Your Favorite Books on War
Now that we're in a semi-respite from the Republican cat fight, how about we turn our thoughts to other issues? I love great books on war (knowing, of course, that this is not politically correct, as I should be engaging in "Peace Studies"). It is a subject that has produced some of our greatest literature, both non-fiction and fiction.
To get things rolling, here are a few of my non-fiction favorites: E. B. Sledge, With the Old Breed (VDH says--and he's right--that this is the single best personal memoir of a soldier--in Sledge's case, one at Pelelieu and Okinawa); Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers (demonstrating that if you don't have good company commanders, you don't have a good army); Andrew Roberts' The Storm of War (the best new one volume history of World War II--Roberts was recently interviewed by Peter on "Uncommon Knowledge"), and James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Tried by War (the first is the go-to single volume history of the war and the second is a brilliant examination of Lincoln as war president). Each is readable and each illuminates its subject, from the intimate to the strategic.
In fiction, Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate stands alone: a great war book, but also one of the greatest pieces of literature of the twentieth century. Less great, but nonetheless powerful, is The Black Flower, by Howard Bahr, a relatively obscure southern writer who has written three great civil war novels. Black Flower, which is set during and after the Battle of Franklin, will break your heart.
The question: What are your favorite books in which war is either the main subject or a central element? And why?
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Sep '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power by VDH. Excellent overview of why western culture triumphed in war over greater powers.
Edited on Feb 10 at 8:11amSep '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
It's a Cold War book, but I really liked We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History by John Lewis Gaddis. Includes a lot of stuff that has become declassified since the fall of the USSR.
Jun '10
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Gaddis also wrote an excellent short history of the Cold War. I lived through it, but am encouraging my children (all adults now) to read it. It's pretty hard to understand today's world without at least a working knowledge of the Cold War. This volume will soon be replaced by Peter Robinson's book on the Cold War.
Jul '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Forgotten Soldier.....Sajer, The Road Past Mandalay....John Masters.
Edited on Feb 10 at 8:47amJul '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Oops
Edited on Feb 10 at 8:48amJun '10
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
DocJay: Oops · 1 minute ago
Edited 0 minutes ago
Is that Oops: The Foreign Policy Successes of Jimmy Carter? Was it good?
Edited on Feb 10 at 8:52amMar '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
For war fiction, there simply is no greater writer of the WWII experience than Herman Wouk (America's greatest author of fiction, in my opinion). The Caine Mutiny is an engrossing picture of what it's like to be on a destroyer minesweeper in WWII, and while they're great fiction and compelling family drama, the Winds of War and the sequel War and Remembrance are also the finest histories of WWII you'll find anywhere. You'll learn more about that war from beginning to end in those books than you'll learn in many academic textbooks.
For you gadget freaks out there, if you want to really settle the debate about what the best weapons of WWII were, I highly encourage you to pick up a book called Arms of Destruction, which makes a detailed but very interesting analysis of guns, cannons, and armor from the war, looking at their strengths, weaknesses, and rendering judgement on just what was the best there was to offer. It'll change the way you think about weaponry, especially what makes a "good" weapon. The author looks at manufacturing, reliability, durability... so much more goes into "good" than you think.
Mar '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
DocJay: Forgotten Soldier.....Sajer, The Road Past Mandalay....John Masters. · 6 minutes ago
Edited 5 minutes ago
I'm also a big fan of The Forgotten Soldier. Any thoughts on the memoir/novel controversy the book has engendered? Or does it even matter?
Jun '10
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Wouk is interesting. A good, workman-like writer who was able to capture the sweep of the war in a fictional format in Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Although I would never call those two books great literature, I think you are right that a lot of people learned more about WWII from them than from academic sources. They are certainly worth reading again, and I loved Robert Mitchum in the mini-series. The Caine Mutiny is a great book.
Mar '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Tab, my problem with McPherson's Civil War books is that, try as he may to cloak it with academic language, the man simply loathes the South and Southerners. And the feeling is mutual.
BTW, being a former sailor, my tastes usually draw to nautical subjects, and I'm looking forward to reading a book called Neptune's Inferno about the Guadalcanal naval campaign. I heard the author on the Midrats podcast (a fantastic military and naval podcast), and it sounds fantastic.
Mar '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels certainly should be on anyone's list.
Jul '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Basil Fawlty, I read a response of his written in the 90's where he disputed all these technical details by stating what your brain is like in the middle of war is not exactly like reading a map.
Sep '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
I'm with Basil--the Aubrey/Maturin novels are a wonder to behold.
Oct '10
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Without doubt biased and more than a bit self-serving, I've never read anything that puts one inside the senior decision-making process of a major conflict which can equal Churchill's six-volume history, The Second World War. Note that this account was written while the breaking of German codes and the impact of the information that yielded upon the battle of the Atlantic and Allied assessment of German strategy remained secret, and Churchill's recounting of some events, respecting the Official Secrets Act, is therefore sometimes less than candid.
Jun '10
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
I've never perceived the bias you describe, but then I tend to be a northerner at heart. The antidote would be Shelby Foote's three-volume Civil War. Foote's is certainly the most beautifully written.
Mar '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
There's an interesting Wikipedia entry on the book here.
Apr '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
John Keegan's World War I is excellent; to my mind, the most tragic of all wars.
Michael Lind's The Necessary War changed my mind about some aspects of the Vietnam War, and made me look a bit more kindly toward Kennedy, LBJ and Nixon.
Jul '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
We were soldiers once, and young is just great. One of my favorites is also Something of Value by Robert Ruark about the Mao Mao uprising. A chronicle of the Zulu wars called The Washing of the Spears is sweet.
Jul '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Oooh Basil, a movie. Sweet.
Mar '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Crucible of War was fantastic. Anderson did a great job of interweaving the high-level and ground-level to a create a very thorough and very readable book. If you are interested in the Seven Years' War and the Pre-Revolutionary period then this is a must read.
Has anyone read Men At War? Stumbled across it at my library recently and it looks great but haven't picked it up yet.