Best historical european biographies according to redditors
We found 2,560 Reddit comments discussing the best historical european biographies. We ranked the 765 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 2,560 Reddit comments discussing the best historical european biographies. We ranked the 765 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Your question made me think me think of James Cook and Joseph Banks' experiences as described in Richard Holmes' The Age of Wonder. I went back to it looking for some insight.
Most conflicts between the islanders and the ship's men seemed to revolve around theft. Sex, on the other hand, seemed to be an amicable form of trade:
> Much time was spent in bargaining for sexual favors. The basic currency was any kind of usable metal object: there was no need for gold or silver or trinkets. Among the able seamen the initial going rate was one ship's nail for one ordinary fuck, but hyper-inflation soon set in. The Tahitians well understood a market economy. There was a run on anything metal that could be smuggled off the ship - cutlery, cleats, handles, cooking utensils, spare tools, but especially nails. It was said that the Endeavour's carpenter soon operated an illegal monopoly on metal goods, and nails were leaving the ship by the sackful.
Their queen, Oborea, allowed Banks to sleep with her personal servant, Otheothea, and later offered herself as a companion (though Banks wasn't interested). He also describes a Tahitian man bartering with him for the use of a woman. So it seems like the trading of sexual favors was acceptable within the Tahitian community. But I doubt the Tahitians were happy with their women acquiring "the British disease" - the STD - that became rampant during the ship's stay.
Edit: In response to u/359RP's question, another excerpt from Holmes' book:
> The only Tahitian practice that Banks found totally alien and repulsive was that of infanticide, which was used regularly and without compunction as a form of birth control by couples who were not ready yet to support children. Banks could scarcely believe this, until he questioned several couples who freely admitted to destroying two or three children, showing not the slightest apparent guilt or regret. This was a different kind of innocence, one far harder to accept. Banks pursued the question, and found that the custom originated in the formation of communal groups in which the trading of sexual favors were freely exchanged between different partners.
Source: The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (2010, Kindle edition)
Browder is also the reason these sanctions exist.
His lawyer who was looking into large scale corruption and money fraud in the upper echelons of the Russian government is the "Magnitsky" in The Magnitsky Act
He is and should be considering by all a top expert in this matter.
EDIT:
Listen to these for more information on Bill Browder and The Magnitsky Act:
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/07/14/537304186/episode-784-meeting-the-russians
http://www.earwolf.com/episode/bill-browder-kremlin-critic/
If you prefer to read his book:
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744
I strongly suggest Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, Peter Pomerantsev's exploration of his time as a television producer in Russia.
They've lived under dictatorships and tsars for over a century. Every single Big Promise for the last hundred years or more has gone to the same conclusion, every power vacuum was filled quickly by worse, or at best the same as before. Organized crime is referred to as 'authority'. When the only organization of any kind was criminal, they became the de facto pseudo-government.
This has affected the culture deeply. There's a special kind of permeating philosophy in the day to day mindset, in their relationship to truth, power and certainty.
It's fascinating.
Edit: Ok, thanks for taking my Gold Virginity, random stranger :)
More links: Red Notice by the recently headlined Bill Browder, on the Magnitsky Act and its gruesome origins. I haven't, but I will read this soon.
Bill Browder's lecture on How he became Putin's No.1 Enemy. Basically a longer version of his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary.
Putin's Kleptocracy, a promising but so far a bit dry look into how Putin steals everything.
> I think a large part of why I'm so unhappy with myself is that I'm so deprived of physical... intimacy.
www.cuddleparty.com <-- Ive never used them, but have heard good things about them.
> It seems like every week you read a new study on how loneliness has highly negative effects on mental and physical health, and it's not something I have control over
Stop reading this shit. You are using it to reinforce your victim complex.
> I can't remember the last time I talked to a girl outside my job.
This is entirely your own fault. Go sign up for a cooking class. Or join a book club. Or go on a wine tour. Or do anything that gets you off the fucking internet.
> I don't see how I could possibly not feel undesirable given my circumstances.
Once again, this is entirely your own fault. The good news is that since YOU are the problem, YOU can also be the solution as soon as you get your head out of your ass.
> Also, I do 99% of my complaining on the internet, because I know it makes me look bad but I also need something to do with those thoughts aside from let them swim around in my head all day
You're so full of shit. That is only part of why you do your complaining on the internet. The real reason is because you feed on the doting of strangers.
I dont hate you, kid. In fact I used to be a lot like you. So I can say with confidence that you are being a total bitch. And the longer you act like a total bitch the longer you will be a total bitch and be seen as a total bitch by others. You are your own worst enemy.
Read these:
Do these:
Good luck
This is the cover of My War Gone By, I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd (great book)
Who is the grandson of the Legendary warrior Adrian Carton de Wiart who supposedly amputated his own hand so that he could stay in the battle.
https://www.amazon.ca/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425255735
It's a little known fact that in the 18th and 19th centuries guano used to be a critical strategic resource, as it was an extremely good fertilizer. You could use saltpeter to get the same effect, but of course saltpeter was used to make gunpower, and saltpeter mines were quite rare, with the British owning the largest natural deposits in India.
Any natural guano deposits were hotly contested by countries all over the world. The Chincha Islands in the South Pacific just off the west coast of Peru were a particularly rich source, and some political friction between Spain and Peru led to the Chincha Islands War (1864-1866), a fight over the precious guano deposits. Spain lost and was forced to retreat, but it was almost moot, as the deposits on the island were mostly exhausted only 10 years later. Since these were some of the biggest in the world, their exhaustion led to an acute shortage of fertilizer that was desperately needed to feed Europe's rapidly growing population.
When Peru, Chile, and Bolivia discovered that they were sitting on top of the single largest natural deposit of nitrates on earth in the Atacama desert (now known mostly for being the driest place on earth, and therefore well suited for very large optical telescopes and NASA testing of Moon and Mars rovers), it was only natural that they should all fight a war over who would be able to control it. This was called the Guano War (1879-1884). A truce was eventually signed but it left hard feelings all around that are still political considerations today in those countries.
In the meantime, however, Germany was watching the whole fertilizer/nitrate situation and realized that if they got into a war, like the one everyone could feel slowly building in Europe around the turn of the century, all the enemy would have to do would be to blockade them (by defeating their historically weak navy and/or taking their historically weak colonies), and they would very quickly run out of fertilizer to grow food with and nitrates to make gunpowder. They started looking for a way to make artificial nitrates, and after a long and fascinating process during which they more or less invented modern industrial engineering, they came up with the Haber-Bosch Process. Haber invented it, Bosch industrialized it. The factory Bosch built was so critical to German industry that it was estimated that if Germany hadn't had it, World War 1 would have ended two years earlier because the Germans would have ran out of powder and explosives. The Allies had gone through the war mostly on British natural sources of nitrates, and bickered over the factory after the end of the war because everyone knew how important it and its technology was for the future.
And so to make a long story somewhat short, Bosch built an even bigger nitrate plant deep in the heart of Germany, which became the single most heavily defended target against aerial attack in World War 2, and he formed the now-infamous IG Farben which is known for, among other things, funding the Nazi party and producing Zyklon B.
All this and much more I learned from an amazingly interesting book called The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler.
That book
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864
Man...what an amazing book...thanks for brining back the memories. I do not recall the parts about gernades. But his personal account of his experiences on the Eastern Front...wow...
> Things like going to protests/marches - are they at all effective?
Very much so. Protests at airports all over the country have led to an emergency halt on Trump's immigration ban.
Moreover, consistent protests -- especially ones explicitly calling for inclusion unlike the Obama protests -- sends a clear message to the world. Continue to exercise your constitutional rights for as long as you are able.
> But what else can we do to influence policy that's being made on the national level?
Last year, there were studies and reports talking about how Millennials aren't interested in running for office for a bunch of reasons.
After Trump's election, it looks like things might change. Run For Something announced that they are grooming 1,200 Millennials to run for office. Even scientists are running for office because the Trump administration rejects climate change and is gutting environmentalist programs.
Check if any of these new politicians are running for office in your distrct. Rally behind public servants that run to establish a smarter, more compassionate nation. Work on their campaign trails if you can. Remember, we don't vote for the president -- we vote in the people that do.
Fight gerrymandering. FairVote is one such organization that addresses it on a national level.
> What's most effective and efficient? How can we make a difference as individuals?
Just be a good person. I hate the idea that your job and your activism is what determines your moral worth. People assume that the social worker at charity:water is a "better person" than the guy on Wall Street.
I think how you live your life is far more important than what you do with it. Whatever job you have, do it with integrity and do it well. If you're in a position of power, strive to create a compassionate environment and hire diversely. Follow through with all your promises, even small ones like hanging out with your friends. Show up early to everything early.
In short, be good at the little things, because ultimately, those are the things that matter. Marches and rallies are important but they don't convince anyone who doesn't already agree with you (the purpose of those events is to raise awareness and sustain morale) and they don't happen very often. A march only takes up a few hours of your day, half a day at most.
In contrast, building your character takes an entire lifetime. You are bombarded with opportunities to be a kinder, more dependable person everyday.
And when you're known as someone who never flakes out, who is kind to everyone, and who is always on time, the people in your life will respect you. So the next time you advocate a cause, people will listen. The next time you show up at a march, people will see.
And finally, read up on history. There is nothing new under the sun. Opportunists and bad leaders like Trump have existed all throughout history.
Read about how journalists covered the rises of Hitler and Mussolini. Read up on Berlusconi. Read up on how Golden Dawn continues to seize power in Greece. Read about how Putin went from being your run-of-the-mill pragmatic kleptocrat to an ultranationalist demagogue. Read about the journalists that covered Putin's regime.
Wisdom is learning from those who came before you. Of course, those situations are not 1:1 with ours, but they're a map and a compass. They provide some context to what we're going through so we can adapt and move forward.
I read this book a while back. Holy shit was it depressing. Made me very thankful to not be in the Russian military.
I mentioned this in a previous thread about Browder's testimony, but if you have a chance, read his book Red Notice. Browder goes into detail about his investments into Russia (becoming the largest foreign investor in Russia) and the rise of Putin's corruption within the Russian government. He was the crusader who got the Magnitsky Act passed, as Magnitsky was Browder's lawyer who discovered a lot of the corruption and the trail that led to the oligarchs and Putin. It really does read like a thriller.
His cover was as a translator, but per this BBC article and Masha Gessen's book on him, his job was probably pretty boring.
According to WaPo, he may have been ultimately trying to NATO secrets and Western technology. That sounds cool in theory, but idk how fun that would have been in practice, given it was Dresden in the 80s. The WaPo article also says he was probably tasked with recruiting new officers, but as I recall, Gessen's book doesn't make mention of that. In either case, those tasks would have undoubtedly involved a ton of dull work.
