What Are You Currently Reading? 2007

[MattC86]

Liddell-Hart's The other Side of the Hill: Germany's Generals, Their Rise and Fall, With Their Own Account of Military Events, 1939-45.

He does an amazing job of breaking down the tendency of the Germans to blame things on Hitler, and showing exactly what happened. Eye opening.

Also an interesting study in the moral obligations of high command. Without Liddell Hart (probably my favorite military writer these days) saying it explicitly, I take away from it the terrible moral failure of the German generals isolating themselves from "political" decisions. It is convenient for the high-ranking officer to claim he only executes national policy determined by others, but to me, while his uniform prevents him from issuing orders to the highest civilian command, it does not, it must not remove him from the moral obligation to his country and his soldiers, to do what is right.

Matt

[zenpundit]

He does an amazing job of breaking down the tendency of the Germans to blame things on Hitler, and showing exactly what happened. Eye opening.

Matt

Agreed.

Hitler was neither insane nor incompetent as a statesmen engaged in high military affairs, despite a lack of professional training or command experience. His intuitive judgments of developing military situations were often better than many top Wehrmacht generals and field marshals and Hitler's assessments of enemy psychology were frequently very shrewd.

Hitler's mental capacity declined as the war progressed along with his health but Hitler, while essentially a self-taught amateur, hadability to work with than many comparable historical figures. Certainly moreso than Stalin or Roosevelt (Churchill came to the table with extensive, if bitter, experience at high level wartime policy making during WWI and service on the Western Front).

[zenpundit]

" had more ability to work with " - sorry!

[goesh]

Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epdidemic of 1775-82: Fenn, Elizabeth

Wars against man and disease have many similiar appendages. Elements of the Colonial press accused Cornwallis of intentionally spreading smallpox - talk about WMD and old time psyops.....

[Old Eagle]

Not a military book, per se. Great read, especially for Afghan hands. Peace is right around the corner.

I still have a hard time believing Hosseini is writing in a foreign language. Writes much better than I do in my native language. (Better'n a bunch of you, too. No offense.)