Posted on 01/10/2014 5:48:26 PM PST by dynachrome
War is unquestionably mankind at his worst. Yet, paradoxically, it is in war that men — individual men — often show the very best of themselves. War is often the result of greed, stupidity, or depravity. But in it, men are often brave, loyal, and selfless.
I am not a soldier. I have no plans to become one. But I’ve studied war for a long time. I am not alone in this.
The greats have been writing and reading about war — its causes, its effects, its heroes, its victims — since the beginning of written text. Some of our most powerful literature is either overtly about war or profoundly influenced by it. Homer’s epic poems are about war — first, ten years of battle against Troy and then ten years of battle against nature and the gods. Thucydides, our first great historian, wrote about the Peloponnesian War — the great war between Sparta and Athens. Rome was built by war and literature, and the world has been influenced by that ever since. The American Empire is no different — our men came home and wrote about the Civil War, about the Spanish-American War, about WWI, about WWII. A new generation has come home and has written (and is still writing) powerful books about the counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The study of war is the study of life, because war is life in the rawest sense. It is death, fear, power, love, adrenaline, sacrifice, glory, and the will to survive.
(Excerpt) Read more at artofmanliness.com ...
Post of the day, if not the week. Good list. I need to get some of these books. I’ve read a few.
Yes it is, I only wish Fregosi would produce a companion piece ‘Jihad in the East’ that would deal with Moslems whether Arab or Turk or semi-Mongol and their excellent adventures in Anatolia, India and Central Asia. ‘Jihad in the West’ is not an easy book to find. it was only published once and has been black balled by virtually the entire publishing industry due to the intense push back that the Islamos and their western Quislings gave it. It can be found at ABE Books and through Amazon but be prepared to pay $40 and upp for a copy. I am convinced the Islamos are using their Saudi-Gulf Arab petro-dollars to buy copies up on the the and are slowly but steadily sending this book down the memory hole. Copies at US Army libraries have been withdrawn, I am told, and one has to go to Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to get a copy.
Thanks, and I see from your list that you've read "Halsey’s Typhoon". That's another almost unbelievable account of survival at sea during an event few know about.
Thanks, and I see from your list that you've read "Halsey’s Typhoon". That's another almost unbelievable account of survival at sea during an event few know about.
I agree. His intent was only the European expansion as is noted in the book. I was not aware of the pushback by Islamists. I have my copy.
One of the stories that blew me away was the account of the guys body surfing down the waves, calling out to each other and joking.
The uncrushable human spirit on display there.
I can’t imagine the terror of being below decks in one of those vessels in pitch black, huddled with your shipmates, saying the Lord’s prayer, and each time the ship took a roll, never knowing if that was going to be the one that would do them in.
Terrifying.
I used to work with three Federal agents who were WWII navy veterans. They talked about the war a lot and I still remember them discussing the great typhoon.
One of them was probably the best man I ever knew.
I noticed—8 Civil War books, six from the position of the aggressors, two from a more neutral position, and none from the position of the righteous.
My favorite movie, bar none.
If you haven't read the book, do yourself the favor. You'll appreciate them even more after reading about what they went through during that storm.
Same thing I noticed. I have an old Encyclopedia Britannica. I have noticed it seems to be much more fair in its articles about the CW.
Exactly, and description of the body surfing isn't something I'll forget either.
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailor
Submarine
John Mahon’s ‘War of 1812’ is not only a masterful one volume treatment it is the chef d’oeuvre of a very fine academic scholar who was professionally trained before the advent of political correctness and cultural marxism.
For New Orleans Robin Reilly's ‘Enemy at the Gates’ is an excellent history of the British campaign on the Gulf Coast and the Battle of New Orleans (Of which the 199th Anniversary will be celebrated this weekend in NOLA. Reilly was an Englishman who ran an antique store in the French Quarter for 20 some years before returning to the UK. back in the UK he produced a very good one volume biography of Pitt the Younger. A man who considered himself as much American as British his account of the NOLA campaign is hard to beat.
Finally and old (1943) but still very good book on the Baltimore-Washington campaign id Neil Swanson's ‘The Perilous Fight’. It might be hard to find but it is worth looking for. The author sifted contemporary sources to produce a book that really is ‘hard to put down’.
Finally, for the commander of the ‘defenders of Baltimore’ there is a solidly researched and well written biography, “Merchant Congressman in the Young republic, Samuel Smith of Maryland 1752-1839”, by Frank Cassell. This is also a fascinating illumination of the Revolutionary Generation through the life of one of the third tier actors who had a nearly endless career in politics and commerce afterwards. Interestingly, the dust jacket is decorated with a copy of the Rembrandt Peale portrait of Smith in the uniform of Major General as the Defender of Baltimore.
Books such as this summon, however faintly, the shades of those who defended our nation long ago in a now almost forgotten conflict. By reading about these men we once again acquaint ourselves with a vanished generation of patriots and by coming to know them do them honor again (and recognize some genuine villains of almost 20th century scale such as MG James Wilkinson).
There is another book on my list that deserves mention: “Neptune’s Inferno”.
It describes the naval battles around Guadalcanal in 1942, and it is largely unknown to many Americans.
Many Americans have heard of Guadalcanal, but far fewer of them know the details of the naval battles around the island. The savagery, ferocity, brutality and horror outpaced the land battle in casualties by a four to one ratio. (4000 allied sailors died in those naval battles compared to about a thousand in the land battle)
When you think that many of those naval deaths occurred in a matter of hours or days of total time, it gives an idea of the incredible violence of naval engagements with gunfire and torpedoes between two relatively evenly matched opponents.
The accounts in that book of the no-holds barred brutality, and the horrible common prevalence of mariners being eaten by sharks is enough to make your blood run cold.
My wife had an uncle who served in the Pacific, and she said he wouldn’t even put his feet in the ocean. I never talked to him, but I always wondered what he had seen or experienced.
History is written by the victors.
I had a chance (and privilege) to spend a few hours in conversation back in the early nineties with the man who was the ship’s doctor on the USS Indianapolis when she went down.
What struck me was he said he became a very religious man, but to that day, he couldn’t even say the Lord’s Prayer (because they had simply been saying it over and over again for days on end).
But what struck me even more was the intensity of his reaction nearly fifty years after the event. As he spoke, he became extremely emotional, his face became beet red, and he was extremely distressed. When I said “Please...don’t talk about it anymore” because I could see how upset he was, he insisted “No, I don’t talk about it much...never, really...”
I have seen emotional veterans, but the raw and powerful emotion was a shock to me.
Completely understandable, given his story.
We also lost an Admiral, Scot in those fierce battles. The Japanese were generally having the best of it until we got two battleships there. At that time the Japanese were very good at night fighting naval battles.
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