The Wars by Timothy Findlay.
One of the most “beautiful” books I’ve ever read. ('Beautiful" because of the prose – the subject matter is of course, horrific).
World War I:
Ditto on Keegan.
Also: Castles of Steel by Massie, covering the war at sea, especially Jutland.
Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour by Persico
For fiction, Derek Robinson’s War Story does for WWI aviators what his Piece of Cake did for their WWII counterparts.
World War II:
Don’t know if the Pacific war will be as much interest, but Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific by Bergerud covers the land war before the tide turned completely in favor of the Allies. His Fire in the Sky does the same for the air war there.
Try William March’s 1933 novel, Company K. An interesting, absurdist precursor to Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five, it was wildly popular with the American troops during WWII, and stayed in print as a pocket book well into the 1950s. Only available now as a university press reprint…an extremely handsome piece of bookmaking.
Two by Walter Lord, the guy who wrote the definitive Titanic books A Night to Remember and The Night Lives On:
Day of Infamy, about Pearl Harbor. Short book but makes you feel like you were there and wonder what’s going to happen, even though theoretically, of course, you know.
The Good Years–takes each year between 1901-1914 and narrates and dissects a major event–the McKinley assasination for 1901, the North Pole races of 1909, the Wilson election, child labor laws passage, women’s suffrage, etc. Good along with the Tuchman book as a prelude to more technical military histories of WWI.
God rest his soul, Lord made you have a great deal of fun while quietly and skillfully stuffing you with facts and figures. The books just seem to fly by.
A WWII book that I recommend to anyone with an interest in naval matters is Daniel V. Gallery’s U-505. In June of 1944 an American Hunter-Killer task group cornered and then captured on the high seas a German U-boat. U-505 is the story of both ships involved told from the view point of the commander who made the capture happen: Gallery himself. Part of the book is his own view of fighting WWII up to the point where he captures the sub, part of it is a meticulously researched history of the German POV, including quite a lot of details of the Kriegsmarine’s U-boat men. An incredible read. And a description of one of the bravest things I can imagine doing: climbing into a submarine whose crew just set it to scuttle to see if they could save it, instead. <shuddering>
Similarly, Edward Beach’s books are well worth reading, too. Not simply Run Silent, Run Deep, but I’d also recommend Around the World Submerged: The Voyage of the Triton. I know the latter isn’t WWII, but it’s still fascinating reading.
I’d also recommend any of the books about the way that four Destroyer Escorts held off the (scraps of the) Japanese surface fleet during the Leyte Gulf battles. Talk about David and Goliath - the Japanese Admiral was freaked because his shots were hitting these miniature tin cans, and he was seeing no explosions or damage from his rounds. The reason for this was that the battleship rounds were fused such that they were detonating after travelling through the DE’s. I’ve not read any of the recent account that I’m going to list here, but the story itself is one that is well worth reading, and any honest account will be heart stopping.
The Men of the Gambier Bay: The Amazing True Story of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, by Edwin P. Hoyt
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors : The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour, by James D. Hornfischer
And I’ll second the recommendation for Ballard’s book - he’s a very good writer.
I Had Seen Castles, by Cynthia Rylant.
You can find the book, as well as a couple reviews, on amazon.
Even though more books have been recommended than you’ll ever need, I couldn’t resist making a pitch for The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer.
It is, IMHO, unrivaled in conveying the horror and stupidity of war. A (supposedly) true story of a German soldier in WWII, it contains descriptions and images that will stay with the reader forever. Not for the squeamish.
If nothing else, FIL may never have encountered this one before.
I preferred Ryan’s book on Berlin.
In fact all of Cornelius Ryan’s WW II books - The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far ( also a good film by the way - literally star-studded and easy to find on DVD )and The Last Battle ( the aformentioned book on the battle of Berlin ) are probably worth a gander. Easy reads for the homebound.
- Tamerlane
Dreadnaught-Robert K. Massie
*Exploring the *Lusitania-Bob Ballard (mentioned above as the the man who found the wreck of Titanic).
