Grand unified books thread

[11B4V]

Should be here today



The Forgotten Battle of the Kursk Salient: 7th Guards Army's Stand Against Army Detachment Kempf' Hardcover – June 13, 2018
by Valeriy Zamulin (Author), Stuart Britton (Editor)

[Admiral Yi]

On order:

Mothers of Kursk: Interviews with Parents of Troops at The Greatest Tank Battle in History

Kursk Stomach: Feldwebel Kurz's Diary of Daily Meals During the Epic Eastern Front Battle

Sidelined Soldiers: In Depth Look at the Units Which Really Wanted to Participate in Kursk but Didn't Quite Make it

[The Brain]

You people are weird.

[frunk]

On order:

Mothers of Kursk: Interviews with Parents of Troops at The Greatest Tank Battle in History

Kursk Stomach: Feldwebel Kurz's Diary of Daily Meals During the Epic Eastern Front Battle

Sidelined Soldiers: In Depth Look at the Units Which Really Wanted to Participate in Kursk but Didn't Quite Make it

The Curse Can of Kursk: Unsanitary Supplies and their effect on Combat Performance

The Kursk of Darkness: How an Ivory Trader could have made a fortune in WW II

[11B4V]

You people are weird.

They are

[The Minsky Moment]

I recently finished the entire Expanse series, which I started reading when the show got canceled, then re-upped. It has its ups and downs, and the weakness is definitely in characterization throughout the series, but the plot is strong and I'm really, really eager to get the 8th book this December.

Unrelated: does anyone in the Languish brain trust have a recommendation for reading on Charlemagne or the early Medieval period?

Many options - one of the ones I read most recently is Chris Wickham's Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages

One of the events he recounts is something I always thought would be a great movie premise.

The background was the great crisis of the 9th century in France. In 856-57, Danish pirates sacked Paris, Orleans and other cities and were ravaging virtually unchecked up and down the Seine and Loire. Late in 858, Charles the Bald laid siege to the Danes but then then broke camp, presumably because his nobles revolted and induced Louis the German to invade.

What happened next is narrated in the Annals of St. Bertin:

The Danes ravaged the places beyond the Scheldt. Some of the common people living between the Seine and the Loire formed a sworn association amongst themselves, and fought bravely against the Danes on the Seine. But because their association had been made without due consideration, they were easily slain by our more powerful people.

Basically the peasants living in the area took it upon themselves to defend their lands and managed to push back the Danes where their "betters" had failed  In so doing, they were acting in accordance with longstanding Frankish tradition in which free peasants had the right (and sometimes the obligation) to take up arms, a right still in force during the reign of Charlemagne.  But times had changed - about 20 years earlier Bertin narrates an assembly of Emperor and bishops convened to "set out clearly what was the proper function of each social order".   By 860 the old Carolingian free peasantry was being pushed permanently out of the public sphere. The consequence for those brave peasants was dire: for their crime of defending the country that the aristocrats placed at risk, they were killed for their impertinence.

[Habbaku]

Thanks, Minsky. I'll add it to the pile. 

[Syt]

Chris Wickham's Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages

Excellent book.

[11B4V]

On order:

Mothers of Kursk: Interviews with Parents of Troops at The Greatest Tank Battle in History

Kursk Stomach: Feldwebel Kurz's Diary of Daily Meals During the Epic Eastern Front Battle

Sidelined Soldiers: In Depth Look at the Units Which Really Wanted to Participate in Kursk but Didn't Quite Make it

Got you covered Admiral

[Eddie Teach]

Instead I started on Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, by Lieven. I just finished his Russia Against Napoleon, which I enjoyed. I may not agree with everything he writes but he generally seems to know his stuff and writes well. Towards the Flame seems to be good too, one little thing struck me as odd though so far. When talking about Muscovy/Russia's imperial achievement he says "No other great empire was ever created in such northern latitudes...". Er... Moscow isn't exactly up north, it's on the same latitude as such empire-building bumblers as the UK. And if he means that it's somehow harder for Europeans to build empires in the temperate zone than in say the tropics then he doesn't say why. And I assume he means that the Mongol empire wasn't great or didn't include enough of Northern Siberia, which is fair enough. Edit: And obviously that Canada (as part of the Empire) doesn't count, also fair enough.

I think it was mainly a diss at Gustavus Adolphus.

[Savonarola]

I've been reading a book of Robert Browning's poetry.  Reading up on "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix" I came across this wax cylinder where Browning (almost) recites the poem.

[The Brain]

I'm currently reading Jeffrey Burton Russell's books on the devil. I've finished Satan (about early Christianity) and Lucifer (about the Middle Ages) and started on Mephistopheles (the modern world). He also has The Devil (about olden times) but I decided to start with early Christianity. Pretty interesting stuff, especially since I haven't read much about religious history. The author is very upfront with the fact that he believes in the devil (which is great that he is), and he really seems to have been thinking long and hard on the problem of evil. Of course he hasn't really thought deeply enough to my mind (since he believes in Cave Santa), but he's refreshingly sincere and open (and very far from retarded, and even less dogmatic). He seems to have a genuine passion for the subject, and I really enjoy reading his books.

One thing that struck me though is that, for all his decades of thinking about suffering and evil, he doesn't appear to have considered at all the functions they have. From a biological/evolutionary perspective they exist for a reason (and AFAIK the author isn't a Creationist). Odd blind spot.

[Razgovory]

Finished off the The Distant Mirror by Barbra Tuchman.  She's not the best historical, but has wonderful prose and vivid characterization.  I read it as a break drudgery of reading the Canturbury tales.  Order two books off Ebay, one is a history of Cole County published in 1889 and the other is a history of Jefferson City published 1938.  That's about the best I can do with local history.

[Eddie Teach]

That leaves 80 years uncovered. Guess you're stuck with newspaper archives.

[jimmy olsen]

Dated and from 2004? I think that might do the trick. I'm not sure how much groundbreaking work is being done in that realm. 

Thanks!

Christopher Lee wrote the definitive work on Charlemagne in 2010

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_By_the_Sword_and_the_Cross