THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
BOOK DISCUSSIONS
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I'm Looking for a Book on........
A.L. wrote: "Feliks wrote: "Open memo to anyone/everyone:As you know, I moderate a group called WWII Spy Fiction Readers.
But lately I am just not happy with the state of my group's bookshelf. It is just not..."
Great list, A.L.
Mike wrote: "Fantastic recommendations all, my TBR list is about to groan again. I am continually amazed at the expertise we have on this group!"I agree, Mike. I find this to be one of the most intellectually interesting groups on GoodReads.
Eileen wrote: "Great list, A.L. ."and that was just off the top of her head !
Gerald wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "Feliks wrote: Much of my job consists of informing students and faculty members of the limits of the Internet.
The Internet is a wonderful research tool! A writer would be a fool to not have a browser with thirty Wikipedia tabs up at a once. The same writer would be a bigger fool if all the pages were not perpetually scrolled to the bottom where all the references are, with multiple tabs to the right of each Wiki tab where one has burrowed down to the source document.
Also, walking through a place in Google Earth is no replacement for a guided tour with a translator, but publishers don't front many advances that big any more. :-)
Would be interested in more books that deal with the ramp-up and production during the war (along the lines of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War). It's amazing to think that America was such an isolationist nation before PH, and then wham! It took only a few years to gear up and wrest control away from the Pacific, push in to North Africa and finally Normandy.
Thanks!
Feliks wrote: "Expertise of any type is getting harder and harder to find in the internet era. This place is a good amalgam of paper-fed academic expertise and the use of the Goodreads "Want To Read" button :)
Shawn wrote: "The Internet is a wonderful research tool!..."Said with deft drollness, that.
What I object to is so many people apparently swayed by the delusion that a quick Google search gives them the 'right' answer to any question; when what it really does is give them merely the answer 'most clicked on' by other web-surfers. Hardly the same thing; but the distinction is lost on many.
Feliks wrote: "Shawn wrote: "The Internet is a wonderful research tool!..."Said with deft drollness, that.
What I object to is so many people apparently swayed by the delusion that a quick Google search gives ..."
Google can point you in the right direction on a subject, but you need perspective and background. As I wrote above, a BS meter.
carl wrote: "Eileen wrote: "Great list, A.L. ."and that was just off the top of her head !"
haha, I wish my memory was that sharp! I depend on goodreads to help me keep track of the books I've read or want to read.
Good points about the internet. I love using the internet for research . . . but I try to make sure it isn't my only source.
Manray9 wrote: "Feliks wrote: "Shawn wrote: "The Internet is a wonderful research tool!..."Said with deft drollness, that.
What I object to is so many people apparently swayed by the delusion that a quick Googl..."
With reference to MRD Foot's magnificent SOE in France (1966) (of interest to Feliks, I believe); reliable & interesting background info can be found at http://usir.salford.ac.uk/1277/1/disp... (The Historical Journal, 46, 4 (2003), pp. 935–952 f 2003 Cambridge University Press).
Martin wrote: "Would be interested in more books that deal with the ramp-up and production during the war "How about
? It's a long read, but it covers a lot of ground.
Perhaps something by John Kenneth Galbraith?
Feliks wrote: "Shawn wrote: "The Internet is a wonderful research tool!..."Said with deft drollness, that.
What I object to is so many people apparently swayed by the delusion that a quick Google search gives ..."
Say it isn't so, that is how I find most of my Tech Support Answers. LOL.
Which Google is great for. Real Research...well flip a coin. Sometimes great results, sometimes not, but always best to fact check anything you find.
Yeah but if you had to, you could figure out the technical questions yourself. You sound to me as if you're experienced. What I see are droves of entry-level tech kids entering the job market and assuming that they are absolved from knowing anything innately. A friend of mine who teaches pharmacology says she sees the same thing. How would you like a professional pharmacologist "looking up a prescription" for you when you urgently need life-saving meds?:(
Feliks wrote: "How would you like a professional pharmacologist "looking up a prescription" for you when you urgently need life-saving meds?"I once stepped into the consultation room in a clinic and on the monitor of the PC which the doctor was using was the Google search page with suggested sites. I didn't want to know what he was looking for.