Though, I'll admit that while looking into his German career, it occurred to me that his St Petersburg career (in the late 70s) could have been pretty exciting, especially since his work got him selected for an elite spy school.
In One Soldiers War, he states Russian soldiers also sold weapons and ammunition to the Chechens.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko/dp/0802144039
Amazing book on the 1st and 2nd Chechen war. Gave guys a bunch of old soviet equipment, not enough food or other supplies, told them to go off and fight Chechens.
They ended up having to trade gear to the Chechens just to have something to eat.
You can read the book After the Prophet by Lezley Hazleton. It presents a lucid and readable historical account of how the Shia-Sunni discord happened, from a historical point of view. However, I have two caveats about this book. While written by a Westerner who is apparently not a party to the dispute, the book has appeared to me to be subtly biased in favor of the Shias. Secondly, the doctrinal and cultural differences between Shia and Sunni are perhaps more important in shaping the conflict than any political or historical conflicts. This factor too is inadequately dealt with in the book.
Hans von Luck was a busy man during WW2. He was in most of the major campaigns and battles of the war. On D-Day, he commanded a regiment in the 21st Panzer Division which was on the east side of the Orne river (the flank of the British side). When Pegasus bridge was taken (an incredible story by itself), it was his tanks that tried to retake it. His autobiography is a must read for WW2 buffs.
Because the hyper-availability of conventional fertilizer is a problem.
Conventional fertilizer placed on bare/tilled ground has a high runoff rate, this ends up in the rivers and lakes. The hyper-available nitrogen (and phosphorus and potassium i.e. NPK) is then available to other plants, namely bluegreen algae. This creates a oxygen deficient that destroys fish and other aquatic life. Its what has killed the Chesapeake bay here on the east coast, and damaged other river systems as well.
"Natural" fertilizers that are also spray applied have the same problems.
Natural fertilizers that are more organic mass in nature (looking at you cow shit) have a lower runoff potential, causing less damage to the adjacent water bodies.
It is of course not just this simple. There remains some issues where once the naturally occurring nitrogen is used up, that fields require conventional fertilizer to grow anything. The use of heavy duty fertilizer, without regard to crop rotation also increases the incident of mass mono-culture farming and other practices that degrade soil conditions.
Now if you talking about your back yard garden... there may not be much of a difference, though some heirloom varieties may not do well in the conventional fertilizer after a few cycles because they are adapted for a more complex soil profile, one that pure NPK spray will not provide.
Some recommended reading: The Alchemy of Air by Thomas Hagar
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793
Franz Stigler is perhaps best known for his antics involving escorting a damaged American B-17 to safety.
However, in his amazing account of the war detailed in the biographical book of his war experience ( [A Higher Call] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0425252868?pc_redir=1405330637&amp;robot_redir=1) ) we learn that he was a seemingly invincible German ace fighter pilot. He flew in missions from nearly the beginning of the war to the very end, wherein he finds himself among an elite unit of German aces flying the ME-262 jet fighter.
Stigler was credited with a few HUNDRED kills. Was he the most successful fighter pilot in all of recorded history? No.
That title belongs to another German ace by the name of Erich Hartmann with 352 credited kills.
Both men survived the war and many decades afterwards, dying eventually of old age. They seemed to be absolutely invincible in the skies over Germany.
According to Hans von Luck, who worked with/under Rommel, basically the assassination was to end the war with the West/negotiate for peace, and then persuade the Allies to fight the USSR together to defeat communism.
https://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Library/dp/0440208025
I mentioned this below, but I’d just like to add to the top comment that Babchenko’s memoir of the Chechen War, ‘One soldier’s war’, is available in English translation, bloody well-written and a fascinating soldier’s-eye-view of a brutal, filthy and complicated conflict. (Not saying all wars aren’t like that, but this one seems to have under the radar for a lot of people, also because the Russian government hasn’t been open about the death toll).
Sorry for hijacking the top comment, but I’d just like people to remember his work. Honestly, I read the book years ago and I can still remember lines from it to this day. There’s this part where he talks about the sheer terror he feels in the middle of a particular battle, and how the land must be so irradiated with people’s terror and pain that he can’t believe anything will ever grow there. Could be a metaphor for modern Russia to be honest.
I highly highly recommend the book My War Gone By, I Miss it So. It's about a war photog/journalist that is addicted to war and then heroin in the trips he takes back home. Anyone who enjoys this sub would love it.
If you can afford it, please do yourself a favor and buy a copy, I got this one from amazon for $1 (with prime), $1! It is always in my bag with me.
In one autobiography I read written by Panzer Commander Colonel Hans von Luck (the book: http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Libary/dp/0440208025) he says at one point he spotted a convoy of allied tanks moving in the distance and at the time he was standing near a deployment of Flak 88s. He ordered the Flak 88 crews to direct their fire on the tanks but the crews refused saying that they were only anti-aircraft crews and weren't going to engage tanks. He pulled his pistol, aimed it at them, and said they either engage the tanks or he would shoot them for disobeying an order. They ended up engaging the tanks from long range and took out several of them.
I don't remember exactly where this happened but I seem to remember it was somewhere near Normandy after the allied landings.
EDIT I didn't mean to imply that the flak 88 crews thought the guns would be ineffective. I read the books like 8-10 years ago and always remembered that part. I figured it was because they didn't want to become tank targets but as someone else pointed out it was because the crew's point was that they only took orders from Luftwaffe commanders.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERYA6D0/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_11?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=A1EF3XZB4ZXIHL (esta se pasa un poquito pero hay algunas por $10)
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496652240&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=meditations+marcus+aurelius
Great summary. I've read a few books about the Chechen Wars (I'm a layman student of eastern European history) and one of my favorites was written by a low-ranking Russian soldier named Arkady Babchenko. He writes about the barbarity of the wars and the cruelty he suffered at the hands of his own Russian army. This book really stuck with me. It is haunting and heart-wrenching.
One Soldier's War
I mean, everyone who got rich in Russia in the 90s has a lot of questions around how they did it. It was like the wild west back in those days.
There is a really good book about it called The Oligarchs that focuses on some of those men who became filthy rich after the newly capitalist 90s Russia. It's a fascinating read, highly recommended to understand early post-Soviet Russia.
>He fired the FBI director so as to stopper investigation of his "Russian ties"? Wait a bit. How do we know that, any more than we know what is meant by "Russian ties"?
Because that's what he told the Russians - you know, the people with whom it's suspected his campaign colluded. And those ties to Russia just might be clearer if his financial records were disclosed.
>As to the Russian angle, may one ask innocently what difference Russian "influence" could really make in an American election? And what payoff are the Russians seeing for it, if so?|
The difference is to either 1) get a convenient stooge elected or 2) sow enough discontent to keep the US politically fractured. The payoff is that anything that's bad for the US is perceived as good for russia. Particularly sanctions. See Masha Gessen's book on putin.
>Have there been any signs of American concessions or moral rollovers that are likely to strengthen Vladimir Putin?
Let's see... a couple of their highest operators have been in the oval office. And so far media coverage has helped prevent any concessions from happening though they were being discussed by the POTUS elect's transition team.
>And did Trump give the Russians sensitive information in a meeting with the ambassador and foreign minister? Not according to his national security adviser.
More bullshit. McMaster gave non-answers. And then the orange one himself opened his maw to spill the beans in a mind blowing "I'm not spilling the beans" denial.
>Trump was selling his country down the river? That's what it sounds like the impeachment crowd is hinting at.
Maybe depending on whom you ask. Mostly what I get is that people are very concerned with the level of fucking incompetence and damage being done.
Seriously fuck William Murchison and the Creators - whatever the fuck that is.
The Age of Wonder tells historical stories about scientists working in the late 1700's - interesting mix of various sciences, philosophy, and history.
Red Notice. Definitely more for entertainment than education, you don't need to know much about finance to enjoy it. About Bill Browder's hedge fund Hermitage Capital, which became the largest foreign investor in post-Soviet Russia following some successful activist campaigns by Browder challenging the corruption of the oligarchs. It's a quick and entertaining page turner.
First thing I'd recommend is a blog; More specifically, Derek Lowe's Things I won't work with. Read from the oldest to the newest. It's whimsical, funny, scary and fantastic.
Hager - The Alchemy of Air: About the Haber-Bosch process.
Coffey - Cathedrals of Science - Personalities and Rivalries That Made Modern Chemistry
TOC
Scerri - The Periodic Table - Its Story and Its Significance
Kean - The Disappearing Spoon And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements 2010
Le Couteur, Burreson - Napoleon's Button (Haven't read it but it gets recommended a bit)
Jaffe - Crucibles - The Story Of Chemistry (haven't read this either but it seems to fit the biography bill)
TOC
Edit: There is also Ignition! John D. Clarke (link to bad quality pdf) which contains the following paragraph...
> Chlorine trifluoride, ClF3 , or "CTF" as the engineers insist on calling it...is also quite probably the most vigorous fluorinating agent in existence - much more vigorous than fluorine itself...All this sounds fairly academic and innocuous, but when it is translated into the problem of handling the stuff, the results are horrendous. It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water - with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals - steel, copper, aluminum, etc. - because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes
Regarding the part about not shooting down the victorious plane, if you get the chance, you should definitely read A Higher Call. It's a great book about the Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident, where Brown was flying a severely damaged B-17, and Stigler was ordered to shoot him down, but he didn't, and they met 40 years later and died a few months apart.
Two amazing books called The Alchemy of Air and The Demon Under The Microscope talk about how late 1800s/early 1900s Germany was able to come to power by reling on its universities working closely with large Germany industries through research and development. Germany didn't have to many abundant resources besides coal and with that they did incredible things. They were also late to game in terms of colonization and trading companies, which they had to overcome when they were somewhat isolated from the world during WWI and II.
If you are an eningeer or scientist I highly recommend these books. Thomas Hager is an incredible writer.
Larger population and more powerful industry (especially compared to Russia).
If you look at this pdf, you'll see (from p. 34 onwards) that Germany's industry was more powerful than that of France. Just as one example, according to that essay, Germany in 1913 mined 190 million tons (metric) of coal compared to France's 41 million tons.
As to the organisation, I remember from Barbara Tuchmans's The Guns of August - a very well written, fascinating read about the outbreak and first months of WW1 - that the Germans had everything planned down to the minute (time intervals for trains crossing the Rhine etc.), while the French were less meticulous in organising beforehand which train car would be where etc. (Tuchman mentions "Système D" for "se débrouiller", meaning to think up something or to muddle along; I guess that would have been the soldiers' joke name for a lack of organisation).
