History is Not Boring discussion
What are you reading?
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Susanna - Censored by GoodReads, Crazy Cat Lady
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Feb 19, 2013 03:55PM
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Susanna wrote: "Just finished Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - very good."I really enjoy that book. I am currently reading Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and The Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis.
Also Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Just finished Das Reich: The March Of The 2nd SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944 really enjoyed it, have posted review for those interested;Review: Das Reich: The March Of The 2nd SS Panzer Division Through France, June 1944
Might check out another Hastings book next, enjoyed his balanced account.
just started The Thin Red Line so far i really like how the book is organized. Each chapter has a theme that connects all the characters together.My favorite characters are Queen and Welsh right now.
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Susanna wrote: "I'm enjoying The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, by Ian Mortimer."wow. This one sounds great. I've got to get off this group. Too many book ideas.
I finished reading
by Charles Freeman a little while ago and am following it up with
by Richard Rubenstein. My plan is to continue the chronological and thematic thread with
by Paul Strathern, then
by Natalie Zemon Davis. After that, we'll see if my interest turns to some other thread - but I've got an agenda for the immediate future.....
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Just finished Into The Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Quest for Everest. It's different because it covers WWI and the loss of face for the British Empire which sought to regain their power through impressing others with amazing feats. Still it was an old boys club where the choices of the Everest Expedition were friends, gentlemen and minimized science and technology combined with climbing skill.
I have also visited Versailles; it was an amazing, unforgettable place!Manuel wrote: "I just finished "Versailles, A Biography of a Palace".
A great book showing the behind the scenes life styles of the courtiers of Louis XIV,XV, and XVI. Not just the big names, but also the guards..."
Manuel wrote: "I just finished "Versailles, A Biography of a Palace".
A great book showing the behind the scenes life styles of the courtiers of Louis XIV,XV, and XVI. Not just the big names, but also the guards..."
Now on Ha Jin's Nanjing Requiem. I am also reading Mary Kingsley's Travels in West Africa.
Mike wrote: "I finished reading by Charles Freeman a little while ago and am following it up with [bookcover:Aristotle'..."That Charles Freeman book looks very interesting considering recent events and the pending election of a new Pope. I enjoyed Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralston Saul. It would fall loosely in your sequence and makes a nice contrast to Freeman's theory.
I am reading books about the Greeks and Turks. Alexander forwards. My Greek history has been sadly lacking. The Greeks and Turks have such a long history of enmity. It is so sad.
Kit wrote: "I am reading books about the Greeks and Turks. Alexander forwards. My Greek history has been sadly lacking. The Greeks and Turks have such a long history of enmity. It is so sad."Kit, anything that you would recommend?
I'm currently finishing up Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. Extremely fascinating about how our Navy came to be!
Currently reading Walden, fascinating so far.
I just finished Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend and I am starting Rooster: The Life and Times of the Real Rooster Cogburn, the Man Who Inspired True Grit next.
i just read two books about the fascinating and tragic fifty year old mine fire in centralia,pennysylvania.
Yes, sometimes history IS boring!I'm reading what I would call a 'pre-Western', Nothing Like it in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869 and I admit it, I'm struggling.
I can't recall anything by Stephen Ambrose that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. In the Foreward, Ambrose admits the book wasn't even his idea. It was kind of shoved on him by the publisher. However, he soon warmed to the task.
I was hoping for something like D-Day/Citizen Soldier but this account is packed with stats, congressmen of the 1850s, appropriations bills, and minutiae about how the railroad was funded, bonds issued, land grants, shares subscribed and AAArrrrrgh!
There are parts that are entertaining, especially when they actually start building the road on p. 145. Interesting factoids about the Chinese laborers and other fun stuff. I don't need to know how many cubic yards, acres of trees, tons of black powder, and so on were used. Glad there was no test.
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At the moment I am reading another of the late Professor Bernard B. Fall's excellent works on the Indo-China wars,
; also yet another book on Generalfeldmarschall Rommel,
; and lastly I am reading
, which is proving to be somewhat interesting despite the obvious errors in the beginning and my reservations about the authors central premise...
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Doc Holiday is on my list! My dad read it and loved it! P.S. I'm new here! Hi!
Currently reading Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins 'Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims' - research for my sequel. Thoroughly enjoyed 'The Oregon Trail' by Francis Parkman and 'Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie' by O. E. Rolvaag ( for my novel about the Pony Express) - to call these people heroic is a gross understatement (and Twain's 'Roughing It' was a delight)
For my history-related reading I've got The Charterhouse of Parma. I'm really enjoying it, though because I'm reading it aloud to my dad and we only meet once a week, it's going slowly. Plus, we frequently stop to research kings and other dates on my phone!
