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I believe this may have been mentioned in this thread before, but what is the best book on Stalin's purges? And since I am on a Communist-Purge reading spree. Is "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader" still considered the best inside-look at the North Korean leadership?
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Apr 19, 2017 17:53
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He can be infuriating if you know anything more than HS knowledge of the subject he is talking about. However for your every day Joe who isn’t going to read and just wants the broad strokes you can do far worse. Remember, most people actively stop giving a poo poo about history after high school (if they even paid attention to it then - our recently political climate should be exhibit A of people’s ignorance to history - personal anecdote and example a lot of my family still thinks the civil war was about "states rights" no matter how often I try to correct them. And any history or points of view of history that isn't directly related to the US completely confuses/befuddles them ) and if they learn anything further it’s usually from some dreg from the History Channel. Dan Carlin at least attempts to take an “all-sides-view” and he tries to not have a specific Anglo view of history. Also he admits his shortcomings up front and encourages people to learn more on their own. I mean, I cringed at a lot of what he said during the WWI podcast since it’s a subject I’ve studied deeply but I enjoyed the personal anecdotes he read (soldiers letters, personal diaries of the generals, etc) and still found it enjoyable for my hour work commute. His Fall of the Roman Republic and Genghis Khan podcasts were absolutely fantastic since I was completely ignorant of those subjects and they inspired me to read more about them. I say if you have a friend or relative who is interested in an area of history that Dan has covered, by all means have them listen. Once they are done, ask if they want to know more, then kindly point them to some works by authors who can give them a more in-depth view of the subject. At the end of the day, I think that is Dan's goal. Not to be an expert, but to get people interested so they begin to read from experts/primary sources and learn more. And it's not just with Dan, but I try to get them to watch a documentary as well if there is a good one on the subject. For most people, it is far easier for them to digest Audio/Visual media first in order to get interested in a subject, so you might as well point them to sources that are not terrible. After that, get them to read if they actively wish to learn more about the subject. Solaris 2.0 fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Jul 21, 2018 |
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Jul 21, 2018 17:07
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Dapper_Swindler posted:what did he gently caress up with the WW1 stuff. as someone said up thread, he cribs off guns of august and gets redundant. Nothing major honestly. However someone is free to correct me as I’m not an expert just an avid reader / documentary watcher. I’m probably being harsh in retrospect. He gets redundant and I remember his early stuff is a bit dated with how the lead up to the war happened, and some motivations for the offensive tactics used. He also seemed to mostly ignore the eastern front and middle eastern theaters. Otherwise it’s fine. His description of the battle of Verdun and men literally drowning in mud at Passchendaele were horrifying 
Solaris 2.0 fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Jul 22, 2018 |
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Jul 22, 2018 04:35
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So I’ve been on a Vietnam binge since watching the Ken Burns documentary last year. My wife having been born in Vietnam has also peaked my interest in that country’s history. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned “Embers of War”. I am a few chapters in and it is absolutely fantastic. I read Graham Greene’s “The Quiet American” earlier and until that point, that was my only source on the French period. With that said, are there any books that focus on the initial French conquest of Vietnam? Or its history before that? Also, and this is random, but is Mark Bowden’s “Hue: 1968” any good or does it exclusively focus on the US side? It’s hard finding works that focus on the NVA or even ARVN perspectives of that period.
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Aug 16, 2018 17:16
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A human heart posted:Why not read something by Ho Chi Minh? I read Duiker's excellent biography on him back in undergrad. Which I think I still have somewhere and need to re-read. To answer your original question, I'm hesitant to read his primary source works because I'm not sure what I would get out of it. I'm more interested in Vietnamese history, than I am in Ho Chi Minh's political philosophy. However, Ho Chi Minh is an extremely important figure in that nation's history, so I am open to biographys about him (such as the work by Duiker).
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Aug 17, 2018 02:16
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Biffmotron posted:I really liked Hue: 1968. It focuses mostly on the Marines in Hue, but also talks about civilians caught in the crossfire, the Viet Cong, and a US Army attempt to reach the citadel. ARVN didn't get a lot of attention, which is a shame. It's hard to find good books on the ARVN. Bob Brigham has one, but I haven't read it in years and barely remember it. Thanks to you and Cessna for the amazing effort posts! I've really taken a liking to recent East Asian history, especially SE Asian over the last few years. Hearing the personal stories from my wife's family has also helped to peak my interest. I think I'll start with Truong Nhu Tang's memoir once I finish Embers of War.
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Aug 24, 2018 17:08
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So I’m going to Korea in two months and I’m actually rather ignorant about the Korean War outside the American perspective. I took a glance on Amazon but all the books I saw were either about individual battles or focused on the Americans. I’m looking for something that also takes the Korean (either North or South) into account. For example I read “Embers of War” recently and really enjoyed how the author took into account both the VietMinh and French perspectives with critical analysis so wondering if something similar for the Korean War?
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Aug 17, 2019 00:58
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My apologies if this was brought up recently. I've been on a Pacific War kick lately. Having finished The Rising Sun, Shattered Sword, Last Stand of the Tincan Sailors, and been listening to Dan Carlins Rising Sun Podcast. Is Ian Toll's Pacific War Trilogy pretty well respected? The first one, Conquering Tide looks like it has good reviews, but I am a bit more interested in the war from the Japanese perspective so I hope it covers that end as well. Similarly I was interested in Hirohito's War but I've heard some mixed reviews
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Jan 4, 2021 23:30
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FPyat posted:It's pretty wild that my high school library had a copy of Dreadnought in it. Can't say it's that likely that it was ever read, but I sure noticed it sitting there. I’d have check it out in a heartbeat. I remember my high school had Toland’s “The last 100 days” and when I checked it out, I was the first person to do so in over a decade. Anyway anyone with even as passing interest in great power politics leading up to WWI should read Dreadnought. Also, I have “Sleepwalkers” on my Christmas list. Does it hold up? A goon a few posts up mentioned the author has a pro-German bias? *edit* Answered right as I made this post- thanks!
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Nov 24, 2021 18:26
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escape artist posted:Currently reading: It’s not a biography but The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen won a Pulitzer Prize. I have not read it yet, but it’s gotten rave reviews from people I know who’ve read it and it’s always great to get points of view about the war, from the north and the south, by Vietnamese themselves.
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Jan 27, 2022 23:07
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Gripweed posted:What are the best books currently available in English about the Allied invasion of Sicily? Rick Atkinson covers it in detail in the day of battle however his whole Liberation trilogy, which also covers the North African and Western Europe campaigns, is excellent.
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Jan 28, 2022 05:27
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Boatswain posted:Best book on the first Vietnam War in English or French? I'd prefer an academic account, preferably with a good bibliography. What you want is Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall which is a Pulitzer Prize winning book about the French-Indochina war.
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Jan 28, 2022 15:47
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Biffmotron posted:As a Vietnam War books guy, a lot of good choices mentioned already. The Perfect Spy and The Sympathizer are a lot of fun. I want to add one more to this list. I haven't read it yet, but a few weeks ago I was listening to an interview with Pierre Asselin, author of Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965 Podcast interview link here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pierre-asselin-vietnams-american-war-history-cambridge/id425214664?i=1000457102262 Granted, Pierre is not Vietnamese (he is from Quebec) but he is one of the first westerners to get access to the state archives back in the 1990s, and this book is the culmination of that research. It dives into the Vietnam Communist Party's struggles to consolidate power after their victory over the French, the side-lining of Ho Chi Minh by Le Duan, and the decision to support the Southern Communists (Viet Cong) and the road to war with the US to reunify the South.
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Jan 31, 2022 20:18
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