Wholesome History Reads Group discussion
What I'm Reading
Mod
"Meanwhile, Il-Ghazi's troops were softening up the Frankish centre and vanguard with archery prior to moving in for close-quarters fighting. The arrow storm created by thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of Turkic cavalry was immense. Witnesses reported that they saw 'some of the horses stretched out on the ground like hedgehogs because of the quantity of arrows sticking into them'. The Frankish troops were subjected to a 'hail of arrows which fell like a cloud of grasshoppers'."
Battle of Ager Sanguinis:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...
Mod
https://www.ancient.eu/Battle_of_Hattin/
https://www.thoughtco.com/the-crusade...
The Crusader Armies, 1099–1187 by Steve Tibble
Leaving 2019 on the same subject I started on.... respirators and radsuits at the ready!
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Mod
[book:..."That's one I've got to read, I hope its a good account, keep us posted Jonny.
Picked up the (hopefully) 'this is what the Hell they were thinking' book
The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–45
Mod
The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–45"I really enjoyed that book Jonny so I hope you find it just as interesting. Keep us posted.
Mod
Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy by Donald L. Miller
Here's an interesting/ worrying note on naturally occurring radiation:"The granite used to build the US Capitol is so radioactive that the building would fail federal safety codes regulating nuclear power plants. All living tissue is radioactive to some degree: human beings, like bananas, emit radiation because both contain small amounts of the radioisotope potassium 40; muscle contains more potassium 40 than other tissue, so men are generally more radioactive than women. Brazil nuts, with a thousand times the average concentration of radium of any organic product, are the world’s most radioactive food."
I used to get a box if chocolate Brazils for Christmas every year... turns out my grandma might have been an assassin after all?
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Mod
"The granite used to build the US Capitol is so radioactive that the building would fail federal safety codes regulating nucl..."
Yikes!!!
Mod
Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria by Sam Dagher
In something as high-rush as a reactor control room, it's my opinion that simplicity of operation might just be important. But in the Reactor 4 control room:"the Chernobyl operators soon discovered that the reactor on which they had lavished so much attention was an unforgiving mistress. The inherent instabilities of the RBMK made it so difficult to manage that the senior reactor control engineers’ work proved not only mentally but also physically demanding. Making dozens of adjustments every minute, they were never off their feet and sweated like labourers digging a ditch. Rumours reached them that up in Leningrad, the Sredmash reactor engineers had doubled up on the control desk, “playing duets” to cope with the complexity of the task. The reactor operators worked the panel so hard that the switches governing the control rods quickly wore out and had to be replaced constantly. When one former nuclear submarine officer first took his seat at the desk in Chernobyl’s Unit One, he was horrified by the colossal size of the reactor and how antiquated the instrumentation was. “How can you possibly control this hulking piece of shit?” he asked. “And what is it doing in civilian use?”"
And once the design flaws, inherent instabilities and control issues combine and the inevitable does occur, there's a fascinating example of nuclear physics in action:
"And from somewhere in the heart of the tangled mass of rebar and shattered concrete— from deep inside the ruins of Unit Four, where the reactor was supposed to be— Alexander Yuvchenko could see something more frightening still: a shimmering pillar of ethereal blue- white light, reaching straight up into the night sky, disappearing into infinity. Delicate and strange and encircled by a flickering spectrum of colours conjured by flames from within the burning building and superheated chunks of metal and machinery, the beautiful phosphorescence transfixed Yuvchenko for a few seconds. Then Tregub yanked him back around the corner and out of immediate danger: the phenomenon that had entranced the young engineer was created by the radioactive ionization of air and was an almost certain sign of an unshielded nuclear reactor open to the atmosphere."
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Mod
"the Chernobyl operators soon discover..."
Yikes!!! “How can you possibly control this hulking piece of shit?” he asked. “And what is it doing in civilian use?”
Gallows humour from the Heavy Lift crews of Frontal Aviation tasked with "bombing" the open reactor building with fire and radiation retardant material:"General Antoshkin had imposed an exposure limit of 22 rem on his men, although many routinely underreported it in order to keep flying longer. They were issued both bitter potassium iodide tablets and a sweet medicinal paste—shipped in from a pharmaceutical plant in Leningrad, intended to help combat radiation—which they called pastila. When the first shipments of lead arrived—in ingots and sheets and ten-kilogram bags of hunters’ shotgun pellets delivered from stores with the price tags still on them—the pilots improvised their own protection. They lined the floor of the cabins with the four- and five-millimeter-thick sheets and filled the wells of their seats—designed to accommodate parachute packs—from the bags of shot. They even had a rhyme about it: Yesli hochesh byt’ otsom, zakrivay yaitso svintsom. “If you want to be a dad, cover your balls in lead.”"