Apart from stereotypes about the German planning fetish and French disorganisation, I presume the differences also had to do with how the armies expected the confrontation to develop: sending parts of the French army into Alsace and leaving the rest in the homeland to defend against the enemy would have required a bit less organisation and planning than sending almost the entire German army through a neutral country and into enemy territory, winning that war and then sending everything back against Russia.
As for Germany being a "young country" at that time: as a state, yes, but the population was larger than that of France, by quite a bit (about 20 million IIRC?). I don't remember the proportions of fighting-age males but with a larger population in general, the Germans will have had a larger reserve of army recruits as well.
German/Prussian militarism should also be noted. While this doesn't have much to do with organisation per se, German culture was, in general, much more militaristic than the French or British cultures. Quoting from memory from Robert K. Massie's wonderful Dreadnought: "It illustrates the great difference between German and British political culture that the German chancellor [Caprivi in the 1890s] would, in uniform, lead a cavalry charge past the Emperor." - or something to that effect. Germany was itching, as the newcomer on the European political stage, to get what it thought was its due. The beginning of WW1 was what the general staff had spent their professional lives planning for.
If you're looking for books:
Very interesting original report of a POW interrogation that details the weeks after the Normandy invasion for a SS PzG division from the perspective of one of the division staff officers. Summary in the article and the entire actual report is provided as well.
EDIT: This intel report covers a similar time frame, location, and scope as one of the memoirs I have, Panzer Commander from Hanz Von Luck. It's a good read if you haven't gone through it, and want to get into additional first hand experience at a similar level on the same battlefield.
Meditations is 112 pages, at least, according to Amazon. It depends on your reading speed.
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
The audiobook is on youtube, but I dislike audiobooks greatly.
There's a great book, The Age of Wonder, that goes into a lot of detail about Herschel's life (including other scientists in that generation). Pretty fascinating guy, he also had a brilliant sister (Caroline Herschel) who was a famous comet 'hunter'.
He eventually built a 40 foot telescope which became famous, which his sister helped him operate. If I'm not mistaken, Herschel was also one of the first to hit upon the idea of deep space and the vast distances involved.
After a bit of research: A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II https://www.amazon.com/dp/0425255735/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_lJJwub0FAWJEN
If you want to know more about him (and Phil Hill and the rest of F1 at the time), I cannot recommend enough The Limit. Fantastic read.
I read this book about the wars called One Soldier's War. It is some really brutal stuff. The author fought in both wars. The hazing that goes on in the Russian Army is insane. http://www.amazon.com/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko/dp/0802144039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1426116978&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=one+soldiers+war
Tigers in the Mud written by Otto Carius, a Tiger commander during WWII -- still sells like hotcakes today. Written by a man who described Himmler as his friend. Let it sink in.
Lost Victories Manstein's memoirs, a hot pile of dump that consists of excuse-making and blame-deflecting. Still a hot read, though most know its flaws now.
Franz fucking Halder helped the US Army form its history of WWII.
There's a load more, but I'm not here to shill (today at least AYYY).
The claim that history is written by the victors is especially bullshit in the immediate post-war era; first off the US Army did not want to be 'defeated by victory' and spent an ample amount of time studying the enemy methods and documents - this put a lot of German ideas in the air during the discussions and formation of historiography. More importantly, the 'Iron Curtain' fell across Europe shortly after the end of WWII which meant that for 50-odd years we had minimal to nonexistant exposure to Soviet sources about their own war effort. It meant that, for lack of sources, we had to rely on German primary and secondary studies of their Eastern Front. They had a complete monopoly on how we could view the Russian front of WWII. These effects are only slowly unraveling now, and we're starting to see some real improvements to the historiography on that subject. However, much of Russia's war documents remain classified, unlike the Germans (total defeat means total disclosure) so its going to be a long, uphill battle to get all the facts out.
Never before, to my knowledge, had a defeated enemy been allowed to be so vocal on the events of the war as he saw it.
Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.
Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).
The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).
Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.
Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.
Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.
After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.
Happy reading!
edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.
To perfectly understand the Sunni/Shia split takes a good amount of time and understanding of the political situation of the Arabian peninsula and Levant in the 7th century. However, I recently read a book that I think does a great job, doing it in a way that is easy to read and understand. The book is called After the Prophet, by Lesley Hazelton. I suggest you pick it up and read it if you are really interested.
Now for a quick summary, which in no way does the topic justice. The split boils down to a disagreement about how the Islamic community (Ummah) was to be led after the death of Muhammad. Sunnis contend that the leaders after the Prophet would be selected from among the elders of the community by the elders themselves. This resulted in the establishment of the Caliphate. The Shia believed the Muhammad's first cousin/son-in-law named Ali was the true successor. They viewed the Caliphs as illegitimate and not the true spiritual leaders of the community.
Eventually Ali became the fourth in line of Caliphs and leader of the community. However Ali was opposed by Muawiyyah, a man who was the son of one of the biggest opponents of Islam early on (this opponent eventually converted to Islam.) Muawiyyah and Ali fought in a civil war and eventually came to peace with each other. However, Ali was assassinated (by fanatics who did not agree with Ali making peace with Muawiyyah) and Muawiyyah's son Yazid eventually orders the killing of Ali's son, Muhammad's grandson, named Husyan. Muawiyyah goes on to establish what is known as the Ummayyad Caliphate which leads the majority of the Islamic world for a long time.
So what this boils down to is the Sunnis view Shi'ites as these misguided people who put way too much emphasis on the family of the Prophet as leaders. They believe that their Caliphate represents the true leadership of the Islamic world. On the other hand Shi'ites view the Sunnis as people who follow merely political leaders with no spiritual ties to the Prophet and that the Caliphate is a sham position that is far too often held by people who are corrupt.
You mentioned that the Shia are more open-minded, well I am not sure we can say that as a general rule. They are more open to US support because Iraq was a majority Shia country ruled by the Sunnis for decades, so in that sense they are more than happy to take our weapons and support fighting Sunnis.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/048629823X/ref=sxts_sxwds-tsp_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_p=3139988802&amp;pd_rd_wg=Rmyuk&amp;pf_rd_r=P0E7H074KRHGHSAAHQ0R&amp;pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-top-slot&amp;pf_rd_t=301&amp;pd_rd_i=048629823X&amp;pd_rd_w=RKLOw&amp;pf_rd_i=meditations+marcus+aurelius&amp;pd_rd_r=K0HEDGDGSNKGMWMGXA01&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501599712&amp;sr=1
$1 + free shipping if you have Prime
You really dont know what you're talking about
Many German commanders did that to survey the battlefield and other targets. The russians didnt and would drive right by German tanks without seeing a thing
https://www.amazon.com/Tigers-Mud-Commander-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811729117
I've been reading this memoir by a German WW2 soldier (ethnically French):
http://www.amazon.com/The-Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864
He actually claims that his unit received a lot of hospitality in Ukraine(including friendly women). There was no such luck in Russia. It might be that some Ukrainians didn't suffer too much from the German conquest.
YUP. Anyone thinking this shit is new can find much of the backstory by watching
Putin's Revenge- Part 1
Putin's Revenge- Part 2
Reading Red Notice by Bill Browder
Reviewing the Moscow Project
I am glad that you referenced Roger's book. His related book, The Safeguard of the Sea, looks at Britain's (England's, Wessex's, etc.) navy from 660-1649 and is also an excellent read.
If you don't mind, I would expand on your comment to say this: One of the major arguments that both books make is that a major contributor to Britain's naval success was also the bureaucracy that grew up around the Navy. We tend to think of bureaucracy in negative terms today, but in having a regularized, systemic way of casting and distributing guns and ordnance; building and repairing ships; victualling ships; and manning ships, the British navy was far ahead of its competitors, even by the time of the Armada.
It's also worth pointing out that Britain's naval strength was helped by the establishment of dockyards, drydocks, and associated naval "bases" (although that's an anachronistic term) in various places, including the Thames and Portsmouth but also in other places along England's coast. Not to put too fine a point on it, but wooden ships rot, and regular maintenance was a major reason why Britain was able to keep up its naval strength.
This moves a bit past OP's timeframe, but allow me to recommend two other books by Robert K. Massie, that specifically look at the Anglo-German naval race in the run-up to World War I:
http://www.amazon.com/Dreadnought-Robert-K-Massie/dp/0345375564
http://www.amazon.com/Castles-Steel-Britain-Germany-Winning/dp/0345408780/ref=la_B000AQ6XVE_1_6?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1370812631&amp;sr=1-6
The excellent prequel by Massie is Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War
I'm going to be lazy and simply repost a post of mine from a year ago. :)
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a well deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A combination of history, science and biography and so very well written.
A few of my favourite biographies include the magisterial, and also Pulitzer Prize winning, Peter the Great by Robert Massie. He also wrote the wonderful Dreadnaught on the naval arms race between Britain and Germany just prior to WWI (a lot more interesting than it sounds!). Christopher Hibbert was one of the UK's much loved historians and biographers and amongst his many works his biography Queen Victoria - A Personal History is one of his best. Finally, perhaps my favourite biography of all is Everitt's Cicero - The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician. This man was at the centre of the Fall of the Roman Republic; and indeed fell along with it.
Speaking of which, Rubicon - The Last Years of the Roman Republic is a recent and deserved best-seller on this fascinating period. Holland writes well and gives a great overview of the events, men (and women!) and unavoidable wars that accompanied the fall of the Republic, or the rise of the Empire (depending upon your perspective). :) Holland's Persian Fire on the Greco-Persian Wars (think Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes! Think of the Movie 300, if you must) is equally gripping.
Perhaps my favourite history book, or series, of all is Shelby Foote's magisterial trilogy on the American Civil War The Civil War - A Narrative. Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read.
If, like me, you're interested in teh history of Africa, start at the very beginning with The Wisdom of the Bones by Alan Walker and Pat Shipman (both famous paleoanthropologists). Whilst not the very latest in recent studies (nothing on Homo floresiensis for example), it is still perhaps the best introduction to human evolution available. Certainly the best I've come across. Then check out Africa - Biography of a Continent. Finish with the two masterpieces The Scramble for Africa on how European colonialism planted the seeds of the "dark continents" woes ever since, and The Washing of the Spears, a gripping history of the Anglo-Zulu wars of the 1870's. If you ever saw the movie Rorke's Drift or Zulu!, you will love this book.
Hopkirk's The Great Game - The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia teaches us that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I should imagine that's enough to keep you going for the moment. I have plenty more suggestions if you want. :)
Gotta plug a book I just finished, A Higher Call.
https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425255735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1485022791&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=higher+call
It's about a German fighter pilot and an American bomber crew, it's the best WW2 book I've ever read.
I just started the book, A Higher Call, this afternoon.