Alison wrote: "Currently reading Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins 'Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims' - research for my sequel. Thoroughly enjoyed 'The Oregon Trail' by Francis Parkman and 'Giants in the..."Sounds like an interesting project, Alison!
I haven't gotten back to it in a while but I have been reading A. Lincoln by Ronald C. White Jr.It is a great bio that covers as much as it can about President Lincoln. I am not far in it because I want to slowly absorb the information (or well, that is my excuse anyway!).
I'm reading, "Ticonderoga" by Fred V Provoncha.. :-)
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I currently just finished a novel by Alison Weir, Innocent Traitor
I'm in the middle of Burnt-Out Fires: California's Modoc Indian War. The author's well-researched background of the thirty years before the conflict sets the stage for the folly that followed.
I'm currently reading George Orwell's first person account of the Spanish Civil War Homage To Catalonia. It is a very honest narrative so far and he knows how to take you into an environment with careful descriptions.
I'm about half way through Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World. I am learning why, as a school child, I was instructed to "duck and cover" during the '50's Cold War.
These are from earlier this year: Papal Deceit by Gary Wills. For me, a real eye-opener in terms of Catholic History in general. And Mister Jelly Roll by Alan Lomax, a book-length account of the life and career of pianist Nd composer Jelly Roll Morton, one of the pioneers of jazz.
I just finished Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World. The author points to Ike's card playing skills as the basis for dealing with foreign policy. His ability to read people and understand motivations helped keep the lid on the cold war while his knowledge of the military bureaucracy kept the lid on the military budget.
That book was a good one, Jerry.Recently read these, all of which were awesome:
Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
The Very Best Men: The Daring Early Years of the CIA
Enter the Dragon: China's Undeclared War Against the U.S. in Korea, 1950-1951
Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe
The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Davis in the Mexican War, 1846-1848
Jerome wrote: "That book was a good one, Jerry.Recently read these, all of which were awesome:
Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
The Very Best Men: The Daring Early ..."
Jerome, (good name by the way :-) ) thank you for the suggestions.
The FiftiesJust starting my second book by David Halberstam. This one: "The Fifties". Loved the one he wrote on the Korean War several years ago.
I am starting this book while I am leaving the other one hanging. I like it so far and it is called "Hail to the Chief: The Making and Unmaking of American Presidents" by Robert Dallek.
Halberstam was a brilliant reporter and an extremely good writer as well; I thought his
was excellent, and the other books of his that I've read were also fairly good. At this particular moment, I am reading
,
and
. I read somewhere, many years ago, that 'The Soldier's Prize' is one of the best novels about the U.S. war in Viet Nam. There is some extraordinarily strong competition in that category, however, of which I've read more than a few- so we shall see...
The Best and the BrightestThanks Liam. I'm thinking of placing the Vietnam book on my "to read" list as well. However, I have read one bad review:
The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam shaped the American narrative of the Vietnam War, making it a cautionary tale about the folly of action-oriented intellectuals who surrounded President John F. Kennedy and whose hubris supposedly plunged the nation into a destructive war. But is Halberstam’s widely embraced storyline correct? In this analysis of the 1972 book, James DiEugenio argues that Halberstam got the history fundamentally wrong, missing Kennedy’s resistance to a wider war and ignoring the fateful change in U.S. policy after JFK’s assassination in 1963.
Maybe it's not the right book for me to read on the subject.
You are quite welcome, Jerry. I actually found
a bit boring compared with 'Quagmire', but felt that I had to read it anyway, as it is prominent within the "accepted canon" (so to speak) on the wars in Indo-China. It is interesting that you brought up the issue of President Kennedy's attitude toward the war, as I just got hold of a nice copy of
(from the "Free Box" at King Books in Detroit). I believe that Mr. Newman had much greater access to President Kennedy's papers than did Mr. Halberstam, and it ought to be interesting to see how much different are the former's conclusions on that subject. If you have not done much reading about the war, I would recommend starting with
. As a general overview, Mr. Karnow's book is the standard, and for good reason; it is primarily concerned with U.S. involvement, however, since he wrote it specifically for a general audience in this country. As you no doubt are aware, the book was intended to be a companion to the PBS Television series 'Vietnam: A Television History', which is also worthwhile. With your background as a professional journalist, there is another book you might find interesting:
. It is one of the best books I have ever read, not just concerning the war but on any subject, and I would definitely highly recommend it.
OK then. I'll try to make some time later today to put one of these on my to-read shelf. Meanwhile, I'm busy promoting my own book.
I'm roughly halfway through A Year in the South: 1865: The True Story of Four Ordinary People Who Lived Through the Most Tumultuous Twelve Months in American History by Stephen Ash. In this book the author looks at the south through the eyes of four very different people, a preacher, a freedman, a war widow and a former POW and confederate soldier.
Since my last visit I have read Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape and started Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers
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