Two good reads by Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage about the Lewis and Clark expedition and Nothing Like It in the World about the construction of the Union Pacific railroad.

I loved Undaunted Courage

(02-23-2015 11:31 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 04:32 PM)Smaug Wrote:  About to start Destiny of the Republic about the assassination of James Garfield. Reviews looked good. I'll update when I've finished it.

intriguing. definitely look forward to reading your thoughts

Enjoying it so far.

Things I didn't know about James Garfield:

He was a real rags to riches story. Born dirt poor, he talked himself into a teeny little jerkwater prep school "with no endowment and nary a powerful friend anywhere", where he paid his tuition by working as the janitor his first year. His second year, he was teaching classes. He came back after college and at the age of 26 was named school president.

He got the 1880 Republican nomination on the 39th ballot, and he wasn't even running. He was there to give the nomination speech for fellow Ohioan John Sherman (William T's younger brother), and against his wishes, and much to his dismay, got the nomination on the 39th ballot.

It's no wonder parties don't pick candidates on the convention floor any more. It was insane.

People talk about what might have been if Kennedy hadn't died, but I think it's a great philosophical question for Garfield.

He was a real reformer, particularly trying to shut down the spoils system and create a merit system for civil servants. Also, he was much more conciliatory to the south than Hayes was.

In his nomination speech for Sherman, "This is our only revenge - that you join us in lifting into the serene firmament of the Constitution...the immortal principles of truth and justice: that all men, white or black, shall be free, and shall stand equal before the law."

(03-05-2015 01:14 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 11:31 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 04:32 PM)Smaug Wrote:  About to start Destiny of the Republic about the assassination of James Garfield. Reviews looked good. I'll update when I've finished it.

intriguing. definitely look forward to reading your thoughts

Enjoying it so far.

Things I didn't know about James Garfield:

He was a real rags to riches story. Born dirt poor, he talked himself into a teeny little jerkwater prep school "with no endowment and nary a powerful friend anywhere", where he paid his tuition by working as the janitor his first year. His second year, he was teaching classes. He came back after college and at the age of 26 was named school president.

He got the 1880 Republican nomination on the 39th ballot, and he wasn't even running. He was there to give the nomination speech for fellow Ohioan John Sherman (William T's younger brother), and against his wishes, and much to his dismay, got the nomination on the 39th ballot.

It's no wonder parties don't pick candidates on the convention floor any more. It was insane.

People talk about what might have been if Kennedy hadn't died, but I think it's a great philosophical question for Garfield.

He was a real reformer, particularly trying to shut down the spoils system and create a merit system for civil servants. Also, he was much more conciliatory to the south than Hayes was.

In his nomination speech for Sherman, "This is our only revenge - that you join us in lifting into the serene firmament of the Constitution...the immortal principles of truth and justice: that all men, white or black, shall be free, and shall stand equal before the law."

quite interesting, I think I'll add it to my list

Charles Guiteau was batshit crazy. He skipped town just ahead of his sister's attempt to have him committed. Thought he was on a mission from God.

Into that Darkness. Non fiction about the Holocaust. Fascinating read.

I am currently reading Through Hell For Hitler. By Henry Metelmann. It is about a Wehrmact's soldier first hand account of the war on the Eastern Front.

(03-02-2015 03:44 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Finished Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Definitely belongs right at the top of my Best Non-Fiction list. It's 1100 pages of in-depth information of Hitler and the Third Reich's calculating rise and horrible (lucky for us) mistakes. Not just continuing to push forward into Russia, but also refusing to properly aid Rommel in his push through north Africa. He was one of the most successful Nazi generals, but Hitler was blinded by continental aspirations and never took north Africa as seriously as he should have. Lack of support eventually allowed the British to throw him back and allow the allies to land and start an assault in Italy. And I'm sure many of you know how Hitler's nonsensical lack of advance towards Dunkirk allowed the British and French to perform a miraculous escape.

I don't know how many of you have the time or desire to read such a lengthy book, but it's worth it.

Went to the library today and picked up Why Nations Fail by Daren Acemoglu

Books that long eating the 'eating the elephant' tactic. It took me two years to reads Keyes' General Theory.

