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Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie. It's about the naval part of WWI, such as the Battles of Jutland, Heligoland Bight and the Falkland Islands. It could easily have descended into dry military history but it's very well written, and spends a great deal of time examining the key personalities like Jellicoe, Beatty and Fisher. Particularly haunting is von Spee's voyage across the Pacific, and the destruction of Cradock's squadron at the subsequent Battle of Coronel. Can anyone recommend any good books about spies in Cold War Europe? I've been reading one called Farewell about a KGB agent who turned traitor and started selling secrets to French intelligence, but it suffers from a bad translation from the original French and Vetrov's story isn't the most interesting anyway.
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Jan 20, 2012 20:38
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Boomer The Cannon posted:Question time: Am I the only person who thought Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose was a terribly-written book? It's horribly sentimental, as are most of Ambrose's books. D-Day is okay, but Citizen Soldiers is pretty bad because it struggles to reconcile his obvious heroification of the American soldier with the fact that the US Army performed pretty terribly in Europe (outside of elite troops like the Rangers and Airborne). Armageddon by Max Hastings is a much better treatment of the same subject matter.
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Jun 4, 2012 21:16
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DeceasedHorse posted:I am curious as to why you would assert the US Army performed 'terribly' during the same war? The general idea is that the US Army (as well as the British and Canadians) was far too reliant on firepower, and didn't push their soldiers hard enough early on to make big enough gains that would crush the Wehrmacht in France, rather than allowing them to escape to the Siegfried line. An example would include failing to close the Falaise gap or a wider envelopment Too many junior officers wanted excessive artillery barrages or air support, and they were not willing to push their soldiers onwards into the teeth of defensive fire, with the result that troops hunkered down, attacks faltered, and ultimately more casualties were taken because of the slowness of the advance. Also, Army units were much too afraid of leaving their flanks exposed or of having to fight their way out of an envolopment, in contrast to the Germans. Hasting's rather weak justification for this is that the Allies valued their troops much more highly than the Wehrmacht or Red Army, and that had they treated their troops like the Germans or Russians some of the moral high ground would have been lost. It's bullshit because the US Marines were treated relatively less humanely, and achieved success much more rapidly although at a higher blood price in the Pacific - especially Tarawa, Peleliu, Iwo and Okinawa. There was a graphic example on Saipan, when the 27th Army Division was embarassingly poor in comparison to the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions operating on their flanks - so their CO was relieved by his Marine superior, much to the Army's chagrin. I thought it was largely a given in US military history that the Army and especially the AAF largely to live up to their hype and image, whereas the Navy and Marines successfully carried out their pre-war plans with only minor fuckups. That's why Marshall refused to let a Marine set foot in Europe - he knew they would highlight the failings of his Army. Mr Crucial fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jun 18, 2012 |
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Jun 18, 2012 19:28
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Railing Kill posted:Along similar lines, if you're up for exploring the political side of pre-WWI Europe, check out Europe's Last Summer by David Fromkin. It's an engaging account of the labyrinthine politics of early-20th century Europe and a fascinating look at some of the leaders that shaped the war. Much of it focuses on the ambassadors who served the leaders of Europe, who were closer to each other than their respective leaders or even their homelands. Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie is another very good book along similar lines. Despite the title it doesn't concentrate too much on the naval armaments race, there's a lot in there about the relationships of the monarchies of Europe (e.g. the Kaiser being grandson of Queen Victoria and a cousin of Nicholas II and George V) as well as the political events. It ends at midnight on August 4th 1914... ...where Castles of Steel immediately takes up the story, focusing exclusively on the naval aspects of WW1. I prefer Castles of Steel because it seems to be slightly better written, or maybe it's just the excitement of naval combat that makes it an easier read. von Spee's voyage across the Pacific and the subsequent battles of Coronel and the Falkland Islands are particularly good.
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Jul 5, 2012 13:42
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Namirsolo posted:I just realized that my knowledge of British history is pretty terrible. Can anyone recommend some good books about it? I'm interested in the monarchy and peerage and especially Henry VIII. Alison Weir has written lots of books about 15th and 16th Century British figures, including Henry VIII and his wives. I'm particularly partial to Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses which is about the feud between the Yorkists and Lancastrians which eventually became a civil war over the rights to the throne of England. The Princes in the Tower covers the later period of the wars, when Henry VII (Henry VIII's father) ascended to the throne.
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Jul 15, 2012 20:02
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1Q84 posted:Does anyone know of any good books about the Industrial Revolution? Preferably one that can be purchased on the Kindle store. The Most Powerful Idea In The World http://www.amazon.com/Most-Powerful...ea+in+the+world I'm partway through it and it's quite good. It's much more about the technical side of the revolution than the social side though, but interesting for someone technically minded like me. It would make a good companion to Hobsbawn's book.
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Jul 27, 2012 17:15
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oscarthewilde posted:I'm looking for a good book on the battle of Britain, the air wars for Germany and Japan, and possibly a book on the bombartment of Warsaw. Try Bomber Command by Max Hastings. Each chapter looks at a different phase of the bombing of Germany, and there's one about the experience of the Germans in Darmstadt which suffered a terrible raid not long before Dresden. There's plenty of discussion about the politics and strategy of the whole thing too.
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Aug 8, 2012 21:24
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Hocus Pocus posted:I'm really curious about the period between the two world wars, but more globally than the United States. Any recommendations? Paris 1919 by Margaret Macmillan (there seems to be various versions floating around, mine is co-authored by a Richard Holbrooke). It's about the Versailles peace conference and how it carved up the map of the world, leading not only to WW2 but also deeper and longer lasting troubles like Yugoslavia and Palestine.
