Reddit reviews The World at War

Can't speak to that specific interview, but The World at War has a lot of great interviews with many on all sides of the war. Wouldn't surprise me at all if that interview was part of that series. (Best documentary series ever made, IMHO, well worth watching even almost 40 years after it was made.)

First, I have a very US-centric perspective, so you may notice that in my recommendations. I'm just looking at my bookcase recommending anything I've read and enjoyed (if it's on my bookcase, I enjoyed it). I have a lot more books in boxes, so if you want more recommendations do let me know. Also, if you want more information on any of the books, feel free to ask me.

Books:

History of the World by J.M. Roberts

A Study of History by Arnold Tonybee

Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization by Bruce Thorton

The Story of Civilization - Will & Ariel Durant

Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin by Gordon Cucullu

The Fall of Japan: The Last Blazing Weeks of World War II by William Craig

The Century of Revolution: 1603-1714 by Christopher Hill

China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture by Charles Hucker

Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politics by Colbert Held

Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict by Ian Bickerton

The Israel-Arab Reader: A Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict by Walter Lagueur

A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas Madden

The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture 1880-1950

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann

Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

The Second World War by Winston Churchill

Documentaries:

The World at War

Ken Burns: The Civil War

Civilisation: A Personal View

Having watched all of The World At War, I think I'm at least qualified to say that Jesus made no military contribution to WW2 except to be mentioned in countless last rites.

I already had The World At War, which is great but is getting sort of dated (one advantage is that many people who were actually there were still alive in the 70's when this was produced).

> Academics cannot be; we look for historical synchronicity and 'accept' the events which are attested from more than one source (ie, the Siege of Jerusalem in 715 BC, recorded in Jewish sources, namely in the Tanakh, and Assyrian in Sennacherib's Prism).

This reminded me of an elective I took in college called "The Search for the Historical Jesus", which was probably one of the most interesting classes I had. (As an aside, I was raised Catholic but my current level of engagement is best described as "Mom-pleasing"; I do have a healthy interest in religion as a discussion topic though, I spend some time in /r/atheism even though I'm not Atheist, etc.)

> they will examine every citation they can find and compile them for a mean 'truth'.

So even you put the word "truth" in quotes. :) So if one side says they killed 100,000 of the enemy, and the other side says they only lost 10,000, and a third party says probably around 20,000 died... then the average of 43K is the "truth"? :) Just look at Thermopylae... ah well ;)

> My advanced degree is p. worthless for what I am doing now

sounds like my degree. useful only peripherally. I work for this startup, which is kicking some butt. The founders are starting a mini-course in MBA concepts this week that some of us opted into. Looking forward to it, as these guys are HBS grads :)

> What military branch were you in?

I did 4 years in the USAF, stationed in California. When I was academically faltering at Cornell and asked them if I could take a leave of absence (they gave me up to 5 years), moving back home was not an option, so instead of struggling at a lame job and living in some sketchy apartment, I (somewhat drastically) decided to join the "smart" branch of the military to make something of myself in a completely different environment and I ended up a KC-10 aircraft electrician. It worked out well in hindsight, I was a late bloomer and I did grow up quite a bit more, I got to experience some responsibility and a job that was not a desk or cubicle job yet required me to think/troubleshoot, and when I did return to Cornell I did MUCH better, and was far more confident in general. I have plenty of stories from that era :)

I tried finding the part of The World at War that I mentioned, but I cannot :/ BUT I did find something from the same series called "The Final Solution" and includes some of the same folks being interviewed. I couldn't find it on Amazon Video either, but here is the DVD set.

In my original post I also pointed out Hitler's Children and later said it was on Netflix instant. If you don't have that, it is on Amazon Video. A good deal of it is in German with English subtitles, but it does also have parts in English. It really is fascinating: it focuses on descendants of Nazi criminals, including children, grandchildren, and nieces/nephews, and how they have come to terms with being related to evil and how it has affected their lives.

For an added resource, one of the women featured in Hitler's Children is part of the focus of another documentary called Inheritance, also available on Netflix Instant. She is the daughter of Amon Goeth (the commandant portrayed in Schindler's List by Ralph Fiennes) and speaks more in depth about the complicated relationship she has with her mother and memories of her father, who was executed. In the film she meets the woman who was Goeth's "personal assistant" (i.e. slave) during the war. This one does not focus as much on what was or wasn't know by civilians, but interesting in its own right - and it does show how little this woman herself knew about what her father really did until many years later. You can watch it online for free if you are an Amazon Prime member.

It is on YouTube but it would be a pain in the arse to watch. It is only $34 on DVD or 18 GB your choice..