The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War

Book Description

First-hand accounts that include diary entries and personal letters describe the experiences of boys, sixteen years old or younger, who fought in the Civil War.

Customer Reviews:

The boys war.......2006-11-28

With the many boys who fought in the civil war most of them lied about their age. A lot of them wrote letters or had a diary. Johnny Clem had run away from his home at 11. At age 12 he tried to enlist but they refused to let him join because he was clearly too young. The next day he came back to join as a drummer boy. "I was not happy to trade a musket for a stick". He got his wish in the battle of Shiloh and he became a soldier. I recommend this book to people who want like war and/or personal stories. I liked it. I hope you will to.

EXCELLENT STARTER WORK FOR THE YOUNG READER.......2006-01-20

Jim Murphy has given us a wonderful account of the Civil War with emphasis on the role the young soldier (teen and pre-teen) played in that conflict. The text is quite understandable and the illustrations, black and white photo of the Civil War, make this a valuable and interesting tool in sparking an interest in the young reader. The author uses many first hand accounts and has done a very good job with his research. The writing is not of the dry variety and seems to be able to hold the youner readers interest while still filling his or her head with many interesting and important facts. Highly recommend this one.

Very good book.......2003-03-06

This book is very good & understandable. I like it mainly for the pictures.

Wonderful intro to young soldiers lives in the Civil War.......1999-01-07

Read this aloud with my children about 2 years ago. It sparked my son's interest in Civil War historical fiction. He is not an avid reader, but has read several civil war books including "Red Cap" by Clifton Wisler and just picked up "Across Five Aprils" for his sixth-grade historical fiction assignment. Jim Murphy is a fine writer, weaving quotes, diary entries and anecdotes into a lucent and revealing account of the lives of youths who participated in the Civil War. A fine book!

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Belongs in Your WWII History Library
Inside the other side
Unique perspective
"We have ways of making you talk."
Excellent interviews of German generals after the war

German Generals Talk
Basil H. Liddell Hart
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0688060129
Release Date: 1971-09-01

Book Description

The German Generals who survived Hitler's Reich talk over World War II with Capt. Liddell Hart, noted British miltary strategist and writer. They speak as professional soldiers to a man they know and respect. For the first time, answers are revealed to many questions raised during the war. Was Hitler the genius of strategy he seemed to be at first? Why did his Generals never overthrow him? Why did Hitler allow the Dunkirk evacuation?

Current interest, of course, focuses on the German Generals' opinion of the Red Army as a fighting force. What did the Russians look like from the German side? How did we look? And what are the advantages and disadvantages under which dictator-controlled armies fight?

In vivid, non-technical language, Capt. Liddell Hart reports these interviews and evaluates the vital military lessons of World War II.

Customer Reviews:

Belongs in Your WWII History Library.......2007-04-28

B.H. Liddell Hart was one of most renowned military historians of the 20th century. Before John Keegan there was Liddell Hart. Liddell Hart was also a respected military strategist and was known to many of the German generals and seems to have developed a comfortable rapport with at least some of them. Liddell Hart writes with a clarity and a crispness that is just a pleasure to read. The book's opening chapter of 'The German Generals Talk' is especially well done. This remarkable material in the hands of a gifted writer like Liddell Hart gives the reader an opportunity for fascinating behind-the-scenes insights.

Originally published in 1948 the book uses Liddell Hart's interviews with Rundstedt, Kliest, Blumentritt, and others to review WWII in Europe from the German professional military perspective. Liddell Hart particulalry develops a view contrary to the stereotype of Hitler as an incompetent meddler in military affairs. Early in the war and even before the war, Hitler had been proven correct in his strategic assessment, so that it later became ever more difficult for the generals to dispute him when he made a series of blunders. (I hasten to add that I am speaking here only of Hitler in regard to his military role and not his sick and hateful ideology).

A book that belongs in your WWII history library. Highly recommended.

Inside the other side.......2007-02-16

The level of excellence we would expect from Sir Basil Hart. Well-communicated with pithy observations sprinkled throughout on the genius of German commanders and, yes, Hitler himself. This is thge inside account of the war from the perspective of the German command. It contains in it references to the early roots of Blitzkrieg and maneuver warfare theory as well as personal accounts of the men who carried out Hitler's war orders. Sometimes they expressed dissent, sometimes they were cowered into actions with which they disagreed. It is a great source of inside history of the German side of the second world war. Well worth the investment.

Unique perspective.......2006-05-18

Even though I am not a mainstream historian, I found this an engrossing read. His background as a soldier and a millitary strategist gives Hart the ability to put things in perspective. The narrative and interviews seamlessly progress from one theater of war to another. But I wont recommend this to beginners though - this book does not contain John Wayne stuff that make books like "Bridge too far" or "Pegasus bridge" popular.

There are some minuses

1) It is obvious that the author admires Gerd Von Rundstedt - so his subtle endorsements for Rundstedt strategies are not entirely convincing!
2) The generals interviewed in this book ALL come under OKH/Wehrmacht umbrella. No Kreigsmarine, No Luftwaffe!
3) The books contains no alternative viewpoints even within the german army; The point of view of Generals from SS divisions are not presented in this book
4) The first-person account of some key generals are missing even though some of them lived after the war. (eg) Guderian, Von Manstein and Karl Donitz.

