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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Comments:
Apr '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Cont'd
Techno: Norman Friedman's Battleship Design and Development, 1905-1945; Japanese Crusiers of World War 2 (don't remember the author, but it was a Naval Institute Press book); James F. Dunnigan's Dirty Little Secrets ... series.
Semi-archaic, but things were simpler then, and even now it is useful to have a ship able to shrug off an Exocet missile while battering the hell out of a position 15 miles inland. (Dunnigan is semi-modern.)
Espionage/Intelligence: Of Spies and Stratagems by Stanley Lovell; Double-Edged Secrets by W. J. Holmes.
The venal and prosaic and the very clever.
Geo/Political: Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783; Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought; Speculatively, Martin Caidin's When War Comes. Also, fictionally, and Cold War-ily Tregaskis's China Bomb. A Peace to End All Peace, by David Fromkin. (I haven't read the super-album remix, but merely the original volume.)
It gets even more grab-bagged from here.
Edited on February 12, 2012 at 9:23amOct '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Byron Horatio
Daniel Turner
I am looking for a good fictional work that covers the Punic Wars (Hannibal, Carthage, etc.). Any suggestions? · 4 hours ago
Edited 4 hours ago
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SeeScipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleonby B.H. Lidell Hart. A great examination of the Roman general who defeated Hannibal. Also, I've heardGhosts of Cannaeis really good as well.
4 hours ago
Also, take a look at Adrian Goldsworthy. I think he has a book on the Punic Wars. And there is a book called Hannibal's War, but I don't remember the author's name.
Apr '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Cont'd
Caidin wrote a bunch of popular Air Force history, including Thunderbolt!, Fork-Tailed Devils, Flying Forts, A Torch to the Enemy, and The Night Hamburg Died.
Pretty grim, turning people into human torches. Sometimes you do what you must.
Viet Nam particularly: Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, Sheehan's A Bright, Shining Lie, Prochnau's Once Upon a Distant War.
I don't have a lot of confidence in these as reportage, but they have some insight (and perhaps more insight into the reporters than the stories they told).
Bob Crisp's Brazen Chariots and Crenshaw's The Battle of Tassafaronga.
A single North African campaign, and a single Pacific battle, a memoir and a defeat, well-told.
Okay, I think I'm done.
Aug '11
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
Drew Hankins
Byron Horatio
Daniel Turner
I am looking for a good fictional work that covers the Punic Wars (Hannibal, Carthage, etc.). Any suggestions? · 4 hours ago
Edited 4 hours ago
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SeeScipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleonby B.H. Lidell Hart. A great examination of the Roman general who defeated Hannibal. Also, I've heardGhosts of Cannaeis really good as well.
4 hours ago
Also, take a look at Adrian Goldsworthy. I think he has a book on the Punic Wars. And there is a book called Hannibal's War, but I don't remember the author's name. · 15 hours ago
Those are all great suggestions that I will have to investigate. I've also heard of Carthage Must be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles. Are any of you familiar with it? I just wish that VDH or Donald Kagan would give the full treatment to the Punic Wars that they have given to the Peloponessian Wars.
Feb '12
Re: Your Favorite Books on War
I heartily agree with that. If you want a readable and straightforward but engaging recounting of Hannibal's expedition to Italy, it's hard to beat the old G. A. Henty book The Young Carthaginian. I find his books to be a good introduction to the period he writes about. He was aiming his books for young boys of his era (Victorian) which means, of course, that he was targeting readers with a deeper historical education than the typical college grad of today.
I didn't discover the Henty books until my 40s but I've been devouring as many as I could find. Great books for boys and girls (and adults) as they celebrate honor, valor, sacrifice and discern good from evil without the taint of our PC culture.