What are you reading

@Private:

The book would add a number of points, of which here are a couple:

A few comments on this.  First, I doubt that France and Russia saw themselves as defending “a balance of power” in Europe; if any of the Allied powers thought that way, it was Britain, whose foreign policy in the decades leading up to WWI basically aimed at keeping Britain’s options open.  This non-committal policy infuriated the French, whose objective was to get Britain solidly on-side for any eventual war with Germany.  (Ironically, that’s pretty much what Britain’s own objective was vis-a-vis the U.S. from 1939 to 1941).

Second, the search for a single “key cause” for WWI is a quest that has occupied historians and other commentators for a whole century, with the pendulum swinging back and forth (according to the fashion of the day) between “it was Germany’s fault” (see Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, a.k.a. the War Guilt Clause) and “it was everyone’s fault” (see Margaret MacMillan’s book “The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War”, though she does attribute significant blame to Kaiser Wilhelm, arguing that his unstable personality would not have been an issue if he’d been the ruler of Lichtenstein rather than of the preeminent military land power of his era).

Third, it should be noted that Germany wasn’t the only major power of the day where right-wing views were espoused by the army and other leading social actors.  The pre-WWI Dreyfus Affair scandal in France illustrated a similar dynamic, and in the run-up to WWII the right in France hated the left to such an extent that it was sympathetic to the concept of an authoritarian regime, which is exactly what France got from the Vichy Regime under Marshall Petain (who, when France was crumbling in June 1940, blamed its defeat on (as I recall) “twenty years of Marxism”).

Quite. It is this moving interpretation that makes this book interesting. Sounds like you should read it! :-)

Operation Drumbeat by Michael Gannon.
About initiation of U-boot operations off U.S. east coast.

My recommendations:
http://legendarywarbooks.blogspot.com/

Check at least
Witold Pilecki The Auschwitz Volunteer, really amazing real life story WW2

And
Kurt “Panzer” Meyer, Waffen SS General
Something like “Saving private Ryan” on steroids.

-Krp-

Just finished A Hobbit, A Wardrobe and A Great War by Joseph Loconte.

In my youth, I read (and re-read) J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (and The Hobbit), as well as C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Loconte’s book taught me that the aforementioned authors’ works were heavily influenced by their experiences in World War One. From descriptions of battle to individual characters, the connections are there. I used to think it curious that, after doing the LOTR and Hobbit movies, Peter Jackson would move on to They Shall Not Grow Old; it now makes perfect sense…And now, I have to re-read The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy.

all of the “Sharpe” novels by Bernard Cornwell. Not quite halfway through. Only read 3 or 4, years ago. Kinda dime novel type reads but he has them based on real events.

I’ve always liked a ruthless protagonist anyway. Probably why I like “Jack Reacher” too. lol

@barnee said in What are you reading:

all of the “Sharpe” novels by Bernard Cornwell. Not quite halfway through. Only read 3 or 4, years ago. Kinda dime novel type reads but he has them based on real events.

I’ve always liked a ruthless protagonist anyway. Probably why I like “Jack Reacher” too. lol

If you like Sharpe, barnee, you should try his The Last Kingdom series. In my view they are even better.

Recently finished “Churchill: Walking with Destiny” by Andrew Roberts. I thought it was a marvellous book. But then I am as much of a Churchill fan as the author and now rather better informed as to why I am right to be!

@Private-Panic

Thanks Panic. Are those the “Uthred” ones ? I read a couple a few years ago. They are pretty good. I’ll have to start from the beginning so I can get them in order. I read the very first two i think and then missed some, so quit reading them.

I see there’s a tv show/netflix or something series too. might be worth checking out.

@barnee That’s them. I have read all of them and love the way the Uhtred develops from a young hot head into a wily old warrior.

The BBC / Netflix series is difficult for lovers of the books to swallow at first. There are lots of changes to the story to get to Uhtred the warrior much more quickly than the books do. But then the series settles into a much more recognisable story and gets better and better. I particularly like the depiction of Alfred the Great. Unfortunately there are no plans to make more series.

@ABWorsham4 I’m not familiar with False Flags, but I’ve read Mrs. Ferguson’s Tea Set, Japan and the Second World War: The Global Consequences Following Germany’s Sinking of the SS Automedon in 1940 by Eiji Seki. It’s an excellent account of the exploits of the German commerce raider Atlantis, and I found it fascinating as a Japanese perspective of WWII.

@ABWorsham4 The more I read, the more I learn that American neutrality pre-Pearl Harbor was extremely nuanced, to say the least. Very interesting stuff.

The Defenders of Taffy 3 and The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. Good accounts of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.