A decade ago, I was very against Internet search in general. Google Scholar persuaded me otherwise. But of course it lists the peer-reviewed articles and relatively few strange websites.
As for books, I find Amazon more comprehensive than Goodreads. This Group is quite an exception because you get to hear directly from people who know what they are talking about.
Doesn't Amazon own us? I mean GoodReads?
Lee wrote: "Martin wrote: "Would be interested in more books that deal with the ramp-up and production during the war "How about
? It'..."Thank you that is exactly what I'm looking for; added TBR and will see if I can find it before vacation next week!
Martin wrote: How about A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II|"
I'm about 3/4 through A Call to Arms. It's huge, and weighted toward petty politics and personalities. There's plenty about the nuts-and-bolts of, well, nuts and bolts, but overall the book is not what I expected. [I pounced on it on sale at my local shop, jumping at the great per-pound price.]
Shawn,If you're still looking for San Diego info, the SD History Center has all of their quarterly journals available for free download, including: War Comes to San Diego (Journal of San Diego History, Winter-Spring 1993, Vol 39, No 1-2).
http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journa...
I recently ordered: The Bad City in the Good War: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Diego by Roger Lotchin, but haven't got it yet.
For a WWII private eye on the home front, I've heard good things about:
The Yard Dog
I'm fascinated by the Japanese soldier holdouts (really any holdouts from WWII) but cannot find much in the way of information, other than articles. I have found two books, NO SURRENDER by Hiroo Onada and Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-1972: The Story of the Japanese Imperial Army's Longest WWII Survivor in the Field and Later Life by Omi Hatashin.
If anyone has any other information, I'd be grateful if you could point me in the right direction. Thanks!
message 672:
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Hatashin's is the one I would have recommended Jenn. Outside that I can't think of any.
Hi Jenn,Here is a book that I read back in 1987 that may interest you:
Oba, The Last Samurai: Saipan 1944 45 by Don Jones
I spoke with Hiroo Onada once, interesting man. He owned the largest cattle farm in Brazil.
Geevee wrote: "Hatashin's is the one I would have recommended Jenn. Outside that I can't think of any."Thank you!
Colin wrote: "I spoke with Hiroo Onada once, interesting man. He owned the largest cattle farm in Brazil."Really? Would you/could you maybe message me with some details? I ran across this in my research and am just fascinated by these stories.
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Hi Jenn,Here is a book that I read back in 1987 that may interest you:
Oba, The Last Samurai: Saipan 1944 45 by [author:D..."Thanks so much! I've added it to my list.
Hiroo was a pretty reserved guy, given 30 years or so still fighting a war long over, but he was affable, and in good spirits. He did not regret his service, but he did regret losing all those years and not knowing.
Colin wrote: "Hiroo was a pretty reserved guy, given 30 years or so still fighting a war long over, but he was affable, and in good spirits. He did not regret his service, but he did regret losing all those year..."I can imagine. From the articles I've tracked down, that's how he came across. I just cannot imagine decades of not knowing.
Reading the great dialogue in this group has sparked a memory for me of a book. The problem is I cannot remember the title or the author... I saw it in a second-hand bookstore in my teens (store is long gone): It was by a German fighter pilot. I remember flipping through the pages and reading an encounter of his cockpit being engulfed in flames (like that never happened). The copy at the store had a white cover and a picture of his Me.....It's a stretch--but so far Google and the Recommendations on GR aren't triggering anything for me.
Would anyone have any ideas? So sorry to ask such a vague question.
message 681:
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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The book wasn't about Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff who was burnt in a Me262 was it?
The Final Hours: The Luftwaffe Plot Against Goring by Johannes Steinhoffhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanne...
Geevee wrote: "Not this one Martin by any chance?
I Fought You from the Skies by Willi HeilmannNot an ME09..."
Wow, Geevee, I believe that is it! It was definitely first-person and the synopsis is very familiar. Given that it was twenty-odd years ago, I can't trust my memory on the kind of plane. Will definitely pick it up!
Thank you!!
