Recently read a couple of books recommended on the History board.

El Narco - history of cartels and drugs in Mexico. Interesting book but about a decade old so a bit dated on current happenings. Still a good read.

Skeletons of the Zahara - good survival story about a crew of American sailors who crashed in Western Africa. Didn't realize how common it was for Americans to end up in slavery there.

Tennozan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb by George Feifer

Just finished A History of the Confederate Navy, the definitive history of the navy by an Italian college professor, Raimondo Luraghi. It was a best seller when it came out in Italian before being printed in English by the Naval Institute Press. HIghly recommended, he covers it all and well and talks engineering so a non-engineer gets it.

About to start Frank Vandiver's Ploughshares into Swords about Confederate industry and Josiah Gorgas.

Reading a lot of dead authors lately.

Roger Lowenstein's Ways and Means.

It profiles the financing of the Civil War and provides a lot of detail that is otherwise missed in analysis of the politics and military conflict. You really appreciate the nearly irrelevant nature of the Federal government prior to to Ft. Sumter and how many things changed or were instituted in response.

National Income Tax

Greatly expanded Federal Budget

Great innovation in marketing government securities to raise funds

The National Banking Act of 1853 basically killed the various alternatives to the U.S. dollar and made it the only appropriate means of exchange while instituting what is now considered the Federal Reserve System.

You also get a good look into the behavior of Lincoln's cabinet folks like Salmon Chase as well as a greater appreciation for Thaddeus Stevens.

Thanks for the recommendation. Historians usually are clueless when it comes to economics and, as a result, tend to ignore it. That's a mistake because economics either causes or greatly facilitates much of history.

By the way, my library has the book available as a Kindle download. The process to check it out was seamless and easy. Sometimes technology is truly great and amazing! (Sometimes the opposite, though.)

Lincoln was suprisingly well read on political economy, and you will get to his address to congress on Labor vs. Capital.

The book is very good about Whig party platform issues, which is a strange blend of progressive tactics (tariffs, federal infrastructure spending) and libertarian beliefs (small federal government and deference to congress, anti-expansion).

The confederate economic thought is hilariously bad when it is summed up.


Final funny point - The discussion of the total mistrust of confederate bills by Southern businessman delved into the how state banks would make their own currency as fall-back. The Bank of Louisiana's $10 "Dix Notes" (French word for ten ) were the most trusted form of exchange and became know as Dixie Notes and they were so prevelant that the South became known as "Dixie Land".

Great book and audio book. Amazing how much information was available and not known by the public.

Just finished Agatha Christie's first book which introduced Hercule Poirot- The Misterious Affair at Styles.

She got 25 pounds for it. Her next book got her 500 pounds!

Going to try to read all her books in order !

Devil in the White City

Finished "The Catcher was a Spy". It is the story of Moe Berg who played in MLB for a long time and then worked for the OSS in WW2. Then basically was a professional couch surfer. Interesting story about a rather unique guy.

And sticking with the theme of baseball and WW2, I read The Cloudbuster 9, which is centered around Ted Williams and other baseball players in the Navy V-5 Pre-Flight training program where they also played baseball against a variety of other teams. The author is the daughter of the bat boy/mascot for the team who later played minor league ball. Harder to recommend this one. Not bad but the author jumps around more than I would like and makes some claims that seem hard to support. It was interesting to read about the use of sports in the training(not just baseball).

Finished "Mission to the North" by Florence Jaffray Harriman. She was the US ambassador to Norway when WW2 broke out. She wrote the book in 1941 so its an interesting perspective from before when the dust settled. Some facts are not correct about German losses in Norway but this is understandable based on when it was written. She gives details about her time in Norway before the war and then of course details on running from the Germans with the royal family and making it to Sweden. Good bit of info on the SS City of Flint. Lots of prewar writing about Norweigian shipping, fishing, and culture.

I also found out that a US officer was killed in Norway by a German bomb. I hadn't realized that previously and it makes me curious what communication or response the US had to the Germans after that. Wikipedia noted that Goering did send a letter to the US a few days after it happened.

Did something different and read a book without knowing anything about it or the author, went in totally blind. Its "A Slave Holders Daughter" by Belle Kearney. It was published in 1900. I got an early (1900 but not first edition) printing and decided to give it a shot. Her father was a wealthy plantation owner in Mississippi who as you might gather from the title owned slaves. He lost most of his fortune during and right after the civil war.

Its an autobiography of her life up until that point. She became a key member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) and traveled extensively speaking and attending events. She was also involved in the women's suffrage movement. In addition to pushing for equal pay for women and voting rights, she views allowing women to vote as a means to further cement white supremacy. She laid quite a bit of the blame on the legality of alcohol in certain areas/counties/cities on black people.

She does seem to be a talented writer and you can feel her passion for the temperance movement coming on strong in her writing. If she was as good of a speaker as she was a writer, I can see why her services seemed to be in demand. Well after the book was published, she became the first women to be elected a Mississippi state senator.

Quote:

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If she was as good of a speaker as she was a writer,

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A key point. I have found poor writers who were great speakers on the subject, as well as any other combination of the two. A great writer and speaker is a pleasant experience to find.

You might also want to read Killers of the Dream by Lillian Smith.

Just stumbled upon this thread and spent the last couple of days browsing through the past pages. Great picks in here, so thanks to everybody who has contributed.

