The History Book Club discussion

Just started
Kenneth C. Davis

R.G. Grant
this book is a pain to read as an e-book on a netbook.

Just finished the following on unabridged audio:

by Nick Reding I must say that this was an eye opening title.

by Michael Capuzzo very interesting look at one of the worlds least known and exclusive clubs.

Just started this evening on unabridged audio:

by Philip Mould

I'm just finishing "We Die Alone" by David Howarth. It has been on my "To Read" shelf for 10 years. I pulled the title from a National Geographic list of the top 100 travel stories. I think I took a pass on it because of the desperate title. "We Die Alone" sounds so cliche'! Don't let the blunt title fool you, this book is real deal. An incredible WW2 arctic survival story as a desperate and stricken spy attempts to be carried across Norway's forsaken plateaus to Sweden.We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance

Great post, Dave. Don't forget to add the bookcover and author link:

by David Howarth

More information:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

Sounds like a very interesting book!

I'm re-reading a great book right now and recommend it highly: it's Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other

by Nat Hentoff (no photo.)
It's an excellent and balanced examination of the ways all kinds of people think the First Amendment doesn't apply to the other people they don't like, because those other people are so obviously wrong they don't deserve a chance to be heard. I'd describe the tone as one of calmly amused outrage.

That sounds like a terrific book James and so apropos.

Yes - he wrote it almost 20 years ago, but some of the same power struggles are going on almost unchanged. One of the disquieting things for me is that in some ways free speech has lost ground since then - for example, I don't think people would have stood for the idea of limiting political protesters to fenced-in "free speech zones" where the very politicians they're protesting will not have to see or hear them, or of people being excluded from supposedly open taxpayer-funded political rallies where Bush or Cheney were speaking based on their not being Republicans (or even being arrested for having T-shirts or bumper stickers critical of the Bush administration.) Things like that really worry me.

It worries me too.

James, sounds like a very interesting book, and thanks for sharing your description. The debate over First Amendment rights and expression are as endless as the topics involved and emotional reaction they invoke.

I'm on the final few chapters of "Finest Years" by Max Hastings and although I am enjoying it a great deal I need something to break up the politics with a bit more action so I have started a new Australian release by an up-and-coming new military historian Phillip Bradley.

This is his third book covering aspects of Australian military history during WW2 and this book deals with the Salamaua campaign in New Guinea. This campaign started with the Battle of Bismarck Sea which saw units of the USAAF and the RAAF decimate a Japanese naval convoy running reinforcements to Lae which produced some of the most startling film footage ever seen of aerial strafing attacks on ships by the Australian photographer Damien Parer.

by Max Hastings

by Phillip Bradley

Good to hear you are enjoying
by
Max Hastings.
I picked up in the other week and am looking forward to reading it.

Hi Michael,

I think you'll enjoy it as well, it's full of great anecdotes and brimming with information about Churchill the man and wartime leader.

I'm not reading this yet and I'm not too sure where the appropriate area is to place this post so I thought I'd try here.

I figured I'd better let other readers know about a new release from Simon Winchester due out in September titled; "Atlantic".

by Simon Winchester

Aussie Rick, what an interesting theme for a book. I see why it is tricky to decide where to post it.

Naval Battles maybe.

I'm reading by Laton McCartney. I can't say 'it reads like a novel,' but this interesting story about how Big Oil bought off almost every politician in D.C. is definitely holding my attention (everything old is new again, eh?).

Puzzling: there are NO ratings from Goodreads' members on this book.

Stanley's Mom wrote: "I'm reading by Laton McCartney. I can't say 'it reads like a novel,' but this interesting story about how Big Oil bought off almost every pol..."

That is odd; maybe there is a duplicate entry somewhere.

Looks like a duplicate entry issue. Here's the entry that has some reviews: Laton McCartney

There are a bunch of non-combined entries. I'll try to get them combined this afternoon.