Here’s one. Shameless plug because my grandfather is mentioned in the acknowledgements.
Canadian bookstore link, but should be available anywhere.
Since I don’t know your FIL, I coudn’t say if he would be bored by the more scholarly works during his convalesence. If not, I’d recommend “The Great War and Modern Memory,” by Paul Fussell. Since it covers just about all of the worthwhile books about World War One, you may then have to make follow-up trips for the actual books that Fussel mentions that may interest your FIL.
If your FIL is more interested in a good, simple war yarn or two, and isn’t comfortable with seeing his country of origin as the bad guys, I recommend John Biggins’ three books “A Sailor of Austria,” “The Emperor’s Coloured Coat,” and “Two Headed Eagle,” adventure books with a nice mixture of the grim and silly about Austria-Hungary’s war.
Or to hell with the World Wars; if, like a lot of Germans, he likes Westerns, get him some Louis L’Amour!
I have neglected this thread but I have not forgotten all the wonderful, well thought out book suggestions.
My attention was drawn today with the news that Iris Chang , the author of The Rape of Nanking committed suicide the other day and brought her book back into the forefront of my mind.
I will be getting this book for myself. I was wondering about War books from Japan/China /Aussies…
I just tried looking it up, but I don’t recall the name or the title offhand - when I next visit my parents I’ll look it up - but there’s a great narrative of the Pacific War from the view of a Japanese Naval officer. He was only a small cog, but still it’s a view of WWII that is not often seen. The only reason the book was published and translated to English was that the man who wrote it was the captain of the detroyer that ran over JFK’s PT 109. But that’s a poor reason to read the book - it’s only a very small part of the story, mostly it’s one man trying to survive a losing war with personal honor and duty.
Of course, it also solidified my view of JFK’s PT 109 incident as being the outgrowth of a major FUBAR.
The thing that most affected me when I read it was a mid-war vacation that the captain and his wife took, and how they’d had a lovely time. As an aside, the author mentioned how if he could he’d love to go back there, but it’s not possible - it had been in Nagasaki, you see.
For epic fictionalized adventure, you can’t go wrong with The Winds of War and War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
Keegan’s histories of the two wars - named, originally enough, “The First World War” and “The Second World War” - are the best-organized, best-written, clearest, and most accurate single-volume histories I’ve ever read.
I agree, though, that World War I is kind of boring. Its impact on world history is interesting, but the war itself was a pointless meat grinder and is generally notable only for the amazing level of stupidity and pointlessness it represents.
The Rising Sun : The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 (Modern Library War Series 1970) John Toland - Pulitzer Prize; Very exciting and comprehensive long book on the Pacific.
Chesty (The Story of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. Puller, USMC, 2001) by Col. Jon T. Hoffman, USMC
Carlson’s Raid (The Daring Assult on Makin, 2001) by George W. Smith
Macro level:
WWII: Gerhard L. Weinberg, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II
Closer look at the east:
David M. Glantz, When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
Also:
William L. Shrier: Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (for the historiography value if he is interested in that)
My personal viewpoint, having read three Ambrose books, is that most if not all of what he writes is anecdotal crap. Even taking myself out of hardcore historian mindset, his “tales of the common soldier” type of approach did not capture me. I found him quite irritating from the context of a true historian. Of course plenty of others love him.
WWI fiction: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. The best I’ve ever read. Really puts you in the horror of the trenches, to powerful and devastating effect.
Chesty Puller’s a fun one. Think of Cotton Hill with an attitude. :eek:
My problem with Ambrose is not that it’s “anecdotal crap” (one guy’s anecdotal crap is another guy’s oral history) but that he is so damned reverent of these guys! Yeah, they did a tough thing, but PLEASE! I have gotten more descriptive elsewhere on this board but this is the wrong forum for it. Let’s just say that Easy Company didn’t even have to take him to dinner and a movie.
Aw, geez! Now you went and spiled the ending. Don’t’cha believe in using SPOILER warnings?!