I just read the book... https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425255735
I read a lot of historical fiction, hope thats allowed to recommend:
The book that made the greatest impression on me with regards to the frontlines in WW2 was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Soldier. It is a fantastic story seen by the footsoldier. I really, really, REALLY dont want to be on the receiving end of artillery fire after reading this book.
A very different book is this https://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Library/dp/0440208025.
Here you experience the war from a senior officers point of view. It mostly works on a division/batallion level. Instead of describing the horrors in detail, it often just states "we took heavy losses". Still it takes you from Germany to France to Russia to Africa to France to Germany to Russia to Germany, so you get to experience the war in many different places, stages, viewpoints (attacker, defender, prisoner) and times.
Edit: If you are interested in Alexander the great and want action packed historical fiction, do this one: https://www.amazon.com/God-War-Story-Alexander-Great/dp/1409135942
Marcus Aurelius - Meditations
Also add him as historical figure, man was as close to stoic as you can be.
Among the Thugs, about someone (an American) who spent years with the football hooligans, while he worked in London as a journalist (he didn't do journalist on the hooligans, saved it all for the book).
I've watched lots of documentaries, read books on Russian vs German tank combat, and played World Of Tanks (free-to-play WW2 tank combat game) that's about it.
Tigers In The Mud is a good read where the author (who at the height of his career became a Tiger tank commander) describes how the Russian T-34s were basically no match against German armor often due to both poor visibility out of the turret and lack of training.
The SU-152 if I remember right had issues including the shells being so huge that it took two crewmen to heft them and reload the gun. That in addition to the fixed turret made them a bit less nimble compared to the German armor with their electrically-powered turret traverse.
Bottom line, the Russians seemed to be able to churn out more armored units than they had capable crews for, so for that they suffered, but in the end their numerical superiority outpaced the Germans (already hampered by the "teething" issues of their armor, e.g. adding more and more armor and bigger main guns without commensurate increases in the engine and especially transmission / final drive).
It's extremely complex that whole situation, if you like reading and the subject check out this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Oligarchs-Wealth-Power-New-Russia/dp/1610390709
It'll give you a pretty good idea of what happened before and after.
Sure there has.
On the other hand, you might want to read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514
Congress thinks so. That's why it passed the bipartisan Magnitsky Act. For details about Russian fraud, false prosecutions, torture and murder that prompted Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, I highly recommend the book Red Notice, A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Management investment fund which was once the largest foreign portfolio investment fund in Russia.
The answer, in part, is why there are so many Russian oligarchs today. The transition away from socialist ideals occurred before the fall of the Soviet Union. In the 1980s cooperatives were begun and small private businesses began to appear, but they were new and no one really had any idea of what they were doing since the last time something like this was tried was in the 1920s under NEP. After the fall of the Soviet Union a 'privatization' period began where the government printed the equivalent of bonds or shares. Everyone in the Soviet Union received them. What they could do with them was left up to the people themselves. They could invest in newly privatized industries, cooperatives, businesses or hold on to them, sell them, etc. What happened is that those with connections in the government and previous business experience began buying up those bonds from the people and accumulating such large amounts that they could place large yet minimal bids on million dollar industries, buy them for cheap, and then reap enormous profits. Many also speculated on currency and issued the equivalent of promissory notes, acquiring companies for pennies when the ruble devalued, etc. An interesting, although journalistic account, is The Oligarchs: Wealth And Power In The New Russia.
A good chunk of My War Gone By, I Miss It So is the memoirs of a journalist who was in Bosnia during the civil war. The book as a whole has some parts which aren't in Bosnia, and at times it's a fairly personal book more about the writer's problems than about the war, but it sounds like you'd be interested in reading the parts which are set in Bosnia.
Yes, there's a big distinction. Here's a link that scratches the surface of dreadnought background & development to get you started.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1906)
If you get really curious, here's two books that round out the subject of how dreadnoughts fit into naval history...
http://www.amazon.com/Dreadnought-Robert-K-Massie/dp/0345375564/ref=la_B000AQ6XVE_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406314026&amp;sr=1-6
http://www.amazon.com/Castles-Steel-Britain-Germany-Winning/dp/0345408780
Yes, that is the one. Here is the book I was referring to.
Hans von Luck was Rommel's favorite junior officer. While he was no Nazi, he was from a strong Prussian military background, and he fought from the invasion of Poland through to 1945. His autobiographical book offers a somewhat rare perspective on good soldiering on the Axis side.
I won't pretend to support the actions of axis soldiers, just the same as I wouldn't support the actions of soldiers in muddled conflicts like we have going on today, however I respect the courage and stalwart determination of soldiers no matter which country they fight for, or for what political/religious ideology they fight for.
It's with that sense of respect in mind, that I find bringing stories to light, from both sides of any conflict, is beneficial, and why I detest people who dismiss those stories and soldiers because "they were our enemy and they did horrible things".
War is horrible by definition, horrible things are bound to happen, and even worse things are bound to happen when religion is thrown in, as shown with Japan's involvement in WWII, but that doesn't make the stories or the soldiers any less impressive, or detract from the insane amount of courage it would have taken for ANY soldier to fight on those fronts, in those conditions, and with those tools.
In the same way I can absolutely respect and be amazed by the courage shown by the soldiers during the raid of St. Nazaire, I can also be equally amazed and impressed by the courage and fighting spirit (and oftentimes surprising humility) of the German soldiers during their conflicts, such as some of the stories of Hanz Von Luck (very interesting book, I suggest finding a copy), it's for those reasons that I think you should reconsider dismissing an entire army of its right to have its stories told simply because you don't like the thought of them having killed allies in past conflicts.
https://www.amazon.ca/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Check out Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations is probably his most famous work. I think it's a collection of various works of his throughout his life.
Strongly recommend Bill Buford's Among the Thugs. Gets into the politics and sociology of hooliganism, if that's what you're looking for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Among_the_Thugs
https://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351
I would recommend the book Among the Thugs by Bill Buford. It's an incredible look into the ultras culture in Europe, including the UK Firms of the 70's and 80's. One of my favorite reads of all time, and it definitely touches on the sociological aspect of hooliganism.
To read about the effect of an artillery barrage and air support:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tigers-Normandy-Wolfgang-Schneider/dp/0811710297
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tigers-Mud-Commander-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811729117/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1369443808&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=tigers+in+the+mud
http://www.battlefieldhistorian.com/tiger_i_flipped_.asp
When naval guns, high caliber Russian artillery, IL-2s, Typhoons, even freaking heavy bombers throwing bombs/rockets/projectiles at you, you are dead. Tigers were not armored very well on the top by the way- no tank is. Especially the Western Allies had the tendency to pull back and ask for artillery/air support when they ran into some problems.
And if you want numbers, there are books about the Tigers with all 1400 listed. Look them up.
The Alchemy of Air
https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Hitler-Unnecessary-War-Britain/dp/0307405168
Depends on who you ask. Shias will acknowledge that there was bad blood, Sunnis will say that everything was hunky dory and everyone loved each other and the sky rained gummy bears.
For the least biased account try looking at what non-Muslims have written, since anything written by a Muslim will naturally be biased towards which side they're on. https://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split/dp/0385523947 is a good example and something I think that's right up your alley.
Yes ... I highly recommend the Book "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos (essentially a "Double Biography" telling these 2 mens' life stories and how they intertwine) I have given it as a gift to several friends who like history or aviation. Link to A Higher Call Book on Amazon
Nerves of steel come from confidence and being above fear. Confidence comes from practice and competition. Being above fear comes from a lifestyle of conquering fears.
If you want to be more comfortable on the street, figure out exactly what you're afraid of and get better at it. Are you afraid he's going to hit you? Learn boxing or muay thai or bjj. Are you afraid he's going to yell at you? Learn debate skills.
My dad was a firefighter for a decade. His dad trained WW2 bomber pilots. I asked my dad how he kept calm on intense calls. He said he would rely on his training and took every problem as it came. You have no idea what the scene is going to look like on your way there, but you can trust that you're the best prepared one there, so everyone's depending on you to take charge and lead. Planning ahead is very important, but more important is staying in the moment.
Meditation works out that muscle. Staying in the moment is a muscle in your brain that you have to work out. What fear and anxiety is is you living outside of the moment. Fear is you trying to bring the past into the present. Anxiety is you trying to predict the future. Live in the moment and take shit as it comes. The more you can do that, the more you can relax into chaotic situations with confidence. Just do your best and know that that's all anyone can do in life. We can only do our best.
Another thing is your mindset for life. Always do your best. Always give your fullest. Figure out your core values and live to them every day of your life. If you can say every day that you did your fucking best, then you are going to be able to say "I am ready to die today" and you won't walk around terrified of death. Death is the root fear of all the fears. If you can conquer the fear of death, you will be very strong.
.
There's a lot more to this, I'm just kind of rambling off what comes to mind before I go to work. But this will get you started. I wish you all the best and I hope I've helped some.
Some good resources are Shambhala, The Art of Learning, On Becoming a Leader, Better Under Pressure, Leading at the Edge, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and then this interview with Rickson Gracie (one of the greatest fighters to ever walk the Earth).
I think that's fine as far as it goes. But I'm not sure that /u/jeffp12 really knows that that's why the folks in Ferguson are rioting. Riots happen all the time--after sporting events, for example. And while you COULD try to come up with an intellectual justification for them, it also seems to me equally possible that they're simply engaging in mob behavior. This book, for example, is a solid account of someone who went undercover as a soccer hooligan to see WHY they would behave the way they behaved. And while there is an economic component to it, the simple fact of the matter is that it was more mob mentality than anything else.
I certainly don't agree with the folks that /u/jeffp12 argues against either. But by saying "no, it's not X, it's Y", you're losing the fact that what we have going on here is a mob trying to overturn a fair process. And that's not an acceptable thing to be happening.
Any time I see Rostov-on-Don printed somewhere in the caption of a given photograph, I start looking for my friend Gunter!
I recommend this book to anybody intrigued by such photos.
> The Soviet commanders in 1995 gave zero fucks.
That's what I also got from Babchenko.
Enjoy
This is of genuine historical value. Publish it pseudononymously, like Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS.
My wife is German and a native speaker; her father was conscripted into the Luftwaffe at age 15 near the end of the war. If you're interested in translating it, let us know.
I totally messed up the name. The Forgotten Soldier.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Soldier
https://www.amazon.ca/Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864
Brutal book as far as describing the misery these soldiers endured. Well written.
You are working awful hard to point other places on something that required no action to keep criminals from accessing their millions. In fact, the places you're trying to point to ARE these guys. the guys we're discussing are LITERALLY from Rosneft and other Russian oil and fossil fuel interests that are funding a significant portion of climate denial [1]
[1] Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476755744/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_.DSZDbK74GAXT
>when really it could just be a bunch of random Russian kids hired to do a job and have nothing to do with the Russian Government.