Well done Geevee, funny enough I have an unread HB copy of this book but under the title; Alert in the West.
by Willi Heilmann
message 685:
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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Too be honest gents, it was a lucky strike scrolling through Abe to see if anything fitted the bill. Pleased it might have been a good punt. :)
message 686:
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Geevee, Assisting Moderator British & Commonwealth Forces
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'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Well done Geevee, funny enough I have an unread HB copy of this book but under the title; Alert in the West. by [auth..."Ha ha and why does that not surprise me too!
Dj wrote: "Matt wrote: "Whats a good book on arnhem? Ive found three that look good 1)Arnhem by John Nichol 2)The Devil's Birthday: The Bridges to Arnhem, 1944 Geoffrey Powell 3)Arnhem 1944: The Airborne Batt..."Thank you for the Q&A, I was wondering whether there were more 'best' Arnhem books to be had, but it sounds like this shelf can stop growing once I have Frost's account:
Een brug te ver: Arnhem 1944 by Cornelius Ryan
Arnhem: Operation "Market Garden", September 1944 by Lloyd Clark
It Never Snows in September: The German View of Market-Garden and the Battle of Arnhem, September 1944 by Robert Kershaw
Arnhem 1944: The Airborne Battle, 17-26 September by Martin Middlebrook
Generaal van Arnhem by R.E. Urquhart
Feliks wrote: "Open memo to anyone/everyone:As you know, I moderate a group called WWII Spy Fiction Readers.
But lately I am just not happy with the state of my group's bookshelf. It is just not beefy enough. ..."
how about
The Secret War byMax Hastings ?
'Aussie Rick' wrote: "The book wasn't about Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff who was burnt in a Me262 was it?[book:The Final Hours: The Luftwaffe Plot Ag..."Yes, you will see my blurb on the back of the book, he was a good friend of mine
Just finished "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," but the book ends quite abruptly after nazi surrender. Any good books on the Nuremberg trials and division of Germany + more postwar Germany? Books preferably similar to Rise and Fall of Third Reich.
Here are a few titles that may cover what you are looking for:
The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe by William I. Hitchcock
Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe
After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation by Giles MacDonogh
Cormac704 wrote: "Just finished "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," but the book ends quite abruptly after nazi surrender. Any good books on the Nuremberg trials and division of Germany + more postwar Germany? B..."Cormac: I read --
Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial by Joseph PersicoIt's a decent popular history. Well-written.
Another good recommendation, thanks Manray9.
Msg 698 Dimitri wrote: "Feliks wrote: "Open memo to anyone/everyone:
As you know, I moderate a group called WWII Spy Fiction Readers.
But lately I am just not happy with the state of my group's bookshelf. It is just not..."
Contending with many other interruptions, I'm slowly working my way through E.H. Cookridge's "Inside SOE" 1966); and for the first time am beginning to more fully grasp the overall picture of Special Operations in Western Europe 1940 - 1945; and what these remarkable men and women achieved; notwithstanding for some an awful death at the hands of the Nazis.
Manray9 wrote: "Cormac704 wrote: "Just finished "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," but the book ends quite abruptly after nazi surrender. Any good books on the Nuremberg trials and division of Germany + more ..."'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Here are a few titles that may cover what you are looking for:
[book:The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New His..."Thank you both for your suggestions I'll look at them
Cormac704 wrote: "Just finished "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," but the book ends quite abruptly after nazi surrender. Any good books on the Nuremberg trials and division of Germany + more postwar Germany? B..."I liked:
im looking for a book that covers the battle of Attu in the pacific theatre, reading this now Utmost Savagery: The Three Days of Tarawa and its mentioned with guadalcanal. never heard of it. thanks
Well my google search came up with a nice long list of books available. http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&...
Some of them looked pretty good at a first glance.
Here is a nice PDF put out by the Park Service. Some interesting information. http://www.nps.gov/aleu/planyourvisit...
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
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All I typically run into are 'experts' in search engine use, experts in web browser add-ons, experts..."
Manray9, I could not have said it better. When I am not reading about World War II, I am an academic librarian. Much of my job consists of informing students and faculty members of the limits of the Internet.