What are we reading?

[Airborne Rifles]

Conqusitador by Buddy Levy, that was the name. Thanks for the mental assist! Great book. If the story weren't so politically incorrect today it would make an epic movie.

[JasonPratt]

Hastings argues that Russia was acting well within their rights and within international norms by ensuring the independence of a smaller nation against a larger one, much as Britain did with Belgium. Russian had mobilized their army a few years previously for a similar incident but hadn't gone to war, so Hastings says that the Russian decision to mobilize cannot be taken as a casus beli.

The question isn't whether they were acting well within their rights and international norms. The academic question is whether they could have put a stop to the treaty of dominoes by choosing to do something different, seeing as how they were next in the domino line, not Germany.

I disagree, I think someone brought this up in another thread, maybe airboy, when we were discussing Guns of August. One General, Moltke iirc, lied to his leader when he was asked for a plan to fight Russia. The plans were already drawn up in a safe, he could have done as asked. Instead he was determined to use the Shliefen plan, which Guaranteed bringing France and the UK into the war. If Germany had fought Russia alone they might have pushed Russia out of Europe.

Isn't that still predicated on Russia having chosen to back Serbia vs Austria?

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Yes. It is not unusual for a great power to back a small one to keep another large power from getting too big. AR already mentioned this. It is the same thing now with many countries objecting to the dismemberment of Ukraine.

[MetalDog]

One of those random, serendipitous finds the internet occasionally yields.  A Serbian Chetnik in the Balkan Wars, as well as both World Wars.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosta_Pe%C4%87anac

[Martok]

You read my mind, Martok. I was looking into the Rome 2: Wrath of Sparta campaign yesterday while posting here but it's pricey @ 15.00 and the reviews are mediocre. What do you think of it?

The short version:  I like it.  However, you may wish to wait for a sale if you don't have a great interest in the period (which I do). 

I'll post my extended thoughts in the Rome II thread in a little bit here. 

I'm going to need to re-read Tides of War. I wasn't overly impressed the first time I read it but I was much younger and didn't know anything about the Peloponnesian War. I suspect I will enjoy it much more today.

Pressfield has mixed reviews everywhere - some people love his work and some people do not.

Well there's no question that Pressfield has a distinct writing style, and it's certainly not going to appeal to everyone. 

He does get a bit "meta" at times (both in his general narration and character dialogue), which I find drags down the pacing when he indulges in the practice.  In addition, there are times I find myself thinking to myself that he's made certain characters too much the "thinker/philosopher" and not enough of the "everyman" to be believable/relatable.  (However, the ideas they spout forth are usually sufficiently compelling that I find myself continuing to read with interest anyway.)  He also doesn't always narrate in a "straight line", sometimes bouncing back-and-forth in time before reaching the end/culmination/climax (although he mostly averts doing this in Tides of War).  I personally don't mind this device, as Pressfield is good at neatly tying thing together, but it's not hard to see where it might be irksome to others. 

As for Tides of War itself, yeah it probably is a little harder to appreciate if you don't have at least a general knowledge  of the Peloponnesian War's major events and broad strokes (including/especially Athens' calamitous invasion of Sicily, from which they never truly recovered).  I suspect the book also doesn't compare as favorably to Pressfield's Gates of Fire because unlike the latter, it truly *is* a tragedy -- Greeks fighting their fellow Greeks (rather than uniting to drive off Persians or some other "barbarian" invader), a "worldwide" conflict that hitherto transformed how war was fought in that society (and subsequently changed the society with it)...and perhaps most of all, a vibrant democracy that in many ways self-destructed from within.  While Sparta and its allies in the Peloponnesian (Dorian) League may have been the war's victors, Athens was almost certainly her own worst enemy throughout the conflict. 

[Bison]

Max Hastings' Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914

[Gusington]

Heard great things about that from some of the other guys.

[W8taminute]

and no it's not at all like that cheesy movie that came out a few years ago.  It's a book written in the early 70's which includes individual soldier stories as well as the general historical facts.  Well written in a style that is quite easy to read yet very informative. 

[Gusington]

That statue on the cover has always creeped me out.

[W8taminute]

That statue on the cover has always creeped me out.

Yes it is spooky isn't it?  I think this statue was in the opening credits of the movie "Cross of Iron" too if I'm not mistaken.

[mirth]

Finally started Ian Kershaw's The End - The Destruction of Hitler's Germany.

I recently started this as well.

[Gusington]

I'm about 75% through. A little thick in the middle but very well written. Kershaw has a new book coming out on Europe from 1914-1949 that I will definitely be reading.

That Stalingrad statue was also featured in the original video for Hurt by Nine Inch Nails...that basically solidified its melancholy and creep factor for me forever.

[mirth]

I've read several 'Fall of the Reich' books in the past 5 or so years. Tough stuff to say the least. Kershaw's book was a lucky find. 50 cents for a gently used hardcover copy.

[Gusington]

I don't even remember what I paid for mine, bought it years ago and it has been on my to-read shelf for a while. Happy to have finally got into it.

Also just bought Antony Beevor's The Fall of Berlin 1945...will probably read that this summer too.

[mirth]

Beevor is excellent. Give yourself a break between those Gotterdammerung type books. They're a bit of a downer ;)