But you are wrong in that conclusion, especially given this indictment against Russians involved in US disinformation campaigns released today.
The main defendant in question, Yevgeny Prigozhin is popularly known as "Putin's cook" because of his businesses which "host dinners between Vladimir Putin and foreign dignitaries."
Russia is somewhat of a mob state in that there is less of a line between business leaders and state officials. It is for this reason that it is harder to track such operations. But as you can read in this indictment (pdf) there are Russian businesses which act on behalf of the Russian Federation, or Putin himself, in a very secretive and fluid manner.
I recommend reading Bill Browder's book Red Notice, which reveals some of the nature of the corruption in Russia's government through the story surrounding the murder of Sergei Magnitsky.
I've read "With the Old Breed" and I agree it is a fantastic book. I'm mostly read on pilot memoirs though but I've read a few infantry accounts. No problem about telling you some good reads:
Just a few of my favorites. I'm personally akin to reading about "guys who were there". But that's just my preference.
Try [The Man Without a Face] (https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514)
I understand about the tanks. Our tanks, mainly the Sherman, was a death-trap. Their shells couldn't pierce German armour and the only time their armour held up against German tank shells was when they hit on an angle. This book talks about how after a tank advance, about half the tanks would be completely disabled and another quarter damaged. They'd literally power-wash the dead crew out, patch-weld plate over the holes, and force a new crew into tank. The author was a mechanic in the 3rd Armoured Division.
Ball-turrets, worse? Man.
Although, I think the worst first-hand account of World War 2 I've read was from a French-Nazi who was on the Eastern front during Operation Barbarossa. For example: they'd have to build fires under car engines to get it started because motor oil would freeze up, completely locked. Endless zergling-like hordes of Russians who would overrun Nazi positions after their company machineguns overheated and rifles ran out of ammunition. How he survived, he has no idea and, from the stories in the book, neither do I.
Reminded me of this book, the "Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer. Absolutely terrific book which seems to be similar to the one you posted, except this one is about a German soldier on Eastern Front. I have read lot of books (especially soldier memoirs) and this is definitely in the top 3.
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Edit: By the way I just remembered that a Finnish movie is based on the book you posted. I just watched it few months ago, great movie.
If you like the Romantics, you can't go wrong with anything by Richard Holmes:
____
The Coleridge biographies are probably my favorite — he led an adventurous and tragic life, and even at over a thousand pages the two volumes read like a breeze (they even motivated me to read Biographia Literaria, unabridged, which I do not recommend).
Holmes is an amazing biographer, so I think anything written by him will be worth your time.
You should link to Bill Browder's book Red Notice. It puts this whole collusion thing into perspective - and it was published in 2015 before Trump was even a serious candidate.
I read The Forgotten Soldier a while back, so my memory is a bit rusty but it is the autobiography of a soldier who served in the Grossdeutschland Panzergrenadier division, which was considered an elite Wehrmacht division.
Some notes about the book
I'm reading a book right now called Red Notice which involves a business man in Russia falling into a terrible situation with Russian Oligarchs. So if I do what you want, and take you at your word that you are genuinely in a feud with the CEO of Dominos Russia, then I can only say this: get the fuck out of the country. Do you have any idea what powers an oligarch has in Russia? Okay, well then picture how much power an oligarch would have if he also controlled the pizza supply. GET OUT. To fight him is to doom yourself and your loved ones to the Siberian Mozzarella Mines.
(Or hire a new PR person because whoever suggested this was an idiot.)
How about Red Notice, since that's the book Browder already wrote on the subject... https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744
the Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sayer has excellent descriptions of the experiences of a German soldier in training and combat.
Harrowing book about the war - same pic on the cover:
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0140298541
This book.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0140298541
There's a good book (probably many) that talks a lot about BASF in that time period.
The Alchemy of Air
http://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793
If you liked that I'd recommend The Alchemy of Air. It's about the history of fertilizer and nitrogen, or more specifically the Haber-Bosch Process and how it's discovery in the early 1900s allowed for the mass-production of fixed nitrogen/ammonia, and how that one discovery has completely reshaped the world, from wars to agriculture to population growth, etc, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793
The Alchemy of Air was great!
http://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793/
I'm a history nut as well.
Short starter essay to get you going; get in a comfy chair for this.
https://rense.com//general34/amaz.htm
Here's another good short starter on Bolshevism.
https://bloodyshovel.wordpress.com/2017/11/14/biological-leninism/
I'm going to give you amazon links but if you have time and resources try to go directly to the authors website as they get a better cut of proceeds. There's also archive.org if you're poor.
https://www.amazon.com/Under-Sign-Scorpion-Soviet-Empire/dp/9197289779/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1550521515&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=juri+lina
Lina did a doc as well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIuW-vNQsQI
https://www.amazon.com/Two-Hundred-Years-Together-Part/dp/5969703729/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1550521619&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=200+years+together
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2017/02/20/english-translation-of-alexander-solzhenitsyns-200-years-together/
https://www.amazon.com/Wall-Street-Bolshevik-Revolution-Capitalists/dp/190557035X
https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Hitler-Unnecessary-War-Britain/dp/0307405168/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1550521963&amp;sr=1-3-fkmr0&amp;keywords=hitler+and+the+unneccary+war
Awesome dissident right publisher.
https://www.counter-currents.com/
Awesome website with LOTS of great articles
http://www.unz.com/
Here are some starters
http://www.unz.com/runz/our-american-pravda/
http://www.unz.com/article/reply-to-jordan-peterson-on-the-jewish-question-from-his-heroes/
If you're a REAL big brained check out E. Michael Jones
http://www.culturewars.com/
Here are some more fun history essays not necessarily related to bolshevism but still interesting.
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2018/07/22/the-cause-of-the-second-civil-war-in-america/
https://wethoughttheywerewhite.tumblr.com/WhoAreTheJews
Here's a write up to learn more about our movement.
https://katana17.wordpress.com/2016/09/04/the-daily-stormer-a-normies-guide-to-the-alt-right/
Happy cake day!
Yea, what the hell was that supposed to mean?
Maybe a swipe at Pat Buchanan and The Unnecessary War (which is a fascinating book, anything but ignorant).
Anyway, interesting article, but given gratuitous insult, I won't be back any time soon.
The 'commonly known' version of modern history is written from a very specific angle...
For a gentle intro to reality start with Pat Buchanan's book.
This is a great book that busts the Churchill myth.
http://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Hitler-The-Unnecessary-War/dp/0307405168
I'm American, and the Americans entered Europe not in self defense. The cold war would never have happened if America had let the nazis and soviets defeat each other. The soviet threat was a problem the American government created itself. Just like the neocons who supported the overthrow of Saddam then wanted to go after Iran, even though Iran would never have been a problem is the US had not overthrown Saddam, the Soviets would have never been a threat if the US had not fought the nazis.
I've encountered this weird WWII revisionism before. I saw this book at Barnes and Noble one day and it totally disgusted me. In fact, someone braver than I should probably do a whole write up about this thing.
> http://www.amazon.com/Dreadnought-Robert-K-Massie/dp/0345375564/ref=la_B000AQ6XVE_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1406314026&amp;sr=1-6[2]
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Castles-Steel-Britain-Germany-Winning/dp/0345408780[3]
Cannot recommend these books highly enough! Everyone on this sub should read them :)
Robert Massie is my favorite historian, and he has 3 amazing books on the period. Dreadnought, about the Anglo-German naval rivalry that led to WWI, Nicholas and Alexander, a biography of the last Czar and the fall of the Russian Empire, and the beautifully titled Castles of Steel, about the naval battles of WWI.
You may wish to check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Dreadnought-Robert-K-Massie/dp/0345375564
I highly recommend it.
Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie. It starts well before the war (1900-ish) and is a bit of a dry read. I found it fascinating, however.
During that period it was a balancing act of a few primary factors: speed, guns, and armor. The amount of armor and guns directly impacted both the size and the weight of the vessel, and this in turn effected the speed.
At the time, the pinnacle of tactics during Naval Battles was what is known as "Crossing the T". Essentially, one line of ships would cut-off the other, and in doing so were able to bring all their guns to bear on their opponent. Likewise, their opponent could not bring all of their guns to bear to retaliate. This diagram shows what it would have generally looked like.
For a tactic like that to succeed you needed, as a battleship, a good combination of guns, speed, and armor. A classic example of this would be Admiral Count Heihachiro Togo and his victory over the Russians at Tsuhima in 1904. Both sides had guns that could fire at about the same range (and the bigger the gun, the bigger the range and the more destructive power). William Pakenham, who was a Royal Navy observer on-board Admiral Togo's ship, stated "when 12 inch guns are fired, shots from 10 inch guns pass unnoticed, while, for all the respect they instill, 8 inch or 6 inch might as well be pea shooters". Basically, the goal was to have the biggest guns possible on-board. This provides maximum firepower and range.
Admiral Togo had one more advantage over the Russians: Speed. He had about six or seven knots advantage over the Russians. If you have greater speed and range, then you can determine where and when the fight actually happens - by engaging the enemy from a longer distance and even moving away to keep that advantage. So if you can control those factors you can control the battle.
"Armor is speed" is something Jacky Fisher (important British admiral, key in the conception and design of HMS Dreadnought) is reported as having once said. This is because the more steel you put on the boat, the slower it is going to go. Unless of course you have new and more powerful methods of propulsion/power, which would allow you to attain a higher speed with more weight. Armor of course is important, as your ships need to be able to withstand hits. HMS Warsprite at Jutland for example, sustained 11 hits. While she was severely damage (and ordered home to Roysoth) she survived those hits and lived to see another day (a lot of days to be precise, she was engaged in WWII as well).
As u/Vonadler notes as well, money is a key issue. HMS Dreadnought cost approximately £1,784,000 in 1905. As an upgrade over other ship designs, she only cost £181,000 more. However, you have to multiply that by the amount of ships you want to build and then the number only gets more astronomical. In August 1914, the Royal Navy had 22 Battleships in commission (with 40 Pre-Dreadnoughts which are the older battleship designs that came before the Dreadnought in 1905) with another 13 under construction. And the price had only gone up since 1905. The Germans for example only had 15 built with 5 under construction. However I disagree that Vanguard was about 10 million GBP more to construct. Vanguard was built in the 1940s, 40 years after Dreadnought. Using [this inflation calculator] (http://inflation.stephenmorley.org/) I compared £11,530,503 in 1941 (the year that Vanguard was laid down) to 1905 (the year Dreadnought was laid down). In 1905, Vanguard would have cost about £5,291,677.27 pounds. A substantial increase to be sure, but only of about 297% compared to 546%. The overall point stands however, that bigger Battleships with more armor and whatnot do cost significantly more than their smaller counterparts.
