History is Not Boring discussion
What are you reading?
After finishing The Finkler Question, which I loved, I've begun Toni Morrison's latest historical novel, A Mercy. Not thirty pages in, and I'm already engrossed in this tale about the slave trade in the Americas, centred on the adventures of a crafty trader and a young slave girl he accepts in repayment for a certain debt. Can't wait to read more over the weekend!Ex Lit Prof
www.the-reading-list.com
Using the Kindle for Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant . 
For a guy with no initial ambition for a military career, he certainly made his mark. It is a dispassionate account thus far (right now I'm in the Mexican War). He describes the decapitation of a standing soldier due to cannon shot, and the effect of the blood, brains, and rifle spinters on those around him, with a matter-of-fact manner than makes it even more horrific than if it would be otherwise.
Leslie wrote: "After finishing The Finkler Question, which I loved, I've begun Toni Morrison's latest historical novel, A Mercy. Not thirty pages in, and I'm already engrossed in th..."I love Toni Morrison and this sounds like a good read.
I have less than 100 pages to read of the Caribbean by James Michener. Would love to be in the Caribbean reading this book.
I'm reading Letters from the Hittite Kingdom while researching for a book about Queen Puduhepa of the Hittites. Slow reading (the letters are fragmentary since they are extant on clay tablets) but very interesting to hear actual voices from the 13th century BC in ancient Anatolia.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin I've always liked the way Larson brings history to the human level.
Saw With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawamentioned in a post here so I thought I'd pick it up. Glad I did. Thanks for the recommendation. That's what I love about this group.
message 159:
by
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads, Crazy Cat Lady
(last edited Aug 07, 2011 04:45PM)
(new)
Mod
He's been remarkably sympathetic to Hoover.
Currently reading Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie. I was apprehensive at first because it's a biography rather than historical fiction but it reads wonderfully. It's not just dry facts thrown at you but it's woven as a very intriguing story. I'm not too far in yet but am already thinking about more "characters" I should read about and given how digestible the writing is I'll start with more Massie.
John wrote: "Using the Kindle for Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant . For a guy with no initial ambition for a military career, he certainly made his mark. It is a dispassionate acc..."
From watching the Ken Burns Civil War series I learned Grant was dying of throat cancer and stayed with his memoirs till he finished and died just several days later.
On the Ken Burns series, loved listening to Shelby Foote talk.
Mod
I just finished Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Lansing. I was so taken by this more than incredible story that I've 2 more books on the voyage on the tbr - Endurance by Frank Arthur Worsley [he was the chief navigator] although Patrick O'Brian is involved somehow, and South: the story of Shackleton's 1914-1917 expedition by Shackleton. Arm chair traveling at it's most ferocious.
Mod
Susanna wrote: "I spent an entire summer when I was a teenager reading about Arctic explorers; fascinating and somehow I felt much cooler, temperature-wise!"I had thought of reading this over the summer! Now I'm in for a winter of blizzards, ice floes and bergs. It was knowing what to do and doing it that brought them thru. I'm also reading In a Sunburned Country by Bryson which has a good deal of the 'void' about it as well, but is parched and dry and mostly funny.
Amazon has made the first installment of Bonner's Road West, Chapters 1-4 available for a limited time for FREE. Its a work of frontier fiction. A young couple marry their fortunes together as they emigrate west just prior to the CA gold rush.Come and get acquainted.
A note. free for Amazon prime I see. I'm a prime so it shows free, OTW a buck
I am reading Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black. I am also still reading a little bit of my World War II: A Short History textbook from my class.
Mod
Susanna wrote: "What class are you taking?"I just finished at San Diego State University. I was taking a World War II history class that was amazing. It was strictly lecture. The only videos we saw were a short documentary on Total War and Civilians and a few clips of "pro-war trailers" done by famous actors of the day. I learned a lot. I had to read Finest Hour: Battle of Britain and Hiroshima for the class also. I wish I could take more, but unfortunately I am done. I will find a few history classes on Native Americans, etc. around town.
Hi Suburbanrockdoll,Did your World War II history class explain Quarter-1 and the part of Quarter-2 that happened outside the Pacific?
The Quarters of WW2 are explained here -- http://numistamp.com/Why-these-WW2-pa...
