(Part 2) Top products from r/HistoryPorn

There are tons of books available, but the hardest part about getting into it is that in order to fully appreciate it, there's a lot of context you'd need to know. I think that's the most off-putting thing for most people--I have friends who just want to know about the battles, but really the war was much more complicated than that. The German situation preceding the war is crucial, and that's what every book is going to start with, and then the Beer Hall Putsch and Brown Shirts etc., all of which can be pretty boring to someone who just wants to read about war. But it's actually really interesting, to me at least. Once you start to get involved in the spiderweb of history I think it becomes much more interesting.

Anyway, for recommendations, I liked The Story of World War II. It really does a good job of telling a "story" and using a lot of first-hand accounts... there are tons of great little tidbits in there, some of them funny and some just epic in their profound magnificence, and all of them sad in one way or another. But seriously there are tons of books about WW2 out there. I'm currently (on-and-off) reading The Storm of War.

Another thing you could do is listen to podcasts about it. There are several on iTunes I believe. In fact there are podcasts about pretty much every period in history on iTunes, and also iTunes U. In my opinion those aren't as good because you don't get a full sense of context and, perhaps most importantly, there are no maps. Geography is the thorn in the side of every historian, so without maps it's very hard to understand what's going on. The moment I bought my historical atlas was like finding an oasis in a desert.

Anyway, hope that helps! I think there are probably others on here who might have better recommendations as well :P

http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/0470580410 - just to make it easier! :) enjoy! -

As for the paper If I get to a good state on it, maybe. haha. It's not one of my finer works. but I'm using Iran as a case study.

Another book you may like, that I used when researching Iran for my paper! Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. It's on OpenLibrary and is quite fascinating. Khomeini, no matter how you feel about him. was a genius.

>So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when nine kings rode in the funeral of Edward VII of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could not keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, three by three the sovereigns rode through the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun. After them came five heirs apparent, forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens - four dowager and three regnant - and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.

-Barbara Tuchman

Nope, but I on Thursday I finished a 650 page book about the WW2 experience. That should count for at least something. Anyways, the wish for this such wounds was repeated by multiple soldiers on multiple fronts and made to sound like it was a common sentiment. Here's a link if you're interested.

From Devil In The White City, p.252:

"Although such interior exhibits were compelling, the earliest visitors to Jackson Park saw immediately that the fair's greatest power lay in the strange gravity of the buildings themselves."

"Some visitors found themselves so moved by the Court of Honor that immediately upon entering they began to weep."

> Its actually quite an interesting story how he didn't want to ruin any of the french landmarks

You do realize that be ordered his local commanders to destroy Paris rather than surrender it to the Allies in 1944? Please check out the book "Is Paris Burning" for details: -> *there's also a movie of the same name, but let's assume the book is a better citation, since it has loads more detail).

I mean, c'mon - please don't rewrite history, dude...

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account has been one of my favorite memoirs about Auschwitz. The doctor is spared in order to help Mengele.

For anyone interested about how it all happened: http://www.amazon.com/Is-Paris-Burning-Dominique-Lapierre/dp/0446392251 One of my all time favorite books.

Check out this book by Miklos Nyiszli. He was a Hungarian Jew taken to Auschwitz and made to work for Joseph Mengele. His work was a major source in my undergrad capstone research and details many duties of the Sonderkommando. It's an excellent read!
www.amazon.com/Auschwitz-A-Doctors-Eyewitness-Account/dp/161145011X/ref=la_B001K8O94Y_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342001947&sr=1-1

[The Battle for Spain]
(https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Spain-Spanish-Civil-1936-1939/dp/014303765X)


It's a great book! Very detailed and extensive though.

What We Knew is a book of a series of interviews with Germans during that era and it's interesting how much (at least that they're willing to say) people were complicit.

There's a great book that details the lives of these POWs and what they went through before being rescued.

In particular, it's about the Bataan Death March, how those soldiers were placed in prison camps, and their eventual rescue. I don't normally consider myself a history buff, nor do I usually read non-fiction, but this book is the exception to that. Absolutely must check it out.

This story is told really well in Erik Larson's excellent The Devil in the White City.

I'd really appreciate if you can provide a [reputable] source that supports your argument?

Here are some that disapprove your argument:
https://www.amazon.com/Churchills-Secret-War-British-Ravaging/dp/0465024815

Some articles:
https://yourstory.com/2014/08/bengal-famine-genocide/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2010/10/how_churchill_starved_india.html
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-the-British-blamed-for-the-Bengal-Famine-of-1943-instead-of-the-Japanese

I found this shirt on Amazon but it doesn't have the print on the sleeve.

Hey! I found the book!

Is this the incident they wrote that book about?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0380538687/?coliid=I2ZFQXEHQ8E03V&colid=TSTHH6SKV1WL&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

The Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan is a great history of this period.

You're confusing knowledge of work camps with knowledge of extermination camps.

Only a select few knew of the latter until very late in 1944 when Himmler briefed a handful of high ranking SS members. The SS was divided into three major sections. The Waffen-SS was the combat arm and really just German elite combat forces similar to American Rangers or FSSF. You really should give this a read: http://www.amazon.ca/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-Ss/dp/0966638980/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413825487&sr=8-1&keywords=black+edelweiss

Yes, the Americans approved of Germany's public treatment of Jews. That's why they REFUSED to accept them as refugees. Look at Ford's opinion and you'll see what was widely believed at the time.

Don't treat the subject from the position of 70 years of hindsight.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-SS/dp/0966638980

You should read this. It's about the SS mountain troops fighting in Finland, would've been close to the same areas as your grandfather.

"The Worst Hard Time" is a good book about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Worst-Hard-Time-Survived-American/dp/0618773479

You're probably thinking of William Frassanito's Gettysburg: A Journey In Time and subsequent books. Frassanito has written extensively on Civil War photography, and based on his findings the way the gun, hat, etc are placed in this photo it is most certainly staged. Many Civil War era photographers were interested in making images they could weave into a human interest story which would in turn sell more photos, albums of their work, etc. http://www.amazon.com/Gettysburg-Journey-William-A-Frassanito/dp/0939631970

According to the comment of the photo in my copy of this book, the picture is actually of a first aid station. The other soldier is his friend. Why he is being held back, I don't know.

>This is a work by a British Photographer called Larry Burrows, taken amongst the carnage of Vietnam. ... The photo has an inherent compelling narrative – of a black man struggling to assist a fallen soldier,despite his own injuries, held back from helping his white comrade – he, stricken, arms out resembling a dying Christ, except this time, there will be no Resurrection.

Source

I really suggest you read this book

http://www.amazon.com/All-Shahs-Men-American-Middle/dp/0470580410

It is very informative on the subject and will inform you about all the politics that lead up to the 1953 coup.

Also fuck Kermit Roosevelt.

The historian Antony Beevor recounts this event in his book The Second World War.

Beevor writes,

> The gleaming carriages of the Amerika carried on towards the Spanish frontier at Hendaye, where [Hitler] met Franco the next day. The Caudillo’s train had been delayed due to the dilapidated state of the Spanish railways, and the long wait had not put Hitler in a good mood. The two dictators inspected a guard of honour from his personal escort, the Führer-Begleit-Kommando, drawn up on the platform. The black-uniformed troopers towered over the pot-bellied Spanish dictator, whose smile, both complacent and ingratiating, seldom left his face (Beevor 2012, 144).

>When Hitler and Franco began their discussions, the Caudillo’s torrent of words prevented his visitor from speaking, a state of affairs to which the Führer was not accustomed. Franco spoke of their comradeship in arms during the Spanish Civil War and his gratitude for all that Hitler had done, and evoked the ‘alianza espiritual’ which existed between their countries. He then expressed his deep regret for not being able to enter the war immediately on Germany’s side as a result of Spain’s impoverished condition. For much of the three hours, Franco rambled on about his life and experiences, prompting Hitler to say later that he would prefer to have three or four teeth pulled than go through another conversation with the Spanish dictator (Beevor 2012, 145).

Source: Beevor, Antony. The Second World War. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012.


Also, I recommend reading Antony Beevor's book The Battle for Spain.

Probably not. They would see them marched off or taken in trucks to smaller depots when they had enough they would move them en masse to larger depots or camps and then the ghettos, then to the VL. And each of these was more restricted to the public the further east you go. People were told they were being relocated, and often when news of real atrocity leaked its way back home, what we now know as the truth was too awful to be believed without hard proof.

Tl;DR It's not so cut and dried. Recommended reading from Johnson and Reubands

Sure! I recommend:

I Saw Tokyo Burning by Robert Guillain, a Frenchman who lived in Japan throughout the war.

War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War, another one by John Dower.

Retribution by Max Hastings

Japan at War: an Oral History by Haruko and Theodore Cook

In his memoir, Maj. Dick Winters talked about men being blown into the air by German 88s during the assault on Noville. He thought back to this whenever he saw people being sent flying by explosions in action movies.

Gruesome comes in different levels. If you haven't, I'd suggest reading into the treatment of prisoners of war at Japanese camps. Ghost Soldiers or really anything about the veterans of Bataan should give you an idea.

Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Band-Brothers-Memoirs-Winters/dp/0425213757/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VQ6AT6PWGYJYY3ZNKRW7

Larry Burrows took a ton of spectacular photos during the Vietnam War and ultimately lost his life there. There's a book that collects some of them and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The book "Requiem" also contains some of Burrows' work along with other photographers who died photographing the wars in Indochina. It too contains incredibly powerful imagery.

I was reading a book about the Russian that defected to Japan with a MiG-25 Foxbat. The first time he saw a supermarket in the US he thought it was a CIA deception. He refused to believe it was real until going to several stores on his own accord. He was shocked that they left meat in the open where anyone could steal it. The quantity, variety, quality, and prices did more to validate his disillusionment with communism than any of the other culture shocks he experienced. At one point he accidentally ate cat food and remarked how much better it was than what he could get in the USSR.

A very, very good book on that subject is War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War . It looks at what happens when two racist cultures who view their enemy as subhuman get involved in a brutal war.

Here is the other post that I thought I responded to you, and I did not:

is plenty of evidence that it could have been prevented: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2010/10/how_churchill_starved_india.html Here is a whole book: "https://www.amazon.com/Churchills-Secret-War-British-Ravaging/dp/0465024815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481303289&sr=8-1&keywords=churchills+secret+war"
The common white-Western narrative that it was preventable is false. Here is a key piece for you:
"The scarcity, Mukherjee writes, was caused by large-scale exports of food from India for use in the war theatres and consumption in Britain - India exported more than 70,000 tonnes of rice between January and July 1943, even as the famine set in. This would have kept nearly 400,000 people alive for a full year. Mr Churchill turned down fervent pleas to export food to India citing a shortage of ships - this when shiploads of Australian wheat, for example, would pass by India to be stored for future consumption in Europe. As imports dropped, prices shot up and hoarders made a killing. Mr Churchill also pushed a scorched earth policy - which went by the sinister name of Denial Policy - in coastal Bengal where the colonisers feared the Japanese would land. So authorities removed boats (the lifeline of the region) and the police destroyed and seized rice stocks."
Read on the topic before using insults.
" I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.” -Winston Churchill

Any particular theatre/focus? I've got at least 30 on the shelf next to me, though a lot are Ballantine's Histories, so that's kind of cheating. The classic intro narrative has to be Tuchman's Guns of August

Some of the other ones I refer to a lot are

Liddell Hart: The Real War 1914-1918

Richard Holmes: First World War in Photographs

Malcolm Brown: The Imperial War Museum Book of the Western Front

Martin Gilbert: Atlas of World War One

Philip Haythornthwaite: Photohistory of World War One

Rod Paschall: The Defeat of Imperial Germany

I particularly like books that collect diary excerpts/memoirs from all theatres/nationalities.