Grand unified books thread

[The Brain]

What's a good book on the campaign in the West in 1940, or the early war (1939-40) in general? I'm especially interested in Allied war plans and strategy.

[jimmy olsen]

What's a good book on the campaign in the West in 1940, or the early war (1939-40) in general? I'm especially interested in Allied war plans and strategy.

Spoiler [spoiler]They were bad[/spoiler]

[Syt]

What's a good book on the campaign in the West in 1940, or the early war (1939-40) in general? I'm especially interested in Allied war plans and strategy.

James Holland's War in the West books have been on my wish list for a while. So far there's two volumes, each over 800 pages.
Volume 1: Germany Ascendant 1939-1941
Volume 2: The Allies Fight Back 1941-1943

I don't know if they're any good, but they review well on Amazon; take that for what you will.

The market crier flap text kinda puts me off, tbh.

Are you ready for the truth about World War Two? The Second World War is the most cataclysmic and violent sequence of events in recent times. But for the past seven decades, our understanding of it has relied upon conventional wisdom, propaganda and an interpretation skewed by the information available. James Holland has spent over twelve years conducting new research, interviewing survivors, visiting battlefields and archives that have never before been so accessible and challenging too-long-held assumptions about the war that shaped our world. In Germany Ascendant, the first part of this ground-breaking new history, James Holland introduces the war, beginning with the lead-up to its outbreak in 1939 and taking us up to mid-1941 as the Nazis prepared to unleash Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. To tell the real story, he weaves together the experiences of dozens of individuals, from civilians and soldiers, to sailors, pilots, leading military strategists, industrialists and heads of state, and uncovers the strategy, tactics and events that informed not only the military aspects of the war but also the economic, political, and social aspects too. The War in the West is a truly monumental history of the war on land, in the air, and at sea. In it, James Holland has created a captivating and epic narrative which redefines and enhances our understanding of one of the most significant conflicts in history.

[The Brain]

Thanks. I see what you mean. I think I'll get it, at least it's cheap.

MOAR TIPS PLS

[Malthus]

What's a good book on the campaign in the West in 1940, or the early war (1939-40) in general? I'm especially interested in Allied war plans and strategy.

James Holland's War in the West books have been on my wish list for a while. So far there's two volumes, each over 800 pages.
Volume 1: Germany Ascendant 1939-1941
Volume 2: The Allies Fight Back 1941-1943

I don't know if they're any good, but they review well on Amazon; take that for what you will.

The market crier flap text kinda puts me off, tbh.

Are you ready for the truth about World War Two? The Second World War is the most cataclysmic and violent sequence of events in recent times. But for the past seven decades, our understanding of it has relied upon conventional wisdom, propaganda and an interpretation skewed by the information available. James Holland has spent over twelve years conducting new research, interviewing survivors, visiting battlefields and archives that have never before been so accessible and challenging too-long-held assumptions about the war that shaped our world. In Germany Ascendant, the first part of this ground-breaking new history, James Holland introduces the war, beginning with the lead-up to its outbreak in 1939 and taking us up to mid-1941 as the Nazis prepared to unleash Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. To tell the real story, he weaves together the experiences of dozens of individuals, from civilians and soldiers, to sailors, pilots, leading military strategists, industrialists and heads of state, and uncovers the strategy, tactics and events that informed not only the military aspects of the war but also the economic, political, and social aspects too. The War in the West is a truly monumental history of the war on land, in the air, and at sea. In it, James Holland has created a captivating and epic narrative which redefines and enhances our understanding of one of the most significant conflicts in history.

Heh I love the blurb - that appears to imply no-one knows the "truth" about WW2 except this guy. 😄

[Syt]

Yeah, but to be fair, an editor/marketing guy might have written it with limited input from the author.

[grumbler]

I like even more the advert for "The War in the West Trilogy (2 book series)" 

This guy is so good that he can write a trilogy in only two books!

The series reeks of amateur hour, but the author has some other serious history books under his belt, so this might just be that he's chosen a crappy publisher this time.

[Sheilbh]

What's a good book on the campaign in the West in 1940, or the early war (1939-40) in general? I'm especially interested in Allied war plans and strategy.

James Holland's War in the West books have been on my wish list for a while. So far there's two volumes, each over 800 pages.
Volume 1: Germany Ascendant 1939-1941
Volume 2: The Allies Fight Back 1941-1943

I don't know if they're any good, but they review well on Amazon; take that for what you will.

