(Part 2) Best england history books according to redditors
We found 603 Reddit comments discussing the best england history books. We ranked the 256 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
24. Task Force Black: The Explosive True Story of the SAS and the Secret War in Iraq
3 mentions
ABACUS
If you don't want to go too far back I would say start in 2010. By that year ISIS was on their last legs, they had been wiped out out from Anbar, Baghdad and their previous capital in Baquba. US, UK and Iraqi special forces had taken out 34 of the top 42 leaders of ISIS in relentless raids, including Masri and Omar al-Baghdadi. By then they were reduced to small cells conducting assassinations in Mosul and bombings every couple of months in Baghdad.
However then the Syrian Civil War happened and they got their big break. Without doubt the number one reason they were able to ever recover was the Syrian Civil War, weapons from around the world, fighters from all the way in China, millions in gulf funding were getting into Syria and all ISIS had to say was that they were fighting the Syrian Government and they would benefit from this bounty. At first they kept a small profile embedding themselves with the rest of the rebels as any other group (Battle for Menagh Airbase) but that would not last long, when they accumulated enough resources they wiped out the rebel competition in Raqaa and all over northern Syria and got ready to head into Iraq and reestablish their "state".
They started of with relentless attacks against Shia civilians, by 2013 this mean't at times 10 car bombs a day in Baghdad killing hundreds. This not only heightened sectarian tension but also stretched Iraqi security forces, which they took advantage of by attacking prisons all over the north, freeing hundreds. By this time the Iraqi government was desperate, a lot of Anbar had been taken and they could see ISIS setting up shop in the desert outside of Mosul with their newly accumulated weapons and foreign fighters from Syria and had limited ability to do anything about it. They begged the Americans to lend a supporting hand but no one was coming to help and as they say, the rest is history.
For some reading about the American and British wiping out the ISIS leadership check out: Task Force Black: The explosive true story of the SAS and the secret war in Iraq.
For ISIS embedding themselves in the Syrian insurgency and benefiting from it check out the work of: Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi and news reports from the time.
For the Iraqi insurgency in 2013 (The Breaking the Walls Campaign) check out this Institute for the Study of War report and many more: http://www.understandingwar.org/report/al-qaeda-iraq-resurgent
18 years in the military. 11 tours in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan. Left in 2012.
Edit: in case you doubt, this is a pic of me taken from BIAP tower in 2006, posted on Reddit a while back. I was a Puma pilot for the majority of my time in. If you care to read the book Task Force Black by Mark Urban you can find out what the Pumas were doing in Baghdad at the time. I think that would answer your questions about my CI involvement.
Bugger. You stole my suggestion. OP, read this book. It is great.
On a simliar bent but obviously inferior, I'd recommend The Dictator's Handbook which covers more of a political science approach, and will make you reconsider 'stupid' political actions and Freakonomics which covers economics and unintended consequences.
However, the recommendation I'm going to make, in line with my flair, is The Lion and the Unicorn, a dual biography of the greatest political rivalry in British politics, between William Gladstone (the intellectual champion of classical liberalism) and Benjimin Disraeli (the cynical strategist who created the modern conservative party and massively expanded the franchise.
On the face of it, a book about 19th century British prime ministers might not be what you immediately thought of, but it has everything. Parties being created, and destroyed. Idealism against strategy, moral outrage against cynicism, Imperialism and foreign interventions against liberal internationalism, where a candidate elected on a ticket of anti-imperialism inadvertantly triggered the largest colonial expansion in world history. It covers how British politics was created, and the strategies and ideologies that were perfect then remain in place to this day, with Neoliberalism, Globalisation and 'One Nation' effectively a bastardisation of Gladstone's economic policies, Free Trade vs Imperial Preference debates, and the original One Nation Conservatism championed by Disraeli allying the industrious elite with the upper working class populace against the liberal elite (remind you of anything...)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RI9L9E/
That's it.
