Grand unified books thread

[Valmy]

I read "Killing Patton". It had good info and showed the likely perps who tried to kill him and why. Even talked about the head of the OSS (precursor to the CIA) who gave an operative the go ahead to kill Patton. But the book makes no conclusions nor has definitive info on if the accident that killed Patton was purposefully done.

It was a low speed collision and his death was a total fluke. Nobody else in his car was hurt. I find this a ridiculous idea.

[Malthus]

Anyone have any suggestions for a good book on the Great Northern War in English?

[Razgovory]

I read "Killing Patton". It had good info and showed the likely perps who tried to kill him and why. Even talked about the head of the OSS (precursor to the CIA) who gave an operative the go ahead to kill Patton. But the book makes no conclusions nor has definitive info on if the accident that killed Patton was purposefully done.

It was a low speed collision and his death was a total fluke. Nobody else in his car was hurt. I find this a ridiculous idea.

When I was in college I found a book that had the most ridiculous conspiracy theory I had yet come across.  Top Nazis had Rudolf Hess murdered and sent a body-double to Britain in an airplane.  The man who spend 40 years in Spandau prison was in fact an impostor.  I honestly couldn't understand why anyone would do that or why someone would believe that or others would do that.

[The Brain]

Anyone have any suggestions for a good book on the Great Northern War in English?

I understand your interest.

Unfortunately there is no definitive work on the war. Some suggestions below.

The Northern Wars 1558-1721, by Frost. This book covers more than just the GNW, but I think it's the modern book (in any language) with the best understanding of the war. It also isn't limited to just a single country's POV, and by its nature provides background to the war. Highly recommended. It's also in print and easily available AFAIK.

Charles XII of Sweden, by Hatton. Although somewhat old by now (it's from 1968) it remains the best biography of Charles XII in any language, which of course means that the GNW features prominently.

A fairly nice but a bit random and not extremely well written book is the recent Great Northern War Compendium, in two volumes. Lots of pictures and articles from different countries, but not a complete treatment of the war.

I don't remember if you've come across Frans G. Bengtsson's Life of Charles XII (the author of The Long Ships, though this book is non-fiction), which is a great read but not a modern work.

IIRC Massie's book on Peter the Great is a good read but might not give a modern scholarly view of the war.

Peter Englund's book on Poltava is a classic of military history and a great book, but it covers only that battle and only from the Swedish POV (its English title, The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire, is misleading.

If you have any more questions about the GNW please ask.

[Habbaku]

IIRC Massie's book on Peter the Great is a good read but might not give a modern scholarly view of the war.

I can confirm that it's not much of a modern view of the war, but the GNW is prominently featured. The book is mostly from Peter's/Russia's perspective, but should give lots of insight into Charles' motivations and the Swedish war effort as well.

[Malthus]

Anyone have any suggestions for a good book on the Great Northern War in English?

I understand your interest.

Unfortunately there is no definitive work on the war. Some suggestions below.

The Northern Wars 1558-1721, by Frost. This book covers more than just the GNW, but I think it's the modern book (in any language) with the best understanding of the war. It also isn't limited to just a single country's POV, and by its nature provides background to the war. Highly recommended. It's also in print and easily available AFAIK.

Charles XII of Sweden, by Hatton. Although somewhat old by now (it's from 1968) it remains the best biography of Charles XII in any language, which of course means that the GNW features prominently.

A fairly nice but a bit random and not extremely well written book is the recent Great Northern War Compendium, in two volumes. Lots of pictures and articles from different countries, but not a complete treatment of the war.

I don't remember if you've come across Frans G. Bengtsson's Life of Charles XII (the author of The Long Ships, though this book is non-fiction), which is a great read but not a modern work.

IIRC Massie's book on Peter the Great is a good read but might not give a modern scholarly view of the war.

Peter Englund's book on Poltava is a classic of military history and a great book, but it covers only that battle and only from the Swedish POV (its English title, The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire, is misleading.

If you have any more questions about the GNW please ask.

Wow - thanks for this very complete and helpful set of recommendations!

[Valmy]

There were some hilarious anecdotes about Charles XII and Augustus II in Massie's book. It is an awesome read.

[Savonarola]

Silas Marner by George Eliot

A "Loam and love-child" story where the good end happily and the bad unhappily.  (It says something about how prominent this genre was in the Victorian world that Stella Gibbons could parody it as late as 1932 in "Cold Comfort Farm.)  Like many of Eliot's works this deals with a society in transition from an agrarian one to an industrialized one.  This one is unusual for the period in that one of the key mysteries of the work is left unresolved.

[Malthus]

Reading "The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy", by Adrienne Mayor.

Very entertaining account of a figure I knew nothing about, a really serious opponent to the expansion of the Roman republic.

His adventures are almost surreally weird in some cases (example: at one point he slits his nephew's throat in full view of thousands with a razor he had hidden in his crotch - only to replace said nephew on the throne with the illegitimate son of his wife, who was also his sister - a woman he had executed. Fun family!  ).