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Aug 21, 2012 13:21
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As a counterpoint to how 'good' the Germans were, you could try reading The Blitzkrieg Myth: How Hitler and the Allies Misread the Strategic Lessons of World War II by John Mosier. The reviews are mixed and he largely ignores the Eastern Front for some reason, but his primary point is that the idea of tank armies winning wars thanks to lightning breakthroughs was, uh, a myth. He points out how the Allies attempted to emulate the German breakthroughs on various occasions (Normandy, Market-Garden, Metz) but failed every time, and that the war was eventually won by broad fronted attritional advances. I'm more of an air combat buff (which he also goes into) so I'm not sure how valid his thesis is but it was quite interesting nonetheless.
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Jun 24, 2013 19:25
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Pron on VHS posted:I am looking for a book on European Colonialism in the Middle East, from the end of World War I to the end of World War II. A general survey of the region is preferable to any particular colony. Paris 1919 about the Versailles conference might be worth a look, it doesn't go into great detail about what happened after the conference but it does talk about why the world was carved up as it was, including Palestine, Iraq etc.
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Jun 25, 2013 11:46
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Comrade Cheggorsky posted:Can anyone give me any recommendations of books about the early phase of the Pacific war from 1941 to 1942 or more specifically the Dutch East Indies campaign? Pacific Crucible by Ian Toll, starts with Pearl Harbor but ends at Midway. It goes into ABDACOM and the whole Philippines/NEI disasters. I thought it was very readable, it was written in a similar style to Rick Atkinson's WW2 trilogy which is also pretty good. There's also The Midway Campaign by Jack Greene, which despite the name covers pretty much the same period. I haven't read this one yet but apparently it goes more in to the technical analysis rather than narrative.
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Jul 26, 2013 14:29
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Railing Kill posted:I know something like this came up a million pages ago, but does anyone have good recommendations about books on naval command from about 1650-1800? I'm in a mood to read some naval history, but I haven't read anything before that has focused on officers and command, specifically. Something either general or biographical would do. I'm not partial to a particular region, either. Just looking for interesting naval history. I'm reading through Sam Willis' Hearts of Oak trilogy at the moment. It's not specifically about command per se, but there's a lot in there about Howe (in the Glorious First of June) and Benbow (in, err, The Admiral Benbow) and how they conducted themselves in their most notable battles. I haven't read the Fighting Temeraire yet. Best of all they're currently available cheap on Amazon UK - 92p each. Hard to go wrong.
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Nov 13, 2013 12:00
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smr posted:Wondering if the book I want even exists... I'm looking for something like Tony Judt's "Postwar", but for World War I. Like a global overview of everything from the end of 1918 when the war "ended", to say 1922 or so, when the last of the ancillary conflicts actually stopped. Try Peacemakers by Margaret Macmillan. It covers the Paris peace conference and the aftermath of the decisions made there on various parts of the world - the Balkans, Middle East, Eastern Europe etc. Obviously it's fairly narrowly focused on the Versailles Treaty but it ends up being quite a good overview of everywhere affected by it.
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Jan 13, 2014 13:05
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Tekopo posted:Does anyone have a recommendation for a general book about WWII PTO, covering the entire campaign? Ideally something on the more detailed/complex end. The classics are: Eagle Against the Sun by Ronald Spector - from the American perspective. The Pacific War by John Costello - from the British perspective. Rising Sun by John Toland - from the Japanese perspective. Plus there's a new one called Hirohito's War by Francis Pike, which I'm reading at the moment. It's a massive book, I'm 250 pages in and it's only up to mid-1941 and the Pearl Harbor operation hasn't even been mentioned yet. It goes into quite a lot of detail about the wars in China from 1931 on which the others don't, and there's an interesting comparison of the pre-war economies of the US and Japan. Plus the author has dozens of supporting maps and charts on his website to go along with the text.
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Jul 22, 2015 23:01
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Tekopo posted:I bought Rising Sun because it looked pretty good. I had a look at Hirohito's War but some of the reviews on Amazon seemed to be very negative on it. I just read those Amazon reviews and most of them are pretty fair, to be honest. There are a number of basic errors that I've spotted (e.g. saying that the Zero fighter had a 'Ki-43' engine when the Ki-43 was actually an entirely different plane). The maps not being included is a bit unfair given that most of the other 1 volume efforts only have half a dozens maps at best whereas this has 50-odd, even if they are only available online. I'm still enjoying it and I think it's a good book, maybe wait for a second edition to come out with some better editing. I got the Kindle edition which should hopefully be updated.
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Jul 27, 2015 13:07
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smr posted:Hornfischer and Toll’s books are all very good. Damned shame Hornfischer died so young. I’m going to go against the usual grain of this thread and say I’m not a big fan of Hornfischer. He has a very journalistic style which doesn’t always work very well, and there are a few somewhat wild and unsourced claims he throws in. One that stood out to me was a claim that the Japanese Army knew that the Navy’s codes had been broken, but didn’t bother to tell them. Last Stand and the one about the Houston are okay, Neptunes Inferno has a few problems but isn’t bad. Fleet at Flood Tide I found very problematic, particularly around Philippine Sea and Spruance’s decision making - a complicated issue that needed more rigour. Toll’s trilogy is excellent though, strikes just the right balance between historical rigour and readability. I’d also recommend John Prados, particularly Combined Fleet Decoded and Islands of Destiny.
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Apr 16, 2024 08:23
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