What are we reading?

[ArizonaTank]

Just finished "Son of Morning Star: Custer and the Little Big Horn" by Evan S Connell

This is an older book, written in the '80s, that even garnered a TV mini-series. It was acclaimed back in the day, but I have mixed feelings about it.

I liked it and recommend it for anyone who already has a foundation in the events of the Plains Indians Wars and even the Little Big Horn itself.

But if this is a first Custer book for someone, just getting into the subject, I would recommend starting elsewhere.

The reason is that 'Son' is written in a meandering style, that enjoys going off into the weeds and uncovering numerous side-tales and ancillary characters.  For example, what happened to the sole cavalry horse that survived Little Big Horn? Or, what happened to Custer's dogs? 

I will give the book credit for being fairly even-keeled in its treatment of Custer.  We see the good and bad of the man.  We also see the good and bad of the other characters in the story. For example, CPT Benteen, one of Custer's subordinates, who hated Custer and was a big Custer critic, is fully fleshed out in the text.  Benteen is portrayed as a sometimes competent officer who had severe character flaws himself...drunkenness on duty being the worst of it.

'Son' is great for someone interested in minutia and Custer trivia. Not so great if you actually want to understand the battle and campaign itself.  I think that read as a companion to another book on the subject, 'Son' certainly has a place.

https://www.amazon.com/Son-Morning-Star-Custer-Bighorn/dp/0865475105/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LKAYX3JOFUZ1&keywords=son+of+morning+star&qid=1699965867&sprefix=son+of+morning+star%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-1

[ArizonaTank]

Starting to read Dog Fight: Aerial Tactics of the Aces of World War I by Norman Franks.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1853675512?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

If you have done any serious reading of WWI aviation, and haven't bumped into a Norman Franks book, you are doing it wrong (IMHO... )

I think WWI and even WWII aviation books come in three broad categories: 1) General reader books on campaigns and personalities. 2) Technical reviews of aircraft. 3) Operational books.

The last category are often the most expensive and hardest to find. But the operational books contain all the details we wargamers love, and are often lost on general readers.  Things like, squadron OBs and TOEs, operational plans, orders, organizations, exact locations of targets and airfields, etc.

Franks, and his co-authors (many of his best books are team efforts), serve up those detailed operational books with gusto.

Dog Fight is certainly an operational book. It charts how technology drove changes in tactics over the course of the war. I wouldn't call it Franks' best book, but it certainly belongs in any serious WWI aviation library.

Anyway, I am about 40 pages in and enjoying it.

[Gusington]

Now reading 'Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris' by Ian Kershaw:
https://shorturl.at/gtyAB

[ArizonaTank]

Reading another WWI aerial war bedrock book by Norman Franks and Frank Bailey:

The Storks: The Story of France's Elite Fighter Groupe De Combat 12 (Les Cigognes) in WWI

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1898697817?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

There just aren't many good books in English about the French Air Service in WWI. But this is one of them.

The book details the operational history of the 12th Combat Group, comprising of four elite squadrons; Escadrilles N3, N26, N73 and N103.

Many well-known French aces built their reputations in this combat group, including Rene Fonck and Georges Guynemer.

However a word of warning, Storks is very matter-of-fact, prefers detail over fluff, and is not a good 'mass-market' work for the casual reader.

A much more reader friendly book about he French Air Services would be "Kings of Air" by Ian Sumner that I have posted previously. But here is the link anyway...:)

https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Air-French-Airmen-Great/dp/1783463384/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SO12QARH2BU7&keywords=kings+of+the+air&qid=1701642808&s=books&sprefix=kings+of+the+air%2Cstripbooks%2C160&sr=1-1

[ArizonaTank]

Just finished: Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia , by Gary J. Bass.

https://www.amazon.com/Judgment-Tokyo-World-Making-Modern/dp/1101947101/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1703095253&sr=1-1

Despite the fact that this book is getting some great accolades in the press, I am kind of lukewarm on it.

I think maybe the biggest issue for me is that it is so very, very, very thorough, particularly on the legal questions of the Trial. There is a reason I didn't choose law as a profession, and this book reminded me of that.

For books I like, I usually can't wait to pick up and start reading them... In "Tokyo's" case I couldn't wait until its end so I could put it down.  Don't get me wrong, it was well-written and informative; but Tokyo was more of a "legal" book than I had bargained for.