This book answers most of your questions, and is fun to read. Highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Time-Travelers-Guide-Medieval-England-ebook/dp/B0030MQJL4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541538499&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=Medieval+guide&dpPl=1&dpID=51FYVozg5cL&ref=plSrch
It wasn't all that dissimilar from many marriages today. Two people gathered together with their friends and families, which often constituted their entire village. They gathered at the medieval community center most often, which was usually the local church or chapel. The purpose of meeting here was not only to receive the blessing of God on their marriage, but also to announce their marriage in a public setting with reputable witnesses, of which any official member of the clergy was included. These witnesses legitimized the marriage in the eyes of God and the people, especially important before government records were regularly kept and customs were still largely oral.
Well known modern scholars on the subject are Frances and Joseph Gies, Life in a Medieval Village, here, or Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages, here. Barbara Hanawalt has one of the most respected books on medieval peasantry in the last generation called The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England, here.
Finally, a duller look of medieval marriage according to canon law can be found in Gratian's Decretum here.
I hope this helps a little. Happy Reading!
> I'm also fairly sure that even the lowest ranking commissioned officers were too far removed from the front lines to see the failure of their tactics in detail, though I don't have a source for this one.
This is not even remotely true. Casualty rates among Lieutenants, Captains, Majors (etc. junior level officers) for the entire war are utterly appalling. I have no idea why this attitude persists that they were 'no where near' the front lines. Junior officers are the guys directly leading troops on the battlefield and having to make in-the-moment decisions that often lead to their own deaths.
I mean this in the least dickish way possible, but if you don't have sources on something, don't make grandiose statements like the one I quoted above.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Six-Weeks-Gallant-British-Officer/dp/1409102149
http://archive.worldhistoria.com/officers-in-wwi_topic25036.html
http://www.1914-1918.net/training_officers.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commissioned_officer#See_also
If you want Early Modern European magic, then read Keith Thomas and Stuart Clark's Thinking with Demons. These are the premier books on the period I'd recommend.
The AH books and resources list is your friend, but as its recommendations are scattered through a mainly geographical listing, I will compile some of the key cites for you here.
Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas (1971): One of the pioneering works on how anthropology can help our study of history focusing on superstition in the late medieval/early modern period, this is a fantastic read and a real insight into a still-young school of historical analysis.
Thinking with Demons by Stuart Clark (1999): this is one of two mandatory books on Early Modern Witchcraft (the other is Keith Thomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic). It's hard to summarize what is a monumental piece of work, but examines the idea of witches and how that idea functions through different intellectual sections of life. It has a bibliography that will make you weep with inadequacy and throw your work into the nearest witch-bonfire.
The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft by Ronald Hutton (1999). A study of the history and development of modern Pagan Witchcraft.
Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain by Ronald Hutton (2009). A history of the intertwined development of modern Celtic scholarship and religious revivalism in Britain.
The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe by Brian Levack: Levack gives important background and context to his discussion of the witch-hunt. The work's value as an introduction to the topic is evident, as the book is now in its third edition.
Theology and the Scientific Imagination: From the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century Funkenstein, Amos. 1986. An interesting read detailing the various views of emerging scientific thought and the prevalence of religious faith. The book takes time to work from a sociological as well as historical viewpoint to allow for a broader take.
Alright, hold onto your seat, there are quite a few haha
Some ecology books, good for your approach to nature itself
These are more Druid-centric books
These are more historical and culture books about the ancient Celtics, very good for context. Anything by Ronald Hutton I'm going to suggest, though he does tend to have a very dry, academic style. Reading his stuff is more like reading a text book than anything else. So if you do get any of these, pace yourself. I would still suggest getting and reading one Celtic historical book, it's important to know the history.
As you go, you'll figure out what works for you and what doesn't, you might end up mixing in shamanism or witchcraft, even wicca, or buddhism, druidry works with a number of other approaches. Keep an open mind, try things, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Paganism in general can be pretty overwhelming, and Druidry has even fewer guidelines than most. Good luck with your coursework!
Civilian, at least in the UK and I imagine in most other countries, as it follows a certain logic. In the early days of MI6 there was a power struggle between the Admiralty and the Foreign Office as to who was running foreign espionage rings. The Foreign Office won out because spying is diplomatically sensitive and the FO would understand how far and how hard to push in their spying whilst avoiding diplomatic embarrassment for the UK. The (quite vicious) power struggle is detailed in MI6: The secret history of the Secret Intelligent Service.