"We have ways of making you talk.".......2006-02-24

B.H. Liddell Hart was one of the foremost military historians and theoreticians of the 20th Century. His interwar writings on the future of armored warfare were read down to the last period by Heinz Guderian, who used them (and others) as the basis of Germany's "armored idea" well before Adolf Hitler assumed the chancellorship in 1933. Ironically, Hart's conclusions -- that tanks should be deployed en masse rather than distributed evenly among infantry formations to give them "backbone" -- were ignored by his own side, and it was not until 1940 that he could point to the crushing Allied defeat in France and say, "I told you so!"

Shortly after the war, Hart was granted access to many of the seniormost German generals in Western captivity: his interviews with these gentlemen constitute the basis for "The German Generals Talk", a terse, easily readable and absolutely fascinating must-have for historians, history buffs, professional soldiers and armchair generals.

Hart starts with a brief overview of the German army's officer corps pre-Hitler, its relationship to the NS state and the development of the armored concept. He follows with a history of the war through the eyes of the particular field marshals and generals he was interviewing -- Blumentritt, Rundstedt, Thoma, Kleist, Heinrici, Manteuffel, Student, etc. Interspersed with this are his own analyses and conclusions on such matters as Hitler's leadership, the quality of the Red Army, and so on.

Hart unmistakably had a sizable ego, no doubt stroked thoroughly by the admiration with which he was regarded, and I can't disagree with those who feel his interviews with the officers in question, as well as his conclusions, tended to be conducted in such a way as to validate his prewar writings and ideas. He unsparing with self-praise and occasionally breaks up the narraitive to show how his prognostications were always "proven" right. This is a bit annoying but it doesn't detract much from the enjoyability of the book.

The book is a bit shallow in some of its analyses and there are chapters which are not much more than bloated paragraphs. Sometimes I felt he was making conclusions based on very limited data and other times I felt he was holding back too much of what he had learned in the name of word-economy. At barely 300 pages, I can sympathize with readers who felt that it was simply bones without flesh, but I believe Hart presupposed a fairly advanced knowledge of the subject among his readers.

It goes without saying that some of what the Germans had to say must be taken with a grain of salt. FM v. Kleist, for example, seems to have either been disingenuous or befuddled about dates, times, places, etc. when speaking to Hart about the German summer offensive of 1942, and he is not alone in his errors. It must also be remembered that a few of these gentelmen were on the legal hot seat and others were settling old scores, protecting their reputations and likewise engaging in the type of glossing-over that is rampant after every war, most notably a lost one.

Having said that, the honesty of some of the men is refreshing. Manteuffel was direct in his admiration for Model, and Heinrici, who disliked Hitler and whose nickname in the German army was "our tough little bastard", admitted frankly that "the troops confidence in Hitler was the dominant factor (in the remarkable performance of the German army), whether one liked it or not." You may not like or agree with Hart's methods or his conclusions, but it would be a mistake to at not least give "The German Generals Talk" a full and fair hearing.

Excellent interviews of German generals after the war.......2005-04-05

I found German Generals Talks to be extremely interesting and candid collective sets of interviews which was done immediately after World War II. The interviews are useful because they were done so close to the war, before politics, biased memories and self-justification really kicks in by these surviving German commanders who would write their own memoirs years later.

The author uses these interviews to help justified his positions and theories of "indirect approach" concept which he have been harping on for a long time. Personally speaking, I see nothing really wrong with that since I enjoyed Liddell Hart's writing and see merits in them. The Germans who talked with Liddell Hart also seem to expressed that they too enjoyed his writing which may explained some of the openness they displayed.

Overall, a pretty interesting reading material, probably considered as a mandatory reading for anyone interested in World War II.

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This Isn't Pacifism
Arundhati Roy is a great speaker and essayist but she needs to tone down the anti-Americanism:
Urgent And Powerful
Thought-provoking and disturbing
Frank Commentary

War Talk
Arundhati Roy
Manufacturer: South End Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0896087247

Book Description

As the United States pushes for war on Iraq, Arundhati Roy, the internationally acclaimed author of The God of Small Things, addresses issues of democracy and dissent, racism and empire, and war and peace in this collection of new essays.

The eloquence, passion, and political insight of Roy's political essays have added legions of readers to those already familiar with her Booker Prize-winning novel. -Invited to lecture as part of the prestigious Lannan -Foundation series on the first anniversary of the unconscionable attacks of September 11, 2001, Roy challenged those who equate dissent with being "anti-American." Her previous essays on globalization and dissent have led many to see Roy as "India's most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence" (New York Times).

War Talk collects new essays by this prolific writer. Her work highlights the global rise of religious and racial violence. From the horrific pogroms against Muslims in Gujarat, India, to U.S. demands for a war on Iraq, Roy confronts the call to militarism. Desperately working against the backdrop of the nuclear recklessness between her homeland and Pakistan, she calls into question the equation of nation and ethnicity. And throughout her essays, Roy interrogates her own roles as "writer" and "activist."

"If [Roy] continues to upset the globalization applecart like a Tom Paine pamphleteer, she will either be greatly honored or thrown in jail," wrote Pawl Hawken in Wired Magazine. In fact she was jailed in March 2002, when -India's Supreme Court found Roy in contempt of the court after months of attempting to silence her criticism of the government.

