In reply to BQ78 I'm sorry it isn't Phill Steele's 2012 Preview, spoiler alert Jake Spavital ends up sucking

In reply to VanZandt92

VanZandt92 said:

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BigJim49 AustinNowDallas said:

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Ian Fleming's " Thrilling Cities " . Entertaining - didn't like Vienna or it's people ! Cheap room rates - course

it was written in 60s .

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Hmmm

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Not on my copy unfortunately !

Charmed Lives - about Alexander Korda - movie producer . Good info on Hungary in WW1 and WW11 .

Just read "Dark December: The Full Account of the Battle of the Bulge" by Robert E. Merriam, an intelligence officer at the time, first published in 1947. Based on extensive interviews, including with many Germans who were in the battle (some in prison when interviewed) and review of military documents.

It delves into Hitler's planning and it's varied reception from different German officers. Describes all troop movements and supply situations throughout the battle.

I surely never knew before how the battle for Bastogne played out. It went on a lot longer than I thought.

Reading the forgotten soldier for the second time. Written by a teenage German soldier that got to the eastern front in 42 and fought/retreated back to Germany. Extremely sad and brutal but very readable.

In reply to VanZandt92

VanZandt92 said:

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VanZandt92 said:

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Written by a Texas A&M author, I just read The Yankee Plague, Escaped Union Prisoners. I highly recommend it!


https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469630557/the-yankee-plague/

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I just want to go back and bump this. Any student of the era and any Southerner will be fascinated.

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Just finished. Very interesting read.

Not a conventional history book but it dives in to a lot of Russian-Soviet past events to explain the circumstances around an unusual Tiger attack. I'm enjoying it.

The Tiger: The Story of Vengeance and Survival - John Vaillant

I generally keep three going: bedtime/nap, bathroom, car (restaurant). Presently bedtime is The Arms of Krupp, bathroom just finished The First Flag and car almost through with My Life With Noel Coward by Graham Payn.

The First Flag was a gift so I read it out of a sense of obligation. It turned out to be an interesting read based on America's 1898 turn to imperialism and the close-run contest between Henry Cabot Lodge* and Theodore Roosevelt et al on one hand and Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie et al on the other, which was resolved with the former faction's narrow victory. Especially interesting -- and a revelation to me -- was the bumbling role that William Jennings Bryan (twice) played in the imperialist's final dominance and the anti-imperialists' defeat.


*Another interesting sidelight was that Lodge depended a great deal on President McKinley's Secretary of State, John Hay, who had been a private secretary to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. While Lodge was busy pulling strings with Hay, Hay allegedly was carrying on an affair with Lodge's wife.

In reply to Frok Frok, that book is excellent.

Killing England - very interesting so far !

Just finished reading Victor David Hanson's book "The Second World Wars" . Excellent reading for students of modern history. Many long run on sentences made it somewhat difficult to read and comprehend for me. Nonetheless gained a great deal of understanding on what made this global conflict inevitable; and why we must avoid these mistakes in the future.

In reply to dschwab

dschwab said:

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Just finished reading Victor David Hanson's book "The Second World Wars" . Excellent reading for students of modern history. Many long run on sentences made it somewhat difficult to read and comprehend for me. Nonetheless gained a great deal of understanding on what made this global conflict inevitable; and why we must avoid these mistakes in the future.

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always looking for a good war history however I seldom find much on WW2 new or worth the read. What makes this VDH ( who I like) tome worth the read?

Back to the subject of the thread:



I'm a little weak on Revolutionary War history. This helped me fill in a lot of gaps.



Was hyped as an amazing, WOW! type of book. Was more in the "that's nice" category for me.



It's a little dry, but otherwise a good description of an important sidelight of WWII, the immense effort to get reading material into the hands of WWII service members. It made an incredible difference to morale, and changed the publishing industry forever. It may have also been a factor in the post war education boom, though, in general, the author seems to overstate the program's importance.




Pretty good, fast read on the origin and formation of the Israeli Air Force, specifically their role in the Arab-Israeli wars in the year after the foundation of Israel. WWII pilots going up against the Spitfire-equipped Egyptian Air Force in everything from Czech-built knockoffs of ME 109s, Beechcraft Bonanza private planes, DC-3s, surplus B-17s and a few P-51 Mustangs.

