Reading Still Matters

I recently read The Guns of August by the late Barbara W. Tuchman. It’s a book that I have always wanted to read, since this Pulitzer Prize-winning narrative history book has been read and reviewed glowingly by so many history fans!  How many history books written in the early 1960s are still talked about in such glowing terms? Not many, that’s for sure. See it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4eKM1cJ By way of overview, The Guns of August provides a detailed, dramatic account of the prelude to and the opening month of World War I, tracking the diplomatic failures and ultimately the military maneuvers of August 1914 up to the first battle of the Marne.   Tuchman opens the book with the 1910 funeral of King Edward VII, which served as a grand gathering of Europe's royalty and masked the underlying geopolitical rivalries. The men and women that would soon be lined up against each other in the trenches, visited London for the funeral.   Its amazing to think it was just 4...

The Savage Storm: The Battle for Italy 1943 by James Holland is a gripping account of the Allied invasion of mainland Italy from the beach landings near Messina and Salerno. The campaign in Italy was meant to be short and low risk, but it turned out to be anything but.  Between September and December 1943, the Allied powers and the Germans engaged in brutal combat that essentially stalled at the Gustav Line south of Rome.  Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4xk5YQ3      Savage Storm is the first book by James Holland that I have read and so I was pretty excited to read it and get a sense of what Holland is all about. I chose Savage Storm because Canada did play a pretty significant role in the fighting and so I wanted to read up on that aspect of the history as well. I am Canadian after all.       And I really enjoyed Savage Storm . Unlike any military history books I have read, Holland used the journals of combatants from both sides t...

I have to say that I really enjoyed Alexander at the End of the World, the Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great . Kousser's fantastic work focuses on the period of time following the initial conquest of the Persian empire, although there is build up to that event, so you don't have a lot of prior knowledge to read this one.       Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4etkuh3    Indeed , the book really digs in as Alexander is attempting to get the Persian empire under control, eliminate rebellions, put any challenge to rest. This process takes his armies further from Macedonia and deeper into Asia, and all of the way to distant lands like Afghanistan. His armies and camp followers march through mountain passes, fight their way through heavily defended valleys, and onto plains dominated by ancient horse tribes.  It's all quite remarkable really.     P erhaps even more interesting are the internal conflicts that Alexander has to manag...

Dead Wake  by Erik Larson is a narrative nonfiction book recounting the final, fateful voyage of the massive Cunard ship Lusitania, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat (U-20) in May 1915 during World War I.        But Dead Wake isn’t just about the sinking of Lusitania, although it is that. It’s also the story of many of the people involved in the tragedy, including victims and survivors. In fact, we experience the sinking through the eyes of many of the participants, as they book their tickets, make their journeys to New York, board the ship and marvel at its luxuries. We even hear their idle chatter as the discuss the chances of a ship like Lusitania being torpedoed during their crossing. Imagine that!     Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4aBYeiy      And from the German side, we meet the U-Boat captain, the crew, learn about their life on a submarine, the controversies within the German government and military ap...

Antony Beevor's Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921 is a dramatic survey of one of the most shocking and brutal events of the 20th century - the collapse of the Tsarist autocracy and its replacement by violent zealots determined to reshape the world.     Buy it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/4vDjvka Who is Antony Beevor? Antony Beevor is an internationally renowned and sometimes controversial British military historian who has written a number of books, including Stalingrad, The Fall of Berlin, and The Battle for Spain, among a number of others.   Interestingly, Beevor had been a tank commander in the British army before deciding to leave and write full-time. In some countries where his work has been published, his books have generated considerable controversy and even bans. For example, both Russians and Ukrainians took exception to his portrayal of their respective military's actions during the battle of Stalingrad. There was much discussion of the bru...

Interest in Russia briefly waned after the fall of the Soviet Union, but newly aggressive Russia under Vladimir Put has revived interest in Russia.   If you are looking for some solid history recommendations to give you a better sense to the history of modern Russia, check out the selections below. A History of Twentieth-Century Russia by Robert Service      In A History of Twentieth-Century Russia, Service provides a comprehensive, single-volume narrative history that covers the tumultuous period from the final years of Tsar Nicholas II through the collapse of the Soviet Union.      It is widely regarded as a useful reference and an accessible introduction for general readers, incorporating material from previously closed Soviet archives. This book remains a great place to start for understanding Russia's twentieth century and a better understanding of the system that produced the likes of Vladimir Putin.      Service constructs...