Fully annotated versions of all Roy's most recent -essays, including her acclaimed Lannan Foundation -lecture from September 2002, are included in War Talk. Arundhati Roy is the winner of the Lannan Foundation's Prize for Cultural Freedom, 2002, and will be returning to the U.S. in association with the Lannan Foundation in 2003. Roy's most recent collection of essays, Power Politics, now in its second edition, sold over 25,000 copies in its first 12 months.

Customer Reviews:

This Isn't Pacifism.......2007-08-27

Normally I never read books like this and by that I mean books from the Moore/Franken-Hannity-Coulter crowd. You get nothing insightful out of them but this one is pretty short and I wasn't doing anything else for the afternoon. Obviously then I knew what I was getting into before I read this book. I knew Arundhati Roy was but a socialist caricature. I knew she was involved with important and eminently serious groups like 'Queers Against Israel.' I knew she deeply hated the idea of the United States using its glorious military might to brutally smash Islamic terrorism. None of this seemed to matter much at the time since I find Arundhati to be a captivatingly beautiful woman (at times) and that level of attraction has a way of sort of momentarily evaporating my repugnance for these types of people.

The thing is I've built up an immunity of sorts to some of the aforementioned flaws. What I simply cannot stand however are folks who try to mask their American hatred as patriotism and that is precisely what Roy does with this book of hers. This is just another tract on how citizenship, good and productive citizenship, is mostly a passive activity, how nobody should be responsible to anyone else, and how pacifism and dissent are the highest forms of patriotism. In typical hippy/idealist fashion citizenship for Arundhati is more of a state of mind than anything else; it certainly doesn't place any demands on the individual. I mean, I love Jim Morrisson...doesn't that make me American ENOUGH?

NO! I hate the way folks like her try to pass off inaction as something noble. Citizenship is about sharing an intimate sense of responsibility to your community, passing something greater onto future generations, and, GASP!, occassionally having to bite the bullet (no pun) and storm a beach head or advance on a hill. I don't know where this idea came from that America, that the American idea, is just this right to do whatever you want. I really have no idea. I really have no clue how someone could tell you she owns a Doors album and then seriously expect you to consider her a decent citizen, a real American. Many of us have deep roots in this country, respect for its ideals, family who made supreme sacrifices so that we could live safely and freely. Books that make light of all this (especially when written by folks that have been here for like MAYBE 5, 10 years) is to heavy a burden to bear. This is just another diatribe that attempts to crush that patriotic spirit and convince us that wallowing around on the couch writing poetry would be a much better way to live ones life.

This isn't even authentic pacifism either, which I don't even have a problem with if it is indeed genuine. Roy detests the notion of the United States using its glorious military might to brutally smash Islamic warmongers though not suprisingly her pacifism seems to dissapear when it comes to these Islamic fanatics themselves. If HAMAS wants to blow up Pizza Huts and run into elementary schools with guns blazing then that's legitimate retaliation. If a United States Marine shoots a civilian who provides moral support to the folks planting IED's all over the neighborhood then he should be Court Marshaled, convicted, and slapped with a life sentence. Nothing new here folks.

This woman is in outer space. Anyone who mentions what a great tragedy a nuclear attack would be for the squirrel and butterfly populations (she really says this!) needs to reexamine their view of what exactly is important in this world.

We aren't going to change human nature anytime soon folks. War is something we're going to have to learn to live with.

Arundhati Roy is a great speaker and essayist but she needs to tone down the anti-Americanism:.......2007-06-18

I first want to start off this review by saying that "I love America." I don't love, or condone the malicious acts that iniquitous individuals in our government have committed in the past and are still committing today, but I love my country. I think sometimes individuals such as Arundhati seem to forget the good that has come out of America's struggle. Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." And there are many Americans that are vigilant today. Individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Milton William Cooper have died for the cause of vigilant libertarianism, which I think many of us forget from time to time.
What gets me in angst is that individuals such as Arundhati pontificate about the evils in our government, but fail to separate the people from the government, and this failure has a tendency to lead people into contemplating the wrong conclusions.
A case in point: Arundhati wrote an introduction to Noam Chomsky's book "For Reason of State"(which is reprinted in this book) and in it she says, "How has the United States survived its terrible past and emerged smelling so sweet? Not by owning up to it [in reference to the American Indian Wars], not by making reparations, not by apologizing to black Americans or native Americans, and certainly not by changing its ways. Like most other countries, the United States has rewritten its history. But what sets the United States apart from other countries, and puts it way ahead in the race, is that it has enlisted the services of the most powerful, most successful publicity firm in the world: Hollywood."
Now here where her diatribe suffers a syllogistic dilemma; the United States is a country not a political institution. Governments are political institutions entrusted to run a country and (so-called) qualified individuals are placed in-charge of running these institutions in the interest of the people.
But we must remember that sometimes-corrupt individuals egregiously take advantage of governments. This is known as Machiavellianism.
So, to put it in layman's terms, the inquiry is, who are the people running the government? And what are their individual crimes? When making arguments such as this, one has to identify the perpetrators of the crimes in question.
Perpetrators: meaning the people who committed the criminal acts!
Arundhati Roy (like many others) commits a dubious deed. Which is, she doesn't name names. Accusations without naming the accused are vapid complaints.