Best regards,
Mod
Just finished The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story a memoir by CIA operatives stationed in the middle east between the 80's and 2007. While not politically telling, it is a culturally revealing.
Susanna wrote: "Currently reading (just about finished with) Selling Hitler, which develops slowly into insanity and hilarity. It's about how the German magazine Stern, Newsweek, Rupert Murdoch, and..."That sounds interesting!
Mod
Just started reading Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War. So far, it's really, really good. As a Missourian, I think my historical knowledge of John Brown has been a bit biased. LOL.
Mod
Suburbanrockdoll wrote: "Susanna wrote: "What class are you taking?"I just finished at San Diego State University. I was taking a World War II history class that was amazing. It was strictly lecture. The only videos we s..."
At SD State, with the large naval contingent there, an extensive WW2 history curricula should be expected. I recently obtained two coffee table books of World War Two, by Winston Churchill and illustrated with Life Magazine art and photos. We had this set when I was a kid and I poured over it for years. We lost one of the volumes and I found it on Alibris so I have the complete set again.
Instead of looking at the pics, I've started reading Churchill's account. Man, it's dry. He couples every event with how it affected the political scene in London and how the coalitions of the various labor and Tory factions ebbed and flowed. Drops names of various pols and how so and so was appointed the under-secretary of aeroplane procurement etc. I'll just look at the pictures and captions again. Guess I'm a People magazine kind of guy.
Ken wrote: "Suburbanrockdoll wrote: "Susanna wrote: "What class are you taking?"I just finished at San Diego State University. I was taking a World War II history class that was amazing. It was strictly lect..."
There is definitely a lot of WW2 history here in San Diego. I'm going to take a trip soon to Long Beach, CA to visit the Queen Mary. They have an hour tour for WW2 there. Also, next to it is a Russian submarine....lots of history people don't even know about.
I was going to read a little by Churchill. Maybe now I will just read a biography. I might be a People kind of girl...
I'm reading Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck.I also plan on reading The Life of Abraham Lincoln by Henry Ketcham.
Happy New Year to everyone and Happy Reading
I just finished reading "The Greater Journey-Americans in Paris" by David McCullough. I must say I was surprised at how thoroughly I enjoyed it. At a time when our country was still young many 19th century Americans went to France to educate themselves. The life they found there and what their experiences meant when they returned home were wonderful discoveries for me.
David McCullough is a wonderful writer and it was such a joy to look forward to reading another chapter.
Most of the people in his book were already to known to me and most other Americans, but I was especially surprised to learn about ELIHU WASHBURNE and his remarkable family. Mr. Washburne was our American Ambassador in France during the siege of Paris by the Germans in 1870. I hope someday his experiences in France will make a wonderful movie. Truly an American hero who deserves more recognition from history.
Glad to know it's a good one. It's on my Kindle wish list. Just started 'John Adams.' McCullough's 'Truman' was also a great one.
Mod
I have to tell everyone, I love this group. When I used to start a new book, I'd go through page after page in the Amazon Kindle store trying to decide what to read. Now, I just come here, to this group. You've not lead me astray yet.
Lance wrote: "Hi Suburbanrockdoll,Did your World War II history class explain Quarter-1 and the part of Quarter-2 that happened outside the Pacific?
The Quarters of WW2 are explained here -- http://numistamp..."
Hi Lance! Yes, we covered both the European parts and the Pacific parts of the war. With it being only one semester, it was mostly general information with some added interesting notes of information. It was difficult to believe with all that was going on, it is considered just one war. The amount of information is extensive, but that just gives us more to read!
Lance wrote: "Hi Suburbanrockdoll,Did your World War II history class explain Quarter-1 and the part of Quarter-2 that happened outside the Pacific?
The Quarters of WW2 are explained here -- http://numistamp..."
I just looked at the site more. Yes, we talked about all 4 Quarters. Classmates and I talked about how in lower level classes, like that of high school, they never teach about the war between Japan and China nor everything that happened on the Eastern Front. They also never really spoke of the war prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor as if it were important. I recommend taking history classes in the college levels over the high school ones. Even over the AP courses.
