I love WW2 history, maybe it's just the scale of the whole thing but I'm fasinated by all areas of it.
Yes, for the simple reason that Stalin -- for all the dumb moves he made before and during the war -- made one absolutely astute decision. He sent the entire industrial complex of the Soviet Union east of the Urals. As a result they could still churn out T34s and artillery pieces day after day after day. Even if the Germans had captured Moscow, Lenningrad AND Stalingrad, they still would have lost. It would have take longer, and our slog on the Western front would have been much rougher, but the end was inevitable.
A few favorites that haven't been mentioned: Massie's Dreadnought and Castles of Steel Freeman's The Closing of the Western Mind Ambrose's Undaunted Courage Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn Thomas Pakenham's The Boer War William Manchester's The Glory and the Dream (I especially like his description of Washington in 1932) William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire H.W.Brands The First American, the Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
And MUCH more manpower, more productive allies (don't forget lend-lease!!), access to huge oil reserves, etc.
Absolutely huge scale. 20 million Soviets died and, what, 6 million Germans? Staggering. WW2 is probably the hook that got most of us interested in history. Hmmm, I sense a poll...
There are a list of purely history books that I would like to recommend, but the following is a list I prepared in response to a question from Century's Best. These books are historical in nature but carry a more contemporary focus as well. 1) The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran. Excellent survey of Iran's social and political history by a genuinely renowned scholar, Professor Roy Mottahedeh of Harvard. As the New York Times rightly put it, it is a "jewel". 2) The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergen. The chapter on Iran, or Persia as the author prefers to call Iran, is not nice to the Persians But a highly valuable book nonetheless. 3) The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation by Sandra Mackey. More valuable for the general reader, and written from a more journalistic perspective, yet it does a decent job in identifying and covering key issues in Iranian history as well. 4) The Hidden Imam: Mousa Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon by Faud Ajami. 5) A Peace to End All Peace, David Fromkin (focused on the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern "Middle East". Acceptable for the areas of its focus, but not for a more comprehensive understanding of the Middle East since Iran is largely misisng in his equation.
Personally Ben it was a mix of the history of the British Empire in India (my school was the old East India College) and then learning about Africa, the Cold War and WWII at school. A couple of books I think made a lasting impression on me...... A History of Africa by J.D.Fage Africans - The History of a Continent by John Iliffe Nazi Germany by Klaus P Fischer Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer An Ordinary Atrocity (Sharpeville and it's Massacre) by Phillip Frankel World Politics Since 1945 by Peter Calvocoressi The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D Spence
Just finished reading A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Ulrich for a reading course I'm doing. An excellent study.
That's a great book. She is so good at getting her sources to talk and create an engaging narrative. She has another great article in a collection called Through a Glass Darkly about reading personal identity through early American furniture. From reading the Ulrich, you might be interested in Cornelia Hughes Dayton (Drayton?)'s article "Taking the Trade" which is a surprising article about abortion in early America.
I really liked her book Good Wives. It's a great illustration of the economic power that used to reside in the domestic sphere prior to the industrial revolution.
The Savage Wars of Peace by Max Boot. Tells the stories of American military intervention especially in the pre-WW2 era. The Barbary Wars, Philipine Insurrection, Landings in China, Sumatra and Korea, Sandino etc. It tells a great deal about the commanders and the soldiers of that era and is a very good read. I've read it over several times already.
Plagues and Peoples William H. McNeill - the book that gave Diamond most of his ideas The Road Wet, the Wind Close James Charles Roy - lyrical depiction of Irish history from prehistory to the Cistercians. Thought provoking and beautiful photos to boot. You'll never think of St. Patrick as a hero again. The World of Late Antiquity and Augustine of Hippo Peter Brown - encyclopedic knowledge of the 4th - 6th centuries AD The Making of Europe Christopher Dawson and The Making of the Middle Ages R. W. Southern - I got these for a college class and held on to them because they are written so well The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century R. H. Bainton - although not written for the specialist, it provides an easily readable, balanced, and surprisingly insightful account of the Reformation The Age of Reform S. Ozment - sorry Marxists, ideas matter. Ozment shows how changes in intellectual and theological thought led up to the Reformation The Reckoning C Nicholl - investigation into the murder of Christopher Marlowe Alexander Hamilton R. Chernow - perhaps this is biography rather than history, but it is a detailed picture of Revolutionary politicians and politics Return to Bull Run John J. Hennessey - I don't own a lot of civil War history, but this account of Bull Run/Manassas II can't be put down
what do you guys think about James Bradley and his two books "FlyBoys" and "Flags of our Fathers" I personally thought they were very good at telling stories of people along with actual history, rather than giving a more boring version. Just wondering if you guys have even read them
I am just finishing up "Stalin-The Court of the Red Tsar," by Simon Sebag Montifore. The book gives a glimpse of Stalin's court. Talk about some pretty messed up Bolsheviks.
It's nice to see Richard Southern get a mention, a superb historian. Otherwise the US bias is overwhelming (but understandable) so I will try to address that. I have been told an Ancient History thread is in the offing so will wait until then to really get going. Anyway: AJP Taylor- The Origins of the Second World War- I read through this thread waiting for this to be mentioned, am shocked that AJP is ignored, but he really was an outstanding historian. Alan Bullock-Parallel Lives Ian Kershaw- Hitler (both volumes)- Today's foremost authority on the Third Reich. Conrad Leyser- Authority and Asceticism Max Jones- The Last Great Quest- If you are vaguely interested in Captain Scott, this is the work for you. Superbly written and researched. EH Carr- What is history?- Still essential so many years on. A fascinating study of the genre and its purpose.
I just read two interesting works - not by professionals, though. "1491" by Charles Mann is an attempt to reconstruct the New World before Columbus arrived. Probably its most controversial aspects are the theory of how vastly the Indians terraformed North and South America, and that smallpox demolished pre-Columbian societies so thoroughly that everything Europeans encountered was a misapprehension. It would have been like judging Europe by the 1340's. One example - the massive herds of buffalo exploded in number because so many people died out. So there were, at the very very most, a couple of hundred years of million-head herds, instead of thousands of years since the Ice Age. Oh, and the Amazon rain forest as we know it is, effectively, man-made by pre-Columbian societies, and its current wild state is an echo of the population decrease. Even more out there is "1421" by Gavin Menzies. It's apparently accepted that China reached the New World long before Columbus, but did not stay. Menzies sends the treasure fleets farther - literally everywhere from New England to New Zealand. Some of his evidence is pretty scant, others are pretty convincing. I haven't read a thorough debunking, but then again, I don't think anyone in the scientific community got around to debunking "Chariots of the Gods." Still, Menzies does a great job backing up what he can, and tells a terrific tale.
They did - here is a book you can buy on that http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/002-6039520-6296825?v=glance&s=books Also, an essay by Robert Sheaffer http://www.debunker.com/texts/vondanik.html And if I remember correctly, PBS' Nova did a debunking, also, in the 1970's.
Interestingly, depending on whom one reads, it is fairly accepted that just about everyone reached N/S America before Columbus. I am hearing pretty good things about 1491, and will probably read it.
A related issue; It drives me absolutely nuts when I see Velikovsky's ridiculous pseudo-science book on the science bookshelf.