In reply to BQ78

BQ78 said:

---

Freeman is the classic, Korda is the latest, Thomas is a good one, Pryor is the most provocative but I suspect Connelly is best for your echo chamber.

---

I appreciate the recs.

If I was looking for an echo chamber, there would no reason to be on this site and please don't bring the politics board over here.

In reply to Ghost of Andrew Eaton If you want a straight up biography, I liked Robert E. Lee by Emory Thomas.

Wm Davis is a great historian. I think you would enjoy Crucible of Command. Davis bounces back and forth between Lee and Grant, contrasting them on many different levels.

Thomas Connelly, apparently, got tired of historians heaping praise on Lee as a military leader and an honorable character. He wrote Marble Man, I assume for the purpose of taking him down a notch or two. The deeper I got into his book, the more convinced I was that Lee deserved the praise.

A short book that I really liked was by Flood called Lee, The Last Years. It covers his life after the war, with the threat of treason hanging over him while he was a university president. It is an interesting book.

In reply to Aquin I appreciate the recs, especially your descriptions.

A Land So Strange by Andres Resendez

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger

As you can tell from my frequent posts I have been on a reading kick.

Hymns of the Republic by S.C. Gwyynne. Good read, heartbreaking at times to hear about the Civil War. Did not think it was quite as good as Empire of the Summer Moon.

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. Liked the read, am leaning towards finding more books about the American West.

I will have to parse through the rest of the thread to find what my next targets will be. Thanks for all of the recommendations!

1. Tecumseh and the Prophet- Cozzens *****
2. Billion Dollar Whale-Wright/Hope *** book did not meet the hype around it. Fat kid realizes if you are going to be a theft, steal a lot.
3. Blood and Treasure-Drury/Calvin ***** really good book on Daniel Boone
4. Iron Empires, Robber Barons, Railroads and the Making of Modern America- Hiltzik ****
5. Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination, the Untold Story of the Actors and Stagehands at Ford's Theatre- Bogar ****

Can anyone rec a good biography on Franklin Pierce?

The Civil War by Shelby Foote. About half way through Volume 1 and, as expected, it's very good so far.

Lots of stuff on the historicity of the Exodus and the Israelite conquest of Canaan. So far I've downloaded, read and outlined 900 to 1000 scholarly articles and have read or in the process of reading and outlining approximately 100 books. I've purchased Kenyon's five volume set (actually six volumes) on Jericho and have read it but need to go back through it with a fine-tooth comb.

Alone at Dawn by Dan Schilling, Lori Longfritz

This is a short history behind the Air Force special forces combat controllers and the heroics of John Chapman in Afghanistan. A truly amazing story.

Just finished Masters of the Air about the 8th Air Force and the strategic bombing campaign over Europe. This book is yet another stunning data point to cement how relatively inconsequential my life has been when compared to what the men and women of the greatest generation did in WWII. The courage and sacrifice of the men who kept going up in those B-17s and B-24s day after day and the suffering of the men who were shot down and ended up in POW camps is difficult to comprehend.

The book also does a nice, albeit somewhat condensed job describing the destruction and devastation on the ground in Germany.

All in all, I highly recommend it as a tremendous addition to the library of any WWII "historian" and also as an amazing testimony of real courage and tolerance for suffering.

I just finished Shay's Rebellion: The Final Battle of the American Revolution by Leonard Richards.

It's very dry and academic but also very thorough. I didn't know much about Shays Rebellion but it changed my view that this was just a bunch of farmers trying to avoid debtors prison. According to Richards, this was more about political power and economical difference between the coast and western Mass.

The Evolution of a State, or, Recollections of Old Texas Days by noah Smithwick


Enjoying this so far.

"U-505" by RADM Dan Gallery. Extremely entertaining & informative. Gallery was one hell of a guy, a great tactician and a great leader. He writes with a sense of humor that's largely absent from the works of his contemporaries.

I never knew a lot of the details about this event, but what the guys who captured U-505 accomplished was soundly, roundly and vehemently condemned by FADM Ernie King; for the threat its revelation might pose to "THE Secret" (our side's breaking & reading of German codes). Astonishingly, Gallery persuaded the erstwhile garrulous sailors of his command to keep this event under wraps, which likely saved Gallery from court martial and an unaccompanied assignment as liaison officer to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan or some such.

I had some actual down time last week while on vacation....

I re-read Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank....my kids are approaching the age where they need to read this and I wanted to brush up on it.

I read The Revenant by Michael Punke, which was great

Then I read Beneath a Scarlett Sky by Mark Sullivan....Italian kid who smuggled Jews through the mountains into Switzerland, then was forced to join the Nazis when he turned 17, but while serving he acted as a spy for the resistance, then Italy was freed but he had to navigate the chaos of the red shirts and black shirts fighting for control, while trying to save himself as he was known for enlisting with the Nazis. Amazing story.

The Civil War: A Narrative Volume 1.

This is the first time I've read through anything on the the Civil War from its beginning to its end.