And with ships you do not just have the cost of building. maintenance, crew (in the case of the German Battleships 1000+ crew members), fuel, etc... Those costs add up quickly. u/thefourthmaninaboat is also correct that the infrastructure was also a factor in Battleship design. On the other hand, cruise ships didn't really have to contend with all of this. They had their own design challenges to be sure, but armor for example wasn't really a factor.
This is my first "real" reply on this sub, so I hope it's been helpful and informative!
----------------
Sources
Here's a link to the book. It's fantastic.
If you like miltary history or WWII at all, A Higher Call was the best book I got on Audible. Absolutely amazing.
http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425255735
While not written by a pilot, A Higher Call is based mostly on interviews with Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler. The majority of the book seemed to focus on Stigler discussing his career in 109s and later in 262s. I enjoyed it very much.
If you haven’t read it already “A Higher Call” is a great book about an encounter with a b-17 and a me-109. Told in both the perspectives of the U.S. pilot and German pilot. Very good read
> something competely irrelevant.
Ahh yes these books published by people who were alive at the time and had contact with Rommel are irrelevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Lewin
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0949476/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rommel:_The_Desert_Fox
https://www.amazon.com/Rommel-Military-Commander-Ronald-Lewin/dp/0760708614
https://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Library/dp/0440208025
A stunning look at World War II from the other side...
From the turret of a German tank, Colonel Hans von Luck commanded Rommel's 7th and then 21st Panzer Division. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front--von Luck fought there with some of the best soldiers in the world. German soldiers.
Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman. Told with the vivid detail of an impassioned eyewitness, his rare and moving memoir has become a classic in the literature of World War II, a first-person chronicle of the glory--and the inevitable tragedy--of a superb soldier fighting Hitler's war.
https://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Library/dp/0440208025
Most of my knowledge regarding the matter is European, so I'm going to give a list of my favorites regarding the European / African front.
To get the German perspective of the war, I'd recommend:
I have a few battle-specific books I enjoy too:
Now if you want to play games, Hearts of Iron series is great (someone recommended the Darkest Hour release of the game. Allows you to play historical missions based on historical troop layouts, or play the entire war as a nation. Historical events are incorporated into the game. While you'll rarely get a 100% accurate game as it is abstracted, it is an excellent way to see what challenges faced the nations of the time. You could play as Russia from 1936 and prepare yourself for the eventual German invasion. Or maybe you decide to play as Germany, and not invade Russia. But will Russia invade you when they are stronger? Will warn you: It does not have a learning curve. As with almost all Paradox Interactive games, it is a learning cliff.
The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit is a great read on Phil Hill, Ken Miles, and the other drivers of the era. It delves into the Ford vs Ferrari duel as well.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0446554731/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AcsEDb20YFGKQ
the limit
For 1961, there's a book worth reading about Phil Hill and von Trips, The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
You realize that almost two thousand years ago there was an emperor of Rome that was going through some of the same things that we do and has some wise words on a lot of subjects.
I read this (and others):
https://www.amazon.ca/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Meditate as well.
Personality isn't easy to change. Identify what you don't like about yourself, when you do it, why you do it, and then pay attention to yourself. Shut up when you're about to say something you don't want to say. Half the time you'll say it before you can stop yourself. Takes time.
That's what I did anyways.
off the top of my head:
Meditations, with The Inner Citadel as a reader
Letters from a Stoic
A Guide to the Good Life by Irvine
Do The Work by Pressfield as well as The War of Art by Pressfield
Managing Oneself by Ducker
Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl
What Predicts Divorce by Gottman
Nicomachean Ethics
Models by Manson seems to be popular on reddit
So Good They Can't Ignore You by Newport, as well
I'm currently reading Triumphs of Experience by Vaillant and find it insightful.
I'm sorry about my ignorance, I'm new here. Is this book: Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions) https://www.amazon.com/dp/048629823X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_wTlPDb1PQS3R0
?
First and foremost, 48 Laws of Power. It will show you 100+ ways other people have tried and where they failed and succeeded. It's a great introduction. Get this first.
A lot for these are free on gutenberg.org
Meditations - On being ethical and virtuous in a position of power.
33 strategies of war - A great companion to the 48 laws.
Art of war - Ancient Chinese text on war and power. All but covered in 48 laws.
Hagakure - Japanese text on war and power. All but covered in 48 laws.
On war - Military strategy from Napoleonic era. All but covered in 48 laws.
Rise of Theodore Roosevelt - Amazing book.
Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger - Abstract thought models and logic patterns of highly successful people.
The Obstacle is the Way - Not labeled a book on power, more like thriving during struggle, which is important to a leader.
Machiavelli: The Prince - Pretty much the opposite of meditations. All but covered in 48 laws.
Also, here's a good TED talk on why power/civics is important to study: http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_liu_why_ordinary_people_need_to_understand_power?language=en
If you've gone over these and want something more specialized, I can probably help.
Are you planning on taking us over with force or charm?
Meditations is an awesome read! The version on my pictures, though, is an old translation and kind of hard to follow. Dover Thrift offers a contemporary English translation that makes it orders of magnitude more understandable. http://amzn.com/048629823X
At the risk of having everyone here roll their eyes at me, Among the Thugs by Bill Buford is still one of my favorites. I know a lot of people don't really consider it a soccer book, but it was my first real exposure to the sport beyond YMCA herd soccer, so it holds a bit of a place in my heart.
a book : http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Red-Snow-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/0760321981/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418522034&amp;sr=1-26
You can't hit what you can't see and considering most of these flew at night and shooting at them only revealed your position, so as to get you bombed by it.
Source: Blood Red Snow
Tigers in the mud is the first hand account of Otto Carius and his experiences, mostly revolving around his usage of the Tiger tank. It is no foot solder, how ever, but he was one of the big tank aces during the war and he did survive through it.
Black Edelweiss is the biography of a young german Waffen-SS soldier. It is written by a Johan Voss, which is a pseudonym so I can't comment on it's credibility. How ever I have not seen any reviews that dismiss it as fiction as of yet.
Hope that was helpful.
Initially, there were Wehrmacht foreign units (The Free Arabian Legion and Tiger Army were originally Wehrmacht formations) but all non-German fighting forces were later transferred to SS command. The fact that the Waffen-SS had MANY non-German units was actually something that appealed to some, since it felt more like the "crusade against bolshevism" that the party touted so heavily. Johann Voß, who served with the 6.SS Nord in Finland and France, even specifically mentions that he volunteered for the Waffen-SS BECAUSE it had many non-Germans despite being a German himself in his amazing memoir Black Edelweiß.
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Link: The Age of Wonder
This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting).
I recently read "My War Gone By, I Miss It So.", which is a book written by a war journalist/photographer who was on the ground in Bosnia-Herzegovina and details some of the most insane shit nationalism can do to people. I highly suggest reading it, it's damn good read.
this book is the memoir of a british journalist who spend a lot of time in Bosnia during the war. quite a bit of the book is his firsthand account of being in sarajevo and staying with bosnian families during the siege. it's an excellent book all around. the guy is an amazing writer. i can't recomend it enough to anyone who wants understand what happened there. https://www.amazon.com/My-War-Gone-Miss-So/dp/0140298541
Here is an easy to read popular science novel about chemistry in the period of WW1-WW2
The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler.
This maybe?
The Alchemy of Air is a fascinating book on the history of the Haber Process, and as geeky as it is: the beginning of the synthetic chemicals business is well detailed in Mauve and so is Napoleon's Buttons and anything by Joe Schwartz.
Jewish stuff aside, I'm currently in the middle of The Alchemy of Air about the Haber-Bosch process for fixing nitrogen and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, about the Essex disaster, which inspired Moby Dick.
This talking point has unfortunately been gaining ground in recent years, with Reagan's former speech writer, Patrick Buchanan writing an over 500 page book defending Nazi Germany and blaming Britain for not only WWII but also WWI. Additionally, he also claims that the West should have teamed up with Nazi Germany because Hitler "only" wanted E. Europe and that Britain should have abandoned a "warmongering, Polish dictatorship."
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Get this and other
Nazi-apologiawoke truth in his recent book The Unneccessary War!You should read this book
https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Hitler-Unnecessary-War-Britain/dp/0307405168/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1W117EY4TN70Y&amp;keywords=hitler+churchill+and+the+unnecessary+war&amp;qid=1571735965&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=hitler+chu%2Cstripbooks%2C151&amp;sr=1-1
Makes a really interesting case about how Britain kinda fucked itself with both world wars
Not entirely clear what he was getting at, getting involved in WWII at that point might have been necessary.
He is using this as a hook to promote his book, but i think a it is mistake not to mention the way WWII got started and how elites and groups of people were (co-)responsible for it.
Dreadnought. It's a history of the naval build-up prior to WWI. And it's sequel Castles of Steel about the naval history of WWI coincidentally.
Barbara Tuchman was brilliant writer of history.
Albert Camus was a brilliant absurdist philosopher and novelist.
Jared Diamond has written some brilliant books at the intersection of anthropology and ecology. Another good book in this genre is Clive Ponting's A New Green History of the World.
Gwynne Dyer is an acclaimed military historian turned journalist on international affairs who has written a number of very engaging books on warfare and politics. His most recent book Climate Wars is the ONE book I would recommend to someone, if so limited, on the subject as it embodies both a wonderful synopsis of the science juxtaposed against the harsh realpolitiks and potential fates of humankind that may unfold unless we can manage to tackle the matter seriously, soon. Another great book on climate change is Bill McKibben's Deep Economy.
For social activists interested in ending world hunger and abject poverty, I can recommend: Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom; Nobel Prize winning micro-financier Muhammad Yunus' Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism; UN MDG famed economist Jeffrey Sach's End Of Poverty; and Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea
For anyone of Scottish heritage, I heartily recommend Arthur Hermann's How The Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It
For naval history buffs: Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought.
Last, but not least: Robert Pirsig's classic Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Enjoy!
Dreadnought by Robert K. Massie
http://www.amazon.com/Dreadnought-Robert-K-Massie/dp/0345375564
The hopelessness and the inevitability leading up to it fascinate me. I find WWI (more so than any other) to be a pointless, depressing affair; it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, with a 2 mile lead up. If you are interested in the causes, Robert Massie's book Dreadnought is a phenomenal read, and its followup Castles of Steel regarding the navel battle is equally interesting.
I can suggest some books that are really helpful in filling in the blanks.
For a basic overview of Islam's history and the reality of Islamic countries in the modern world I'd recommend "Introducing Islam."
For a seriously compelling look at the Sunni/Shia split and the conflict between the two sects I highly recommend "After the Prophet". Not only is this good history, it's a very well written.