Got to it quicker than I thought. The books are now combined, so you should be able to see the reviews, Stanley's Mom. Hope that helps!

Thank you Elizabeth for making this special effort on behalf of Stanley's Mom.

Bentley wrote: "Naval Battles maybe."

Hi Bentley, I wasn't too sure where to post it as it covers exploration, discoveries, the Falklands War (I think), the Titanic, naval battles and a multitude of different stories.

Understood.

Tonight I am starting the following on unabridged audio: by Richard Toye I must say I've always enjoyed books about Churchill and I hope this proves to be an exciting title.

I hope it is good..let us know. There are a lot of Winston Churchill enthusiasts here including myself.

I especially liked My Early Life by the man himself.

Winston S. Churchill[

Just started listening to
by Patrick O'Donnell

And I've just started "1812: Napoleon's Russian Campaign" by Richard Riehn. This is one of my older books pulled from the library and was first published in 1990. Before you ask, it hasn't taken me 20 years to getting around to read it, I purchased this copy second-hand a few years back :)

by Richard K. Riehn

I have just started reading "Iron Kingdom" by Christopher Clark. Been looking forward to read this since I first lay eyes on it. The book covers the rise and death of the Prussian Empire.
by Christopher Clark

Also sadly my month of holidays is nearing to an end. The upside of this my first few shifts are night shifts. This will give me the opportunity to get stuck back into
by Andrew Roberts. So far I have read the first 3 chapters and have found it a enthralling read.

Elizabeth S wrote: "Looks like a duplicate entry issue. Here's the entry that has some reviews: Laton McCartney
.."

Elizabeth, Thanks! I don't know how I missed that when I searched for the title.

Hi Michael, I'll be keen to hear what your think of both of those books once you have finished them.

Will do 'Aussie Rick'.

Stanley's Mom wrote: "Elizabeth, Thanks! I don't know how I missed that when I searched for the title. "

You are welcome. Things like that are easy to miss. And the goodreads search sometimes isn't as good as one would like it to be. Sometimes you have to really dig to find what you know should be there. :)

I have just started my new book "Constantine: Unconquered Emperor, Christian Victor" by Paul Stephenson.

by Paul Stephenson
Publishers blurb:
Constantine: Unconquered Emperor, Christian Victor is a masterly survey of the life and enduring legacy of the greatest and most unjustly ignored of the later Roman emperors - from a richly gifted young British historian. In 312, Constantine - one of four Roman emperors ruling a divided empire - marched on Rome to establish his sole control of its western half. On the eve of the decisive battle, at Rome's Milvian Bridge, he had a vision. A cross appeared to him in the sky with an exhortation, generally translated as 'By this sign conquer'. Inscribing the cross on the shields of his soldiers, Constantine drove the followers of his rival Maxentius into the Tiber and claim-ed the imperial capital for himself. He converted to Christianity and ended persecution of his co-religionists with the defeat in 324 of his last rival, Licinius. Under Constantine, Christianity emerged from the shadows, its adherents no longer persecuted. Constantine united the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire, and pre-sided over the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, at Nicaea in 325. He founded a new capital city nearby on the Bosphorus, where Europe meets Asia. This site, the ancient trading colony of Byzantium, became the city of Constantine, Constantinople, a new Christian capital set apart from Rome's pagan past. Thereafter the Christian Roman Empire endured in the East as Byzantium, while Rome itself fell to the barbarian hordes in AD 476. Paul Stephenson offers a nuanced and deeply satisfying account of a man whose cultural and spiritual renewal of the Roman Empire gave birth to the historically crucial idea of a unified Christian Europe underpinned by a commitment to religious tolerance. In Constantine: Unconquered emperor, Christian victor, a seminal figure in the political and cultural history of the West has at last found the biographer he deserves.

by Alexandre Dumas
I'm not reading this right now, though I have several years ago. I don't need to tell anybody it is a great book.
I watched the film once again yesterday. It has Isabelle Adjani, Vincent Perez, Daniel Auteuil, and Jean-Hugues Anglade starring in the leading roles and was directed by Patrice Chérau.
It has always been one of my favorite historical films. Not only because of the terrific acting and cinematography but most of all because it manages to put you there.
The dirt, the stink, the heat, the chaos, the insanity of the people, it's all there down to the smallest detail.
History will come alive only through movies like this one which dare to skip the romanticizing and stick to a powerful story.