On the positive side, the book does a great job in laying bare the many problems that the Tokyo trial had (political, legal, moral and operational), why it is so little remembered today, and why current day Japanese have a somewhat negative view of the proceedings.

I think anyone with a deep interest in the trial should definitely pick-up this book. But I also think it would be a bit much for anyone else.

[ArizonaTank]

Just finished, "Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War," by  Daniel J. Sharfstein.

This is a great, well-written and gripping account of the Nez Perce War of 1877. The campaign saw a relatively small band of Nez Perce attempt to escape to Canada after fighting started when the US Army tried to force them onto a reservation. Led by Chief Joseph, whose real name translates to something like "Thunder in the Mountains" (according to the book), the band confounded its US Army pursuers for nearly 1200 miles through Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, getting to within 40 miles of the Canadian border before being forced to surrender.  The Nez Perce even crossed the newly created Yellowstone National Park, crossing paths with some early, and very unfortunate tourists.

The book does an excellent job of covering the major protagonists. The author brings the story together in a way that does not place blame, but lets the reader judge for themselves the right and wrong of the campaign.

If the book has any failing, it is that it is not great in its coverage of the campaign from a military perspective. Certainly all the battles, and even minor skirmishes are covered. But the book describes these events from the experiences of combatants, and has only high level details of tactics, strategy and troop movements.

Still, despite this "failing" the book is highly readable, and exciting, despite the ultimate tragedy of the campaign. I highly recommend it for even casual readers interested in the subject. 

https://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Mountains-Joseph-Oliver-Howard/dp/0393355659/ref=sr_1_1?crid=CQPL0F2S656P&keywords=thunder+in+the+mountains+book&qid=1704377345&sprefix=thunder+in+the+mou%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1

[Gusington]

Now reading 'Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning' by Timothy Snyder.

[ArizonaTank]

About half-way through "Cobb" by Al Stump.

This is a controversial biography of Ty Cobb, the "Georgia Peach," undoubtedly one of the greatest baseball players in history.

The book was published in the '90s, and is the basis for the movie "Cobb" with Tommy Lee Jones. The author spent several months living with Cobb just before Cobb's death in 1961. The author's portrayal of Cobb is best summed up by his quote from Ernest Hemingway, who had gone hunting with Cobb. Hemingway cut the trip short after seeing Cobb's violent temper. Hemingway said Cobb had a "screw lose." Hemingway summed Cobb up by saying that 'Cobb was the greatest baseball player ever, but an absolute sh#t."

The book is controversial, because recent scholarship is starting to cast doubt on the 'evil Cobb' characterization. It's pretty clear that Cobb had a violent temper, and treated baseball "something like a war," but was not necessarily 'evil.' I am planning to read another more recent biography to balance out this one. Like most things in life, I expect the real Cobb was somewhere in the middle.

Sadly, like many things in the US today, even the more than 100 year old question about Cobb's character is becoming a political litmus test (among the truly small circle of folks who still care about baseball's dead-ball era).

As a read, Stump's "Cobb" is definitely a baseball book, but the structure is sometimes flawed. Stump's "Cobb" is still an entertaining read. But given the state of scholarship on Cobb's life, I am taking it with a grain of salt.   

https://www.amazon.com/Cobb-Biography-Al-Stump/dp/1565121449/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3JMO4WXUVTRPA&keywords=ty+cobb+al+stump&qid=1704550320&sprefix=ty+cobb+stu%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-2

[Gusington]

Whenever people mention Ty Cobb the scene and comments from Field of Dreams from Shoeless Joe are the first things that pop into my head.

'Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!'

[ArizonaTank]

Whenever people mention Ty Cobb the scene and comments from Field of Dreams from Shoeless Joe are the first things that pop into my head.

'Ty Cobb wanted to play, but none of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!'

Great movie and great line; and true for many players.

Cobb regularly had serious brawls, with fists flying. He pretty much fought everybody, including other players, an umpire and even players on his team.

He was often suspended for fighting. But he was so good, and his box-office draw so important, that the suspensions didn't last long.

He did get along with some other players however, and even had a few 'friends.'

One of Cobb's friends was "Shoeless Joe Jackson." Cobb and Jackson often traded notes on batting.

Interestingly, 30 years after "Shoeless Joe" was suspended, Cobb was passing through Greenville, North Carolina, and stopped by the liquor store that Joe owned and operated. It was Cobb's way of supporting him. Cobb apparently asked Joe to autograph a baseball.