{{{GIVE US THE NAMES OF THE PERPATRATORS IN QUESTION!}}}
That's all I'm trying to say.

Furthermore, insofar as her remark about the U.S. rewriting history, the U.S. has not rewritten history. U.S. history is in abundance; it's just based on a litany of interpretations and opinions that cause one to resort to syllogisms to delineate the axiomatic conclusions. There are no absolute truths in history, that's just a fact considering the world governments' conspiracies that are hidden from public scrutiny. But we can come to some semblance of the truth by going to the library and reading books or researching on-line.
Now, if she wanted to point out that the U.S. educational system is mendacious with its ad hominems she'd be totally correct. So, then why doesn't she identify the individuals who own and control the educational institutions in question? Always ask yourself these questions when reading books like this. Don't ever take anything anyone says at face value.
And about her Hollywood comment: institutionalized-Hollywood is part of the governmental conspiracy, not part of the American people. The people that control, abuse and manipulate the government are the ones who own Hollywood. So the government never enlisted Hollywood because institutionalized-Hollywood has always been apart of the conspiracy.

Here's another remark she makes without thinking it through. "Wars are never fought for altruistic reasons. They're usually fought for hegemony, for business. And of course, there's the business of war." If you read her entire account you'll see where she's going with this particular argument since she is referring to U.S. oil/war profiteering, but to say that wars are never fought altruistically is absurd, it depends on whose side you're on. There are noble causes, remember Nat Turner's "Great Slave Rebellion," Osceola and "the Seminole Wars", or "Shay's Rebellion." Yes, there are antagonist then there's the opposition who'll stand recalcitrant to antagonistic hegemony, (in other words, heroes who are ready to stand up against the opposition.)

Also, on page-50 she said, "To call someone anti-American, indeed to be anti-American (or for the matter anti-Indian, or anti-Timbuktuan) is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination. An inability to see the world in terms other than those that the establishment has set out for you: If you're not a Bushie, you're a Taliban. If you don't love us, you hate us. If you're not Good, you're Evil. If you're not with us, you're with the terrorist." She then said, "I too made the mistake of scoffing at this post-September 11th rhetoric, dismissing it as foolish and arrogant. I've realized that it's not foolish at all. It's actually a canny recruitment drive for a misconceived, dangerous war." Her statement rings so true, but if she really believes that then why does she speak in absolutes and generality instead of naming the accused.
This book has a lot of faults, which is why what I'm going to say is in incongruity. I enjoyed this book. Arundhati Roy is an extremely articulate speaker and writer who I think is sincere about being the voice of the downtrodden. I just think she should be more mindful of what she says and start charging individual perpetrators with war crimes instead of marginalizing an entire nation when discussing world affairs. Anyhow, I'm looking forward to more of her writing in the future because I believe she has a good heart and means well.

Urgent And Powerful.......2007-04-15

"War Talk" is an urgent message to the world from one of the great activists of our time, India's Arundhati Roy. In this powerful collection of essays, Roy reflects on the state of the world in the "War On Terror" era and on the disastrous measures undertaken by the Indian government in regards to Muslims and other minorities. This book is a journey through the world as Roy sees it, experiences it. She is of course famous for her novel "The God Of Small Things," and here she achieves the same kind of poetry and cultural insight, she forms images with words, feelings with phrases. Roy chronicles with chilling detail massacres carried out in India against Muslims by radical right-wing government forces and forces us to confront our own government's hijacking by radical religious elements. The great piece in the book is "Come September," a powerful speech Roy delivered in 2002 that is a perfect expression of the post-9/11 world. She reminds us that we are not alone in the world when it comes to being attacked by terrorists, and that we have exported violence ourselves. Roy points out that September 11 is also the anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup in Chile against the elected government of Salvador Allende. Allende was killed and the fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet took power and opened concentration camps and torture chambers through-out Chile. There is a beautiful style to the way Roy deconstructs language and terms, making us exam official doctrine for what it is. She writes a wonderful essay on Noam Chomsky which praises Chomsky's efforts and in a broader sense covers our need to analyze and question media. "War Talk" is a warning on a world being abused by neo-liberalism and radical capitalism which Roy believes will collapse in the same style as Soviet communism. In striking passages she imagines a world consumed in nuclear war, imagining a radioactive landscape where her loved ones and her favorite things have perished under a mushroom cloud, a warning to us all. One finds a sense of cultural unity here, when Roy describes the problems India faces we realize many are not so different from our own, human beings must fight the same evils wherever they surface. Those who want to read something with more depth and meaning should read Roy, her comments are well-researched and constructed, it's almost like the alternative to the kind of radical dribble we get from figures like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. Concerned citizens should read Roy and know the history of our world.

Thought-provoking and disturbing.......2006-08-02

Whether or not you agree with Ms. Roy, reading her book will provoke you, and thus, to me, it is worth-while. It is particularly incendiary if you a regular American living a regular life. Ms. Roy spares few in allotting responsibility for the troubles of the world's poor and war-stricken. I did find her somewhat anti-American, but then, I'm biased.