And some classic Soviet doublespeak; what must go through you mind if you're asked this?
"by the end of the week, the Politburo had granted permission for the most desperate measures yet: Soviet diplomats were reported to have approached the German Atom Forum, West Germany’s leading nuclear industry group, requesting foreign help. The Soviet emissaries did not provide any specific details of the problem at hand but said they urgently required guidance on “how to handle something extremely hot that may have melted through the nuclear plant floor.”"
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Mod
Makes you wonder how subtle the Politburo thought they were being! That wasn't going to set any alarm bells ringing...
Mod
Those Russians, such funny people :)
Mod
Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War by S.C. Gwynne
Mod
A Short History of Christianity by Geoffrey Blainey
Mod
"His steadfastness in the face of death caught the imagination of later generations, and a church, monastery and public baths were built in his honour. Pilgrims carried home tiny quantities of the clear water that came from the local well of St Menas; some of the pilgrims' tiny flasks or ampullae can be seen in the British museum. They are made of thin red pottery, and display on the front an image of the saint himself and on the back a sailing ship. Though the flasks held barely enough liquid to quench the first of a sparrow, the water was considered holy and might have been saved to baptise relatives of the pilgrim. The flask itself was also a trophy, evidence that the owner had made the pilgrimage. That St Menas had a reputation in England is confirmed by the fact that York Cathedral annually celebrated his feast day."
St Menas:
(note his role at the Battle of El Alamein)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_M...
Mod
"The Cistercians were not alone in promoting farming and economic welfare. Other monasteries situated near the sea erected navigational signs. Near Lynn in England, a tall cross served as a landmark for sailors. At Tynemouth, a lighthouse lit by burning coals was kept alight by monks in a tower, and during fogs they rang a bell to warn ships how near was the coast. It was easier for monks to keep an all-night vigil because they were accustomed to sit up late to perform devotions. On the coast of County Wexford in the thirteenth century a tower was built, partly with help from monks, to guide and warn ships exposed to 'the dangers of the sea' and to the 'waves of the deep'. Ships passing some of these landmarks dipped their sails, it was said, out of respect to the monks."
Hook Lighthouse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_Li...
Mod
"The costliest books were written on the surface of vellum, a word that is similar to veal. The pages, made from the skin of a calf, lamb or goat, were known as parchment. A book of 200 written pages required the skins of some eighty lambs. It is said that the coast of this parchment exceeded the cost of the clerk or scribe."
A Short History of Christianity by Geoffrey Blainey
Mod
"The sheer simplicity of his life earned public respect, for this was an era when wealthier priests and even bishops ate and drank copiously, dressed stylishly, rode fine horses, and kept at least one eye open for the affections of attractive women. Admittedly, on Francis's own travels, he too was tempted by women. If his feelings were aroused, he did everything he could to curb them. After one such temptation, he deliberately walked waist-deep into a ditch of snow and shivered there. As a biographer fancifully recorded, Francis covered himself in show so that he might 'preserve his white robe of chastity from the fire of lust'. Of course there are layers of myth and propaganda guarding and embellishing his life, but most of the landmarks and achievements are not easily disputed."
Francis of Assisi:
https://www.biography.com/religious-f...
Mod
The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art by Ingrid Rowland
After going to see 1917 in the cinema (its an amazing film that I would highly recommend), I was inspired to pick up A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918 by G.J. Meyer. Its certainly comprehensive, but also highly readable. As with any conflict, the truth is much more complicated than the simplistic narrative that is common knowledge.
Mod
Mod
"The mysterious painter Giorgione decided to die for love, rather than live without his sweetheart, snuggling with her in bed as she succumbed to plague, knowing that he, too, would contract it and die shortly thereafter. And then there's the dirty joke Vasari made at the expense of his own sister, the one that made Pietro Aretino, Titian's best friend, laugh so hard that he had a stroke and died."
The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art by Ingrid Rowland
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I liked these stories from the first chapter of the book; "The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art":"The mysterious painter Giorgione decided to die for love, rather than ..."
That sounds like a very interesting read. I'm not into art per se, but I love reading letters and memoirs.
Mod
Mod
"If you shaved off Hercule's hair, there wouldn't be enough head left to put his brain in." As for the hero's face, "you can't tell whether it belongs to a man or to a cross between a lion and an ox." The rippling muscles of his chest "aren't drawn from a man, they're drawn from a sack of melons that's been stood up against a wall." Cocky Cellini then went on to reprimand Bandinelli for "impatiently" interrupting him before he could begin to mock the second figure in the sculpture group, Casus.
https://www.everypainterpaintshimself...