I am currently reading an older book from my library; "Military Memoirs of Marlborough's Campaigns 1702-1712" edited by David Chandler.

This book is basically two edited books put together covering the writings of Captain Robert Parker, Royal Regiment of Foot of Ireland and the Comte de Merode-Westerloo, later Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire.

Its been very intersting and quite enjoyable so far. I intend to have a break after finishing Robert Parkers account so I can start a book my daughter gave me today for Fathers Day (Australia) and then later finish off Comte de Merode-Westerloo's story.

by Robert Parker

I have just started my Father's Day present which is a new Australian release covering the history of the Australian Flying Corp (AFC) during the Great War.

by Michael Molkentin

I finished the The Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus It was ver-very-very interesting! Non-fiction-historical and I think people in this group will love it. Now I am reading theThe Art of War by Niccolò Machiavelli, it is full of strategy and military history.

Hi Knarik,

Sounds like some great reading, I'm quite keen on Roman history so I might have to check out "The Twelve Caesars" myself! I've found the covers for the books you have mentioned. Well done using the 'add book/author' function. If you can find the covers for the books it's easier for other readers to follow the links.

by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus

by Niccolò Machiavelli

If you are interested in Roman history this is the book for you. I tried to add the covers but wasn't able to. Hope next time I will be more successful :)

Hi Knarik,

When you add the book in the 'add book/author' function above when the little screen comes up where you type in the details of the book or author at the bottom of that page there is a button selection to add link or cover. See how that goes next time :)

Ok :)
What about this book? by a Czech - Jewish writer Franz Werfel I read this in Armenian a long time ago, and wanted to reread in English. Have you read it here already?

Hi Knarik,

That looks like a very interesting novel although I haven't read it maybe others here may have? Well done on adding the book image!

Not something I would normally have picked up on my own, but now that I am moderating this historical fiction piece I have to admit I am enjoying it. The discussion is just getting started which you may have noticed from the beginning threads. Not too late to join ~
by Colleen McCullough

It is a great book Alisa and likewise I might not have picked this up.

Also reading:

by Jonathan Franzen

I've just started reading one of my newer acquisitions: "Conquer or Die".


by Ben Hughes

Ive just started reading by Ron Martz. Should be an interesting read I hope.

After some considerable searching and browsing in my library I decided to read my 1970 hard back edition of "Waterloo Journal" by General Cavalié Mercer.

by Cavalie Mercer

So which one are you going to read (the one in message 451 or 452?)

Hi Bentley, I had to re-do my post because the first one disappeared even when I re-loaded the page a few times. I've just deleted message 451.

Hello Paul:

I have moved your review on the book here:

Mason Locke Weems


Mason Weems

The Life of General Francis Marion by Brig. Gen. P. Horry and Parson M. L. Weems

I had forgotten until recently that I’d even bought this book; I was cruising my non-fiction shelves looking for something else, and there it was, appropriately filed among the biographies of the Revolutionary War generation. I have no memory of buying it, but since it was on my shelves, I guess I must have. I tend to do that, and the scanning of my bookshelves has elements of Christmas morning with little surprises lurking here and there waiting to be rediscovered and read. Apparently when I bought it, if I noticed the name of the author, it failed to ring a bell with me at the time, though it should have. The co-author listed first, General P. Horry, I had never heard of, though I soon learned that he served with Marion and that this book began as a memoir, but the name of Pastor Weems should have set off alarms. I first learned about him in a high school history class. The good pastor is the same inventive writer who wrote the famous biography of George Washington that had Washington declining to lie about clear cutting the cherry tree, or winging a dollar across the Potomac or about any number of things that Weems thought should have happened, even if they never did.
Stephen E. Ambrose suffered censure for of modest amounts of plagiarism in Citizen Soldiers, but Weems flat made stuff up, and he apparently felt no shame. There is a distinction between a biographer and an historian that seems clear to historians, but which escapes me. Suetonius, author of The Twelve Caesars, is often dismissed and his literary sins contemptuously forgiven because he is the former and not the latter. Plutarch steps aside from his narrative to explain that he might have gotten it a bit wrong, but he is, after all, just a simple biographer. In Dutch, his biography of Ronald Reagan, Edmond Morris wrote fictional characters and events into Reagan’s life, and, in his defense against the critics, explained that biographers were held to less rigorous standards than historians. Let me go on record here: I still don’t understand. I would guess that General Horry didn’t understand either. He submitted his manuscript to Weems for editing, and was appalled at the result. He wrote to Weems:

“I requested you would (if necessary) so far alter the work as to make it read grammatically, and I gave you leave to embellish the work, but entertained not the least idea of what has happened…You have carved and mutilated it with so many erroneous statements your embellishments, observations and remarks, must necessarily be erroneous as proceeding from false grounds…Can you suppose I can be pleased with reading particulars (though so elevated by you) of Marion and myself, when I know such never existed.”

Weems, nothing daunted, not only published the book, he added his own name as a co-author. The editors of the present edition explain that, subtracting Weem’s more outrageous inventions, the book is often not far off base. It sounded amusing to me, so I began it. Full disclosure: I didn’t finish the book. I had good reasons, though. I usually give any book a hundred pages before quitting. Some authors take a little time to get the story underway, or sometimes it takes a bit of time for me to get used to an author’s style, and a hundred pages seems to me to be a reasonable investment.
I cannot speak to historical inaccuracies, because I remember so little about Francis Marion’s life. Long ago, more than half a century ago, I read a Landmark Book biography, but that was it. About all I recall is my trouble with what seemed to my pre-adolescent mind to be an androgynous name. The general histories of the Revolutionary War I’ve been reading lately give him only passing mention. Mel Gibson’s character, extremely loosely based on Marion in “The Patriot,” is no help at all. The point I’m making is that I didn’t know much about Marion. Sad to say, I still don’t. The first hundred pages are largely accounts of the droll adventures of Gen. Horry and his fellows, which bear a stylistic resemblance to Howard Pyle’s tales of Robin Hood and his merry band. These little vignettes of British stuffed shirts being confounded with bluff good humor by honest American yeomanry are just too precious and are cloying to the palate. Oh! Icky pooh! The book is like one of those medieval puppet shows where the audience knows the characters as soon as they come on stage. Before ever they speak, we know who are the villains (the British, the Hessians and Benedict Arnold), we know who are the poltroons (Horatio Gates and Charles Lee) and we know who are the heroes (Washington, Marion, etc.), so we may cheer or boo appropriately at their entrance. At a hundred pages, I’d had enough, and Marion had hardly been introduced.
The prose. Sweet motherbear! The prose. I am puzzled how to characterize it. Words like florid, purple, turgid or overblown are too mild. Weems thought that simple verbs or nouns were weak and puny things that needed to be staked to stout fences of adjectives and adverbs. Examples are not hard to find. Here is a mouthful he gave to one of his characters to use in conversation, “Thus for cursed Mammon’s sake, the followers of Christ have sown the hellish tares of hatred in the bosoms even of pagan children.” Open the book to a random page: “With bleeding heart he had often beheld the red and white men mingling in bloody fight. The horrors of the cruel strife dwelt upon his troubled thoughts…” and on and on and on. Weems was a preacher, and the book abounds with pious epigrams, editorial appeals to the gentle reader or apostrophes to God. Combine his perfervid, feverish style with his sticky sentiment, and it becomes too much even if I try to read it for solely for laughs.