Norman Invasion
Queen Isabella
I'd dispute that to a certain degree - there is an excellent book on the role of the company level officers of the British army that discusses it in some detail:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Six-Weeks-Gallant-British-Officer/dp/1409102149
I would recommend: The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History, by Rebecca Fraser. I found the book to be accessible, unpretentious, and a good survey of British history since Roman times. It was evenhanded and meritorious in its handling of more controversial moments in British history—Margaret Thatcher's time in leadership, for example. While it is close to 800 pages in length, it can be brief in covering events at times. Still, it makes for a wonderful introduction .
If you are truly dedicated to your quest—and you want something much more in-depth and scholarly—I would recommend the new Oxford History of England. It covers the history of England and later Britain in great breadth and detail, comprising eleven volumes to date (and more on the way.) Its sourcing is top-notch and its writing, while academic in quality, is quite readable to the lay-person. But it is not for the faint of heart, and it can be quite expensive.
You sure do read a lot of weird stuff about this book. On the first page Graves offers what can be interpreted as a disclaimer. He says he is serious about his poetry, and he only writes prose for the money. Hutton's analysis is ambiguous. Included: "It's a crazy book and I didn't mean to write it". That is one of the weirdest disavowals I have ever read. It is equivalent to saying "I didn't mean to go work for those six months." Crazy indeed.
Hutton's discussion is on p. 145 of The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles.
One thing which may give you some good information in the non-traditional form is to read/read about the Domesday Book.
Also follow the trail of technology, 3 field system, plough design, etc.
I took a course on medieval peasants in undergrad, but I'm having a hard time recalling the bibliography, it was 15 years ago.
This was one of them:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Ties-That-Bound-Families/dp/0195045645
This stuff is probably a bit later though, although you can probably glean some information.
But you may have an easier task if you narrow the time period a bit, you're arguably trying to cover ~ 500 years, as well as a location, Europe is somewhat of a broad area as well.
I really want to CYV on this. Honestly, I feel like the reddit historical community (at least /r/badhistory and /r/AskHistorians) has failed to explain itself on this subject well. Most criticisms of GGS we see are caught up in (justified) nitpicking, and perhaps a little bit of elitism, perhaps caused by the fact that Alfred Crosby wrote a book that did everything GGS did but better and 10 years earlier. Crosby's book, of course, received nothing close to the acclaim GGS did despite coming out earlier and avoiding all the problems GGS has, probably because in comparison to Diamond, Ecological Imperialism reads like particularly bad Twilight fan fiction.
But, other than the well documented problems with Diamond's scholarships and the details of GGS(read some reddit takedowns here and here ), why do historians get so upset about Diamond?
The problem comes from Diamond's misinterpretation of Yali's question (or at least, what the historical community is convinced is the important question). Diamond hears Yali ask why Westerners have so much stuff, and Papua New Guineans have so little, and responds by writing a book that explains how the Westerners got so much stuff. Diamond's central thesis is that Europe was able to dominate the world because their environment gave them the resources to do so.
The question of how is an important and interesting question to answer, and Diamond does an alright job of it (although, it should be stressed if only to better understand historians' hostility towards Diamond, that Crosby did the same thing better 10 years earlier) even if I think he still leaves out a great deal of important stuff. But Diamond doesn't purport to answer the HOW question, he purports to answer the WHY question, and in doing so screws up majorly.
Essentially, by arguing that Europeans dominated the rest of the world because of their superior resources, he implies that this domination was somehow inevitable and natural. That all societies seek to maximize their own advantage at all times, even at the expense of others. That if you give a man Steel, a Gun and some Biological Weapons, he'll immediately set out to use them on others. This is not the case. We can point to many different societies that don't ruthlessly exploit others for their own benefit, even people within their own society. More important to historians then HOW Europeans dominated the world is WHY they chose too. The Capitalist and Mercantilist systems that gave rise to European imperialism are unique in history, but Diamond paints it all as just emerging from the inevitable march of history, that every society placed in the same environment would evolve the same way. In doing so, he removes human agency from the equation. Yet we can easily prove that vast differences in culture can emerge from places that have nothing to do with the areas Diamond identifies as being the key ones in human development. Jesus, Aristotle, and Locke all played major roles in shaping western thought. It's difficult to connect any of their ideas to the presence of livestock in the old world.
