So it wasn't a senseless waste? I was talking of the senseless waste of human life, surely the United States would have benefited more if those people had lived to work for the country and all that property hadn't been destroyed. Not as a talking point for historians.
Erm, not really. Take this current illegal, unnecessary lot of blood shedding for instance. Typical though, when I was in my early 20’s I joined the Parachute Regiment. I’dda gone anywhere and shot anyone...just because I could. Never gave a thought about me being shot at. Now as an old fart, life has become so precious. Any ones, anything. Old soldiers never die, just the young cannon fodder they send out there.
I think that we are agreeing on the general senselessness of war. I was commenting that it is difficult to differentiate the senselessness of one versus another.
Anyone got a decent history of the Northern Ireland conflict? (Apologies if this has been brought up earlier, but I'm not reading through the whole thread.)
If you count the Seven Years War, you should also count the Thirty Years War as a World War. All of Europe was involved at some time or another. It wasn't that there was total war going on around the world...this only took place within the Holy Roman Empire, but fights in the colonies (i.e. Netherlands vs. Spain) did have immediate consequences to the main battles.
Well, I haven't read it myself, but this book by C. V. Wedgwood is a classic and probably one of the best publications in English on this subject.
Can anyone recommend a book on the Roman empire? nothing too heavy, just something to get me into the subject.
Thanks...I'll check that out. The Thirty Years War was pretty gruesome...don't know why that fascinates me. I guess I'm always blown away at how awful humanity can be sometimes.
A significant amount of my interest relates to how it seems undercovered in English language popular scholarship (that is, books that a non-Academic like me is likely to come across). The most I've read about it in recent years was as background in a biography of Keppler I read last year, and my mental image of it mostly comes from a production of Brecht's Mother Courage.
as far as the roman empire, i dont really remember the books i read in my college class on it, but anything by michael maas is apparently very good. if you come across any books by lawrence okamura, he's an excellent scholar (and an excellent teacher...my former prof) I would throw out the following as great history books: *A History of Modern Europe, by John Merriman *A World Lit Only By Fire, by William Manchester (a great historian), about the end of the middle ages and the beginning of the rennaissance *Stalingrad by Antony Beevor....what a book *The Year 1000: An Englishman's World, by some fella named Lacey *Freedom at Midnight, by Dominique LaPierre and Larry Collins All are excellent reads and completely riveting. The last one takes the tone of a novel more than a history book (although they all do that a bit), and although some of it's assertions can be called into doubt, both LaPierre and Collins are excellent writers and I would reccomend anthing by them
"Undaunted Courage" & "Citizen Soldiers" by Stephen Ambrose Somebody mentioned "John Adams" by David McCullough- very good.
Never read the latter, but "Undaunted Courage" was a fantastic read. Lewis's demise was heartbreaking. "Adams" and "1776" are both great books.
I forgot about 1776. Very good, also. Undaunted Courage was slow at times, but it's a book every American should read.
1776 was pretty good, but I'd have to like to seen something longer by mccullough on the revolution also, if i recall correctly, there were no footnotes, which is a bit disconcerting