(03-05-2015 01:54 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(03-05-2015 01:14 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 11:31 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(02-23-2015 04:32 PM)Smaug Wrote:  About to start Destiny of the Republic about the assassination of James Garfield. Reviews looked good. I'll update when I've finished it.

intriguing. definitely look forward to reading your thoughts

Enjoying it so far.

Things I didn't know about James Garfield:

He was a real rags to riches story. Born dirt poor, he talked himself into a teeny little jerkwater prep school "with no endowment and nary a powerful friend anywhere", where he paid his tuition by working as the janitor his first year. His second year, he was teaching classes. He came back after college and at the age of 26 was named school president.

He got the 1880 Republican nomination on the 39th ballot, and he wasn't even running. He was there to give the nomination speech for fellow Ohioan John Sherman (William T's younger brother), and against his wishes, and much to his dismay, got the nomination on the 39th ballot.

It's no wonder parties don't pick candidates on the convention floor any more. It was insane.

People talk about what might have been if Kennedy hadn't died, but I think it's a great philosophical question for Garfield.

He was a real reformer, particularly trying to shut down the spoils system and create a merit system for civil servants. Also, he was much more conciliatory to the south than Hayes was.

In his nomination speech for Sherman, "This is our only revenge - that you join us in lifting into the serene firmament of the Constitution...the immortal principles of truth and justice: that all men, white or black, shall be free, and shall stand equal before the law."

quite interesting, I think I'll add it to my list

Just finished it. Really enjoyed it. It's not spoiling anything to say the gunshot wound wasn't fatal, but the attempt to get it out was. Antiseptic surgery had already caught on in Europe, but the US medical establishment thought it was voodoo.

If Garfield had suffered the exact same injury as little as 15 years later, he'd have likely lived.

(03-10-2015 02:39 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2015 03:44 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Finished Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Definitely belongs right at the top of my Best Non-Fiction list. It's 1100 pages of in-depth information of Hitler and the Third Reich's calculating rise and horrible (lucky for us) mistakes. Not just continuing to push forward into Russia, but also refusing to properly aid Rommel in his push through north Africa. He was one of the most successful Nazi generals, but Hitler was blinded by continental aspirations and never took north Africa as seriously as he should have. Lack of support eventually allowed the British to throw him back and allow the allies to land and start an assault in Italy. And I'm sure many of you know how Hitler's nonsensical lack of advance towards Dunkirk allowed the British and French to perform a miraculous escape.

I don't know how many of you have the time or desire to read such a lengthy book, but it's worth it.

Went to the library today and picked up Why Nations Fail by Daren Acemoglu

Books that long eating the 'eating the elephant' tactic. It took me two years to reads Keyes' General Theory.

I'd be interested to know what they say in the Why Nations Fail book. I just finished Rogue Trader which I found very interesting (not too different from the movie, as it turns out), and now starting on Unbroken which was a gift so I'll have to get through that next.

(03-01-2015 11:31 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  

(02-26-2015 03:59 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(02-26-2015 11:12 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  If you've ever been in one of those "Hiroshima wasn't necessary" arguments, read "Retribution" by Max Hastings. You'll wish we had dropped the big one on Tokyo.

Dropping #1 (Hiroshima) was absolutely justified, IMHO. So much so that not using it would have been wrong.

Dropping #2 (Nagasaki) is kind of a gray area to me. It may have been necessary or may not have been. Ideally, I wish Truman had waited another day or two before doing that. The reactions of Japanese authority were, frankly, confused and inconsistent in the hours immediately following Hiroshima, so it's hard to say if "another round" was needed to force them to surrender.

Even after Nagasaki, the position of the generals was to not surrender. When the emperor gave the signal to surrender, many of the generals committed ritual suicide rather than suffer the dishonor of defeat. It is very likely several million more Japanese, mostly elder, woman and children, would have died in a land invasion.

There's another theory that Japan really surrendered because the USSR was about to invade Japan.

(03-23-2015 09:13 AM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-01-2015 11:31 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  

(02-26-2015 03:59 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(02-26-2015 11:12 AM)QuestionSocratic Wrote:  If you've ever been in one of those "Hiroshima wasn't necessary" arguments, read "Retribution" by Max Hastings. You'll wish we had dropped the big one on Tokyo.

