Kelly > Status Update
Kelly
added a status update
So I teach history and love all kinds of it. But I’ve been thinking about the relative gap in my reading that is military history. I know some of my students love it, and I want to be able to reliably, first hand recommend more amazing ones. I’ve done some, but not as much as others. Any good recs? Preferably ones that aren’t just endless marches of battles and names, but also have another hook?
— Aug 20, 2019 07:05PM
5 likes · Like flag
Comments Showing 1-12 of 12 (12 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
LL
(new)
Aug 20, 2019 07:12PM
James Reston, Jr. has written some really great military-centric world history. I’d first recommend Warriors of God, about Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade.
reply
|
flag
The Sabres of Paradise by Lesley Blanch is a book I absolutely love. Recommended for fans of Tolstoy especially.
Thanks, you guys! I do love me some Tolstoy! :) And we don’t touch on the Crusades except peripherally so I’m sure someone would love that.
The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. Greatest true adventure story ever written. Very intense, almost hallucinatory invocation of a lost world.
Your students might enjoy comparing Carnage and Culture by Victor Davis Hanson to Battle: A History of Combat and Culture by John A. Lynn. The latter is a response to the former. William McNeill’s The Pursuit of Power is an interesting attempt to weave military and world history together. Another book, The Allure of Battle by Cathal Nolan, has gotten attention recently for suggesting there is no such thing as a decisive battle.
Thanks, guys! I especially like these ones that have actual overall theories or are woven into cultural and intellectual studies. Really supports our work in the class.
Strategy by Liddell Hart, covers the core principles of military strategy by analyzing military history.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Thanks! That looks like exactly the sort of thing I mean.
I really loved The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, which is about the Vietnam War. I think it's technically a group of short stories, but I remember the stories being connected, so that it felt like a single story told out of order in a beautiful way.
The Second World War by Antony Beevor is a concise history of WWII that puts some focus on how it played out for ordinary people, not just overlords.
