(Part 2) Best weapons & warfare history books according to redditors
We found 467 Reddit comments discussing the best weapons & warfare history books. We ranked the 209 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Recently I started reading Sex and War and in there the author points out that chimpanzee troops and human gangs share alot of similarities. They form strong bonds and defend each other while fighting against other groups.
Just went over this with out group.
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Nuclear War Survival Skills book. Look up the author. He has seen and done some shit. If I remember he was also there for some testing of nukes. Was working with congress on civil defense before M.A.D. and eventually started petitioning them to start civil defense up again after the US stopped it. This book has a lot of what civilians can do in case of an attack. There are some parts of the book that describe what you can do in 30 minutes (basically what you can do before the fallout starts landing outside blast radius) to survive. Amazing book.
Yeah, a single map that illustrates that the Red Army was a huge distance away from Warsaw at the time of the uprising with powerful German units in between them and the city. You have yet to address these complication, you can only repeat endlessly that the Red Army was evil and therefore must do evil deeds.
> people who publish books and shit under their own names
Wow, guess what https://www.amazon.com/Designing-T-34-2019-Genesis-Revolutionary/dp/1911658301
That sure is neat, and so is this http://tankarchives.blogspot.com/2017/12/tank-archives-in-print.html
I have absolutely no problem publishing things under my own name outside of my dull website. It might have to do something with not flipping out the moment that somebody brings out a map.
The more you study, there are two schools of thought. One argues that we are so fucking lucky to still be alive after all the missed signals, technical malfunctions and botched diplomacy that has occurred since nuclear weapons were invented. The second argues that nuclear weapons have imposed the longest peace between the great powers in the modern era, and that their existence speaks to an uncontrollable variable that squashes the ability of militaries or governments to talk themselves into war. If you want to know more, I highly recommend checking out The Spread of Nuclear Weapons by Sagan and Waltz.
I have credibility issues with the organization you're citing from. While their "About" page is explicitly neutral (and that's genuinely admirable) every other inch of the webpage is taken up by mainstream conservative talking points. The books they want you to buy are: The War on Guns, More Guns Less Crime, The Bias Against Guns etc.
Their website seems determined to make the case that Europe suffers an equal share of gun violence with things like:
>UPDATE: CPRC Original Research: Of cases of at least 15 murders, all but two of the 25 worst mass public shootings, 59 of the worst 66, occurred outside the United States
>UPDATED: Comparing Death Rates from Mass Public Shootings and Mass Public Violence in the US and Europe
It really wants to hold up stats like Finland's one mass shooting to create their higher murder rate per million than the US, while trying to downplay more obvious facts like America's 350+ mass shootings last year alone. Also, if you go by CPRC's numbers, they estimate American mass shootings at a much more conservative 3 per year. Like they've only recorded 54 mass shootings since 1998.
Seriously. Check it out for yourself below or maybe click here if you don't want random files on your computer.
IF YOU CLICK ON THIS IT WILL DOWNLOAD A SPREADSHEET.
Do you see a pattern?
There seems to be a conscious effort to present a false consensus on gun violence. I don't know what the truth is but it's a lot more mixed opinion than this.
Most people don't know it, but a fusion bombs actually uses a standard nuclear bomb as a detonator. It uses the x-rays generated to compress the fissile material to start the reaction.
Once that step was figured out, scaling them up to tzar bomba really wasn't anything more complicated than adding more fuel(lithium deuteride).
So yeah, pretty hard to set off.
EDIT: For those interested in the history of it, this is a fascinating book: https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Express-Political-History-Proliferation/dp/076033904X
> What about economic programs? They turned Germany into one of the largest economies in the world in just a few years.
All smoke and mirrors: vast and unsustainable borrowing and a focus on militarisation with no long term economic benefits.
> All the amazing architecture they produced?
A subjective matter I suppose, but you might be interested in this documentary
> Military reforms that produced the most futuristic battle tactics the world had seen up until that point?