Dropping #1 (Hiroshima) was absolutely justified, IMHO. So much so that not using it would have been wrong.

Dropping #2 (Nagasaki) is kind of a gray area to me. It may have been necessary or may not have been. Ideally, I wish Truman had waited another day or two before doing that. The reactions of Japanese authority were, frankly, confused and inconsistent in the hours immediately following Hiroshima, so it's hard to say if "another round" was needed to force them to surrender.

Even after Nagasaki, the position of the generals was to not surrender. When the emperor gave the signal to surrender, many of the generals committed ritual suicide rather than suffer the dishonor of defeat. It is very likely several million more Japanese, mostly elder, woman and children, would have died in a land invasion.

There's another theory that Japan really surrendered because the USSR was about to invade Japan.

Soviet forces captured the Japanese half of Sakhalin Island but they were only using minimal forces to do so, and the Japanese put up a pretty good fight against them. It's possible the Soviets could have diverted forces from August Storm to Vladivostok and attempted an invasion of Hokkaido; but it would probably taken months more preparation on their part and the Japanese would have been able to divert some forces from the defense of Honshu to help out.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%...29#Summary

(03-18-2015 09:53 AM)NIU007 Wrote:  

(03-10-2015 02:39 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2015 03:44 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Finished Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Definitely belongs right at the top of my Best Non-Fiction list. It's 1100 pages of in-depth information of Hitler and the Third Reich's calculating rise and horrible (lucky for us) mistakes. Not just continuing to push forward into Russia, but also refusing to properly aid Rommel in his push through north Africa. He was one of the most successful Nazi generals, but Hitler was blinded by continental aspirations and never took north Africa as seriously as he should have. Lack of support eventually allowed the British to throw him back and allow the allies to land and start an assault in Italy. And I'm sure many of you know how Hitler's nonsensical lack of advance towards Dunkirk allowed the British and French to perform a miraculous escape.

I don't know how many of you have the time or desire to read such a lengthy book, but it's worth it.

Went to the library today and picked up Why Nations Fail by Daren Acemoglu

Books that long eating the 'eating the elephant' tactic. It took me two years to reads Keyes' General Theory.

I'd be interested to know what they say in the Why Nations Fail book. I just finished Rogue Trader which I found very interesting (not too different from the movie, as it turns out), and now starting on Unbroken which was a gift so I'll have to get through that next.

Finished the book last week and took copious notes, some of which I'll post when I get a chance, so you can get an idea of the author's conclusions, hypotheses, etc. It wasn't the easiest read of all time, but I didn't expect it to be, as it's not a history book, but rather an analysis of different societies of the past and present. I can say there was a lot of focus on Britain's glorious revolution. Because of that the next book I picked up was Rebellion: The history of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution. I'm about halfway through and it's pretty detailed, which means it requires a bit more patience. But it's been picking up steam as I imagine Charles is about to be tossed out and Cromwell will probably start his rampage soon. Never learned any of this in school so it's interesting to come into it with absolutely no background. I'm sure bitcruncher lived through it, so this would just be a reminder for him

Hi all, I just found this after 3 years on CNSbbs.

Someone mentioned "Wounded Knee" I read that back in HS. It was the main source for my Senior History Term Paper. Yes, we did those back in the ice age). Got an A on that paper.

Currently reading "Kennedy's Last Stand". Account of theory that Kennedy was done in because of what he knew of and about Area 51. He was actually made privy while still in the Navy. Truman and Eisenhower knew. Heck, Dick Cheney knew.

It also gives a shout out about Eisenhower appointing N Rockefeller to oversee the people in charge of UFO research, etc (MJ-12) and then Rocky began the corporate take over of US via reorganization.
Another I'd recommend based on some of the posts here:
A Little Revenge: Benjamin Franklin and his Son - William Sterne Randall

(05-24-2015 12:01 AM)CatMom Wrote:  Hi all, I just found this after 3 years on CNSbbs.

Someone mentioned "Wounded Knee" I read that back in HS. It was the main source for my Senior History Term Paper. Yes, we did those back in the ice age). Got an A on that paper.