One unintended consequence of Diamond approaching Yali's question this way, especially ironic given the intention of his book, is that the Western view of the world is reinforced. The Western concepts of capitalism and imperialism are portrayed as something universal, inherent to humanity and their development as inevitable. The real question for historians, the WHY, is to examine these concepts, how they worked and why they appeared. Diamond, and his audience outside the historical community, ignore Yali's real question, content in the knowledge that they have answered it.
So that's why GGS is generally hated among the historical community, it misses the point so entirely while being completely assured that it has found the ultimate answer to one of histories deepest questions. And it's popularity has led large portions of the world (including my high school history teacher) to cease looking for an answer to one of the world's most important questions.
I do think GGS has a role as a book. It's well written and it examines history from a perspective that most people never look at it from, excellent for introducing people to "Big History." But if it's the only book you've read on the subject, you're missing out on a lot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1843833530?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title has a couple of sections on sheaths including an overview on there construction. If you haven't read the book it is interesting if you like medeviel knives
Two naval books that are great reads:
http://www.amazon.com/To-Rule-Waves-British-Shaped/dp/0060534257
http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Sea-Tragedy-Whaleship-Essex/dp/0141001828/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382822400&sr=1-1&keywords=whaleship+essex
I definitely like this more than this, that last one is generic in a sort of boring way, and the first one is boring in a really fantastical pretty sort of way
I have this book: http://www.amazon.com/Mi6-History-Intelligence-Service-1909-1949/dp/1408810050
It covers the SIS from WW1 till the end of WW2.
I think this might benefit you.
> espionage and code-breaking, but also about the actions taken to place false information, like turning German spies and especially the wrong clues planted to disguise the real place of landing for the invasion of Normandy.
Yes this book has all that stuff. Plus some stuff on the British SOE.
I should warn you though, it isn't James Bond, and it isn't a novel. It's a history book, and as such, (honestly) it can get a bit boring at times.
If you're looking for exciting commando operations, and things like that, better look for a book on the SOE. This book only touches on that stuff.
If you're looking for stuff on agent recruitment, and how the SIS was established and operated, then get this book.
> So what you're saying is
Yep, pretty much exactly that.
I suspect corset ribbon would be possibly a little thin, at least going by most of the ones I've known, I originally used to bind up just with cord, but it leaves an impression in the leather, that can be seen through the outer when its really thin. the widest ribbon you can get easily is probably the way to go, so it spreads the tension over the whole thing, and that prevents marking.
for long sheaths, generally the liner either goes up to about 1/4inch / 6mm from the top, and the outer face rolled round, or they both go up all the way... the finishing is a bit of a debate - some the outer is skived and rolled, some the two are the same, and sewn together with a stitch to hold them together. I'm not sure there's a universal standard though.
some of the originals, by the way, have little cubes of leather underneath for raising, to make bumps.
though they're medieval, the principles are the same, and this book's excellent: (so many ideas!)
https://www.amazon.com/Knives-Scabbards-Medieval-Excavations-London/dp/1843833530
thoroughly recommend it.
For earlier period, 10-12th C, when most sheaths are single-layer, there's also this report from the York excavations:
https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/AY17-16-Leather-and-leatherworking.pdf
those two should keep you busy for a while (between trying to wrangle the argumentative horses!)
I absolutely agree that skepticism, when it's based on empirical evidence, is a healthy and fundamental part of the scientific method. But the problem I have in this regard as it relates to climate change, is that much of the "skepticism" I have seen is almost completely devoid of empirical evidence.
As an aside, have you read Seeing Further? It sounds like you would enjoy it.