[ArizonaTank]

Since the first Ty Cobb book I read was so controversial, I had to read a more recent one...and one that goes out of its way to call out "inaccuracies" in the first.

So I just completed:

Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen

https://www.amazon.com/Ty-Cobb-Terrible-Charles-Leerhsen/dp/1451645791/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1705434661&sr=1-1

I've already talked alot about Cobb, so I will just say that this more recent book is better structured than the first, and seems to be better researched. I recommend it for anyone interested in Cobb and the Deadball Era.

To answer the question of the hour however, Cobb was not evil; just a super-star who was combative and sometimes behaved very badly. He was often violent in his youth. He strove to dominate the game, and did it with more "bite" than "bark." When he slid into third-base on a steal, spikes high and flashing in the sun, he was purposely trying to intimidate the poor third-baseman, and it often worked. This often led to inside the clubhouse and under the bleachers brawling, before and after games. But on occasion, he also got into brawls with hotel staff, a heckler in the stands, a waitress, a construction worker, and a butcher. Like a modern bad-boy celebrity, a team of lawyers pretty much cleaned up after him with settlement payments. Later in life, he calmed down, and seemed to regret the rage of his youth.

What I find fascinating about Cobb, is that he was a complex character, who didn't fit into a "box." He was not a mindless brawler. He was highly intelligent, and often spent his time-off reading books, listening to classical music, going to the opera or visiting museums. He started out with little to his name, but had a knack for making money, and became very rich and successful in business. He may or may not have been a racist in his youth, but in his final years, he fully supported the black players entering baseball like Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campenella. As far as his violent temper, it may have been part act in his youth, and part actual rage. In his early years playing, he tried to throw opposing teams off their game through what we would call today, 'psych-outs.' For example, he got a reputation for "sharpening" his spikes before a game, and at the time he may have encouraged the idea to intimidate his opponents. However it is pretty clear that he never actually sharpened his spikes. In later life, this image of slicing spikes stuck with him, and he seemed to regret it. 
 

[Toonces]

I just finished a fairly popular book here on Grogs: Castles of Steel by Massie. 

If you don't know, it's a naval history of WW1 and covers the major battles.  I tried multiple times to get into this book; the secret is to just plow through the first 50 pages of background on William - the German leader - and get into the good stuff.

It's long, but once I got through the initial background I couldn't put it down. 

I haven't tried the book's predecessor: Dreadnought, yet.  I'm not sure I'll enjoy it as much.

Currently reading: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.  I'm not sure if I'm enjoying it.  I'm very much not into Wouk's writing style.

[Tripoli]

I just finished a fairly popular book here on Grogs: Castles of Steel by Massie. 

If you don't know, it's a naval history of WW1 and covers the major battles.  I tried multiple times to get into this book; the secret is to just plow through the first 50 pages of background on William - the German leader - and get into the good stuff.

It's long, but once I got through the initial background I couldn't put it down. 

I haven't tried the book's predecessor: Dreadnought, yet.  I'm not sure I'll enjoy it as much.

Currently reading: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.  I'm not sure if I'm enjoying it.  I'm very much not into Wouk's writing style.

Dreadnought is also very good, and is well worth your time.  I personally liked The Caine Mutiny, but it has been 40 years since I read it.  It was one of Wouk's earlier works.  If you haven't tried them, take a look at "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance".  I really liked those two books, and the miniseries based on them is outstanding

[ArizonaTank]

I just finished a fairly popular book here on Grogs: Castles of Steel by Massie. 

If you don't know, it's a naval history of WW1 and covers the major battles.  I tried multiple times to get into this book; the secret is to just plow through the first 50 pages of background on William - the German leader - and get into the good stuff.

It's long, but once I got through the initial background I couldn't put it down. 

I haven't tried the book's predecessor: Dreadnought, yet.  I'm not sure I'll enjoy it as much.

Currently reading: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.  I'm not sure if I'm enjoying it.  I'm very much not into Wouk's writing style.

Dreadnought is also very good, and is well worth your time.  I personally liked The Caine Mutiny, but it has been 40 years since I read it.  It was one of Wouk's earlier works.  If you haven't tried them, take a look at "Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance".  I really liked those two books, and the miniseries based on them is outstanding

+1 Agree that Dreadnought and Castles of Steel are both really good.

[Gusington]

I read Dreadnought many many years ago - my first Massie book - and he is one of my favorite authors ever. Castles of Steel has been on my to read list forever, just haven't got to it yet.