"A Nation in Arms: The British Army in The First World War"

Just starting it for a living history impression of the 1st Black Watch.

The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery, and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War by Johnathan Wells

-This book does a good job looking at the complexity of the slavery issue in New York and how they were afraid of upsetting the southerners. Also, the Southerners definitely kept an eye on NYC's views on slavery.

-I didn't realize that NYC had threatened to become an independent city after Lincoln was elected. Nor did I know that NY state held a ballot referendum on giving African American men the right to vote in 1860.

Must say after viewing this 2 hr interview with the author, I thinking of getting his 3 book series.

Schindler's Listed by Mark Biederman. The son of holocaust survivor's tells the story of his quest for the cold coins that his dad told him he buried at his childhood home in Poland before they were moved out by the Nazis.

Very interesting to see the author's emotions as he learns of what his father endured during his search.

I got Empire of the Summer Moon a couple days ago & I'm flying through it. Awesome read so far!

For my next book I'm not sure exactly what to get & was wondering if anybody had any good Civil War recommendations? I've been looking at Gwynne's Hymns of the Republic, Goodhearts 1861: The Civil War Awakening & McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom.

Gwynne's book is good.

Here are some that you might enjoy:
1. Gettysburg- Sears
2. Mary Chestnut's Civil War-Woodward....great insight to the players
3. Their Tattered Flags- Vandiver, former TAMU pres.
4. April 1865-Winik
5. City of Sedition(NYC)-Strausbaugh
6. Crucible of Command-Davis
7. Rebel Yell-Gwynn's
8. War Outside My Window-Croon...diary of 15 year old boy with great observation skills
9. The Thin Light of Freedom- Ayers, and
10. In the Presence of Mine Enemies- Ayers....Ayers takes a County in PA and one in VA and tells you what is really happening on the home front. Very good historian and a good writer.

I tried to pick some books that you might not trip across. If you need more, there are many good books on the Civil War.

All three are well written but I just finished McPherson for the second time and have to recommend it as it does cover the entire war and the lead up to war. The other two do not.

After finishing McPherson this week, I just started Fehrenbach's Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico

Nice List

The Case That Never Dies The Lindbergh Kidnapping

Thanks BQ78 & Aquin. I'll start with McPhersons since it covers the actions leading up to the war and I'll look through my local library to see if I find some from your list of 10, Aquin. All of them look interesting from my brief google search.

Reading a fairly niche historical book, about 2/3 through. 9000 Years of Wine: A World History by Roderick Phillips

Only real complaints so far: very long format text, not visually put into subsections at all within chapters; footnotes don't have actual information at the bottom of the same page, just a reference to some source in the back on the book.

Just finished "Boys in the Boat" - a must!

Jizzle89 said:

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Just finished "Boys in the Boat" - a must!

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What is it about? Asking for a friend.

It's about the University of Washington rowing team that competed in the 1936 Olympics. It's very good.

1. The Ratline-Sands***** story of a Nazis fugitive, but his ratline never gets him outside of Rome. Well researched.

2. Infiltration, The Plot to Destroy the Church from within-Marshall ***** Author is an Anglican priest that converted to Catholicism. Interesting take on some of the Popes.

3. Good Vibrations, My Life as a Beach Boy-Mike Love**** Ok maybe not hard History. Morale of the story is if you are going to become a young rock star, marry a CPA. Great insight into the record industry and the thievery of the same.

4. Lincoln on the Verge-Widmer***** Story of Abe's thirteen day train ride from Springfield to DC. Very well done. Cast of thousands.

5. The Story of Britain-Strong***** This is popular history not written by an academic, thus interesting and readable. Starts with the Romans and go up to current times. Very good summary of what makes and has made Britain the screwed up nation that it has become.

6. Calhoun, American Heretic-Elder***** just outstanding. Everything that I know about Calhoun came from snippets of what people wanted me to know about Calhoun. The author's research is very good. I now understand that Calhoun did not link nullification with secession. He saw nullification as a means to avoid secession, which was many steps away under his political theory. Writing a biography of such a polarizing man is hard. The author has done it and has placed him in his fullest context. Remarkable bio on every front.

Finished The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann. I enjoyed the Fawcett story but the B plot about the author going to the Amazon not so much. The alternating narrative took me out of it. Still, if you're interested in explorer books, I would recommend it.

The Zealot and The Emancipator-HW Brands

I enjoyed it and learned about the step Lincoln was willing to take to try to end slavery without immediate emancipation.

Agent ZigZag by Ben Mcantire. A true story about a British double agent who really messed with the Nazi's and the Brits at the same tine.

