# War Canon **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2007, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164 "2007-04-22T09:36:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/21 "2007-04-24T16:16:47Z")
Nonfiction: Anything by John Keegan. Fiction: Sorry to sound like a geek, but the short story series **The Man/Kzin Wars** , even though it’s science fiction, has some excelent war scenarios, both on thr personal down and dirty level, as well as the big. strategic level. Not surprising as one of the co-authors is Jerry Pournelle. ---
**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:** [April 24, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/22 "2007-04-24T16:19:09Z")
Shelby Foote’s trilogy _The Civil War_ is well worth your time, as is Michael Shaara’s _The Killer Angels_, about the Battle of Gettysburg (already cited above). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/23 "2007-04-24T17:10:57Z")
Read Bruce Catton…the _Army of the Potomac_ trilogy and anything else you can get. To me, he and Foote are the giants of American Civil War writing, although I admit I still need to read James McPherson before ruling him out. Catton’s works are a bit more like higher-level overviews and mood-pieces than Foote’s slightly more blow-by-blow treatment. I find Foote’s meatier, but he cannot match Catton’s almost poetic vision. Keegan was cited above – but his first, _The Face of Battle_, is the key to “getting” Keegan. I’d also add that Barbara Tuchman’s _A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century_ expanded my thinking about the ugliness of war, particularly in terms of debunking the myths about nobility and knighthood. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/24 "2007-04-24T19:10:27Z")
I hope it’s OK to hijack for a plea for help. I read a book about a regiment I think in Italy during a world war who decide to walk away from the battle and travel across Europe on foot… The end I believe is that you realize it was all a soldier’s fantasy and he is stuck in the battle after all. Much like Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Please help me remember the title. And yeah, Johnny Got His Gun would be my pick. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/25 "2007-04-24T20:05:45Z")
If we’re including naval literature, Edward Beach’s _Run Silent, Run Deep_ is the quintessential submarine warfare novel. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/26 "2007-04-25T02:04:35Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] I believe is that you realize it was all a soldier’s fantasy and he is stuck in the battle after all. Much like Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge [/QUOTE] [Nitpick]I believe that in Owl Creek Bridge, the soldier’s neck is in the process of snapping – that is, he is dying. I may be wrong, though. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/27 "2007-04-25T03:57:19Z")
This might be a stretch for some, but _On the Beach_ by Nevil Shute is absolutely chilling in its depiction of the aftermath of nuclear warfare. It should be included in the canon of the Cold War. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/28 "2007-04-25T05:04:56Z")
Can we include TV? I’d add World at War and Ken Burns’ Civil War series. I haven’t seen World at War since it originally aired, but I can’t imagine that any other documentary produced since the 70’s has covered it more thoroughly. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/29 "2007-04-25T05:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Can we include TV? I’d add World at War and Ken Burns’ Civil War series. I haven’t seen World at War since it originally aired, but I can’t imagine that any other documentary produced since the 70’s has covered it more thoroughly. [/QUOTE] Sure, let’s open it up, since we’re at about thirty responses. What are some TV shows and movies? -M_A_S\*H -The Longest Day Actually, I wonder how many canonical books would also qualify in the film category. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2007, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/30 "2007-04-25T22:52:18Z")
[QUOTE=straight man] [Nitpick]I believe that in Owl Creek Bridge, the soldier’s neck is in the process of snapping – that is, he is dying. I may be wrong, though. [/QUOTE] Yep, I meant it’s the same in that everything before it was a dream and the last moment shows that the whole narrative was imagined. ---
**Author:** ![Enterprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/76d3ee/32.png) [@Enterprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enterprise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/31 "2007-09-27T11:02:19Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] Yep, I meant it’s the same in that everything before it was a dream and the last moment shows that the whole narrative was imagined. [/QUOTE] I apologize for resurrecting this thread, but I figured **gigi** might yet be waiting for the answer to this: you might be talking about (I’ll spoiler it for the heck of it) Tim O’Brien’s _Going after Cacciato_, even though it’s about a company and the Vietnam War ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/32 "2007-09-27T12:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] This might be a stretch for some, but _On the Beach_ by Nevil Shute is absolutely chilling in its depiction of the aftermath of nuclear warfare. It should be included in the canon of the Cold War. [/QUOTE] Well if you are going to include Cold War cannon movies, I would submit: The Day After Red Dawn ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/33 "2007-09-27T12:56:28Z")
For an advanced tutorial on flying a helicopter during the Vietnam war, see [Chickenhawk](http://www.amazon.com/Chickenhawk-Robert-Mason/dp/0143035711/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1526724-4707021?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190897642&sr=8-1) . ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/34 "2007-09-27T13:06:04Z")
Alistair MacLean’s _HMS Ulysses_ is a truly disturbing account of an ill-fated WWII convoy to Murmansk. It’s very different in tone from his other work. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/35 "2007-09-27T13:20:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sleel] Oh yeah, forgot about this earlier: [A Soldier of the Great War](http://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Great-War-Mark-Helprin/dp/0380715899), a darn good read, though not concerned exclusively with war. [/QUOTE] I loved that book. And it showed other theaters of That War than the trenches of the Western Front. (Along with a bit of The Next War. And the effects of either war on non-combatants.) Pat Baker’s [Regeneration](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regeneration_%28novel%29) trilogy was an interesting look at the Western Front through British eyes. [Wilfred Owen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Owen) was one of the “real” characters in the novels–so why not include his poetry? ---
**Author:** ![Runestar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/74df32/32.png) [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/36 "2007-09-27T13:36:35Z")
All Quiet on the Western Front , by Erich Maria Remarque (sp?). A deeply moving book. The movie (orignal 30’s version) is pretty harrowing too; Hitler disliked both so much (mainly the antiwar message) that they were banned in Nazi Germany. ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/37 "2007-09-27T14:13:05Z")
As long as we’re opening up nominations to films, I’ll vote for \*Paths of Glory \* and _Go Tell the Spartans_. ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/38 "2007-09-27T14:22:54Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] Alistair MacLean’s _HMS Ulysses_ is a truly disturbing account of an ill-fated WWII convoy to Murmansk. It’s very different in tone from his other work. [/QUOTE] IIRC, MacLean served on a very similar ship protecting the northern convoys in WWII . ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/39 "2007-09-27T14:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat] Keegan was cited above – but his first, _The Face of Battle_, is the key to “getting” Keegan. [/QUOTE] I’d say that the “essential” Keegan, one one has read his “set-piece” stuff, is his _A History of Warfare_. Though I’d have edited down his rant on Clausewitz. ---
**Author:** ![MarcusF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@MarcusF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarcusF)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/40 "2007-09-27T14:56:31Z")
Two more for the list: _Quartered Safe Out Here_, by George MacDonald Fraser (the author of the Flashman books). His memories as a 19 year old infantryman fighting the Japanese in Burma. A very close up and personal account of a close up and personal war from brilliant story teller. _Defeat into Victory_, by Sir William Slim. The other end of the war in Burma, told by Bill Slim, the General commanding the 14th Army. You would be hard pressed to find a more honest (and well written) memoir from a retired General. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164.md?page=3)