Apparently he was a fanatic on the subject of poisons. He was famous for taking small doses of various poisons himself, to build up immunity (apparently, with some poisons, this works). Also, for experimenting with antedotes. Allegedly, a favorite party trick was to poison condemned criminals at dinner, while his guests watched, then experiment on the poisoned criminals with various drugs - the guests would get the same dishes as the criminal, but without poison (they hoped).

Apparently, he invented some sort of drug as a universal antedote - or at least, for centuries a particular drug was credited to him.

He was also infamous for conducting a huge ethnic cleansing of Romans in Asia, in which tens of thousands died.

On the other hand - many in Greece/Asia saw him as a saviour figure, from crushing Roman taxation and enslavement. 

[Habbaku]

The ending is a hoot. The Poison King was a great read, though obviously it seems like some of those statistics and his exploits are embellished, at least to me.

[The Brain]

Anyone have any suggestions for a good book on the Great Northern War in English?

I understand your interest.

Unfortunately there is no definitive work on the war. Some suggestions below.

The Northern Wars 1558-1721, by Frost. This book covers more than just the GNW, but I think it's the modern book (in any language) with the best understanding of the war. It also isn't limited to just a single country's POV, and by its nature provides background to the war. Highly recommended. It's also in print and easily available AFAIK.

Charles XII of Sweden, by Hatton. Although somewhat old by now (it's from 1968) it remains the best biography of Charles XII in any language, which of course means that the GNW features prominently.

A fairly nice but a bit random and not extremely well written book is the recent Great Northern War Compendium, in two volumes. Lots of pictures and articles from different countries, but not a complete treatment of the war.

I don't remember if you've come across Frans G. Bengtsson's Life of Charles XII (the author of The Long Ships, though this book is non-fiction), which is a great read but not a modern work.

IIRC Massie's book on Peter the Great is a good read but might not give a modern scholarly view of the war.

Peter Englund's book on Poltava is a classic of military history and a great book, but it covers only that battle and only from the Swedish POV (its English title, The Battle That Shook Europe: Poltava and the Birth of the Russian Empire, is misleading.

If you have any more questions about the GNW please ask.

Wow - thanks for this very complete and helpful set of recommendations!

Today I was at the Army Museum in Stockholm. They have a special exhibition about the battle of Narva, with a focus on the trophies taken. The Swedish trophy collection is pretty impressive.

[grumbler]

The Swedish trophy collection is pretty impressive.

I saw the Kremlin Armory when I was in Moscow, and I agree.

[dps]

I read "Killing Patton". It had good info and showed the likely perps who tried to kill him and why. Even talked about the head of the OSS (precursor to the CIA) who gave an operative the go ahead to kill Patton. But the book makes no conclusions nor has definitive info on if the accident that killed Patton was purposefully done.

It was a low speed collision and his death was a total fluke. Nobody else in his car was hurt. I find this a ridiculous idea.

When I was in college I found a book that had the most ridiculous conspiracy theory I had yet come across.  Top Nazis had Rudolf Hess murdered and sent a body-double to Britain in an airplane.  The man who spend 40 years in Spandau prison was in fact an impostor.  I honestly couldn't understand why anyone would do that or why someone would believe that or others would do that.

I've heard similar theories that it wasn't really Hess that was imprisoned in Spandau, but they claimed that either the British had murdered him, or that he had died in the plane crash in England, and the British put an imposter in his place.  That makes even less sense, IMO.  And there was at least one other theory that the guy in Spandau was an imposter and the real Hess was still alive and secretly imprisoned in Britain (this would have been around 1990 or so, when it would have at least been plausible that he was could have still been alive).

[Syt]

The Swedish trophy collection is pretty impressive.

I saw the Kremlin Armory when I was in Moscow, and I agree.

[The Brain]

I read "Killing Patton". It had good info and showed the likely perps who tried to kill him and why. Even talked about the head of the OSS (precursor to the CIA) who gave an operative the go ahead to kill Patton. But the book makes no conclusions nor has definitive info on if the accident that killed Patton was purposefully done.

It was a low speed collision and his death was a total fluke. Nobody else in his car was hurt. I find this a ridiculous idea.

When I was in college I found a book that had the most ridiculous conspiracy theory I had yet come across.  Top Nazis had Rudolf Hess murdered and sent a body-double to Britain in an airplane.  The man who spend 40 years in Spandau prison was in fact an impostor.  I honestly couldn't understand why anyone would do that or why someone would believe that or others would do that.

I've heard similar theories that it wasn't really Hess that was imprisoned in Spandau, but they claimed that either the British had murdered him, or that he had died in the plane crash in England, and the British put an imposter in his place.  That makes even less sense, IMO.  And there was at least one other theory that the guy in Spandau was an imposter and the real Hess was still alive and secretly imprisoned in Britain (this would have been around 1990 or so, when it would have at least been plausible that he was could have still been alive).

I remember Laurence Olivier being put forward as being the guy in Spandau. This was the mid-80s.