"The Demon Princes" by Jack Vance...which is an interesting mixture of futuristic fantasy, mystery, humor, and references to history. There are five "Demon Princes" terrorizing the galaxy (each gets a book) and one very determined young hero who they accidentally created with a slave raid on his parent's planet.

Recently finished Best Lawyer in a One Lawyer Town by Dale Bumpers and Manhunter the Life and Times of Frank Hamer by Gene Shelton. Currently reading War As I Knew It by George S Patton Jr and Texas Ranger by John Boessenecker.

1. Fire and Blood by Fehrenbach. This is an excellent history of Mexico. Fehrenbach is a great writer by any standard. He starts with Cortes, who was more interested in becoming the Emperor of a new country than the usual fantasy for gold. The author explains the Mexican culture as it changes over the centuries. It was and continues to be a very stratified country, with each level of people hating those on any other level. The reader starts to understand Mexico, who influenced the country for good or bad. I think it is an excellent read, particularly for residents of a state that shares some history and lies adjacent to Mexico. Five stars.

2. Secession on Trial by Nicolette. Anyone interested in the Civil War will enjoy this book. Some years ago I learned that Gerrit Smith, the wealthy abolitionist that financed John Brown's raid on Harper Ferry, Horace Greeley, also a northern abolitionist, and Vanderbilt, all went on the bond to help Jeff Davis make bail. It raised some questions particularly when Davis was never brought to trial. Lincoln was a lawyer generally held in high regard as such. However, Lincoln knew no International Law. When he insisted that southern ports be blockaded under International law he was committing an act of war. The result was to raise the south to the level of a belligerent. This meant that it's leaders could not be tried for treason...not the answer the north wanted to hear. This very well done book discusses the problem of a Davis trial, which had to be held in Virginia. An acquittal, which was likely, might undo everything that the war had done. Perhaps secession was legal. The author handles all the legal issues clearly and objectively. Five stars

The Mighty Scourage-James M. McPherson

He questions a lot of generally accepted assertions about the Civil War and sort of goes after the historiography. I especially his assertions about the post-war white washing that took place. He also talks about quotes that are attributed to Lincoln that aren't actually Lincoln's.

McPherson is considered reliable, right?

I think you mean James McPherson. Yes he is legit.

BQ78 said:

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I think you mean James McPherson. Yes he is legit.

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You are correct. Not sure how I missed that.

Danny Phantom said:

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I got Empire of the Summer Moon a couple days ago & I'm flying through it. Awesome read so far!

For my next book I'm not sure exactly what to get & was wondering if anybody had any good Civil War recommendations? I've been looking at Gwynne's Hymns of the Republic, Goodhearts 1861: The Civil War Awakening & McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom.

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Cannot recommend Empire of the Summer Moon enough.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Vostok and Mercury Programs (the Soviet and American race to be the first to launch a man into space).

"Beyond," by Stephen Walker, was released this year. Walker does an impressive job interviewing the few living witnesses to these events and piecing them together with official and unofficial Soviet documents to tell the remarkable story of Yuri Gargarin's selection, training, launch, and fame as the first man to be launched into space on a Vostok capsule mounted on the top of an R7 ICBM rocket.

"The Right Stuff," by Tom Wolfe, was released in 1979 (and made into a movie in 1983 and series in 2000). Wolfe had the benefit of being able to interview many of the original characters and is a very entertaining storyteller (as if this story needs a storyteller). Wolfe tells of the selection and celebrity of the Mercury Seven and their race to catch up with the Soviets (along with identifying Chuck Yeager as the test pilot who created the Right Stuff myth).

Amazing to me that the Soviets were so far ahead in technology (at least rocket power) in 1961, yet completely out of the running by 1969.

I just finished Bomber Mafia and I really enjoyed it.

In The Bomber Mafia , Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.

Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the "Bomber Mafia," asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?

In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, "Was it worth it?"

Things might have gone differently had LeMay's predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.

AgRyan04 said:

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There is a recent (maybe the most recent?) Dan Carlin Hardcore History Adendum podcast with the author regarding this book....might be worth checking out if you haven't already

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Crazy long link but this is it:

https://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/8/1/d/81d33a3e49569684/dchh13-addendum-Gladwell-and-the-Bomber-Mafia.mp3?c_id=101895890&cs_id=101895890&expiration=1620762369&hwt=a3a5ee6dc98707c0dbd0722ea6440fc9

Just finished Washington's Secret 6 - fun and quick read. Love that entire part of the Revolution. Makes me want to watch Turn again.

Would anyone be willing to recommend a Robert E. Lee biography?

Freeman is the classic, Korda is the latest, Thomas is a good one, Pryor is the most provocative but I suspect Connelly is best for your echo chamber.