found in kitchen but I'm really into French imperialism overall. Napoleonic conquests and all that. I read Christ Stopped at Eboli this year though and I really liked it! It's a memoir about this doctor’s experience in a really shit village in southern Italy under Mussolini. I'm also rereading Thomas’s Sibille’s “memoire sur la separation du culte et de l’etat”, which is a French translation of a bunch of articles by l’association des oulamas in the 40s. Might not be relevant to your interests but it’s quite short and there’s some interesting stuff!