Definitely take a look. Ms. Roy is extremely readable. I loved God of Small Things, and though I normally don't read political non-fiction, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Frank Commentary.......2005-09-25

This book exposes the truth about the injustices occuring in India without being clouded by passion. As always Ms. Roy gives the reader an honest account of what is actually transpiring. She gives the reader a portrait of the various people who are affected by these "social" projects without coming across as the evening news. This is definately a must read for anyone who believes in justice for everyone, not just the wealthy.

Battle at the 38th Parallel: Surviving the Peace Talks at Panmunjom

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Great Book, Most Informative
My dad was right there as a wire-man.......
Battle at the 38th Parallel: Surviving the Peace Talks at Pa
The way it was -- and more
An excellent depiction of combat on a static line in Korea

Battle at the 38th Parallel: Surviving the Peace Talks at Panmunjom
Joseph E. Gonsalves
Manufacturer: Hellgate Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The final phase of the Korean War-from April 1952 to July 1953-was not a time of vast battles, seaborne invasions, massive drives and retreats, or infusions of new combatants into the conflict. It was, rather, a period of violent and often futile local battles, waged in an effort to gain high ground as the peace talks sputtered.

During this period, the Iron Triangle area of central Korea saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. It was there, along the outpost line of the 7th Division, that many paid the ultimate price to achieve what has turned out to be a lasting, though shaky, truce.

BATTLE AT THE 38TH PARALLEL is a journey through those crucial months with an American rifle company, set against the backdrop of the peace talks at Panmunjom. The experience of Company E, 17th Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, has been meticulously recreated through oral histories of the soldiers on the front line, data from the national Archives, news reports from back home, and the author's own first-hand account.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book, Most Informative.......2004-12-11

This is the tenth book on Korea that I have read recently and the most rewarding. Most are written by historians looking at the macro level. This book was written by a combat veteran about a small unit. It tells the story of what it was like to be on the line during the extended talks. Highly recommended. Without this type of history the reader does not get a complete picture.

My dad was right there as a wire-man..............2003-11-20

at the very time this blood-shed was happening. I sent him this book as a gift, and he called me immediately after receiving and reading it. Make no mistake, the description and accuracy of Gonsalve's accounts are dead-on accurate (no bad pun intended). My father, Bob, was a radio wireman attached to the unit directly behind the front lines and was responsible for running and maintaining the communication lines between the two. He said this book recounts the action so vividly and accurately that it sends shivers down his back.

Battle at the 38th Parallel: Surviving the Peace Talks at Pa.......2002-04-06

I have read a lot of books about the Korean War. This is one of the best. I read it from cover to cover in one day. It's an extraordinary account of the experiences of an infantry company in Korea during the last year of the War. The book is exceptionally well written by a veteran of Easy Company, 17th US Infantry Regiment, one of the most colorful and significant units that fought in Korea.

The way it was -- and more.......2002-02-20

Joseph Gonsalves makes a distinct contribution to a Korean War genre that has multiplied during the conflict's 50th anniversary years (1950-53). This isn't a personal reminiscence or an exploration of personalities and strategies. Rather, Gonsalves uses his old outfit--Easy Company, 17th Regiment, 7th Division--to illustrate how it was to fight and survive, and sometimes die, in a backwater country that, while geographically significant, no one cared much about, save the North and South Koreans, the Chinese, and the United Nations forces sent there to oppose the Reds...
Gonsalves offers enough geopolitical background to put the conflict in context, but concentrates on telling of a rifle company's experiences during the last year of the stalemated fighting. It's a GIs' world of war, where the action in 1952-53 was a dug-in, frustrating, freezing, sweaty, muddy, bloody exchange of propaganda and lethal ordnance, with counterpoints of crushing boredom and mindless terror. For the American soldiers--18- to 21-year-olds made up the bulk of Easy's ranks--"the experience became a time that lived with them forever," writes Gonsalves.
Ex-GIs, whether or not they served in Korea, will find the book engrossing. It will serve others equally well: those who had sons, brothers, fathers, uncles and cousins in Korea. With textbook thoroughness, Gonsalves presents the makeup of a rifle company, its armament, combat assignments, and life on the line. Through the voices and letters of enlisted men and officers, the book reflects what they were thinking, how they were reacting, and echoes the ebb and flow of human spirit as peace talks droned on at Panmunjom only a few miles away from Easy's sandbagged bunkers...
This book is more about dogfaces than heroes ("grunts" is a Vietnam-era term). There were heroes, to be sure, and citations of their exploits are interspersed in the text. But the GIs of Easy were Everyman, and could be found in any regiment...
The back pages offer a chronology of the peace talks with concurrent front-line action and Easy's involvement. In July 1953, for instance, Easy was committed in a major battle over Pork Chop Hill, a month after the Communists had accepted a U.N. peace proposal! It's picky to say more maps would have helped; that's true of most books. But if you know of Pork Chop Hill, have read the book or seen the movie, there's a photo of it--a rare good one--on page 158...
In straightforward but gripping fashion, Gonsalves and the boys of Easy Company offer a book-full of reasons to remember a war we forget at our peril.