The market crier flap text kinda puts me off, tbh.

Are you ready for the truth about World War Two? The Second World War is the most cataclysmic and violent sequence of events in recent times. But for the past seven decades, our understanding of it has relied upon conventional wisdom, propaganda and an interpretation skewed by the information available. James Holland has spent over twelve years conducting new research, interviewing survivors, visiting battlefields and archives that have never before been so accessible and challenging too-long-held assumptions about the war that shaped our world. In Germany Ascendant, the first part of this ground-breaking new history, James Holland introduces the war, beginning with the lead-up to its outbreak in 1939 and taking us up to mid-1941 as the Nazis prepared to unleash Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. To tell the real story, he weaves together the experiences of dozens of individuals, from civilians and soldiers, to sailors, pilots, leading military strategists, industrialists and heads of state, and uncovers the strategy, tactics and events that informed not only the military aspects of the war but also the economic, political, and social aspects too. The War in the West is a truly monumental history of the war on land, in the air, and at sea. In it, James Holland has created a captivating and epic narrative which redefines and enhances our understanding of one of the most significant conflicts in history.

Heh I love the blurb - that appears to imply no-one knows the "truth" about WW2 except this guy. 😄

World War 2: The Greatest Story Never Told

[Syt]

Reading up more on him, James Holland seems more interested in the human experience rather than the who did what when and why - which still has its place, I think Max Hastings' All Hell Let Loose is an excellent book, for example - but probably not something to look to if you want to learn about the campaigns themselves.

[Malthus]

Yeah, but to be fair, an editor/marketing guy might have written it with limited input from the author.

I'm willing to extend the benefit of that doubt. 😉

As an aside, my favourite back blurb for any book was for Ian Banks'  *The Wasp Factory*. When Banks wrote it he was still an unknown author, and the reviews were scathing: "This book is garbage that will appeal only to perverts", that sort of thing. Banks (or his publisher) collected all the most scathing reviews, and put them on the back cover (and more on the first couple of pages inside)! 😄

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/iain-banks-in-the-end-we-ll-be-smiling-1.1350434?mode=amp

[Syt]

 

[The Brain]

I ordered Holland's book, and also Julian Jackson's The Fall Of France.

[Sheilbh]

So saw someone on Twitter talking about this book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0674986393?pf_rd_r=KFJ3N29TP1YFTXTKH1RX&pf_rd_p=e632fea2-678f-4848-9a97-bcecda59cb4e

Which looks really interesting. In particular flagging the author approaching Mussolini's Italy through the story of a marraige, apparently very successfully.

I mentioned a story about a friend's family which I swear could be used as a basis for a book. He's Ukrainian and his grandfather was Italian. The grandfather was fighting in the A-H army in WW1 and got captured as a prisoner of war by the Russians and was put in a POW camp in Ukraine. The POW camp was fairly relaxed so he ended up getting to know people in the nearby village and fell in love with a local girl. After the war they married. In the twenties they go to Italy where they are treated with a huge amount of suspicion because they've come from the USSR, so they eventually give up and return to the USSR where they're suspected of being Fascists. So they get deported to Kazakhstan until the 50s/60s (basically post-Stalin) when they finally are able to move back to the village with an old POW camp nearby.

Obviously the Italian fascist story is different, but it just seems like there's so many interesting personal stories out there that could be told that would also, in some way be the story of the regimes/systems those people were in. It's something I always wonder about - and have this book (https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2018/02/26/book-review-the-house-of-government-a-saga-of-the-russian-revolution-by-yuri-slezkine/) which sounds on point and will hopefully be interesting once I get to it

[The Brain]

I started on a collection of texts about Charles XII's Ottoman exile, published by the Swedish Army Museum. The first text claimed that Sweden in those days wasn't a dictatorship. Er what? The king held absolute power FFS. So I stopped reading the first text and started on the second (different author). Trundled along merrily until it said that the Safavids' time on the Peacock Throne came to an end in 1722. Er what? Nevermind a discussion about the exact year, the Peacock Throne that was still in India at the time? Things like these make me doubt everything they say that I don't already know, which makes reading it less than useful and attractive. Sigh. Maybe I'll try the rest of the book again at some later point, right now I'll move on to something else.

[Oexmelin]

Absolutism =/= dictatorship.