And for a really excellent look at the misconceptions westerners have about Islam, and the ways in which those misconceptions are transmitted and perpetuated, you can't beat the works of Edward Said. He wrote three books on the subject that he considered a trilogy. They are:
Orientalism
The Question of Palestine
and
Covering Islam
Also, here's a documentary that is largely an interview with Said on the topic of Orientalism.
And a documentary called "Reel Bad Arabs" that examines the way the middle east is portrayed by western media.
Is this the book? https://smile.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425255735
Read the memoir of German fighter pilot Franz Stigler, A Higher Call by Adam Makos.
If he likes WWII nonfiction, I would recommend A Higher Call and The Hiding Place. I also liked this book on submarine Cold War espionage called Blind Man's Bluff.
I read half of Panzer Commander by Colonel Hans Van Luck.
You might like it more than I did.
https://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Library/dp/0440208025
So I've been reading https://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Commander-Memoirs-Colonel-Library/dp/0440208025 and found that this author (A colonel that knew Rommel personally quite well) claimed that the July 20, 1944 plot to kill hitler, and after that germany would seek to befriend the western allies to defeat Russia and agree to de-nazify to an extent.
Idk if "lesser known" but that was certainly interesting to me. at a glance I dont see any kind of mention of that motive on wikipedia
Hans Von Luck wrote Panzer Commander not Panzer Leader
see here
And his wiki article
Its a great book, from someone who leaded from the ground.
He was at El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, and the Ost Front.
EDIT: He was with the 3rd panzer army during operation barbarossa and at the personal request of Rommel, with the afrika korps in North Africa.
For design engineers whose job requires creativity
(Book 1)
(Book 2)
I infer that you are looking for a secular handle on a normative ethical theory.
Right Conduct: Theories and Application by Bayles and Henley provides a basic outline of essential philosophical thinking from an academic perspective.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, while authored by a Mormon, doesn't have any religious content that I recall and outlines some very useful heuristics for living a moral life. It's targeted at a general audience.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius does contain some religious content (though here he's not referring to YHWH), but still has a lot of useful ideas with secular application.
You may also be interested in The School of Life and The Greater Good Science Center.
Good luck.
Alright bro, I'm not gonna sugar coat it... so don't get offended as I am trying to help.
First grab the book meditations: it is ONE dollar,
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Then subscribe to /r/howtonotgiveafuck
https://www.reddit.com/r/howtonotgiveafuck/
Stop letting stupid people ruin your day, people will be stupid, but that doesn't mean you should get upset. You can't control people being douchebags, but you can control how you react to it.
It doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right, what matters is that it is making you unhappy.... some of the situations you described above you were in the right, and others, maybe not so much... but it doesn't matter.
And lastly, sorry but I think you should find another girl, why do you let her treat you like that? I say this with love, please grow some balls. You don't need to convince anyone of anything, if your girlfriend doesn't believe you, it is not because you didn't explain yourself properly, it is because she doesn't respect you enough. I suggest the book "way of the superior man"
I think I answered most of your questions. To answer your last question, why do you even want to continue hanging out with these people, just find people you like and surround yourself with them.
Get reading! sounds like you are young and still have some time to form yourself into the man you can be!
This is the one you're looking for:
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1496588594&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=george+long+marcus+aurelius
So what you're saying is the book hasn't helped you as much as you hoped? :P
I don't know any books about that specifically, but I think Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Marcus Aurelius's Meditations have a lot of really good stuff in them. Kierkegaard's book is about the abstract life of faith, while Marcus Aurelius's is a more down-to-earth practical guide for day-to-day life-- if I didn't know he was a pagan I could almost swear he was a Christian (I think a lot of the Stoics became Christians in the first couple centuries).
Ok, two different categories of recs that arent exactly what you asked for but you might want to put on the radar:
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South by Java Head: https://www.amazon.com/South-Java-Head-Alistair-MacLean/dp/0006172482
The Guns of Navarone: https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Navarone-Alistair-MacLean/dp/0006172474
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Some quotes from #2 to give you a sense. Crazy this was just a roman emperor's diary 2000 years ago:
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“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ...”
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
“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.”
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”
“The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.”
“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”
Many monk mode books are available as audiobooks on YouTube, or PDF files through torrents.
It's actually great that you're on a low budget for monk mode. Living frugally is a great activity for building a sense of self-efficacy.
Absolute essentials may be:
A notebook to plan, journal, record exercise, etc.
One or two books that you refer back to often enough, or work through slowly (Meditations by Marcus Aurelius comes to mind: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X)
Maybe some camping gear or other stuff that gets you into nature more often. Tent/sleeping bag/lantern/firemaking supplies.
Outside of that, you don't need anything, and tbh, it's monk mode.. monks don't need anything and that's part of the experience. Good luck man!
P.S. second u/Dr_D1amond on supplements
My preference is the Long version, just for the style (which somehow feels most appropriate for a Stoic philosopher-emperor to have written, at least to me). Be aware that the language is somewhat archaic; if you prefer a more modern-English version (which does paraphrase and summarize quite a bit), try Hays. But you can check out the Long online, so no risk in trying it. Online version.
There are several book versions available on Amazon. This one isn't the version I own, but I was satisfied with my copy of Enchiridion from the same publisher. (Note that, while an editorial review mentioned on the page refers to the Hays translation, the book preview shows the Long translation).
You can get a paperback version of Meditations on Amazon for $1.78 right now.
OP goes first. Among the Thugs by Bill Buford about English football hooligans.
If you do go down the violence path this is a great read.
If you enjoyed Green Street then you really should give this book a read if you haven't already.
Here are a couple great Non-Arsenal specific books. All come highly recommended:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Miracle-Castel-Sangro-Passion/dp/0767905997
http://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1422638459&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=among+the+thugs&amp;pebp=1422638445664&amp;peasin=679745351
http://www.amazon.com/How-Soccer-Explains-World-Globalization/dp/0061978051/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1422638489&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=how+soccer+explains+the+world&amp;pebp=1422638475663&amp;peasin=61978051
Lone Survivor - by Marcus Luttrell
One of the best action non-fiction stories I have ever read. Considering where our troops are around Afghanistan I found this book to be amazing with its detail, the courage of these men, and the ultimate battle each faces within himself. Truly an inspiring account of events we tend to not usually have privy to within our government.
Another favorite of mine that I recently finished was Among the Thugs by Bill Bufford - it's about soccer hooliganism in Europe during the 1970s and 80s. I am a big soccer fan so I absolutely loved it, but I think it would be a good, entertaining read for anyone that likes first person accounts where the author puts you in the mix of the craziness and you can picture yourself going through the story.
I can work on the + if allowable.
Read Among the Thugs. Terrifying stuff.
Fiction: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Non-Fiction: Among the Thugs by Bill Buford (here it is, I want you to read it)
His book is a good read considering the lack of first hand accounts from a German's perspective. For being one of Germany's most highly decorated and deadliest tank aces, the man lived a pretty quiet life after the war. He ran a pharmacy for almost the rest of his life until he died in 2015.
https://www.amazon.com/Tigers-Mud-Commander-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811729117
This is the only English translation I know of his book
It is a great book and its still in print. That's not really a great description of the book though. Its about a Waffen SS infantryman who fought most of the war in Finland and was captured by American troops in the Winter of '45. He makes the point that not all SS units participated in war crimes and that his unit fought honorably, and he joined the SS to be with the elite rather than for racial ideology.
(http://www.amazon.com/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-SS/dp/0966638980/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1394503269&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=black+edelweiss)
What is the feeling in Finland about the Germans and the assistance they gave your country in its defense from Russia?
Thousands of young German men died in Finland, and they really felt betrayed when you abandoned them later in the war when it was opportune.
Would really suggest you read: http://www.amazon.ca/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-Ss/dp/0966638980
Just finished Black Edelweiss not long ago. So this picture is extra interesting! It follows some SS GJ in the Lapland war & later their combat on the Western Front. Although, I'd assume the stuff against the American fighting units was toned down since he wrote it as a German POW in an American camp, still very interesting. Thanks for the upload.
I read The Forgotten Solider. It's about a French kid in the German army on the Eastern Front. Interesting read but there is some doubt as to its' authenticity.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Age of Wonder yet. This is one of the best non-fiction science books that I've ever read. Great narrative, great information, very entertaining.
Base it off this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864
I know you're asking for a broader history of Russia that goes back much further, but for recent events I wholeheartedly recommend (Man without a face: the unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin)[https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514] by Masha Gessen. This only deals with the second half of the 20th century, but it is the most penetrating and insightful exposes on Putin and his rise to power I have ever read. Gessen herself is a Soviet/Russian expatriate currently living in the US, and one of the foremost Putin critics of this generation.
the more I read about Putin and his alleged assassinations of those that oppose him, the more I worry about Trump's stance on Russia. I think Trump may do a reversal on Putin after getting the intelligence reports on him. here's one attempted assassination. here
this is not concern trolling and maybe we should move a debate on Putin to ATD. has anyone read this book
[Great read.] (http://www.amazon.ca/The-Man-Without-Face-Unlikely/dp/1594486514)
It's been a while since I picked it up, but The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes has a lot of information on both Mary Shelley and the scientific scene during the late 18th/early 19th century.
At that point in science people were making some astonishing breakthroughs: planets were being discovered, Humphrey Davies was experimenting with the power of chemicals, the first hot-air balloons were being created, etc. Basically, it was a point in English history when both Romanticism and Science were making breakthroughs and the current mood of England was one of unbridled wonder at the possibilities of science.
"Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer is a pretty good read. It's not specifically about the eastern front, but it gives you a very good perspective about what life was like for a Wehrmacht solder.
False flag opps are also done in Russia. Putin is a terrorist and has killed many of his own people. It's well documented that he kills journalists that speak out against his violent acts. Masha Gessen's book reveals many acts of terror against his own people and the killing of her mentor when she finally returned to Russia from Boston after years of exile for fear of the KGB and Putin. She was killed the moment she arrived in her parent's building on the stairway up to her parents house. She didn't even get to look into her parents eyes after all those years in the US. The web just makes us easier to track and Facebook is the CIA's wet dream come true.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Without-Face-Unlikely/dp/1594486514
Not my area, but I read Forgotten Soldier in high school and it blew my mind. It's a personal account of war on the Eastern Front from a Wehrmacht perspective... extremely accessible and a good read.
From Axis perspective:
Guy Sajer - The Forgotten Soldier
Herbert Werner - Iron Coffins
Sven Hassel books (treat it like the fiction)
Saburo Sakai - Samurai
>I just have a personal interest in history, mainly WWII Eastern Front, and an interest in geopolitics mainly Russia.
