|
Love these threads. Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Anthony Tully and Jonathan Parshall. Incredibly good book about the Battle of Midway told primarily from the Japanese perspective. Dispels many of the myths about the battle, primarily that the Japanese were only minutes/seconds away from launching a fatal strike against the American Carriers. Also goes into great detail about just how hamstrung the IJN's carrier aviation arm was after only six months of war, and whereas the USN learned many lessons and applied them prior to the battle, the IJN ignored or missed many lessons that could have arguably turned the battle to their favor. Highly recomend this. Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy. Three book series about the U.S. Army's operations in the ETO and North African theaters of WW2. First book in the series, An Army at Dawn won the Pulitzer. Crucible of War by Fred Anderson. Another Pulitzer award winner about the Seven Years War and the prelude up to it as well as laying the groundwork for what would eventually lead to the American Revolution. The first chapter had me by it's talons due to it's description of Washington's first taste of combat in the Ohio valley and what lessons he took from it. Echoing Blind Man's Bluff, The Coldest Winter and Matterhorn as well. I'll probably add a bunch of WW2 stuff later on because I read way too much to make my history degree feel semi useful. As far as books to avoid, gonna go with On Killing by Dave Grossman. While his thesis starts out sounding plausible ("People naturally don't want to kill people, so obviously, we have to find ways to remove that hesitation from soldiers"), it quickly turns to poo poo as Grossman relies heavily on S.L.A. Marshall's flawed combat studies from WW2 and Korea (as another GIPer put it best, Marshall's goal was to get US Military leaders to change their training methods to be more combat oriented instead of relying on calisthenics and shooting at square targets all the time, so he essentially bullshitted his studies to force through training changes in time for Vietnam). Book takes a spectacular turn into shitsville when Grossman leaves his lane as a psychologist and attempts his hand at being a sociologist and hypothesizes that the only reason we see so much violence in inner cities and with young people is due to violent movies, video-games and rap music. No, I'm not kidding. Grossman is a loving weirdo and I hate his book and everyone who's ever recommended it to me.
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2019 00:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 03:12 |
|
|
UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:I've been listening to the audiobook and I can't say enough good things about it. gently caress Ned Almond, too. Hail Ridgeway. Started reading Rick Atkinson's The British Are Coming, pretty good so far. Also TIL; Franklin was fully in favor of keeping the colonies in the control of England until the Crown started calling him a traitor and called him to a meeting with a bunch of lords where they proceeded to publicly berate him. He set sail for Philly like a week later.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 11, 2019 23:41
|
|
|
McNally posted:Apostles of Disunion will get you up to speed on why "the Civil War wasn't about slavery" is complete and utter bullshit. Foote's trilogy is good and a solid narrative, but even Foote himself has admited he had a bias for the Confederacy/South. Personally I'd recommend McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom as an intro and then dive into Foote's trilogy afterwards.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2020 03:34
|
|
|
shame on an IGA posted:haha wow Shelby Foote was court martialed out of the army in WW2 for falsifying motor pool documents after stealing a jeep to visit his future ex-wife who left him for the Bockscar bombardier.  That is amazing.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 27, 2020 04:11
|
|
|
bloops posted:I read Matterhorn this week. It was excellent in nearly every way. It's been ten years since I've read it and it still sticks with me. Might re-read it this year.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2020 17:39
|
|
|
Yeah highly recommend The Good War. I think the thing I loved most about The Good War was that it did a really great job of hammering home that its easy to forget in hindsight how uncertain things were for the first year or two of the war. Terkel’s oral history on the Great Depression, Hard Times, is quite good as well. Japan at War by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore Failor Cook is in a similar vein from the Japanese perspective and quite good as well.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2022 04:12
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 03:12 |
|
|
Sad King Billy posted:Not to mention Ned Almond lol was about to quote and say the same thing  Currently reading through Ian Toll's Pacific War Trilogy, specifically The Conquering Tide right now, and it's really really good. It's on par with Rick Atkinson's Liberation trilogy.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 21, 2022 03:18
|
|