The German doctrine which came to be known as Blitzkrieg was in development before the Nazi Party came to power (see James Corum's The Roots of Blitzkrieg). It also worked once against an equivalent opposition: the Fall of France in 1940. It didn't work in North Africa, it didn't work in Russia, it couldn't defend Western Europe.
Under Hitler, Germany went from being the most powerful nation in Europe to the fifth most powerful nation in Berlin.
Instead of shitting on you for being thoughtful and honest, I'll tell you what I did when I decided to start carrying a gun.
For those that would like to order it
If there's an EMP, you can count on two things: you won't be reading any of the books you've saved on your electronic devices, and you'll be trying to survive in a post-nuclear nightmare. For this reason get a hard copy of Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearny. It is the single best book written on the subject for the average citizen.
In addition I would get a hard copy of the LDS Preparedness Manual. You can skip past the first couple of dozen pages if you aren't interested in the religious stuff. After that is an encyclopedic resource for survival.
You can get both books on Amazon right now for about $40 total, and if you do it will vastly improve your survival library.
I read this that says Israel had a lot of help from the French in developing their program in the 60s and they had help form the South African's in the late 70s test a bomb way off the coast of South Africa.
A lot of fiction in this thread, I'd like to mention some non-fiction:
Besides basic survival skills, I would say farming would be a key skill to have. Both to feed yourself and to guarantee your usefulness after the fact. Also, any job skills that are hands-on, basic, pre-industrial would be most useful. Essentially, many places in a country attacked with nuclear weapons would be reduced very quickly to a pre-20th century life.
EDIT: This might be a book you would find useful--[Nuclear War Survival Skills] (https://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-War-Survival-Skills-Instructions/dp/1634502973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473952441&sr=8-1&keywords=survival+nuclear+war)
This is a good book on the topic
Just for reference, I own two books that may help you in the future. One about body trauma and one about weapons.
> Show up at a political rally wearing the opponents shirt.
Won't get you arrested.
Update: Keep in mind that protesters get arrested for refusing to leave when asked to do so - not directly because of the shirt they are wearing.
> Wear a shirt that espouses an unpopular political opinion.
Won't get you arrested.
> Tell a kid about sex.
Errrr... You've never had a health class, I take it.
> Write a fictional story involving sex and minors.
> Draw a picture depicting minors with sexuality.
Didn't read my post, either.
> Oh, discuss violent overthrow of the government, talk about how to build bombs, all that kind of stuff can get you arrested as well.
[Citation needed]. Talk, by itself, is not actionable. Conspiring to overthrow the government - i.e., actually planning to do so - is not just talk.
As for how to build a bomb - I guess I better call the FBI and tell them about Google, because they certainly have lots of links to that information.
Update: I guess I better tell them about Amazon while I'm at it.
They don't have much of an option to do that. China is actually in a fairly weak bargaining position with North Korea. The likeliest outcome of China ceasing to subsidize North Korea is a crisis the likes of which they had after the collapse of the USSR. Except this time, there would likely not be another country to step in and take over the subsidies.
That runs the risk of a humanitarian crisis on China's border, which they don't want because they'd rather not deal with the influx of refugees. It also raises the risk of a North Korean collapse, which is most likely not in their interests. Here they get adverse political outcomes, ranging from nuclear weapons in the hands of remnants of the North Korean military that could fall into the wrong hands to a possible reunification of Korea under the South, meaning US troops on the Chinese border.
The short version: the costs to China of a North Korean collapse are much greater than the cost of subsidizing and attempting to police a difficult ally. It's reasonably clear that this is the case, so China threatening to withdraw all support is a bit of an empty threat.
Hopefully you've tried contacting your target to ask them about their collections, their uses, stuff they want, and stuff they wouldn't like. Feel free to drop as many Phone Booth references as possible. You should be able to get some ideas.
If you can't find anything specific, the stuff you've mentioned will never go amiss. Some other stuff I could think of:
Military Small Arms of the 20th Century is a great resource. It's amazing the amount of detail they have in there. It's not much on the way they function, but it catalogs basically every gun produced or used by a military in the 20th century, as well as a little bit of prior to and following the 20th C.
If you're interested in the function of guns this free to play game is actually remarkably good at teaching the functions and parts of a hell of a lot of different guns.
Ian Hogg's "Military Small Arms of the 20th Century"
https://www.amazon.com/Military-Small-Arms-20th-Century/dp/0873418247
I've read this from multiple sources, most recently: http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Energy-Rock-Shaped-World/dp/0670020648
I'm sure some uranium came from Canada, as they needed a tremendous amount of 238 to produce enough 235 to make a viable bomb (99.3% of all uranium is 238, and you only get .7% 235 from that if you process it as well as possible), but not all of it and more then likely not even most of it.
In fact Wikipedia details this saying most of the uranium was from Africa or possibly captured, Canada is not mentioned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy Go down to Development of the bomb
"Most of the uranium necessary for the production of the bomb came from the Shinkolobwe mine and was made available thanks to the foresight of the CEO of the High Katanga Mining Union, Edgar Sengier, who had 1000 tons of uranium ore transported to a New York warehouse in 1939. A small amount may have come from a captured German submarine, U-234, after the German surrender in May 1945.[24] Other sources state that at least part of the 1100 tons of uranium ore and uranium oxide captured by US troops in the second half of April 1945 in Stassfurt, Germany, became 235U for the bomb.[25] The majority of the uranium for Little Boy was enriched in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, primarily by means of electromagnetic separation in calutrons and through gaseous diffusion plants, with a small amount contributed by the cyclotrons at Ernest O. Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory. The core of Little Boy contained 64 kg of uranium, of which 50 kg was enriched to 88%, and the remaining 14 kg at 50%. With enrichment averaging 82.68%, it could reach about 2.5 critical masses. "Fat Man" and the Trinity "gadget", by way of comparison, had five critical masses."
This is a good question! We have some recommendations in the booklist. I'll just copy them here and expand on them a bit plus add a few.
Check you local college and see if there are any classes you can take for it. For me I'm getting ready to take a cnc machinist class this semester. That should be a pretty good start.
Edit: If you have amazon kindle you can download this for free on a mobile device. http://www.amazon.com/Gunsmithing-Stackpole-Classic-Gun-Books/dp/0811707288/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1375751237&sr=8-8&keywords=Gunsmithing
This article, which cites numerous sources, goes into detail of the history of mail armor, including referencing its limited protection from blunt trauma.
>Finally, the following passage written by Galbert of Bruges describes a formidable archer named Benkin and demonstrates that while mail might protect the wearer from being pierced with arrows, it did not necessarily save him from blunt trauma: "And when he [Benkin] was aiming at the besiegers, his drawing on the bow was identified by everyone because he would either cause grave injury to the unarmed or put to flight those who were armed, whom his shots stupefied and stunned, even if they did not wound."
Another section also references the same:
>Even against mail-clad opponents the sword could inflict injury by striking at areas that were not covered with mail (such as the face) or through the infliction of blunt trauma. Because mail is flexible, it does not stop the impact of a blow. Some of the force of an attack is carried through the mail and padding to the wearer underneath. The wearer is especially vulnerable to attacks against hard, exposed body parts including the shin, knee, elbow, shoulder, clavicle, and skull.
> "Such weapons of percussion were especially effective against mail armour; repeated blows could shatter bones and kill the victim without even breaking a single riveted link of his hauberk. In this situation the flexibility of mail, an advantage in other respects, was a positive disadvantage."
The entire article is actually very interesting, and cites numerous sources for both the quotes and independent scientific verification of many of the claims. I also suggest this book for further reading. Sadly, I no longer have a copy, but I used to love that book back in high school.
Don't misunderstand, Matt Ridley is a legitimate academic and approaches the subject as a scientist would. He clearly adopts a neoclassical view of economics which not everyone would agree with (and there are aspects that I don't agree with), but that doesn't make him a partisan.
Others have written on the subject as well. Friedman wrote Hot, Flat, and Crowded and Sex and War by Malcolm Potts also provides a scientists perspective on the subject.
If you want more peer reviewed stuff, population economics is an entire sub-discipline. Just look into the citations of the above authors.
There's a ton of books dealing with western battle tactics of any given period, and for the most part they're pretty shallow. The few i've read were pretty basic and offered the type of 'fun fact' and misinformation you get from the history channel.
A good balance of in-depth analysis without being too drawl is Carnage and Culture by Victor David Hanson. Bonus points for being cheap! Hanson's sort of an asshole and takes a pretty controversial, albeit well supported, stance in this book by claiming that Western cultures are inherently efficient at killing people and the most brutal of all conflicts occur when west meets west. To make his point, Hanson illustrates 10 or so different battles wherein westerners meet non-westerners, usually with overwhelmingly bad odds, and emerge victoriously. It's not focused in any one time period, but spans from 400BCE to WWII, if i recall correctly.
Specifically for the middle ages, i really enjoyed Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight by David Edge and John Miles. It's more of an introduction to armor and weaponry and explains why certain styles developed to defend from evolving battle tactics. It's out of print and sort of a pain in the ass to find, though.
If you want to be more disturbed read Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
> The most revolutionary thing is to "Trust but Verify", as GamerGate has popularized as a social concept.
Fun fact the "trust but verify" originated apparently in Russia and Gorbachev introduced it to Reagan during their initial attempt of nuclear disarmament talks. It apparently became a favourite of Reagan and he kept using it a lot. Source
Throw this at them:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/159223304X
I got some funny looks reading How to Build a Nuclear Bomb, but nothing came of it, hehe.
I'd recommend the book "The Dead Hand" by David E. Hoffman. It's an incredibly well-researched, very readable story of the Cold War arms race, much of it told from a Soviet perspective. One of the accounts is of a microbiologist named Igor Domaradsky, who was forced to research and produce biological weapons such as anthrax. The accounts of his research and experiences with the Politburo and the KGB are chilling.
This reminds me of one of my favorite books growing up: "Weapons" from the Diagram Group.
http://www.amazon.com/Weapons-International-Encyclopedia-From-5000/dp/0312039506
The Demon in the Freezer
Anything relating to very recent firearms is going to be fairly dated as things change fairly quickly in the world of firearms.
The way I see it, there's electronic media for learning about the latest offerings from Ruger or Smith & Wesson.
I'd say get him a nice reference book. Ian Hogg was a prolific weaponry author, and he had many books on pistols, rifles, machine guns, artillery, what have you, and most are still in print or easy to get a hold of.
When I was a kid, my middle school had this book in the library:
http://www.amazon.com/Weapons-International-Encyclopedia-D-Updated/dp/0312039506/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345619493&sr=1-3&keywords=weapons+encyclopedia
I basically had it checked out throughout fifth and sixth grade. It's a bit dated, but it's a fantastic read. I'm pretty sure I eventually bought a copy and have it somewhere in my garage.
Foolish humans! You can't stop a cat by denying him a library card because of This
Snapshots:
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Amazon link
Look through these and read the reviews on them. Amazon always has good books. I'm reading the Modern Day Gunslinger I'm still reading this one, but I think it would be a good book if you're looking into shooting for self defense.
link
This is one that I referenced a huge amount while growing up;
https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-International-Encyclopedia-5000-D/dp/0312039506/ref=sr_1_12
It is pretty dated by now. However, if you are interested in the history of weapons and the beginnings of the firearm, it is a place to start. Once you find an epoch that interests you the most, using a guide like this one, you can start looking into more specific eras and types.
As with just about everything, guns have a deep and storied history and there simply isn't one source that will give you all the knowledge there is on them. There is A LOT of ground to cover, it might be best to use an overview like this one to decide what you will focus on. Guns are like any tool; people have adapted them throughout history for their own needs and because of this, you'll find that there is so much to know that you'll never learn it all.
My personal favorite gun subject would be the AK. I have about a dozen books about it from technical manuals, to pieces that absolutely condemn it, to pieces that treat it as a marvel like it were part of a religion, to pieces that give a general history about it with no discernible slant at all.
I hope you enjoy whatever you end up finding.
I don't think he's got any guns like the AR-15, just 1-2 hunting rifles and a lot of handguns. Just a cursory Amazon search gives me some good starting points. This might be good for the history of handguns or maybe a more general interest history, like this one.
"The Dead Hand" by David E Hoffman
It has a lot to do with past and current nuclear issues. It also won the pulitzer prize!
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Hand-Untold-Dangerous-Legacy/dp/0385524374
You might want to read this.
The history of Uranium is actually pretty interesting.
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
Analyzing Strategic Nuclear Policy
Nuclear Deterrence in the 21st Century: Lessons from the Cold War for a New Era of Strategic Piracy
The Evolution of International Security Studies
Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era: Regional Powers and International Conflict
The Fallacies of Cold War Deterrence and a New Direction
The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: An Enduring Debate
I have not read these but just what I turned up through the places I typically look for books.
its available on amazon, i have a hard copy version but i can take and send you photos if needed. came with my '44 izhvesk pu sniper. thr sniper version has all the regular mosin nagant stuff in it, plus lots of weird cool historical stuff in it, like targeting paratroopers, ranging, estimating speed, and holdover for bombers and fighter planes (not kidding about that), and info on using other equipment like an issued periscope and standards for qualifying probpems with the pu sniper rifle.
its pretty damn cool.
https://www.amazon.com/Official-Soviet-Mosin-Nagant-Sniper-Manual/dp/1581607369?keywords=mosin+nagant+sniper+manual&qid=1537581173&sr=8-1-fkmrnull&ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmrnull_1
Give John Lotts "The Bias Against Guns" a read. He presents tons of stats showing how areas with high amounts of gun control experience an increase in crime. Here's a link to the book if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/The-Bias-Against-Guns-Everything/dp/0895261146
Again, lets compare reading lists and see who retained more. Here are the last 3 I read, how about you?
http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Energy-Rock-Shaped-World/dp/0670020648
http://www.amazon.com/Candy-Machine-Cocaine-Took-World/dp/0141034467
http://www.amazon.com/Continent-Taking-Tragedy-Hope-Africa/dp/0375414614
Almost forgot the very last one I read, it even mentioned Reddit and subreddits!
http://www.amazon.com/Epic-Win-4chan-Army-Conquered/dp/1590207106/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321971038&sr=1-1
I'd recommend you pick up two books to read that will go much further in depth than anything here:
https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Guide-Weapons-Practical-Reference-ebook/dp/B0108VCP9E/ref=as_li_ss_tl
and
https://www.amazon.com/Violence-Writers-Second-Rory-Miller-ebook/dp/B00CWGH46I/ref=pd_sim_351_1
The Demon in the Freezer
The Quiet Room
Some good advice in the thread and I would echo the need for preparatory research before investing time and money in your endeavor. It may help you to look over a book like Don Mann’s The Modern Day Gunslinger which despite the provocative title is a sound resource for answering a number of your questions as well a providing the premises for CC based upon the writings of Colonels David Grossman and Jeff Cooper. Particularly significant to training is the Shooter’s Triad, comprised of skills in marksmanship/weapons handling, tactics, and arguably the most important of all, establishing & maintaining a combat mindset to ensure that you will survive an armed encounter.
Edit: url
http://www.amazon.com/Military-Small-Arms-20th-Century/dp/0873418247
This book is on the history and designs of Military Small Arms of the 20th Century. It is written by two very knowledgeable guys. (From Wikipedia) Ian V. Hogg (1926 – 7 March 2002) was a notable British author of books on firearms, artillery, ammunition, and fortification, as well as biographies of several famous general officers. During his career he wrote, co-wrote, edited, or co-edited about 150 books and sold well over 1 million copies. And John S. Weeks an American who also wrote and co-wrote many a book on military small arms
First thing I'd get is a book.
Pickup Gunsmithing by Roy Dunlap
First few chapters are all about the workshop and tools you'll need.
Como você mesmo falou, tem alguma fonte para tudo o que vc argumentou que não venha de institutos que claramente tem uma agenda?
A maioria dos estudos apresentados no link tem como co-autor o David Hemenway. Onde o mesmo defende em seu livro a redução do armamento.
"Private Guns, Public Health (2006) describes the public health approach to reducing firearm violence, and summarizes scientific research on firearms and health.". Sem contar que ele mostra um resumo, e não os dados em si, levando o autor a sua conclusão.
Neste caso sugiro ler os seguintes livros:
More guns less crime - John R. Lott Jr.
The Bias Against Guns - John R. Lott Jr
Mas voltando ao caso acidentes com armas de fogo. A questão é que quanto MAIS ARMAS, não quer dizer necessariamente MAIS ACIDENTES. Pois nos EUA, tem mais armas e fogo do que piscinas, e os acidentes de afogamentos é maior, por exemplo.
Claro que se a pessoa não tiver uma arma, ela não acontecer um acidente. Só que se o fato dela querer se matar, não vai ser a falta de uma arma que vai impedir, por exemplo.
Se for esse o caso, então deveríamos proibir carros, piscinas e médicos, pois causam MAIS mortes do comparado com o numero armas de fogo. Entende? Desarmar um país inteiro para “reduzir os acidentes com armas de fogo” é simplesmente injustificável. Os números são baixos.
O próprio link que tu mandou fala :
"because, unfortunately, not everyone who has loaded guns in their homes takes appropriate precautions.” Ou seja os acidentes estão relacionados com negligencia e não com o numero de armas.
The number of fatal firearm accidents, or unintentional firearm fatalities, have been falling for more than 50 years. At the same time, the number of firearms in the United States has been steadily rising. The cause of fatal firearm accidents is not correlated to the number of firearms in society.
The red line is the number of private firearms in the United States, in units of 100,000. At the end of 2013, the estimate was 363.3 million.
The green line is the number of fatal firearm accidents, or unintentional firearm fatalities, in the United States. The number in 2013 was the lowest recorded, 505.
Completo:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com.br/2015/08/fatal-firearm-accidents-vs-private-gun.html
EDIT: Faltou esses dados
The National Safety Council released the 2017 edition of its annual Injury Facts report this week, and it contains welcome news about firearm safety.
The number of fatal firearms accidents dropped to the lowest point ever (since 1903, when the data was first tracked). There were 489 total fatal firearm accidents nationwide – a 17% decrease from 2014. As a percent of the total number of fatal accidents, firearms accident rank very low: just 0.3% of all fatal accidents involved a firearm.
Two weeks ago, the PEW Research Center released a survey showing that gun ownership by households is up to 44% — a 7-percentage point increase in the past two years. Another 5% of households won’t reveal whether they own a gun. Yet, not a single mainstream American media headline has announced the increase
Try the following:
Roots of Blitzkrieg.
The Red Army and the Werhmacht.
Edit: One more Storm of Steel
Insanity? I'll take the word of a Nuclear scientist who has published his claims over the ad hominem attacks of a nationalist.
Pakistan's "economy" benefited from billions of dollars of handouts given by the US because Pakistan was being rented for use against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Saudis are partial owners/stake-holders in the Pak nuke program. The Libyans were sold a dud by PakMil though.