An excellent depiction of combat on a static line in Korea.......2002-01-07

I was an infantry officer in H Company of the 2nd Battalion when most of the actions reflected by this book took place. I not only learned some things from the book I didn't already know about the actions there, but anxieties and feelings of forebodings encompassed me as nothing has since I left Korea some 49 years ago. If anyone wants to find out what was going on in the mid-section of Korea in the fall and spring of 1952-53, he should read this book. I think that most will agree that this was something more than a "police action".

CCEL Classics CD: works by Saint Augustine, John Calvin, John Donne, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawrence, Martin Luther, Saint Teresa of Avila, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, John Wesley, and more!

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CCEL Classics CD: works by Saint Augustine, John Calvin, John Donne, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawrence, Martin Luther, Saint Teresa of Avila, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, John Wesley, and more!
Dr. W. Harry Plantinga
Manufacturer: Christian Classics Ethereal Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM

General | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Product Description

The most important spiritual writings of Christian history are available on this Classics CD by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) at Calvin College. It contains 118 Christian classics, including three versions of the Bible, several commentaries, Bible dictionaries, readings, spiritual guides, sermons, poems and journals -- all in a convenient, searchable form. Books are available in HTML and PDF formats. The easy-to-use CCEL Desktop software powering the CD enables users to browse and print books and install additional books from the Web. The top-of-class search engine can search for words or phrases in books, in authors works or in the whole library. In addition, it can search for dictionary definitions of words and commentary or references to scripture passages. The interface is a Web browser. The CD is compatible with Windows 2000+, Macintosh 10.3+, and most Linux versions.

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Insight into the warped iron will of Hitler
Hitler More Outspokenly Anti-Christian than Anti-Semitic
What the Man truly thinks
Good Resource
The most insightful Hitler book

Hitler's Table Talk
Adolf Hitler , and Norman Cameron
Manufacturer: Enigma Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1929631057

Book Description

One of the most significant documents of recent history. This book records private,off the record,informal conversations of a man, who, more then anyone else, came close to destroying the western world.

Customer Reviews:

Insight into the warped iron will of Hitler.......2007-06-09

Hitler's Table Talk, 1941-1944: His Private Conversations is an invaluable resource on one of the century's most repellent-yet representative-figures. Hitler's acolyte Martin Bormann had note-takers present at some of the Fuhrer's relaxed conversations, and as a result we can listen to the unguarded reflections of the dictator when he was at the height of his power.

Contemporaries puzzled over Hitler: Did private ideological obsessions drive his lust for power-or was he a gangster who cynically exploited those crank ideologies to win power? His private comments show him to have been quite committed to his crankery, which was of the village-atheist variety. Indeed, one of the most striking aspects of this long book is how often Hitler would return to questions of religion, specifically to express his contempt for Christianity, most especially in its Catholic form. He repeatedly refers to priests as "shavelings" and mocks their rituals: "I would gladly have recourse to the shavelings, if they could help us to intercept English or Russian aircraft. But, for the present, the men who serve our anti-aircraft guns are more useful than the fellows who handle the sprinkler." More ominously, on July 4, 1942, he told his friends: "The fact that I remain silent in public over Church affairs is not in the least misunderstood by the sly foxes of the Catholic Church, and I am quite sure that a man like the Bishop von Galen knows full well that after the war I shall extract retribution to the last farthing."

If you are interested in the "published" thoughts and conversations of a man responsible for reshaping the twentieth century, then I suggest you give this book a look.

Hitler More Outspokenly Anti-Christian than Anti-Semitic.......2007-01-23

Perhaps surprisingly, Hitler's diatribes against Christianity are more common in this volume than those against Jews. In fact, his scurrilous attacks are reminiscent of those of prominent infidels such as Voltaire and Paine. "What is this God who takes pleasure only in seeing men grovel before Him?" (p. 143). "While we're on this subject, let's add that, even amongst those who claim to be good Catholics, very few really believe in this humbug. Only old women, who have given up everything because life has already withdrawn from them, go regularly to church." (p. 342). "The catastrophe, for us, is that of being tied to a religion that rebels against all the joys of the senses." (p. 142). "A negro baby who has the misfortune to die before a missionary gets his clutches on him, goes to Hell!" (p. 69). "And what nonsense it is to aspire to a Heaven to which, according to the Church's own teaching, only those have entry who have made a complete failure of life on earth!" (p. 419). "What hasn't the Church discovered as a source of revenue, in the course of these fifteen hundred years?" (p. 90). "One cannot succeed in conceiving how much cruelty, ignominy and falsehood the intrusion of Christianity has spelt for this world of ours." (p. 288). "Christianity is the worst of the regressions that mankind can every have undergone..." (p. 322). "Pure Christianity--the Christianity of the catacombs--is concerned with translating the Christian doctrine into facts. It leads quite simply to the annihilation of mankind. It is merely whole-hearted Bolshevism, under a tinsel of metaphysics." (p. 146). "Our epoch will certainly see the end of the disease of Christianity." (p. 343).

Hitler even said: "Here Christianity sets the example. What could be more fanatical, more exclusive and more intolerant than this religion which bases everything on the love of the one and only God whom it reveals?" (p. 397). Look who's talking! And my, how modern that sounds!