In reply to The Original AG 76

The Original AG 76 said:

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dschwab said:

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Just finished reading Victor David Hanson's book "The Second World Wars" . Excellent reading for students of modern history. Many long run on sentences made it somewhat difficult to read and comprehend for me. Nonetheless gained a great deal of understanding on what made this global conflict inevitable; and why we must avoid these mistakes in the future.

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always looking for a good war history however I seldom find much on WW2 new or worth the read. What makes this VDH ( who I like) tome worth the read?

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If you're a student of history it may not reveal much. I'm not however and since I retired last year after over 40 years in petrochemicals I now have time to read for pleasure and I like recent American history. The book, and it is a tome, deepened my understanding of the War. What most impressed me was the magnitude of the war. For example, the world population was reduced by around 3% during and as a result of the war; the Soviet built T-34 tank was considered a model of armor and production en mass; the Wehrmacht's killing efficiency of combatants exceeded that of any other Axis and Allied military; from 1939 to 1941, the British single handedly fought on the Burma/India, Western European, Balkan and North African fronts as well as in the Atlantic until America and the Soviet Union entered the war; and only 10 or 12 nations of the world declared themselves neutral during the conflict.

May not be your cup of tea, but for me it was.

I'm reading A Hanging in Nacogdoches. It's quite an interesting read about a 1902 lynching, sheriff and newspaper editor.

In reply to who?mikejones

who?mikejones said:

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I'm reading A Hanging in Nacogdoches. It's quite an interesting read about a 1902 lynching, sheriff and newspaper editor.

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Wow. History is too real Sometimes ometimes.

In reply to VanZandt92

VanZandt92 said:

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who?mikejones said:

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I'm reading A Hanging in Nacogdoches. It's quite an interesting read about a 1902 lynching, sheriff and newspaper editor.

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Wow. History is too real Sometimes ometimes.

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I grew up there but never heard of this story. It's really amazing. And Sheriff Spradley is a certifiable badass. Well worth the read.

In reply to dschwab

dschwab said:

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The Original AG 76 said:

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dschwab said:

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Just finished reading Victor David Hanson's book "The Second World Wars" . Excellent reading for students of modern history. Many long run on sentences made it somewhat difficult to read and comprehend for me. Nonetheless gained a great deal of understanding on what made this global conflict inevitable; and why we must avoid these mistakes in the future.

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always looking for a good war history however I seldom find much on WW2 new or worth the read. What makes this VDH ( who I like) tome worth the read?

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If you're a student of history it may not reveal much. I'm not however and since I retired last year after over 40 years in petrochemicals I now have time to read for pleasure and I like recent American history. The book, and it is a tome, deepened my understanding of the War. What most impressed me was the magnitude of the war. For example, the world population was reduced by around 3% during and as a result of the war; the Soviet built T-34 tank was considered a model of armor and production en mass; the Wehrmacht's killing efficiency of combatants exceeded that of any other Axis and Allied military; from 1939 to 1941, the British single handedly fought on the Burma/India, Western European, Balkan and North African fronts as well as in the Atlantic until America and the Soviet Union entered the war; and only 10 or 12 nations of the world declared themselves neutral during the conflict.

May not be your cup of tea, but for me it was.

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thank you. I may pick it up since I like VDH and his style. I really like the metrics you stated..thats the kind of " new" stuff I enjoy.

The Greatest Generation When Government was Good
( a book about when government worked in Washington from Truman to Johnson).
Earning the Rockies.... centers around American geography and the people the author met on his travels.

The Sutton-Taylor Feud, the Deadliest Blood Feud in Texas by Chuck Parsons. One helluva fight in DeWitt county where eighty men died.

I've been meaning to read this for awhile. Finally started it a week ago.



This is a great edition. It has 2-300 pages of companion essays that provide extra info and context for the main writing e.g. explanations of trireme warfare and the like. I'm about 10% through and the prose is... something else. I'm not sure how much is the translation, but assuming it generally mirrors the structure of the ancient Greek texts, I've never seen a writer alternate between terrible and divine like Thucydides does.