My personal interest, at the moment, is more in the realm of historical fiction. Though that sometimes drives me to read the non-fiction accounts of certain events. Currently reading through the Aubrey-Maturin series by O'Brian. Easy, entertaining books. After readings The Fortune of War, it prompted me to pick up Ian Toll's "Six Frigates", which I found to be, generally, very well done.

I have not read that Pacific trilogy that many others have recommended, though am curious about it now after having read Six Frigates and generally enjoying it.

Interested to hear if others have suggestions in this area. I don't want to open a fiction-book can of worms, if this is mainly intended to discuss non-fiction titles. In that event, ignore those comments and feel free to suggest anything relating to the early US Navy or the Royal Navy during or before the Napoleonic Wars.

Just finished a strange little book, "The Silkie", by A. E, VanVogt.
The book is fantasy/sci fi and these silkies not only swim, they
also fly between planets and battle Earth's enemies.
The original Scottish myth is also pretty strange:

Finished "Intelligence at the Top: The Recollections of a British Intelligence Officer" by Major General Sir Kenneth Strong. He held a variety of key roles surrounding WW2 including being a millitary attache in Berlin from 1937-1939 and then G2 for Eisenhower in both AFHQ and SHAEF. The book is from 1968 and thus prior to the public revealing of Ultra.

I found it very interesting and easy to read. Lots of interesting insights into decisions that were being made militarily and politically. He is a strong supporter of Eisenhower and Bedell Smith and gives some background into some of the more difficult decisions such as whether or not to push for Berlin and the sending of American units in Army Group 12 to Montgomery during the Bulge. He says that Eisenhower would rather have had Alexander instead of Montgomery after the D-Day Landings. "Eisenhower once remarked to me that he supposed the ideal solution would have been to have used Montgomery, the master of set piece battle to get us ashore on the Normandy beaches, and once we had landed to have brought in Alexander to exploit our success". He adds quite a bit of background and information regarding the broad front vs single thrust debate.

Another interesting piece is his details of the negotiations between the Italians and the Allies. He and Smith were the ones sent to negotiate the terms first in Lisbon, and then in Sicily. He was this involved with the negotiations with the Germans in April and May of 45 due to knowing German fluently. An interesting tactic they used when Admiral von Friedeburg came to negotiate was to have a map showing Allied dispositions with two large arrows indicating attacks about to take place by the Allies and Russians. Then when General Jodl was brought into the negotiations, Strong had Smith give a 'soldier to soldier" talk. "I reminded Bedell Smith of the importance the Germans attached to honour and prestige in their armed forces and suggested that perhaps he could play upon this".

He writes of many attempts by German officers to try to provide him with intelligence about the strength of German forces during his time as an attache before the war. In one example a member of the German High Command called him before a military parade in Berlin being held for Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. In the parade the units weren't going to be wearing shoulder straps and no markings would be on the vehicles to keep anyone from getting an accurate idea of strength. The contact advised him to take a walk down particular streets and normally he wouldn't go down. On those streets in chalk were unit names to allow them to know where to position for the parade.

On the decision to green light the invasion of Normandy:

"Eisenhower got up from his chair and walked slowly up and down the room. It was an old habit; I had seen him do it many times before. his head was slightly sunk on his chest, his hands clasped behind his back. From time to time he stopped in his stride, turned his head quickly and jerkily in the direction of one of those present and fired a rapid question at him. When he got the answer he thought for a moment and then resumed his walk. Montgomery showed some signs or his impatience, as if to say that he had to make the decision it would have been made long ago. Leigh-Mallory looked gloomy; we knew that we were watching a brave man called upon to face what he thought was an unnecessary of other men's lives. Suddently Eisenhower stopped his walking. After a short pause he turned and faced us. "OK, boys," he said, "We will go" With that he left the room"

One typo I found was related to the crash landing in Belgium of a German plane in January 1940 that contained the plans for the German offensive in the west. In the book it says 1949 instead of 1940. I hadn't heard of this entire ordeal previously.

Rogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre.

First off, Macintyre isn't as much of a historian as he is a story teller. I tend to think of him as the British Ambrose but maybe with fewer issues.

Rogue Heroes tells the story of the founding of the SAS and their exploits during WW2. It's pretty incredible that all of these guys didn't die immediately because it seems like they were just making it up as they went along but it's still impressive they were able to form something nearly out of nothing.

If Speilberg and Hanks were looking for a story for the next Band of Brothers, this would be one I would be interested in.

Read "Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die: How the Allies won on D-Day" by Giles Milton. Mostly a collection of accounts of various men on both sides of D-Day. If you follow WW2 some of these might be familiar.

One account in particular that stood out was Howard Vander Beek. He was in charge of LCC 60 which was a part of force U, heading to Utah beach. The account says that just over a week prior to D Day, they heard a broadcast from Axis Sally that details their names, location, and recent activity. Vander Beek thinks that the Nazi's must have got that info from an elderly couple who came and spoke to them. I hadn't heard previously an account of Axis Sally calling out a specific unit prior to D Day. I couldn't find anything if any British couples were ever caught as spies.

Farther Than Any Man, Captain James Cook. Bought a map of his travels…spent as much time reading as looking at the map and google following….

You know there's already a British mini series about this with the exact same title, right? Just came out last year.