What are we reading?

[Redwolf]

With Sharpe I find that the TV shows are actually better than the books.

[Redwolf]

Tom Cooper's 2017 piece:

Hot Skies Over Yemen: Aerial Warfare Over the Southern Arabian Peninsula: Volume 1 - 1962-1994

https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Skies-Over-Yemen-Peninsula/dp/1912174235/ref=sr_1_2

[Sir Slash]

Just started, Case Red: The Collapse of France 1940 by the ever-insightful Robert Forczyk. Gonna be a good one.   

[ArizonaTank]

Just started, Case Red: The Collapse of France 1940 by the ever-insightful Robert Forczyk. Gonna be a good one.   

Excellent book.

Also recommend his book, "Where the Iron Crosses Grow." History of the WWII Crimean campaign.

https://www.amazon.com/Where-Iron-Crosses-Grow-Military/dp/1472816781/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3MP8JN6WJVR4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ETAELNe1nnOB7lbPeDHeCnIwyCBzfHSGYbO4ybWr2J9YokjrGjkG278HY_ExdgSquzA4b8_H0aHmafwFHLOF7hqr40F2gfOU5hxmE7alBgwaTl7k63WdqAmYrmv8iVffVf5c6alp_RT1gomYnjvEJ6ObwJNhVh5VNEsCXMIRe3dNCzU9W9Y6Z05GKU54TXYhvkXMkBsQN0NQhVuCLcfKu4zK3VBcQ60LG4_WwwPjvLM._3OUAODMDnnOF1X4BskvbtHXByyfUcodW9o68DpdEuk&dib_tag=se&keywords=where+the+iron+crosses+grow&qid=1726243428&sprefix=where+the+iron+c%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1

[Sir Slash]

Next on my list Tank. 

[nelmsm]

Finished Atkinson's book "The British are Coming", highly recommend, and started Sears' Gettysburg.  I mean, you can't read enough books on Gettysburg right.

[ArizonaTank]

Just finished a double-header on the Peloponnesian War.

Ancient Greek wars are a bit of a historical blind-spot with me, so I decided to get smart...well smarter anyway...:)

Actually, I found the books to be good, but the subject was depressing. It shows that human nature is basically the same despite nearly 2500 years. "Mercenaries, break into a boys school and kill all the children" could have come out of todays headlines...but it happened in 413BC. There are craven politicians stoking their constituent's fear to send troops off to fight, or torpedo peace negotiations. There is the pre-eminent super-power sending huge numbers of troops and treasure to fight a far-off war with little or no possible gain or reason. There are massacres and more massacres.

I also learned a few surprising things: 1) The war was primarily a naval one. There were only two major land battles in the whole 30 years. 2) There were no "good guys." The Athenian democracy could be very brutal to anyone who tried revolt against their empire. And the Spartans were no slouches in that sense either.     

But back to the books:

First up:  "The Peloponnesian War" by Donald Kagan. A good, solid telling of the 30 years that make up the period of war between the Spartans and Athens. The book is more about "what" and "why"... for "how" the next book is best.

Next: "A War Like No Other" by Victor Davis Hanson. The author is a military writer and this book goes into the "how" of the war. How did hoplites and triremes fight for example.

Links to both books are below:

https://www.amazon.com/Peloponnesian-War-Donald-Kagan/dp/0142004375/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1U5RM2NAMZFS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Nbj13AD5lJJZopLLi913D9iY4t3KOeIJvWxbVWqQkHPblicAL0wVgCMgyS7YF7Mm7kEblgCpNpu2AVks7GLVOjpXxoSJtBXK9XM2tZrO0Dvfxw9AEpAcSq89eZqBgzgFkJnIqLwv_wToVu-Vp5gw1bYDl2ZMkw_sHmHtJ0xVBFREwJZoD6oxTjfxNQbv1VLibg9pHQAKQ-6opZv9RLwI-yvD02GjoI8zG99A_feVoeQ.t_w5emWTbEc-X2phAKEUWrVroeHWW80gFpscAu7PHxY&dib_tag=se&keywords=donald+kagan+peloponnesian+war&qid=1734547789&sprefix=donald+kag%2Caps%2C169&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Other-Athenians-Spartans-Fought-Peloponnesian/dp/0413775259/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1FOEG7LW8G7HA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.-yrStIVLnYFYfIFMoktF85Ehail_lh7IX8kTWeINTSBm24_GEI2Y5WDjYpaly4Tqg09XPk-RJ888ZMW4FyTcBiK-WvZk1Ewnp-aMdUBv5dn97VAlFTu7Df9vMBgTXasI.bnH4vJ2WpjTjschcgSUMoGnlk_VEhp9iJOTzJ36FHUo&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+war+like+no+other+victor+davis+hanson&qid=1734547869&sprefix=a+war+%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-2

[JasonPratt]

How did hoplites and triremes fight for example.

Hoplites fought triremes by sinking straight to the bottom in their armor, out of reach of archers on the ships; but their ultra-long spears allowed them to stab upward poking holes into the hulls. Thus a tense struggle developed: could the hoplites sink the triremes before drowning?

 

[ArizonaTank]

How did hoplites and triremes fight for example.

Hoplites fought triremes by sinking straight to the bottom in their armor, out of reach of archers on the ships; but their ultra-long spears allowed them to stab upward poking holes into the hulls. Thus a tense struggle developed: could the hoplites sink the triremes before drowning?

 

For want of a comma...the war was lost...

[Redwolf]

FYI information, "Stuka Pilot" by Hans-Ulrich Rudel is now in the public domain:

https://archive.org/details/StukaPilotHansUlrichRudel99pgs

The epub didn't work for me, but the pdf is fine. Wish I could get a German edition, but alas...

[ArizonaTank]

Theoretical Physics Combo....