I had always been interested in WWI because it nailed down the sociological foundation that would lead to the Nazis and WWII (a foundation that starts in 19th century German-speaking countries). Anyway, having become such a fan of PBS' Downton Abbey, I am delving even deeper into the period, reading simultaneously Tuchman's Guns of August, Stevenson's 1914-1918, and reading for the third time Vera Brittain's memoir of the time Testament of Youth. Highly recommend all three if you are entranced by Downton Abbey.
Mod
Hi Suburbanrockdoll,The question "Why did Japan invade China and what difference did it make to WW2?" is a blind spot in the conventional wisdom and histories of WW2. And that's why the relationship between the war in China and how it developed into WW2 and it's effect on the outcome of WW2 is not understood.
My book provides an insight into that blind spot, see the latest update at --
http://numistamp.com/Why-these-WW2-pa...
There are now also excerpts from the book at --
http://numistamp.com/Taierzhuang-1938...
Comments are welcome and maybe emailed to --
numisen@yahoo.com
Vicki wrote: "I had always been interested in WWI because it nailed down the sociological foundation that would lead to the Nazis and WWII (a foundation that starts in 19th century German-speaking countries). A..."I'm sure you've read the Zimmerman Telegram which I found very interesting. I've found the war scenes in DA a bit disappointing. I thought it would add a new dimension, but really not.
Mod
I am fascinated with WW2 History especially around math and science. This book,The Secret Life of Bletchley Park: The History of the Wartime Codebreaking Centre by the Men and Women Who Were There, is really good so far and gives "slice of life" type accounts of what it was really like to work at Bletchley Park.
Susanna wrote: "Started In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin a few nights ago."Just finished it. Hope you find it to be as nice a period piece as I did. If you like historical fiction, might I suggest
A Trace of Smoke, a crime thriller set in 1933 Berlin. The street scenes are so real!
Mod
I've just finished
by Toby Thacker which was very engrossing (see review for my thoughts) and I've just started 
by Richard Overy (My copy is the edition entitled The Morbid Age).
I recommend http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71... it is quite intense and takes you right into the heart of the action.
My mom got me Murray Weiss's The Man Who Warned America: The Life and Death of John O'Neill, the FBI's Embattled Counterterror Warrior. I had first heard about O'Neill in Lawrence Wright's EXCELLENT book The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. O'Neill was an FBI agent heavily involved in pre-9/11 terrorism investigations. He retired in 2001, and got a job as head of security at the World Trade Center, which is where, ironically, he died on 9/11. Definitely check this out.
Vicki, Susanna, If you like Downtown Abbey, & Vera Brittain. you will no doubt enjoy Alice Duer Miller's "The White Cliffs" I read it as a poem on a poetry site & it had me absolutely spellbound. It is about an American girl who marries a British Peer on the eve of WW1. Amazon has a newer edition of it & other Alice Duer Miller (who wrote a lot mostly in the late 19l0's & 1920's) her books have been re-published & Amazon has "White Cliffs" on its Kindle. It was the plot of a really sad movie called "The White Cliffs of Dover" made in the late years of WW2. (There is also a song with that title..)
When I read "White Cliffs." I thought of Barbara Tuchman's "The Proud Tower." Have you seen "Upstairs, Downstairs?"
I tried reading Winston Churchill's histories, but couldn't get into it - only tried one.
Hi Jerome,As in WW2, too many people could not be bothered to know because they think it would not affect them.
In the 1930s, ignorance was not bliss and in the end WW2 affected everyone.
Today -- "The 9/11 attacks in the US – and Bali 2002, Madrid 2004, Beslan 2004, London 2005, Mumbai 2008... – how those who are the targets deal with their attackers will decide whether the American way remains the American way or is supplanted by something else. To survive – the USA cannot afford a blind spot here." -- http://numistamp.com/Why-these-WW2-pa...
History is Not Boring
Books mentioned in this topic
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives In World War II (other topics)A Journey Through Texas (other topics)
Quite Ready To Be Sent Somewhere: The Civil War Letters Of Aldace Freeman Walker (other topics)
A Land Remembered (other topics)
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Thomas Ayres (other topics)John Steinbeck (other topics)
Walt Whitman (other topics)
Robert Wallace (other topics)
Eddie V. Rickenbacker (other topics)
More...
It is a much more complete look at the horror than is usually understood by the west.