Excellent book. If anyone wants to know how a pitifully small nation, surrounded by implacable enemies, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, can resoundingly defeat those enemies in six days, this is the book to read. The author is a card-carrying Israeli Jew, but he gives a thoroughly balanced treatment of the events leading up to the …
Category: History
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/08/04/six-days-of-war-by-michael-oren/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/06/18/the-march-of-folly-by-barbara-tuchman/
May 18 2012
A Better War by Lewis Sorley
Every now and then you get a revisionist account of Vietnam that argues that the U.S. military knew what it was doing and could have won the war if not for the hippies, the journalists, and the politicians. Sorley makes a decent case that the war under the command of General Creighton Abrams was not …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/05/18/a-better-war-by-lewis-sorley/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/05/13/the-proud-tower-by-barbara-tuchman/
Feb 20 2012
Napoleon by Frank McLynn
This is the best and most balanced biography of Napoleon I have read so far. It contains much excellent scholarship and critical commentary; however, it also contains a lot of amateur Freudian analysis that is pure rubbish. While I am neither a warmonger nor an imperialist, I find it hard to read a biography of …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/02/20/napoleon-by-frank-mclynn/
Feb 02 2012
A Brief History of the Cold War by Colonel John Hughes-Wilson
The author argues that the Cold War’s beginning was not in 1945 but in 1917. Some of his other judgments are even more controversial. He reveals that the Cuban missile crisis was not the only time during the Cold War when the United States went on DEFCON 3 alert, he believes Diem’s assassination in Vietnam …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/02/02/a-brief-history-of-the-cold-war-by-colonel-john-hughes-wilson/
Jan 09 2012
A History of Warfare by John Keegan
This is Keegan’s best work. In most of his works he analyzes the science of warfare; in this book he also analyzes the psychology and culture of warfare. He takes exception from the beginning with Clausewitz’s dictum that war is politics by other means, and shows with ample evidence from history that war often is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/01/09/a-history-of-warfare-by-john-keegan/
Jan 07 2012
The Spanish Inquisition by Joseph Perez
The author is obviously a committed Catholic. In this book he soft-pedals the Spanish Inquisition, arguing that it was bad, but really not as bad as all that. He argues that originally the aim of the Inquisition was not to eliminate Jews but merely to eliminate Judaism…a distinction that Jews will probably not appreciate. He …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/01/07/the-spanish-inquisition-by-joseph-perez/
Jan 05 2012
The Reformation by Diarmaid McCulloch
The first time I read this book I didn’t think much of it, but on rereading it I found it a rich source of information, analysis, and commentary. If there is a single theme throughout this history, it is the way in which a passion for God usually leads to a ferocious hatred of anyone …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/01/05/the-reformation-by-diarmaid-mcculloch/
Nov 03 2011
Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran by Elaine Sciolino
I cannot praise this book too highly. I have read other books on modern Iran, but this book gives a much more detailed, complex, and fascinating look at what life in Iran is actually like. The author paints a picture of a vibrant and spirited people struggling desperately against a hated theocracy, and a theocracy …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2011/11/03/persian-mirrors-the-elusive-face-of-iran-by-elaine-sciolino/
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