Currently reading "Kennedy's Last Stand". Account of theory that Kennedy was done in because of what he knew of and about Area 51. He was actually made privy while still in the Navy. Truman and Eisenhower knew. Heck, Dick Cheney knew.

It also gives a shout out about Eisenhower appointing N Rockefeller to oversee the people in charge of UFO research, etc (MJ-12) and then Rocky began the corporate take over of US via reorganization.
Another I'd recommend based on some of the posts here:
A Little Revenge: Benjamin Franklin and his Son - William Sterne Randall

I am going to have to check this book out.

I can't believe it took me this long to find this area of CSN. If you are into shipwrecks or treasure hunting I would suggest the below books. #1 is one of my top 5 books.

1.)Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea: The History and Discovery of the World's Richest Shipwreck, Gary Kinder

2.)Treasure Ship: The Legend and Legacy of the S.S. Brother Jonathan, Dennis Powers

(02-22-2015 09:30 PM)CameramanJ Wrote:  

(02-20-2015 07:09 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Went on a trip and didn't wanna carry Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich, so I picked up Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie, who's a master of Russian history and whose previous book, Peter the Great: his life and times, I had read earlier in the year. Anyway, I finished the book about Catherine in a week, it was that good. I believe it was the best historical biography I've ever read. Don't know how many of you are fans of that era, but if so, I'd recommend giving this book a read.

Then while my return flight was delayed, I bought Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization. Another excellent read, and one that I nearly finished in one day. Again, quite good if you're a fan of stuff like that

I'm a fan of Russian history, thanks for the heads up on that first book.

The history channel did a series a while back about the zars and russian history. I thought it was excellent. May be available on demand.

Currently reading The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by Robert Payne. It's an older book, published in 1973, about 590 pages. I'm finding it a little more interesting than a couple other books I read about Hitler some time ago.

(06-20-2015 08:19 PM)dcCid Wrote:  

(02-22-2015 09:30 PM)CameramanJ Wrote:  

(02-20-2015 07:09 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Went on a trip and didn't wanna carry Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich, so I picked up Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie, who's a master of Russian history and whose previous book, Peter the Great: his life and times, I had read earlier in the year. Anyway, I finished the book about Catherine in a week, it was that good. I believe it was the best historical biography I've ever read. Don't know how many of you are fans of that era, but if so, I'd recommend giving this book a read.

Then while my return flight was delayed, I bought Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization. Another excellent read, and one that I nearly finished in one day. Again, quite good if you're a fan of stuff like that

I'm a fan of Russian history, thanks for the heads up on that first book.

The history channel did a series a while back about the zars and russian history. I thought it was excellent. May be available on demand.

Thanks! Anyway, my obsession with Russian history continues. I've now read books about Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra and just finished a fantastic and extremely detailed book about the revolution and the years leading up to it. It's called A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. Just started on a short book called Tsar Alexander I: Paternalistic Reformer. It's short and doesn't seem very scholarly so it shouldn't take me long

(07-11-2015 01:34 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(06-20-2015 08:19 PM)dcCid Wrote:  

(02-22-2015 09:30 PM)CameramanJ Wrote:  

(02-20-2015 07:09 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  Went on a trip and didn't wanna carry Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich, so I picked up Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie, who's a master of Russian history and whose previous book, Peter the Great: his life and times, I had read earlier in the year. Anyway, I finished the book about Catherine in a week, it was that good. I believe it was the best historical biography I've ever read. Don't know how many of you are fans of that era, but if so, I'd recommend giving this book a read.

Then while my return flight was delayed, I bought Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire that Rescued Western Civilization. Another excellent read, and one that I nearly finished in one day. Again, quite good if you're a fan of stuff like that

I'm a fan of Russian history, thanks for the heads up on that first book.

The history channel did a series a while back about the zars and russian history. I thought it was excellent. May be available on demand.

Thanks! Anyway, my obsession with Russian history continues. I've now read books about Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra and just finished a fantastic and extremely detailed book about the revolution and the years leading up to it. It's called A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. Just started on a short book called Tsar Alexander I: Paternalistic Reformer. It's short and doesn't seem very scholarly so it shouldn't take me long

You'd enjoy this book then:



Having Alexander II around for another decade or so could have changed the Russia we know today into a constitutional monarchy instead.