The Fuhrer opposed the revival of Wotan (Odin, Woden) worship (p. 61). It is easy to see that Hitler was a consummate rationalist: "Religion is in perpetual conflict with the spirit of free research..." (p. 83). "But there will never be any possibility of National Socialism's setting out to ape religion by establishing a form of worship. Its one ambition must be scientifically to construct a doctrine that is nothing more than a homage to reason." (p. 39). Of course, open opposition to Christianity would have to await the end of the war (e. g., p. 411, 555).

Some modern feminists have used Hitler's presumed views on women as a weapon against those who disagree with them. Interestingly, although Hitler did oppose women in the rough-and-tumble worlds of combat and politics, he actually went far beyond kuchen kinder kirche: "It has therefore often been said that we are a party of misogynists, who regarded a women only as a machine for making children, or else as a plaything. That's far from being the case." (p. 252). He praised creative women in non-traditional roles, notably interior-decorator Frau Troost and film-maker Leni Riefenstahl. Otherwise, the Fuhrer commented: "Of primary importance were the measures we took to ensure a living wage for working women...By insisting that they receive a regular wage in accordance with their qualifications--instead of the sort of pocket-money they formerly received--we have delivered them from the doleful necessity of being dependent on an ami for their existence." (pp. 494-495).

Holocaust-uniqueness advocates have insisted that the Nazis intended to exterminate ALL Jews, first in Europe and then in the rest of the world. Hitler's comments don't support their contentions. Just two weeks before the Wannsee Conference, the Fuhrer said that the English must "settle that between themselves", adding that: "It's not our mission to settle the Jewish question in other people's countries!" (p. 185). Days after Wannsee, Hitler spoke of Jews either leaving Europe or being exterminated (p. 235), or perhaps moving to Russia (p. 260). Evidently, Hitler was still open to a Final Solution that would include the mass emigration of Europe's remaining Jews. Finally, Hitler did NOT envision a Judenrein (Jewish-free) world in the distant future. Four days after Wannsee, he wrote: "A good three hundred or four hundred years will go by before the Jews set foot again in Europe. They'll return first of all as commercial travelers..." (p. 236).

Much current thinking has attempted to blame Christianity for the Holocaust, and Hitler's endorsement of the Passion Play has been misrepresented as a blame-Jews-for-Crucifixion ploy. In actuality, Hitler's motives had been primarily racist in nature: "There one sees in Pontius Pilate a Roman racially and intellectually so superior, that he stands out like a firm, clean rock in the middle of the whole muck and mire of Jewry. The preservation of our racial purity can be assured...not only against Jewish, but also against any and every racial infection." (p. 563).

Apropos to this, Hitler opined that all successful Poles are of German descent (p. 405), yet excessively-broad attempts to re-Germanize such Poles ran the risk of contaminating German blood with Slavic blood (p. 473). Finally, Hitler didn't see the Slavs themselves as having any more inherent right to live than the Jews: "Jodl is quite right when he says that notices in the Ukrainian language `Beware of the Trains' are superfluous; what on earth does it matter if one or two more locals get run over by the trains?" (p. 589).

What the Man truly thinks.......2007-01-03

This book presents the record on what Hitler truly thought about Christ-insanity and other issues. Hitler was a Deist, not a Christian. In Mein Kampf he's playing politician to the Christians.

I'm not going to go into all the mindless moralizing and such here. I'm only going to tell you this is his uncensored thoughts and what the man was REALLY thinking. You don't get to be one of the most powerful men in the world and the leader of a country the size of Texas, taking on most of the world - almost winning in the process - by being a crazy half-wit. The man was a politial genius and Machiavellian in his approach when needs be. That's it! Beyond that you decide.

The book gives you what HE thinks without the dingbat commentaries by others which only serves to obfuscate things in the end. It gets 5 stars for that reason alone. I like unvarnished information without tampering and without pod people commentary.

It is my personal opinion that, one day, Hitler shall be remembered on the lines of Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, and Josef Stalin et al. All who were opportunistic, Machiavellian and beyond good & evil. These are the people who change things suddenly and completely, either for good or ill (usually ill at first, good later). They are the agents of chaos.

Let me ask you this. Do you think Hitler came about for no reason? How does a indigent, homeless, dreaming loser & loner come to be leader and conquerer of Europe? He was a dark horse, a nobody, less than nothing. Less than zero. Alexander was a prince but from a backward uppity locale whom the Greeks mocked incessantly (until he conquered them). Stalin a shoemaker's son who came in from the cold and rose up in power with everyone totally oblivious until it was too late. See what I mean? They are beyond our petty labels. Agents of chaos, tools of the Gods. Maybe that dude asking you for a dollar to buy a cup of Joe near the Starbucks will be your leader someday. Because there is precedence, that being the Fuhrer and Reich's Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The agent of Divine Providence? That will forevermore remain an unanswered question.

Read what the man says, think, learn, and shake out those cow webs called "thoughts" that probably and most assuredly aren't yours anyway (programming from society). Hitler, et al, were forces in human form. Nobody ever said change was pretty. And history obviously shows this.

Like I say, be cold and dispassionate towards the book. The man was brilliant and it shows. Don't judge, just read and reflect.

Good Resource.......2006-01-12

Into the twisted mind of der fuhrer. This work provides insight into the irrational thoughts of a mad man as he conducted a war of annhilation. Great resource for the student of World War II.