Mod
"French was his mother tongue, but he routinely spoke four languages. He has often been credited (not entirety correctly) with the claim 'I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my horse."
Mod
Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood by Stephen Davis
Mod
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia by Benson Bobrick
Looks good Rick, I'd read Daniel Beer's The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars last year (I think) which was pretty interesting... Looking forward to your posts.
Mod
"Large mountain ranges cut across it to the south and east, majestic volcanoes on its far horizons formed part of the Pacific rim of fire, and its mighty rivers, rivals to the Mississippi and the Nile, could, if linked together, encircle the globe twenty-five times. Each one of its three major river basins was larger than the whole of Western Europe. In climate, it ranged from the Arctic to the semi-tropical, supported animals as diverse as camels and polar bears, and shared latitudes with areas as distant as Thule, Greenland, and Marseilles. Five million square miles, or about 7.5 percent of the total land surface of the globe, lay within its compass, from the Urals to the Pacific, and from Mongolia to the Arctic seas."
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia by Benson Bobrick
Mod
"In trying to imagine what this means, one nineteenth-century explorer remarked: If it were possible to move entire countries from one part of the globe to another, you could take the whole United States of America from Maine to California and from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, and set it down in the middle of Siberia, without touching anywhere the boundaries of the latter territory. You could then take Alaska and all the States of Europe, with the single exception of Russia, and fit them into the remaining margin like the pieces of a dissected map; and after having thus accommodated all of the United States, including Alaska, and all of Europe, except Russia, you would still have more than 300,000 square miles of Siberian territory to spare."
Mod
"As part of the Russian pacification, many natives were forcibly baptized, and 'those who did not willingly consent were driven into the Stream, and when they came back, a Cross was hung around their Necks.' In one still more crude procedure, two of three Buryats at a time were tied to a long pole and plunged into freezing water through a hole in the ice. Not surprisingly, this convinced them that the new faith had little of solace to offer them, and in suicidal fury they attacked the garrison at Bratsk."
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia by Benson Bobrick
Mod
"Stepanov's replacement, Afanasy Pashkov, the former military governor of Yeniseysk, arrived on the heals of this rout and decided to base his command more safely to the north at Nerchinsk. But over the next two years his forces were decimated by famine, disease, cold, sporadic fighting, and starvation, as they waited in vain for fresh supplies and reinforcements from Yeniseysk. 'Barefoot and half-naked,' writes one historian, 'they scrabbled for roots, grasses, bark, carrion,' not balking even at devouring 'an unborn foal ripped from a dead mare's womb.' In 1660 they withdrew to Irgensk, with only seventy-five men (out of the original four hundred) left alive."
Mod
" ... whether the sign of the cross should be made with three fingers extended, as denoting the Trinity, and two closed, in reference to Christ's double nature, or with two fingers extended, in allusion to the double nature, and three closed, in token of the Trinity."
"As dissidents, they now proved in astonishing numbers that they were quite prepared to die for their beliefs. 'For this we came out of our mother's womb,' Avvakum wrote. 'Are you afraid of the furnace? ... Fear comes before the fire ... You catch fire, and here they are - Christ and the hosts of angels.' In response to such appeals, at least twenty thousand schismatics burned themselves to death."
I finished the middle book in James Holland's Mediterranean trilogy, 
Together We Stand: Turning the Tide in the West: North Africa, 1942-1943It's an excellent book, well worth your time. If you need any convincing, my thoughts are here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
[book:Together We S..."Great review Jonny, it is indeed an excellent book and I am sure you will enjoy his next book just as much, keep us all posted.
Mod
"The quintessential Russian saying, expressive of long-suffering - 'God is high up and the Tsar far off' - is actually Siberian in origin. Lesser officials also tended to regard their office as a financial opportunity, and one fallen courtier claimed that in his eleven years as an exile in Siberia he met only one tax gatherer who 'walked the straight path.' The farther from the capital, the more immune from restraint, in a sense, a man became. A man who left Moscow as a common soldier, it was said, automatically became a sergeant upon reaching Tobolsk, an ensign in Tomsk, a lieutenant on the Lena, a captain in Yakutsk, and a colonel in Kamchatka. A fait proportion of Kamchatka's 'colonels' were also criminal exiles, and though some may have redeemed their past by valiant or heroic endeavor, as often as not, tempted by the circumstances in which they were placed, they compounded the degradations of their lives."
East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia by Benson Bobrick
Mod
"The churches were barely functioning, and the monasteries were said to be dens of vice, where monks and nuns cohabited together, or continued liaisons with former husbands and lovers outside the walls. The clergy, one ecclesiastic complained, “lived like pagans, begetting half-breeds out of wedlock, neglecting their fast days, and eating any kind of filth with the unbaptized.” When called upon to consecrate a marriage, some clergy “even seemed to have forgotten the Christian rite.” And generally they refused to do anything without a hefty fee in furs."
