WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND READING?
Going for a run to Border’s tonight. What’s at the top of your reading list these days ?
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October 25th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Lots of fiction of late, particularly Frank Herbert’s Dune novels, which are quite interesting. Also sitting on the nightstand is Martin Meredith’s The Fate of Africa, which seems quite good from what little delving I’ve done into it. Of a different flavor, Michael MacCambridge’s America’s Game features the interesting story of how the NFL surpassed the National Pastime (my review here).
October 25th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Oh, I forgot that Adrian Goldsworthy has a new biography of Caesar out. Everything Goldsworthy has written has been good, and it just got a good review in the WSJ (past couple days, I think). His Punic Wars is also strongly recommended.
October 25th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
Max Boot’s “War Made New”
John S. Burnett’s “Dangerous Waters”
Neal Stephenson’s “The Diamond Age”
Mike Davis’ “Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines & The Making Of The 3rd World”
Robert Young Pelton “Licensed To Kill”
Rebecca West “Return Of The Soldier”
October 26th, 2006 at 3:23 am
The Diamond Age — agreed, absolutely.
A few other random favorites.
Ernst Junger, Storm of Steel.
Bleak House.
Alan Macfarlane, The Riddle of the Modern World, and its sequel, The Making of the Modern World.
Jonathan R.T. Hughes, The Vital Few.
David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride.
Winston Churchill, My Early Life.
U.S. Grant, Memoirs.
Evelyn Waugh, The Sword of Honor Trilogy.
Michael Barone, Our Country.
There, that’s enough to give you at least on title that intrigues you.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:32 am
The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier by John Grenier
Just started it last night and it is excellent. It looks at the military tradition from the 1600s to about 1814 that involved three main elements, extirpative warfare, the development of ranger units using Indian tactics, and scalp hunting as a means of privatizing war (bounties were offered for scalps, so ranger companies were often created as economic enterprises.)
The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution by Zeev Sternhell.
Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery by Sam Calagione
Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World by Ken Wilbur
Sam Adams: Pioneer in Propaganda by John Miller
Secret War in Shanghai: An Untold Story of Espionage, Intrigue, and Treason in WW2 by Bernard Wasserstein
October 26th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
I read the “Diamond Age” because of your post about it a while back Lexington.
Tom mentioned “The Fate Of Africa”, which is excellent reading as well.
October 26th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Hi everyone !
Much thanks for the suggestions !
Storm of Steel was German, circa 1920’s ? – a counterpoint view to All Quiet on the Western Front, correct?
Liked Pelton’s Guide to Most Dangerous Places.
Our Country was also the title of a 19th century pro-imperialist classic by Josiah Strong
Boot’s Savage wars of Peace was good.
Read Dune as a teenager. Severely weirded out by seeing Sting appear in a diaper during the movie. ;o)
October 28th, 2006 at 1:47 am
Storm of Steel was a memoir by a German officer about his war experience. It is the antithesis of All Quiet. Junger found the war a basically positive experience! I found the book at once insane and mesmerizing. By the way, the argument that the British Army was inept will find no support here. Someone is being blown to bits by British artillery on virtually every page.
Barone’s Our Country is an under-appreciated classic.