Donato Colangelo > Recent Status Updates

Good summary of the Somme battle, with some really good insights about germans!

“Mitteleuropa” was perhaps the first, real, idea of European Union, albeit the concept was, in some weaker and non functional way, already at work in Austria-Hungary.

The reasons why the Austro-Hungarians faced so poorly in this war are many and a good part of these reasons stems from the mishandling of the “inner front”, as the State was not up to the task of using the war as a unifying event, but rather pushed hard against his own minorities in order to bring them under more, asphyxiating, control. That the AOK leaders were not up to the task was just a bonus.

The book reports details of the Central Powers societies during the war that are fascinating and surprising. Never before I have read any book about the war that goes this deep into the Austro-Hungarian and German civil societies. It serves well to show the strains and good faith of normal people, the suffering and the efforts at staying united during a most dire situation.

Strong links between Nazi invasion of Russia in the 40s and Tsarist invasion of Galicia in 1914, a subject that indeed is overlooked by many if not all historians. Terrible episodes of violence, racism and deliberate killings based on prejudices. The bloodbath, in East Europe, started some 30 years before Operation Barbarossa commenced.

In chapter 3, the author tries to summarize the main elements that characterized the war of the Central Powers in 1914. The treatment is fine and complete. As usual, when a book that discusses military matters fails to provide military maps, the narrative suffers... my luck is having already read the 4 volume epic Pritt Buttar series about the Eastern Front and Hastings's "Catastrophe".

Outstanding description of the many facts and events occurring in July 1914. Very well written!

The first three chapters are a fresh example of how one author can weave in a wonderful and accessible prose a big net of examples about nature outstanding, amazing and jaw-dropping ability to invent fancy, efficient and unpredictable solutions in the face of environmental challenges and deprivations. This book is on the lines of - to name but one - Quammen’s “Spillover”. Amazing trove of information.

“Il rischio della visione platonica, a mio parere, è di pensare che si possa arrivare a capire il mondo unicamente per via logico-matematica, svalutando il ruolo dell’esperienza e facendosi guidare da principi astratti come la simmetria, la coerenza, la semplicità (o, peggio ancora, l’eleganza o la bellezza).”
È fin troppo rimarcata questa continua ricerca della “bellezza” nelle leggi fisiche.

I capitoli sono più brevi di quanto pensassi, ma la stesura riflette benissimo l'approccio mostrato dall'autore quando pubblica sul canale YouTube.

I am rather new to Viking books, having read up to know just one (The Hammer and the Cross by Robert Ferguson), but I must say this "The Wolf Age" conveys a potent sense of who Vikings were, vivid images of battles, ways of life, the main characters, their political maneuvers and many social aspects of the time that make Vikings unique.