Mod
"One of those to arrive was the archpriest Avvakum, then beginning his Siberian exile. Avvakum, however, proved a bit too righteous for the Church’s good. Although priests were not supposed to inflict corporal punishment, during his tenure he had a drunken monk flogged for interrupting his evening prayers, a clerk whipped for accepting a bribe, and an unrepentant prostitute punished “by imprisoning her without food beneath the floor of his house for three days.” Somewhat less sternly, he pacified another unfortunate by the name of Fyodor, who had gone temporarily mad with guilt after having had sex with his wife on Easter Sunday. For a subsequent infraction, however, Avvakum had him “flogged and chained to the wall of the church choir,” after which he went berserk, rampaged through the town, and concluded his fit by dressing up as a girl."
Excellent posts Rick, I can see I'll have to keep my eyes open for a copy of this one.
Mod
So far its been an interesting account of the exploration and colonization of Siberia.
Mod
"The feathers attached to the arrow were also ingeniously tailored to their task. For example, there was an arrow, 'the whistling of which resembled the sound of a hawk swooping down on its prey,' which made ducks or geese drop down instantly into the waters of a lake, where waiting marksmen made their kill. Fired over the head of a rabbit, it drove the animal into the nearest bush, where it was more readily snared. Again, there was a remarkable arrow developed just for killing ducks with young. As it glided over the water, its feathers ruffled the surface like those of a duckling. The mother duck, hastening with affection toward it, came right into its path."
Mod
"Among the Koryak and Chukchi, after the body was removed and all traces obliterated to prevent its return, it was dissected with some dim analogies to autopsy procedure – the breast opened, the organs inspected, and the cause of death proclaimed. But as a courtesy to future generations, it was then stabbed on the pyre – “to prevent the child who will reincarnate the soul from having the same illness as the deceased.” Indeed, among the Yukaghirs, corpses were sometimes affectionately dismembered and the parts dried and distributed as amulets, called “grandfathers,” to close relations. With the tenderest of considerations, the Kamchadals also gave their dead to the dogs to eat – to ensure them a good dog team in the afterlife."
Mod
"The first Americans sighted by Bering's Second Expedition, of course, were two Aleuts in skin baydarkas, and when the Russians began their conquest of the islands, there were probably about 25,000 Aleuts in all. Sixty-five years later there were only 2,500 left, and these were much mixed with Russian blood."
And;
"Unlike many Siberian peoples, the Aleuts had never paid tribute to anyone, and in the winter of 1762, feeling themselves unbearably oppressed, they seized and burned three Russian ships on Umnak and Unalaska and killed the crews. The following spring new promyshlenniks appeared, and when they learned of the fate of their comrades, they retailated, destroying whole settlements without mercy to woman or child. One of the Russians, Ivan Solovyev, amused himself by binding a dozen Aleuts together in a row, one behind the other, to see how many a single musket ball would pierce. 'He learned from expereince,' wrote one of his compatriots, 'that a bullet would pass through nine and lodge in the tenth man'."
Promyshlenniks:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promysh...
Mod
"Schaffer emerged unscathed. Following his own remarkable star, he eventually found his way to Brazil and (confidence man extraordinaire) there persuaded the emperor Dom Pedro I and his young Hapsburg empress to give him an estate. By 1821, he had 'joined the parvenu nobility of the Brazilian capital as Count von Frankenthal,' and when he died in 1836 was laid to rest as a great propertied magnate and councilor of state."
Georg Anton Schaffer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_A...
Wholesome History Reads Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 (other topics)A Campaign of Giants—The Battle for Petersburg, Vol. 2: From the Crater's Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill (other topics)
The Secret Expedition: The Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland 1799 (other topics)
Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II (other topics)
Defeat In Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913 (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Rick Atkinson (other topics)A. Wilson Greene (other topics)
Geert van Uythoven (other topics)
James H. Hallas (other topics)
Edward J. Erickson (other topics)
More...
"We have unusually detailed information about the way the Frankish infantry lines were disposed, showing how the 'combined arms' nature of the shieldwall worked. The basic infantry combat team seems to have consisted of two pairs of men. Two spearmen in the front rank, providing cover with their shields and deterring enemy cavalry from making contact, 'went down on their knees, placing their round shields and long shields before the, lances [i.e. spears] in their hands'. Behind them were a pair of crossbowmen. They either alternated firing or the better marksman of the pair stood in front, between the two shields, while his partner loaded another crossbow behind him. This relay system maximised protection and rate of fire."
Battle of Jaffa:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...
https://www.historynet.com/battle-of-...