Fire and Ice : The Korean War, 1950-1953

by Michael J. Varhola

This handy "At A Glance" volume contains an exceptional amount of material on the Korean Conflict, with much information that will be new to virtually all readers, such as dissension between the U.S. and South Korea, the differing treatment of prisoners by the Chinese and North Koreans, the widespread service of Korean nationals in American units, and the important contribution made by Turkey, the British Commonwealth and other nations to the U.N. effort.

317 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2000

About the author

Michael J. Varhola has a lifelong interest in the paranormal and has conducted investigations worldwide. He is a public speaker, author of several books, and a freelance journalist with a strong background in history, research, and fieldwork. He lives in Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C."

Reviews

[Barry Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of facts about the Korean War, the non-fiction book is more a resource with information given as bullet points.

[Rebecca Crunden]

⤑ research tag: in an effort to organise my shelves, I'm going to be labelling the books I'm using for study purposes as I tend to dip in and out of these.

[astaliegurec · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 out of 5 stars
Fully Detailed, But Not Fun to Read
November 21, 2004

I realize I'm not in agreement with all the other reviews here, but I just wanted to throw my $0.02 in. The impression I got from reading the other reviews was that this book would read something like Churchill's "Second World War" series: sort of a narrative or story covering the war. Instead, for the most part, this book is a reference book. It's got tons of information in it, but it's organized into battles within time periods. It's hard to explain. I was looking for something that said we did x because of y which resulted in these battles. Then, we did x' which led to some other battles. Instead it said something like in year x we fought battles a, b, and c. In year y, we fought battles d, e, and f. All the information is there, but the "story" part of the "history" feels lacking.

If you're studying the Korean War, I do agree that this is an excellent book. But, for a more "entertaining" study, I'd try something else (what that would be, I don't know).

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview. Unsurprisingly, based on the author's background, reads like a campaign supplement for a tabletop wargame without any game rules. Somewhat boring for me because of its lack of detail.