The most insightful Hitler book.......2005-01-24

Mein Kampf, and to a lesser extent Hitler's Second Book, were declared obsolete and terrible by the author himself (see Hans Frank's memoirs, or Speer's, among others). For insight into Hitler's personality and thoughts, this is by very, very far the best book available. The conversations were surreptitiously recorded by a notetaker during Hitler's conversation sessions with various visitors and his staff. Some entries are verbatim, while others are summaries of Hitler's comments. Obviously Hitler said many things to many people, which means one has to be extra careful in determining what he really believed. His thinking also changed over time, and, like most people, was not always consistent, which makes the task of understanding his thought all-the-more difficult. But this book is by far the most useful source for any understanding of Hitler. The comments were in private conversations, (Hitler usually did not know Bormann was having them recorded), and they are often unguarded ruminations. Of course to those without a real interest in history, the book might seem long and tedious. Hitler had a tendency to say brilliant things one minute, and then trail off into rantings about nonsense the next, so the book is not for everyone. Anyone interested in Hitler for any reason should read this book, and anyone who hasn't read it can't have much of value to say.

Pathways to Peace: The Multilateral Arab-Israeli Peace Talks

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Pathways to Peace: The Multilateral Arab-Israeli Peace Talks
Joel Peters
Manufacturer: Royal Institute of International Affairs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Rethinking Our War on Drugs: Candid Talk about Controversial Issues

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Criminization of drug abuse has created more problems than it solved

Rethinking Our War on Drugs: Candid Talk about Controversial Issues
Gary L. Fisher
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0275990265

Book Description

The National Drug Control Policy has failed its two major functions (supply reduction and demand reduction) due to faulty assumptions regarding nearly every aspect of the alcohol and drug fields, charges author Fisher. Yet in spite of overwhelming evidence of this failure policy makers have strongly resisted discussing major changes to the assumptions that underly current policy, because of political pressure, bias and philosophical intransigence, he adds. Fisher discusses controversial topics and defends uncommon approaches in chapters focused on subjects including legalization, harm reduction, the futility of supply reduction, the problem of underage drinking and effectiveness of treatment and prevention. He proposes a new national policy for drug control, including elimination of the war' metaphor, inclusion of alcohol in the mandate, conceptualization of addiction as a public health problem, utilization of harm reduction principles to guide policy and discontinuation of approaches that isolate drug and alcohol problems from their connection to broader social issues such as poverty. In this work, the premises of the current National Drug Control Strategy are challenged, and both Democratic and Republican administrations across the last 10 years are critically examined. Statements of the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Strategy are critiqued. Major points include that there is no evidence the NDCS has achieved any of its goals, that harm reduction should be its guiding principle, and supply reduction should not be part of the national strategy.

Customer Reviews:

Criminization of drug abuse has created more problems than it solved.......2007-05-12

Unbelievable how unsuccessful our war on drugs is going! Not only has our drug containment policy failed but it has caused significant problems in countries where the drugs are grown. Until we address the biggest drug problem, alcohol with its special interest lobby, we will not be successful.

All drugs are not the same and using one approach does not fit all. Until we
try other approaches to assess which ones maybe a better alternative, we are stuck in this endless drug war.

Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves

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On the fringes of history and interest
What do Nazi leaders' chldren think

Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves
Gerald L. Posner
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0394582993
Release Date: 1991-04-23

Customer Reviews:

On the fringes of history and interest.......2005-05-22

This book had the potential to be interesting, but the approach - a collection of interviews and profiles - makes for a barely interesting read. I do not necessarily criticize the author. But it's clear that the subject is difficult, and it's uncertain how cooperative and honest the subjects could be.

My primary disappointment is that you don't really get any new insights into the chief subjects - the infamous parent - and what the children have to say is somewhat drab and uninspiring.

Indeed, rather than a work of non-fiction it could be better conceived as a fiction or cinematic work.

What do Nazi leaders' chldren think.......2000-12-21

Gerald Posner, who is the author of Case Closed, the best book on the Kennedy assassinarion, interviewed some of the children of Germans connected to the Nazi story, including children of Hans Frank, Rudolf Hess, Hjalmer Schacht, Dr. Josef Mengele, Admiral Doenitz, Claus von Stauffenberg (how ironic his father should be featured in a book entitled "Hitler's Children"), Goering, and three less well-known Nazis. Many of the children are ashamed of their father, but others are not. A good book to read.

Soldier Talk: The Vietnam War in Oral Narrative

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Essential, though uneven

Soldier Talk: The Vietnam War in Oral Narrative

Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0253216974

Customer Reviews:

Essential, though uneven.......2006-10-05

This is a rare book that offers an authentic look at one of the many wars America has pursued around the world, rather than being another metastudy, i.e. a synthesis of other scholarly monographs on the subject. It just happens that the Vietnam war (and genocide) continues to be one of the most important and defining moments in contemporary history. The collection is edited with care and insight not only into the personal/military but narrative/literary facets of the oral narratives that give it such a profound dimension, and make reading this volume such a rewarding experience. Although not all contributions are up to the same high standard set in the introduction, it's an important and well-written, and hence engaging and "teachable" study, recommended to all those interested in the subject.

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