I'm enjoying that it's told as a narrative. Reminds me of A Song of Ice and Fire as it switches back and forth from different people's perspectives. To me it helps you understand why decisions were made based off the information they had at the time(fog of war).

In reply to AgRyan04

AgRyan04 said:

---

I had some actual down time last week while on vacation....

I re-read Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank....my kids are approaching the age where they need to read this and I wanted to brush up on it.

I read The Revenant by Michael Punke, which was great

Then I read Beneath a Scarlett Sky by Mark Sullivan....Italian kid who smuggled Jews through the mountains into Switzerland, then was forced to join the Nazis when he turned 17, but while serving he acted as a spy for the resistance, then Italy was freed but he had to navigate the chaos of the red shirts and black shirts fighting for control, while trying to save himself as he was known for enlisting with the Nazis. Amazing story.

---

Sullivan's latest book, The Last Green Valley, is excellent as well. I finished it recently. Highly recommend.

In reply to Marauder Blue 6 Thank you! I'll definitiely get that on the list!

The Texas Rangers by Walter Prescott Webb and Bloodlines by Melissa Del Bosque. Just finished Bones, Brothers, Horses, Cartels, and the Borderland Dream by Joe Tone.

John Marshall: The Chief Justice That Saved The Nation by Unger.

It's pretty cut and dry but I liked it. This is my second Unger book and he definitely has an anti-Jefferson bias. He'll trash Jefferson any chance he gets.

In reply to Marauder Blue 6 Just finished The Last Green Valley....thanks for the rec, it was just as good as Beneath a Scarlet Sky

1. The Last Lincoln Conspirator, Flight of John Surratt-***, Jampoler, Surprising that John was far more culpable than Mary and he lived. Interesting story but the author could have done more with it.

2. The Plantagenets *****, Jones, covers the kings/queens of England from 1120-1400. Always an interesting study in genetics and just how far the fruit fell from the tree. Great read.

3. A Government of Our Own, the Making of the Confederacy **** Wm. Davis, one of my favorite historians but gets dinged one star. The South chose to send conservatives and moderates to Montgomery...who knew. Kind of makes for a dull group. Still an important book for Southern historians.

4. The Jeffersons at Shadwell***** Kern. A study of TJ's life at his home based on archeological digs in the 1990's. Very well researched.

5. The Most Famous Man in America, bio of Henry Ward Beecher. ****, Applegate, Beecher was the TV evangelist of his time and had the mistresses to prove it. A well done social history. The author gives you a real sense of the antebellum times, what was going on in the Protestant churches, the abolition movement and northern society in general.

6. In the Loop, a Political and Economic History of San Antonio. *****, Johnson, Great study of SA, goes up to 2000. Really explains in detail how the city developed, or sometimes failed to develop.

Trying to decide between Guns of August and Toll's Pacific Theater trilogy. I know they are about different wars but all of them look so good and have piqued my interest. Which have you read and which would you recommend?

In reply to AgBQ-00 I am probably the only person that does not like Guns of August. Did not care for the writing style. Got through it. It is supposed to be the go to book for WW1. That said wait until you are really bored. Toll's trilogy is outstanding. Trust me if you start with the first book you will continue until you have read the entire set.

I came out of reading Toll's books with a much lower opinion of Halsey as a fleet commander. And it made me wonder if his decision making at Leyte Gulf might have been influenced by the fact that, up until then, Halsey hadn't actually commanded the fleet in a major battle.

Coral Sea - Fletcher
Midway - Spruance
Eastern Solomons - Fletcher
Santa Cruz Islands - Kincaid
Philippine Sea - Mitscher

Halsey's big moments were the Doolittle raid, and as theater commander, getting the Guadalcanal campaign turned around, when he took over from Ghormley.

That said, at the moment I'm reading The First Crusade, by Steven Runciman.

I struggle with Tuchman writing even with Stillwells biography which is a good book. My problem with Guns Of August was understanding troop movements as her maps were lacking I thought.

'After the Reich' by Giles MacDonough. A book about the Allied occupation of Germany and Austria from 1945 to 1949.

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Looks like it will be the trilogy.

In reply to AgBQ-00

AgBQ-00 said:

---

Looks like it will be the trilogy.

---

What trilogy?

In reply to AgBQ-00

AgBQ-00 said:

---

The Toll Pacific Theater Trilogy. Looking forward to it.

---

You will love the Pacific Theater Trilogy. Definitely equal if not better than Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy.

If you're interested in Japan's war with, well, almost everyone, Richard Franks has published the first book of a planned trilogy, Tower of Skulls. It starts with the first incidents between Japan and China and ends with the surrender of the Philippines.

Interesting trivia bit: Corregidor surrendered on the same day was the opening moves of the Battle of the Coral Sea were taking place.

I found Frank's coverage of the Sino-Japanese war very interesting, especially the strategic goals of the two sides. Chang's goal was simple: hold out until someone who could actually defeat Japan entered the war. After 1938 or so, Japan actually badly wanted to end the China war, but they refused to negotiate with Chang, (they had a puppet government led by a rival that they claimed as the legit government), and in any case, their demands would have been unacceptable. So they were stuck.