Modern Strategy by Colin S. Gray. Straightforward and readable so far. A useful mainstream foundational primer for the layperson.
Modern Strategy by Colin Gray - amazonThe moral of this chapter, perhaps, is that we learn from history both that we cannot learn from history and that human beings continue to be literally capable of anything. The sadness of strategic history that sparks sentimental popular songs with rhetorical lines such as 'when will they ever learn?' promotes the hard-nosed question, 'learn what?' The horror of war has been known to mankind for ever. If full recognition of that horror were all that we humans had to learn, then the social institution of war might have been long banished. Unfortunately, things are not quite that elementally simple. (from Modern Strategy by Colin Gray)
Using Gray as a text next term.
When Sir Michael Howard, the pre-eminent British military historian (who is still attending conferences in London) writes a book review I notice; ah, yes I've not read the book he reviews!
He ends with:Some four decades ago, the TLS sent me a book to review by a young lecturer at Sandhurst entitled The Face of Battle. It impressed me so much that I described it as “one of the best half-dozen books on warfare to have appeared since the Second World War”. I wondered at the time if I had made a total fool of myself, but I need not have worried. The author, the late Sir John Keegan, proved to be one of the greatest military historians of his generation. It would be rash to put my money on such a dark horse again, but I shall. Emile Simpson’s War From the Ground Up is a work of such importance that it should be compulsory reading at every level in the military; from the most recently enlisted cadet to the Chief of the Defence Staff and, even more important, the members of the National Security Council who guide him.The book is 'War From The Ground Up: Twenty-first-century combat as politics' by Emile Simpson. 285pp. Publishers: Hurst. £25. 978 1 84904 255 0 and in the USA by Columbia University Press. $32.50. 978 0 231 70406 9.It is impossible to summarize Emile Simpson’s ideas without distorting them. ...... In short (and here I shall really go overboard) War From the Ground Up deserves to be seen as a coda to Clausewitz’s On War. But it has the advantage of being considerably shorter.
Link to fuller review:http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1239841.ece
Two reviews on Amazon UK:http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Ground-U...at+as+politics and no reviews on Amazon USA:http://www.amazon.com/War-Ground-Up-...=emile+simpson
davidbfpo
I`m actually hard to bore if the matter is discussed with some intelligence but that chapter was a bit much...
In any case I gave Common stocks a read.
I enjoyed it even if pretty nothing was new, but Fisher did a superb job when he wrote it and forcefully states many an important point.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
albeit only a few pages, chapter 35 of Roland Huntford’s Two planks and a passion. The book is a very well done history of skiing up to 1945. (There is a final chapter with a post-War history of skiing that feels a little tacked-on, but that period has already been covered by a number of books, in any case.)
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
For fun - you might like its brand of ironic humor - try Tikkanen's "The 30 Years' War" (used at Amazon and at AbeBooks).
Tikkanen was a young 18-19 year old soldier in the last two years of the Continuation War (1943-1944) - and a very dissatisfied soldier at its end.
Regards
Mike
The former FBI agent and interviewer, Ali Soufan, wrote 'The Black Banners: Inside the hunt for al-Qaeda' and published in 2011, with extensive redactions, some of them a single letter or a short word. I waited till the book appeared in paperback in the UK and took time to read it last month.
I know some here have been critical of his recollections compared to others, but for the context of the LE and intelligence campaign that was aimed at AQ it is very good. Especially on working in the Yemen.
On the value of the interview -v- 'enhanced interrogation' his position is very clear - interviews got confessions, evidence and information; with arguments familiar to those who have followed the controversy and several threads. See 'One Stop Interrogation Resource', this includes pointers to all the relevant threads:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=9446
There are some references to his work in London which I shall have to read again; his comments on one person at liberty known for civil litigation are very interesting.
Link to Amazon, with many good reviews (71 on .com and 27 on UK site):http://www.amazon.com/Black-Banners-...rds=ali+soufan and http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Banner...rds=ali+soufan
Last edited by davidbfpo; 04-07-2013 at 10:54 PM.
davidbfpo
He was on The Colbert Report during his book tour for The Black Banners and I found him surprisingly engaging for someone from his line of work. (FBI agents would come around from time-to-time on the Indian reservation where I grew up and let’s just say that neither they nor we tended to part impressed with the other.)
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
Interesting, that might be worth a read. Still can't figure out what the author has against our alpine style. Downhill is great fun indeed and 'Alpine touring' as it seems to be called in English, is a fantastic sport, which sadly costs quite a bit of lifes every winter.
Touring has become big in the last ten years or so. Some of my relatives did practice it regulary over 40 years ago. Technology has come a long way indeed. The review was a bit meh, seriously:
...Huntford reproduces a 4,000-year-old rock drawing from Russia that depicts three Stone Age hunters on skis stalking elk. It's an astonishing image, like seeing a stick figure on a Jet Ski in the caves of Lascaux.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
I get the impression that he enjoys the emphasis being put on being out in the wilderness rather than on fancy technique. I didn't get the impression from the book that he had anything against Alpine per se; he is honest about the fact that apart from Telemark that no Nordic style ski or technique is really up to a big run in the Alps.
In the U.S. there are two kinds of touring. Alpine touring emphasizes descent and usually means free heel skis and stepping up to climb (with skins, if need be) with randonee bindings offering the option to clamp down the heels on the way down. Light or Nordic touring allows for kicking and gliding as well as moderate turns during descents (the skis have a little width and metal edges).
Avy beacons, probes, and shovels are de rigueur in the western part of the United States, even for a lot of lift-served pistes.
I spotted a pair of Kandahar bindings (aka bear traps, aka ankle-breakers) while I was rummaging around yesterday. Yikes!
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
1. A question for the moderator first: Can we include MOOCs* in our 'reading' list?
I recently came after some quick personal research to the youtube channel of Standford and became interested first in a specific class and then in the broader concept.
2. General Overview and the Development of Numbers is the specific lecture and it is great from a mathematic but also an broader economic point of view. Great stuff and absolutely logical. Love the Babylonian bank deposits.
It is always a bit funny to hear an Englishman saying Franci, Pisano and so forth. It is of course the same the other way around.
P.S: Ganulv, I missed your reply and enjoyed it now. You will love to see how Didier Cuche skies goodbuy
*Interesting that MMOs, the games that is came first
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
Firn you asked:I see no problems with that; we sometimes link elsewhere to podcasts and the like.1. A question for the moderator first: Can we include MOOCs* in our 'reading' list?
davidbfpo
This was on display at the new book table at my local library and I gave it a read. I enjoyed it well enough, but I was most interested in discussion of the author’s time spent as commander of training at Ft. Bragg and there actually is not a lot of that in the book.
That is an awesome video, thanks for sharing! I actually own and regularly use both a pair of boiled wool mitts and a set of waxed wool gaiters!
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
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