Korean War Book Recommendation

Started by airboy, April 17, 2020, 09:22:17 PM

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airboy

I am thinking about teaching a geezer history class on the Korean War.  The only thing I miss about being retired is teaching & interacting with students, and my local lifetime learning group is always looking for people to teach an interesting, light history class.  I've enjoyed taking them.

I am looking for a single volume history of the Korean War sort of similar to Keegan's book on WW1 in terms of length and degree of detail.  It either must currently be in print or available on kindle so I can read and base the class off of it (due to my allergies I cannot use out of print books).

I can learn more about a conflict I know too little about and do something fun during basketball season when I'm not traveling.

matt3916

"This Kind of War" by T. R. Fehrenbach.

ArizonaTank

I enjoyed The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam.   

He pretty much trashes MacArthur for missing the signs of the coming Chinese offensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Winter-America-Korean-War/dp/B000WGUIUE/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=halberstam&qid=1587259022&sr=8-4

Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

airboy

Quote from: matt3916 on April 18, 2020, 07:50:05 PM
"This Kind of War" by T. R. Fehrenbach.

Thanks - that was on my tentative reading list.

airboy

Quote from: ArizonaTank on April 18, 2020, 08:19:41 PM
I enjoyed The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam.   

He pretty much trashes MacArthur for missing the signs of the coming Chinese offensive.

https://www.amazon.com/Coldest-Winter-America-Korean-War/dp/B000WGUIUE/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=halberstam&qid=1587259022&sr=8-4

I've read most of American Caesar.  McArthur was a odd general.  Did some amazingly brilliant things like the end of the war action in Japan and Inchon.  Let his entire air force get destroyed in the Philippines and misread his intelligence with the China incursion.   Weird personality cult type of commander.

Unfortunately, I've read other books by Halberstam and found him to be both lacking reasonable editing and consistently biased with his axes to grind.  Appreciate the recommendation, but I don't like this author.