Killers of the Flower Moon- I'm listening to the audiobook and am about halfway through. I feel bad liking the book because the events are so horrible.

Picked up "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey" in an airport, and flew through it. Now I'm really wanting to get back into reading history books and away from Fiction for a bit. This thread is giving me some great ideas.

In reply to Andy07 If you like the River of Doubt you'd probably like the Theodore Roosevelt trilogy written by Edmund Morris.

Finally finished Friedlander's 'The Years of Extermination'. Great book and an absolute must read when studying the Holocaust. I was, however, somewhat disappointed in his coverage of the mass shootings of jews in the east in 1941. He seemed to believe that the main reason for these shootings was to make room for jews being deported from the west. This is an explanation in some cases but I'm not sure how accurate this is a larger policy.

Moving on to Albert Camus' 'The Plague'.

In reply to CanyonAg77

CanyonAg77 said:

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Quote:

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About Face - David Hackworth

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I don't recall which Hackworth book it was, but in one, he mentions the finest young infantry officer he ever had under his command. He also says he was a graduate of Oklahoma A&M.

He was a fine man, but he was a Texas Aggie, not an OK A&M grad. Joe Stokes '50. A wonderful man who served his commission commitment in Korea, and came home to my old home town of Hale Center to live out his life. His son was my Aggie and high school classmate.

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interesting tidbit, thanks

In reply to Andy07 If you like River of Doubt, I am sure you would like Mornings on Horseback by McCullough. Anything by McCullough is good but this book covers TR's trip to the badlands following the death of his wife and mother on the same day. Very good.

HW Brands, who once taught at the big school has a book call TR. There are no new revelations, thus the academics don't like it, but Brands has a great writing style and all of his books are very readable.

Re-read the second half of Stypulkowski's Invitation to Moscow. It's a personal account of a Polish defendant who survived 70 days of NKVD interrogation prior to the Trial of the Sixteen. Really gives one insight into how Stalin constructed his infamous show trials.

Grey wolf, the Escape of Adolf Hitler, by Dunstan and Williams.

This is not the History Channel version. The author does into some detail to show what was put in place to move a lot of Nazi brass to Argentina. Argentina had a large German presence from about 1900 on. The amount of money that left Germany is staggering. It is well done and well documented.


Speaking of money, if Austria had put up any kind of fight, the Second World War would have stopped at their door. Their gold reserves helped Hilter stay afloat. Check out "Chasing Gold" by Taber.


Next stop, The Creature from Jekyll Island by Griffin.

In reply to RPag

RPag said:

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Just finished: The Model Occupation by Madeleine Bunting; covers the Nazi occupation of British Channel Islands. Fascinating study of how collaborators were willingly found wherever the Nazis had influence.

Currently reading: Gulag, a History by Anne Applebaum; an in-depth history of the gulag system.

On deck: The Years of Extermination by Saul Friedlander; one of the greatest histories of the Holocaust ever compiled.

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Gulag will screw with your mind. German concentration camps were brutal but their Soviet counterparts were every bit as cruel and horrifying. I may join you with Years of Extermination. Heard it's a hard read though

I just finished "Grant" by Ron Chernow. Great book. Chernow is the great American biographer of our time. I've read his other biographies of Hamilton, Washington and Rockefeller. All some of my absolute favorites!

Just finished The Struggle for Sea Power by Sam Willis & got started on his In the Hour of Victory. Both about the naval powers during the period 1775 - 1806, the first title focusing on the American Revolution.

Finished "Violence of Action" by Marty Scovlund, Jr.
("The Untold Stories of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the war on Terror")

Getting towards the end of "30 Days a Black Man" by Bill Steigerwald.
In 1948, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Ray Sprigle (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) got himself tan and went undercover impersonating as a light-skinned Negro in a one month trip to the Jim Crow South, using Atlanta's John Wesley Dobbs (a black Republican delegate from GA to the Nat'l Convention that year) as a companion guide. Went back to Pittsburgh and wrote a series of articles on his experience.
Picked up this book after hearing the author interviewed on a Reason podcast