This is a stirring account of the Western Allied invasion of Europe in World War II. It contains memorable quotes and character profiles, and riveting accounts of harrowing combat. But this book made me feel really bad. It was a stark reminder of what a hostile and dangerous place the world is, and also of …
Tag: World War II
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/03/24/the-guns-at-last-light-by-rick-atkinson/
Feb 01 2014
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer
This is an outstanding book. Why do journalists invariably write history better than professional historians? Many treatments of Nazi Germany treat their subject with a sterile and bloodless lack of feeling; not this book. Shirer gives the criminals their due. Yet through it all there is the almost supernatural phenomenon of Hitler, this nobody from …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/02/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-by-william-shirer/
Jan 14 2014
The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
The Italian campaign has been neglected by most World War II historians; Rick Atkinson brings it vividly to life. It is a story of almost perpetual tactical and strategic blunders, in which the steady application of brute force rather than brilliant leadership or maneuvering decided the contest. The rivalry among generals was horrific, and there …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2014/01/14/the-day-of-battle-by-rick-atkinson/
Oct 19 2013
With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge
Reading this gut-wrenching memoir has definitely cured me of any desire to be a hero. E.B. Sledge writes graphically but unaffectedly of war and its horrors, and of the heroic young men who fought against the Japanese in the Second World War. The account is inspiring, of admiration if not exactly emulation. Particularly gruesome is …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/10/19/with-the-old-breed-by-e-b-sledge/
Sep 18 2013
The Fall of Berlin 1945 by Antony Beevor
The writing and the research of this book is first rate, but still, reading endless accounts of the orgy of mass rape committed by the Red Army in 1945 is quite disheartening. Stalin from the beginning intended that the Soviet army would reach Berlin before the Western Allies, but he deliberately misled Churchill and Eisenhower …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/09/18/the-fall-of-berlin-1945-by-antony-beevor/
Sep 04 2013
An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson
This book goes a long way toward dismissing the notion that America’s triumph in World War II was inevitable. Operation Torch in North Africa was full of mistakes and setbacks for the Allies, with generals blaming each other for failures and British and Americans viewing each other with contempt and mistrust. The French, contrary to …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2013/09/04/an-army-at-dawn-by-rick-atkinson/
Jul 25 2011
The Second World War by John Keegan
War is terrible to experience, but fascinating to read about. I have read this book before, but it was worth rereading. Keegan’s approach to the study of war is coldly technical and rather short on human feeling, but his tactical and strategic analysis is admirably thorough. For a snobby Brit, he is a great admirer …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2011/07/25/the-second-world-war-by-john-keegan/
May 05 2011
Premature Evaluation: Yalta by S.M. Plokhy
Did FDR give away too much at Yalta? Was Churchill sketching out percentages of influence in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with Stalin? How far did Stalin’s plans for annexations run? And was the Cold War inevitable? In Yalta: The Price of Peace, S.M. Plokhy goes to the literature and the archives with these questions, and …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2011/05/05/premature-evaluation-yalta-by-s-m-plokhy/
Feb 12 2008
Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Conrad Black
The author of this book has also written a biography of comparable length of Richard Nixon. I must say that compared to Roosevelt, Nixon comes across as positively principled and idealistic. Black portrays FDR as a bold and gifted but somewhat underhanded and unscrupulous leader. His portraits of all of the major figures of this …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/02/12/franklin-delano-roosevelt-by-conrad-black/
Jan 18 2008
The Second World War by Martin Gilbert
Except perhaps for Iris Chang’s *The Rape of Nanking*, no other book I have read captures the horror and brutality of World War II like this one. Martin’s trademark style is historical narrative intermingled with individual stories and anecdotes, and it is the individual accounts, replete with documented proper names and direct quotes, that convey …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2008/01/18/the-second-world-war-by-martin-gilbert/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire