# Books written by "the enemy?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330 "2012-12-17T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/21 "2012-12-18T10:59:12Z")
Peckinpah’s\* Cross of Iron\* was an excellent movie about WWII Germans on the Eastern Front based on a novel called _The Willing Flesh_ by Willi Heinrich. ---
**Author:** ![Snerky\_Snerk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Snerky\_Snerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snerky_Snerk)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/22 "2012-12-18T11:03:53Z")
The autobiography of Jax Pavan, Stormtrooper - [http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Under\_the\_Helmet:\_The\_Secret\_Lives\_of\_Stormtroopers](http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Under_the_Helmet:_The_Secret_Lives_of_Stormtroopers) I haven’t read it, but it won the [Literary Medal of Horseshit](http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Literary_Medal_of_Horseshit), so it must be… Literary? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/23 "2012-12-18T12:41:25Z")
> [@Snerky\_Snerk](#): > > The autobiography of Jax Pavan, Stormtrooper - [http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Under\_the\_Helmet:\_The\_Secret\_Lives\_of\_Stormtroopers](http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Under_the_Helmet:_The_Secret_Lives_of_Stormtroopers) In a similar vein: [Troops](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqF_CVQ_U_I) ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/24 "2012-12-18T13:13:27Z")
Jefferson Davis wrote at least a couple of books arguing for the Confederacy twenty years after the Civil War–The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, and A Short History of the Confederate States of America. I suppose not everyone in the U.S. considers Davis/the Confederacy “the enemy,” though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/25 "2012-12-18T14:18:14Z")
_The Crusades Through Arab Eyes_ by Amin Maalouf. Interesting history from the non-European perspective. From the Muslim point of view, they were just living peacefully in their own lands when these hordes of foreign barbarians invaded for no reason. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/26 "2012-12-18T15:15:44Z")
**Fires on the Plain** is a Japanese novel, but the author had a similar experience during World War II - fought in the Philippines and was among the many Japanese soldiers abandoned there to starve and become prisoners of war. So it’s informed by his actual experiences. It’s also quite good in a “good book” sense, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/27 "2012-12-18T21:09:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _The Crusades Through Arab Eyes_ by Amin Maalouf. Interesting history from the non-European perspective. From the Muslim point of view, they were just living peacefully in their own lands when these hordes of foreign barbarians invaded for no reason. Well, I wouldn’t go that far. The Arabs, Turks, Persians, etc. fought each other as much or more than they fought the Crusaders, and one can hardly call the Middle East ‘peaceful’ before the Crusades. However, the book is a great glimpse into the other perspective of the Crusades, that of the invaded. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/28 "2012-12-18T23:02:07Z")
> [@Atakapa](#): > > Care to recommend any books written by people from the side we’re not used to hearing from? For example, I’ve read many accounts by US and Australian Vietnam War veterans, but I’ve never seen anything from the perspective of the NVA and VC. Same for the American Revolution, WWI, etc. I’d be particularly interested in accounts of Iraqi and Afghani insurgents, as well as post WWII Soviets in Afghanistan. The Balkan wars and Checnyan insurgencies would also be appreciated. The American historical novelist Kenneth Roberts wrote a few books about the American Revolution from unusual perspectives. _Oliver Wiswell_ was told from the Loyalist point of view. _Arundel_ and (more so, if I remember right) _Rabble in Arms_ both feature Benedict Arnold as a sympathetic and perhaps even heroic character. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/29 "2012-12-20T12:51:04Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > Well, I wouldn’t go that far. The Arabs, Turks, Persians, etc. fought each other as much or more than they fought the Crusaders, and one can hardly call the Middle East ‘peaceful’ before the Crusades. However, the book is a great glimpse into the other perspective of the Crusades, that of the invaded. For that matter, the English, French and Germans of the general era had some spats with one another as well. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/30 "2012-12-20T20:19:58Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > **Fires on the Plain** is a Japanese novel, but the author had a similar experience during World War II - fought in the Philippines and was among the many Japanese soldiers abandoned there to starve and become prisoners of war. So it’s informed by his actual experiences. It’s also quite good in a “good book” sense, IMHO. I read that a few years ago and liked it. I remember how astonished he was at the American GIs’ generosity and kindness. He actually put on weight in the POW camp, as did many of us underfed-until-then former comrades. _Iron Tears_ by Stanley Weintraub is a good nonfiction account of the American Revolution through British eyes - political, military, cultural and social. Good stuff. _Aztec_ by Gary Jennings is a fantastic historical novel about the Aztec society in its last days, as told by a courtier of Moctecuzoma. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/31 "2012-12-21T07:37:12Z")
Das Boot (the book version). Paints a very good picture of the life of a German submariner during WWII; Days of endless monotony punctuated by moments of sheer terror. If any book can make the Germans during WWII look sympathetic, it was this one. Though it was made clear that the Nazi ideology didn’t filter down the ranks to the typical German sailor. The movie did a fine job of recreating the concept. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2012, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/32 "2012-12-21T08:51:27Z")
Granted they’re written during a timeframe in which the Klingons and Federation are allies again, but the Star Trek: IKS Gorkon series by Keith R.A. DeCandido was excellent. And _very_ violent for Star Trek books. Decapitations and stuff. You know, Klingons, living for war. It starts with the TNG novel “Diplomatic Implausibility”, continues in a short story in Volume 2 of The Brave and the Bold, and gets four books after that, the last one under the banner _Star Trek: Klingon Empire._ A rather unique perspective. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330.md?page=1)