Just finished wonderful biographies of two of the greatest minds in the 20th century:

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird.


The early 20th Century was a "Golden Age" of theoretical physics. Einstein jump started it with his Special and General Theories of Relativity. But very quickly, the science moved on to quantum mechanics. Einstein believed that the entire universe could be explained by a yet to be discovered well-ordered unifying theory. While the quantum scientists, led by Niels Bohr, described a quantum world full of randomness and uncertainty. A long open and vigorous debate went on until Einsteins death:

Einstein: "God does not play Dice."

Niels Bohr: "Einstein, stop telling God what to do!"

In contrast to Einstein, Oppenheimer was squarely in the quantum camp. Oppenheimer's genius was less about theory and more about synthesizing the disparate work of others.

Both books are great biographies, and I highly recommend them. The Einstein book delves more deeply into the science, while American Prometheus only describes it with broad strokes. There are some much better books on the technical aspects of the Manhattan Project, but American Promethius does a great job in describing the man. 

American Prometheus is basis the for the movie Oppenheimer, and I have to say that the movie did a great job in capturing the spirit of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Prometheus-Triumph-Tragedy-Oppenheimer/dp/0375412026/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.JOQCDTGlv4TcQ1L-4-ITcLmgq5G_t6rZ16uDU-KvCukLXvI722tkAtD1ksj1Dop5TdFURbsPuv2j0XTUyeXqTCZJKzx11F7f1s5JbW98LVtALtxPmIjRFXjNfxHmFygJ0obpe5RVxLbMcJm5FYeUmPj_7dM2CKvuStWbo9vJxz6oXVj7a6ov_J2h37WPV_JxChQDkviwSiBfLty7lsabyRgpEXlmQAFAvdPSWZKtHu0.KBZVq-9vSDoVvSXxxN4R_iVz_AiGUijrljkzg4ONBI4&qid=1737344160&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Life-Universe-Walter-Isaacson/dp/0743264738/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dmxozqxcSQFKsD9c3Way5O4yvl9Q7rA9xpsFxAJ5_m64-7Jm4_TJgAhlBWd49HSBW8rB2URG9QJQibZHJa6zrlnTV_AVrxKg2gZ5u_MQFU08-0v7AQv9tdrRAgDGwzgHzaFoXVmUvWJz0HW3Ki9m491VYlkrABHSpxPzK38Qpr7YdCrmynxwPUKMvLxeN-geu63M8zbkJxYH71eIAskVVrjN0O3G2-oT9gapLba6YlLeKdv6sHsWzgfjQwsLP4Q0fHX_4gcSZrXh9DOmL1KijuNsLnPbkZjVrntkzdsLODtpUrNj7S4Mfuja86SLZuDu0WHiHM2BEZNv3NLiLnIzcFATObBCchf4cNenCFi3yifJL0uu94z9Zb5hL7oQbkqiG9CVYbITMoxR6UhtFTk4GuLkukB7VMo2vjx_HvWYoTW6ijX1lp4oqrNE2ipGE2qr.2ieUHjdog8EUvERqVpit5UPkBi1rHw2tfJKUNZtA2hU&qid=1737344056&sr=8-6

[JasonPratt]

I still remember a sidenote from the authors of my high-school physics textbook quipping an elegant reconciliation between Einstein and Borh: "Not only does God play dice with the universe, evidently He loads them!"

[Pete Dero]

I still remember a sidenote from the authors of my high-school physics textbook quipping an elegant reconciliation between Einstein and Borh: "Not only does God play dice with the universe, evidently He loads them!"

I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. (Albert Einstein, 1954 )

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/belief-in-god-a-product-of-human-weaknesses-einstein-letter-1.720056

[ArizonaTank]

I still remember a sidenote from the authors of my high-school physics textbook quipping an elegant reconciliation between Einstein and Borh: "Not only does God play dice with the universe, evidently He loads them!"

I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. (Albert Einstein, 1954 )

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/belief-in-god-a-product-of-human-weaknesses-einstein-letter-1.720056

I have only read one biography, so I could be way off.

According to the biography, Einstein expressed belief in God, but not a personal God. Einstein's God was one that is only concerned with the orderliness of the universe. Einstein took interest in the 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza's description of God (a.k.a. Spinoza's god). At one point Einstein expressed that the beauty of the theories describing how the universe works (like his own General Theory of Relativity) were actually proof of God's existence. Thus, Einstein insisted that God "does not play dice," since God would not have introduced randomness into a well-ordered system.

However, at the same time, Einstein did not believe in "religion," organized or otherwise. 

The two quotes you posted seem somewhat inconsistent with the biography. Perhaps it is because they are from the end of Einstein's life (if 1954 is correct), and his beliefs may have shifted as he got older.

Here is a nice snopes article about Einstein and Spinoza's philosophy that synchs more with what I read in the book.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/einstein-pantheism-baruch-spinoza/

Oppenheimer on the other hand, apparently had no belief in God.

While neither man was religious, both Einstein and Oppenheimer were very supportive of Judaism from a secular and cultural point of view. Because of his support and advocacy, Einstein was even offered the Presidency of Isreal at one point; he turned it down. While Oppenheimer used his personal fortune to help Jewish families escape Nazi Germany.

[Pete Dero]

The two quotes you posted seem somewhat inconsistent with the biography. Perhaps it is because they are from the end of Einstein's life (if 1954 is correct), and his beliefs may have shifted as he got older.

"I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist."

Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, July 2, 1945, responding to a rumor that a Jesuit priest had caused Einstein to convert from atheism

For Einstein, the word "God" was a placeholder for unknown forces (the entirety of natural laws). His famous quote "God does not play dice with the Universe" is talking about Einstein's own resistance to the ideas presented by Quantum Physics (based on coincidence).