I just finished "Himmler, Architect of the Final Solution." It traces Himmler's role in the murder of the European Jews. He busily overcame the halfhearted resistance of the regular army, and his bureaucratic rivals to win for the SS the leading role in this crime.
Like all books on this topic, profoundly depressing. Towards the end of the book, Himmler addresses a group of SS and police leaders, in one of the very few recordings that exist of his voice. His flat, dull delivery of advice and praise for their brutal efforts rising angrily only once: when criticizing corruption in filling out their expense accounts.
I've just started "Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick, looks like I can't get away from American history So far, it's very interesting.
__________________
History is a race between education and catastrophe - H. G. Wells
Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background, the countless minor scenes and interiors of the secession war; and it is best they should not. The real war will never get into the books - Walt Whitman
The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America.
As the name suggests, Gary Nash here chronicles the AR from the point of view of the people who don't have marble statues. His central thesis is that these indians, blacks, and simple craftsmen are the true revolutionaries, not the icons that we learned about in grammar school. A good read.
__________________ David
"I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person" diddyriddick
The true story of that great escape, the one with McQueen, Attenborough and the rest. I first read this when I was about thirteen, and I remember I couldn't put it down. Same again this time. Surprisingly much of what is shown in the movie is true. At least the scenes set in the camp are. The characters in the movie are composites of various people, with fictional names. I enjoyed matching the movie characters with the various people they played. A book which makes my all time top five.
Enemy Coast Ahead by Wing Co. Guy Gibson
Written by the leader of the Dambusters squadron. The book was written after the dams raid when Gibson was finally persuaded to take a rest from flying duties. He had a remarkable flying career, completing more than 170 operations. Gibson insisted on returning to operations, and was killed in 1944. The movie follows Gibsons book closely, even down to the codeword for a breech of the Moehne dam. I believe that part is cut for American television.
The true story of that great escape, the one with McQueen, Attenborough and the rest. I first read this when I was about thirteen, and I remember I couldn't put it down. Same again this time. Surprisingly much of what is shown in the movie is true. At least the scenes set in the camp are. The characters in the movie are composites of various people, with fictional names. I enjoyed matching the movie characters with the various people they played. A book which makes my all time top five.
There are so many great books that you all have read. Never heard of most of them but your reviews are tantalizing.
Blockaderunner: I read "The Great Escape" a long while back and thoroughly enjoyed it. There's a part from the book that I don't remember being in the movie, IIRC, that I really enjoyed: Every morning, at the same time, a group of maybe 30 or so young German soldiers, or maybe Hitler youth would march past a part of the compound, in step. I think they carried shovels for work or something. Can't remember. They marched the same route every morning, same time. Silently they marched; left-right-left-right ...tromp-tromp-tromp-tromp. After some time passed with this routine an Allied POW officer got a large group of fellows together and began meeting at the spot in the compound closest to the young marching Nazis, at the appointed time. When the Germans came into view the POW's began singing, in time with the marching cadence: "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go." You know the rest of the tune. After a few days the Germans changed their route. So, a minor victory over the enemy, if you will, but a victory nonetheless.
Leland
__________________ "What armies and how much of war I have seen, what thousands of marching troops, what fields of slain, what prisons, what hospitals, what ruins, what cities in ashes, what hunger and nakedness, what orphanages, what widowhood, what wrongs and what vengeance."
I am in the beginning / middle of "Almost a Miracle" by John Ferling. It is about the War of Independence. So far it is pretty good - He really does a good job of setting up the situation and he tends to focus more on the military aspect...
I'm reading "Patriot Battles" by Michael Stephenson. Stephenson's background is in journalism. He edited Mlitary Book Club, coauthored "The Nuclear Casebook" and edited a battlefield guide for National Geographic.
"Patriot Battles" is "how they fought the War of Independence" How both sides dressed, ate, armed themselves, what motivated the soldiers and so on.
1. He redeems the reputation of the British Army. The regular soldiers were not "scum"(Wellington's phrase), or sweepings from the gutter. They were brave, proud of their regiments and their country. The officers weren't upper class twits(mostly not, anyway), but mostly younger sons of "good family," whose predicament was strategic, not what they did as local commanders.
2. muskets rule! rifles drool!
3. Interesting chapter on the women who accompanied the armies, and the role of blacks on both sides.
4. A couple of minor errors. He states that there were 120 minutemen on Lexington Green. The account I have read state more like 70 or 80. He refers to the "Marblehead Regiment" as being from Rhode Island, while John Glover's famous unit was from Marblehead(and Salem) Masschusetts. Unless there are two Marbleheads. Two Marbleheads are better than one.
His attitude is that of a man going to the sources and dispelling myths. I instinctively distrust someone who thinks that way, but he's written a readable, informative military history of the war that I recommend.
I've been reading War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider by Louis A. DiMarco, Ambitious Brew: the Story of American Beer, by Maureen Ogle, as well as a couple civil war related books (I have a pathological inability read only one book at a time).
War Horse studies the horse (note: not including logistics, supply, etc.) in military history. And I do mean the horse. This is not (and the author makes it clear in the intro) not just a study of cavalry, but of the physical animal, the breeding, equipment, etc. as well as strategy and tactics over time. Kind of a niche subject, but phenomenally interesting. Only about 75 pages in, and my knowledge of ancient history is limited, so can't say how accurate it is, but the author was recommended to me by multiple professors. Should be noted author teaches at Army Command and Staff College, and the writing can sound like that often.
Ambitious Brew is interesting if you like good beer, which I do. It's just detailed enough to make it interesting, but hardly a scholarly work. If you're into beer, and what some new insights into American beer, I'd check it out.
Non Civil-War books sitting around waiting to be read:
Naval Aviation in the First World War, R.D. Layman. Bought it in Ypres, been meaning to read it since then.
Crucible of War, Fred Anderson (I'm a sucker for 900 page books)
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, David Halberstam
To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World, Arthur Herman. I love naval history and know far too little about it.
Great question--there is life outside of Civil War.
I am currently re-reading Hunting Badger by Tony Hillerman. Harper Collins, 2000. This wonderful author passed away in late October of this year. He is one of the few fiction writers I like.
(Nancy Drew Mysteries are another fiction favorite.)
I am also reading The Dust Bowl--Men, Dirt and Depression. by Paul Bonnifield. Univeristy of New Mexico Press, 1937.
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