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Grand unified books thread

Started by Syt, March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM

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Syt

Quote from: The Brain on March 16, 2009, 12:24:41 PM

Punishment for changing your nick, Sytass.

I changed mine waaaaaaaaaaaaay before suckers like Timmy Trollson or Monkeyangerbradycunt.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Brain

Quote from: Syt on March 16, 2009, 12:26:27 PM
Quote from: The Brain on March 16, 2009, 12:24:41 PM

Punishment for changing your nick, Sytass.

I changed mine waaaaaaaaaaaaay before suckers like Timmy Trollson or Monkeyangerbradycunt.

So you inspired them? Thanks a million, asshole.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

fhdz

and the horse you rode in on

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Alatriste on March 16, 2009, 07:45:52 AM
Quote from: Syt on March 16, 2009, 01:52:42 AM
In the old thread the question was raised about books about the Seven Years War that are *not* about the British Navy or the French and Indian Wars.

The Seven Years War in Europe: 1756-1763 by Franz A.J. Szabo was mentioned in the context, but I guess I'll leave it be after this reader review on Wargamer:
QuoteJust finished the above book. Let me save you the trouble and summarize: Frederick the great was an incompetent tyrant and , apparently, a coward who routinely fled from battles that his over rated Prussian Army constantly lost.  When prussia won a victory, it was only because of some type of fluke like a weather event, or a junior Austrian officer misunderstanding an order.  Austria routinely dominated the incompetent Frederick whose Prussian Army only survived through sheer luck.  Fredericks reputataion only developed due to Prussian propogandists.

I guess I should have read the author's bio first. Professor of Austrian Studies, native Austrian, and dedicated his book to his two grandfathers who, as he proudly announces, both fought for Austria-hungary during WWI.

With critics like this I always wonder if the book is really so strongly biased or rather the reader was looking for a piece of hero worshipping and can't handle the truth(TM). In this case the 'caveat' applies even more strongly because, to put it bluntly, the entire Kingdom of Prussia survived due to sheer luck. That Old Fritz was reduced to ordering his ministers to get peace at any price is as close to an stablished fact as one can get.

That's true, but he survived seven years fighting nearly all of Europe. There's no way that was due to just luck.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
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Habbaku

Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 16, 2009, 04:12:38 PMThat's true, but he survived seven years fighting nearly all of Europe. There's no way that was due to just luck.

As Napoleon's old maxim goes, "I'd rather fight allies than be one."  Frederick's "luck" of sorts was based rather heavily on the fact that the coalition aligned against him never had a unified goal, never a unified command, always had competing interests and, in many cases, political conflict between the commanders at the front and politicians at the back essentially guaranteed that he was never really all that pressured.

Add in the fact that Russia, at the peak of its success (and when Frederick was probably quite ready to commit suicide) had a few drastic foreign policy shifts from the Czarina dying, then the new Czar allying, then the new Czar being murdered and replaced with a neutral Russia, and you have a recipe for his state's survival.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Habbaku

As for the book, Syt, the guy who wrote that appears to be after the sort of hero-worship that Alatriste mentioned.  The book is certainly worth reading--especially as it uses a bevy of primary sources in their original language, rather than second-hand materials.

The book is incredibly unflattering about Frederick, but backs everything up with solid research--something not everyone who's a Frederick "The Great" fanboy can tolerate.
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.

-J. R. R. Tolkien

Malthus

I liked old Fred's psycho daddy.

I mean, how could you not like someone who collected giants as a hobby?  :D
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Ed Anger

Quote from: Malthus on March 16, 2009, 05:00:26 PM
I liked old Fred's psycho daddy.

I mean, how could you not like someone who collected giants as a hobby?  :D

I also like the bit on Wiki that the Prussian treasury surplus was in his basement. All he needed was some coffee cans to put it in.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Malthus

Quote from: Cindy Brady on March 16, 2009, 05:18:15 PM
Quote from: Malthus on March 16, 2009, 05:00:26 PM
I liked old Fred's psycho daddy.

I mean, how could you not like someone who collected giants as a hobby?  :D

I also like the bit on Wiki that the Prussian treasury surplus was in his basement. All he needed was some coffee cans to put it in.

All he has to do is detail his giants to yell "get off my lawn!" and he'd be perfect.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

FunkMonk

Just received my American-edition copy of The Third Reich at War by Richard Evans yesterday.  :)
Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

Ed Anger

Finished End of the Old Order by Frederick Kagan. Pretty good, but his constant use of Caine Mutiny references regarding Mack's leadership was a bit....weird. Also, the constant sniping at other Napoleonic authors in the footnotes was petulant. Just call them a doo-doo head and get it over with.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Martinus

About half-way through The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst. Very delightful read.

Martinus

Update: Finished The Swimming Pool Library, one of the most gripping, wonderfully and richly written modern books I have read in years. Thanks for an amazing recommendation, guys. I really enjoyed that one - now can't wait to get my hands on Alan Hollinghurst's other books (which, I am led to believe, have received an even greater critical applause than his debut). Delicious.

grumbler

Quote from: Malthus on March 17, 2009, 08:27:44 AM
Quote from: Cindy Brady on March 16, 2009, 05:18:15 PM
Quote from: Malthus on March 16, 2009, 05:00:26 PM
I liked old Fred's psycho daddy.

I mean, how could you not like someone who collected giants as a hobby?  :D

I also like the bit on Wiki that the Prussian treasury surplus was in his basement. All he needed was some coffee cans to put it in.

All he has to do is detail his giants to yell "get off my lawn!" and he'd be perfect.
I snorted some water reading this!  :D
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

Razgovory

Currently reading Beevor's book on the Spanish Civil war.  I was surprised how nasty the nationalists were.  I mean they were beating the Republic in warcrimes hand over first.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017