Judith Bennett’s [A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1295-1344] (http://www.amazon.com/Life-English-Manor-Conditions-1150-1400/dp/0521091055/) (1998) is a brief, well-organized view of 14th-century peasant life in England that I always recommend. Though very dated (1937!), H. S. Bennett’s (no relation) [Life on an English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions 1150-1400] (http://www.amazon.com/Life-English-Manor-Conditions-1150-1400/dp/0521091055/) covers things in great, entertaining detail. Barbara Hanawalt's [The Ties that Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England] (http://www.amazon.com/Ties-That-Bound-Families-Medieval/dp/0195045645) (1988) is very good. For France, the go-to authority is Georges Duby’a [Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West] (http://www.amazon.com/Rural-Economy-Country-Medieval-Middle/dp/0812216741) (1998), though it's more technical than the 2 Bennetts.
My best advice would be to study the campaigns of successful military leaders. You can do no better than this.
I would suggest studying Napoleon first and foremost, then also look at the campaigns of The Duke of Wellington, The Duke of Marlborough, Turenne, Frederick the Great, Eugene of Savoy, Charles XII of Sweden and Maurice de Saxe to name but a few.
I prefer targeted studies to general histories but there are some good ones out there regardless.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Task-Force-Black-explosive-secret/dp/0349123551/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407609760&sr=1-1&keywords=task+force+black
Not the first time the SAS have been deployed in a kill/capture unit in Iraq of course- this is a good book on a joint operation with delta force.
I find that science history and biography gives a good understanding of scientific methods, and when written for the lay-person, doesn't get so bogged down in technical jargon.
Here are a few of my favorites:
(Also check out his biographies of Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman)
And here are a few on my to read list:
I hope that helps.
Link to discussions in r/askhistorians.
A book on the same subject that predated Diamond's and seems to be more highly regarded by historians is Crosby's Ecological Imperialsm
The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy https://www.amazon.com/dp/0631189467/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_j6QJDbPZ74WZR
Seeing further!
Mr Bryson wrote a great introduction book to science some time ago, and now he has written another one.
Both are great highly recommended as starting points , you can read about the origin of almost every branch of modern science, learn a bit and discover which topics interest you the most, so you can find other sources to really study. (The first book is called 'A Short History of Nearly Everything)
A strong recommendation:
Religion and the Decline of Magic. It's not really an academic work, but it is well foot-noted and has a good bibliography.
It's a fascinating topic, and this is easily the best book I have read on the topic. No hysteria and lots of good information and analysis.
I read it initially in this book, but the History Channel was more easily linked.
https://www.amazon.com/Rule-Waves-British-Shaped-Modern/dp/0060534257
Haha, excellent choice! I've got a list to backup of everything from the Bitch Planet comics and A Women's Book of Choices to the Quran and Religion and the Decline of Magic.
Supposedly used to be able to save Kindle books as a pdf or something but I might just go find them online instead.
Lev Grossman's The Magicians series.
Book 1: http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941l/6101718.jpg
Book 2:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71%2BJiq31emL.jpg
Book 3: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/The_Magician_King_-_Novel_-_Cover_Art.jpg
Simon Hughes' Red Machine, Men In White Suits, and Ring Of Fire are all interesting and great books.
Jonathan Wilson's The Anatomy of Liverpool was a very good read. Of course, Wilson is best known for Inverting The Pyramid, which is a staple football book.
I also enjoyed David Goldblatt's The Game of Our Lives, which chronicles the Premier League from it's birth to roughly 2014-15 I believe (at least in the paperback edition).
The Goodwill has potential, where books are concerned, if you are very lucky that day.
I once paid about three bucks for a copy of A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. My friend who does historical war gaming was very pleased.
Alfred Crosby's Ecological Imperialism is a fantastic book on this topic (Crosby is, in reality, the father of the field of environmental history).
Link to Amazon
Huh. I read this in Arthur Herman's To Rule the Waves. Good overview history, but I do wonder about the accuracy of some points that he makes.
I have seen it used in reference to Gladstone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ewart_Gladstone and Disraeli http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli. These two men were the main political rivals of the mid to late Nineteenth Century in Britain. Gladstone was a Liberal, Disraeli a Tory/Conservative and so in this case the "crown" was control of Parliament. Here's the book that makes the reference: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lion-Unicorn-Gladstone-Disraeli/dp/1844133125
A Monday wouldn't be so bad with this!
Thank you for doing a contest!
>Yes, the body is a larger target... but even a light head injury will take you out far quicker than a stab or slice to your body. Or protect you from a concussion when you fall and hit your head on a stone.
Yeah I originally thought this too. However, records from battle graves in the mid 15th century show that many men suffered eight or more significant head wounds during a fight. Now I don't claim to be an expert, but this book analyzed the graves at the Battle of Towton supports this claim, "Blood Red Roses: The Archeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461"
>Because there are only full face helmets, right? There is enough variance to still protect your head and give you enough free room to see and hear AND not let you die by a simple blow to the head.
This is true and I recognize that kettle and bascinet helmets were widely used. I would even agree with you that if I were the one going to go fight I would probably take a helmet first. However, from that same book, it was discovered many men died with little or no injury to their bodies, only arms and head. This means that they probably either only wore cloth caps or nothing at all and that their bodies were well protected. Now I don't want to argue the merits of helmets as we would probably agree on their importance, but historical records show that many soldiers did not choose the helmet first when they put on their armor.
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Machine-Liverpool-Players-Stories/dp/1780576919/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1537484130&sr=8-8&keywords=liverpool+fc+books
https://www.amazon.com/Liverpool-FC-Seven-Year-Liverpools-Championship-ebook/dp/B00ARHX99A/ref=sr_1_33?ie=UTF8&qid=1537484225&sr=8-33&keywords=liverpool+fc+books
https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Shankly-Much-Important-Biography-ebook/dp/B0050OM414/ref=sr_1_58?ie=UTF8&qid=1537484289&sr=8-58&keywords=liverpool+fc+books
https://www.amazon.com/44-Years-Same-Bird-Liverpudlian-ebook/dp/B004GKLXPQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1537484502&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=liverpool+fc+books+with+the+same+bird
These are the ones that I recommend, enjoy
I'm reading The Story of Britain: From the Romans to the Present: A Narrative History by Rebecca Fraser. At 848 pages it is longer than I would like but it is easy to read so I'm already up to the Tudors.
I am currently reading The Story of Britain by Rebecca Fraser. It's a narrative history of Britain from the Roman invasion/infiltration (~55 BCE) up to the early 2000s. Fraser does an excellent job of telling the highlights with attention to timelines, there's a fair amount of supplemental media (artwork, family trees, maps, etc) woven in to each chapter, and it reads quick easily, like a good narrative history should.
Highly recommend, especially as a comprehensive primer on British history.
1066 by David Howarth. It's short, it's sweet, and it's about my favorite battle in history! He really tells a compelling and interesting narrative.
This does look interesting, but I have already bought this book (and some books that are copies of old arms manuals) and am reading these pretty slowly (I'm not English by birth so reading books that have many technical terms does slow me down a bit)
It's in my wishlist now though, will grab it eventually :)
It's not THAT expensive imo, but then again I live in Switzerland where most things cost horribly high so I just feel like this is cheap.
I think you need to read my first and last paragraphs again. We're talking degrees here and getting caught up in modern sensibilities of "cleanliness." The observation that other cultures bathed more frequently is a non sequitur when we're talking about the frequently-propagated myth that people in medieval Europe did not bathe. That's like saying no one at all in the United States watches soccer because a larger proportion of the population of Portugal are avid fans.
I can do a whole link-dump if you like, but for starters a simple Google search can get you started: here, here, and here are some examples (the last one includes some info on German public bath houses). Heck, here's a fourth.
Additionally, take a trip down to your local bookstore or library to look at practically any book on medieval life and culture and you'll find every. single. author. stating in no uncertain terms that medieval people did bathe. Many even specifically call out this myth. Here's one of many.
But again: its all relative. Lacking modern sensibilities of rapid and efficient sewage disposal and clean water dispersal, it was--by our modern standards--something akin to the third-world. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THEY DID NOT BATHE!
We also have period sources from morality-obsessed church men castigating the "common people" for indulging in the public baths too much (largely because in many places--London for example, which had no fewer than 15 public bathhouses in the 14th century and public criers to announce when the water was hot--sometimes doubled as brothels).
Furthermore:
tl;dr: Though they didn't bathe as much as we did today, not only did medieval people bathe, they bathed more than their Enlightenment-era descendants.