Awesome I love history; my focus tends to be more global historical trends rather than any specific region, I just finished Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (It was awesome, obsessed with food production, but still awesome) and my next book is Yuval Harhari's "Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind"
>Its pretty sad but interesting stuff. All of it.
"And then it got worse" -I heard this on the internet somewhere, I think it was associated with Russian history.
>But yeah people here don't know much outside of Putin in staged photos, Cold War propaganda and whatever they hear on whatever stupid news channel they watch. :p
Yeah its too bad, you'd be surprised how easy it is for most mainstream news to get distracted. Although you can still find out quite a bit about Eastern Europe/Russia from English language European News sources (however if you're an American with no background on the topic it's definitely much harder to pick up on what they're talking about), Youtube Videos, and Books on Russia from Americans (Bill Browder's "Red Notice" is probably the only book on Russia I've picked up though).
Page 328? https://www.amazon.com/Oligarchs-Wealth-Power-New-Russia/dp/1610390709
The author of this book
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744
Was on NPR discussing the Magnitsky act and stated it was the most important sanction that Putin wanted lifted. Haven't had time to go down the rabbit hole, just putting this out there
Red Notice - https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744
The Oligarchs
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1610390709/ref=dbs_a_w_dp_1610390709
"Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State"
Is good if you're interested in the direct aftermath and the immediate consequences of the collapse. The author was the Moscow correspondent for the WSJ for quite some time, so you'll end up wading through some inevitable bias. Alternatively, you can look into "The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia" and exchange a psychology-based explanation for the modern Russian Federation from Satter's book for a series of biographies of the current top flight of Russian society.
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I've heard good things about Remnick's "Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire" but I have not had a chance to read it myself, so I can't comment much on its historicity or historiography.
A lot of the oligarchs were scientists or bureaucrats that happened to be connected with the right people at the right time in a very fluid time in Russia's history.
https://www.amazon.com/Oligarchs-Wealth-Power-New-Russia/dp/1610390709/
Don't really know much about this guy though.
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514
Masha Gessin's book on the rise of Putin The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514 does a great job of explaining how the Russian oligarchy functions and includes a detailed account of Browder's experience too.
> If you knew me, you would know that I lived in many more countries and varied conditions than you did
Let me just state the same: If you knew me, you would know that I lived in many more countries and varied conditions than you did
> Anyway, there are much worse places than where you live, even in France.
One thing I know for sure is that you've never been to Russia. Otherwise you wouldn't be spouting such nonsense.
> whether you stay in Russia or decide to move to place you deem better. May be you are right, may be it does exist.
Oh, I'm not moving anywhere, I'm gonna stay here and try to change things. One good thing about Russia is that intersectionality and political correctness (in it's Western, "your-breathing-is-offensive-misogynic-and-oppressing" sense) are completely alien concepts here. And unlike their Western counterparts who glorify Marx and Lenin, the majority of our hipsters adore Ayn Rand and libertarianism.
> Here's some first class reading for you. It provides excellent background on the west.
I will read it. And since we're doing book suggestions here are mine:
https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Coming-Vladimir-Enemies-Stopped/dp/1610397193/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514/ref=la_B001H6MBXK_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1525652656&amp;sr=1-2
https://www.amazon.com/Day-Oprichnik-Novel-Vladimir-Sorokin/dp/0374533105/ref=la_B001JOLA4G_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1525652758&amp;sr=1-1
The first two are political/historical nonfiction books, written by people who had first-hand experience with Putin's regime.
The third one is a novel, but many of the things and ideas depicted there has come/are coming to life in Russia right now, unfortunately. Orwell's 1984 and Burgess' 1985 (read it too, by the way, great book) are good descriptions of what's going on in the West and where it is headed with its leftist ideology. And this Vladimir Sorokin's book does the same for Russia.
So do me a favor and read these three books (and do check out "1985", I'll say it again - great book). And I'll read your book as soon as I finish "Journey to the End of the Night".
A far more appropriate bogeyman would have been happy to refer to the start of the battle. Okay, at this point, but it's important to establish a colony in the New Russia by David E. Hoffman](http://www.amazon.com/The-Oligarchs-Wealth-Power-Russia/dp/1610390709).
Had no idea about that. Then I read The Man Without a Face.
I really enjoyed Richard Holmes' The Age of Wonder and also Chaos and The Information by James Gleick.
If you dig non-fiction and science and biographies I recommend my favorite book: The Age of Wonder
https://www.amazon.com/Age-Wonder-Romantic-Generation-Discovery/dp/1400031877
The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. It gives a pretty good background for the scientific tradition that we participate in today through the lives and works of noteworthy scientists.
If you dig science fiction, this guy is really amusing. The cyberiad or The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem.
More on the Magnitsky Act here.
For those interested in this sort of thing, Bill Browder’s book, Red Notice, is an absolutely harrowing journey into this life:
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Notice-Finance-Murder-Justice/dp/1476755744/ref=nodl_
Money, spies, stolen money, and assassins.
Сурковская писанина — роман «Околоноля», «Машинка и велик», «Ультранормальность» и т.д..
"Red Cocaine: The Drugging of America and the West"
Книжки Голицына, неплохо передают образ мышления корпорации.
The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
Дугинские «Основы геополитики» и сочинения Ивана Ильина. Местами книжонки Сергея Кара-Мурзы («Россия: точка 2010, образ будущего и путь к нему»), тоже просочились во властное сознание.
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is an incredible read. There is controversy about the validity of some of his claims. However, it is one of the most intense books on WW2 I have ever read.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1411555970&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=forgotten+soldier
My personal recommendations:
My 30 year war by Onada Hiro:
This book was written by a Japanese lieutenant who refused to believe the war was over, and continued living in the jungles of the Philippines until the 70s.
https://www.amazon.com/No-Surrender-My-Thirty-Year-War/dp/1557506639/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1493673294&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Hiroo+Onoda
Battleground Pacific by Sterling Mace. A first person account from a USMC rifleman who fought in the Pacific war. He is also a redditor.
https://www.amazon.com/Battleground-Pacific-Marine-Riflemans-Odyssey/dp/1250005051?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&amp;tag=duckduckgo-d-20&amp;linkCode=xm2&amp;camp=2025&amp;creative=165953&amp;creativeASIN=1250005051
And the Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, a French man who fought for the Germans on the Eastern Front.
https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1493673668&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+forgotten+soldier+by+guy+sajer
Happy reading!
For those of you looking for a view of the Eastern Front from the German perspective I highly recommend The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. It's quite a harrowing read at times, doesn't hold back on the blood and gore involved in war.
There are questions on how authentic some parts of the book are, even so it still well worth a read.
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is an autobiography of a French-German soldier fighting on the eastern front. He thought they were the good guys, but it doesn't really mention the concentration camps since he wasn't anywhere near them.
Probably not related towards Geopolitics but I'm loving this book "The Forgotten Soldier". I purchased it from the Andorid Playstore. So amazing. Shows you a perspective from the other side.
Here is a short summary that I copied from Amazon. Which the link is below.
"This book recounts the horror of World War II on the eastern front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier. At first an exciting adventure, young Guy Sajer’s war becomes, as the German invasion falters in the icy vastness of the Ukraine, a simple, desperate struggle for survival against cold, hunger, and above all the terrifying Soviet artillery."
http://www.amazon.com/The-Forgotten-Soldier-Guy-Sajer/dp/1574882864
Edit: Seeing so many good recommendations. Looks like I'm going to be reading a lot. Thank you guys for the good recommendations.
Hi u/Bm188 Two recommendations for you:
1: the forgotten soldier by Guy Sajer
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1574882864/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1522746358&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=the+forgotten+soldier&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51OLqLHL9hL&amp;ref=plSrch
A memoir from a german soldier and his war in Russia. A fascinating read that will cause a real itch regarding WW2 in the east, and a classic of WW2 literature.
2: Kokoda by Peter Fitzsimmons
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0733619622/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1522746522&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=kokoda&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=61fQaatVf8L&amp;ref=plSrch
A great overview of what was probably the toughest fighting in WW2, Australian (and some American) fighting against the Japanese in Papua New Guinea.
I’ve read both, and strongly recommend both. Neither are dry or heavy reading.
I've enjoyed the following, not being from that part of the world, culture or religion you'd have to take my insight with a grain of salt. There doesn't seem to be that much information about that part of the world, one of the reasons I find it so fascinating. It's fairly invisible. There is typically one viewpoint from this media, red team or blue team, nothing seems to be that unbiased. I found "The Oath" to be the most informative and interesting.
BOOKS-
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312071353/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585745650/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594486514/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594032017/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060011602/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1860468977/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470048662/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813124379/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400044111/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140257713/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140172866/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
DOCS-
I've read Masha Gessen's book about Putin - I highly recommend it:https://www.amazon.com/Man-Without-Face-Unlikely-Vladimir/dp/1594486514/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1484750660&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=masha+gessen
I also recommend reading My War Gone By, I Miss It So, a freelance war photographer's written account of the Bosnian war. If there was ever a war book that could give you vicarious trauma, this is it. My circle of friends has passed it around to interested people we've met and everyone who read it got nightmares at some point from evocatively written it is.
Roll Me Over: An Infantryman's WW2 by Raymond Gantter. Easily one of the best personal accounts I have read about the war in Europe.
My War Gone By, I Miss It So by Anthony Loyd Another personal account but of the war in Bosnia.
I am not totally sure what you are asking for actually exists in book form...which is odd, now that I think about it.
If it were me, I would think about magazines instead. And if you really want to push him, think about the following options:
If you insist on books...
I see you already mentioned A Brief History of the Universe, which is an excellent book. However, I am not sure if you are going to get something that is more "in depth." Much of the "in depth" stuff is going to be pretty pop, without the rigorous foundation that are usually found in textbooks.
If I had to recommend some books, here is what I would say:
Hope that helps! OH AND GO WITH THE SUBSCRIPTION TO NATURE
edit: added the linksssss
The definitive book on Haber-Bosch
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Air-Jewish-Scientific-Discovery/dp/0307351793/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+alchemy+of+air&amp;qid=1558041717&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1
The Alchemy of Air
It's the story of Nobel Prize winners Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who together created the Haber-Bosch process to convert inorganic nitrogen into organic nitrogen, and then scaled up the process to magnificent industrial proportions. While this invention is responsible for the Green Revolution (organic nitrogen = fertilizer), it is also largely responsible for Hitler's ability to prosecute the Second World War from 1943 to 1945 (organic nitrogen = explosives, and food to feed a blockaded country).
This has almost nothing to do with your academic work. Read it any way. You won't be disappointed.
Backing up my argument, I refer to Pat Buchanan's The Unnecessary War for the case for, and Philip Roth's The Plot Against America for the case against, but with Freudian slips exposing its real agenda, this view of pre-war anti-fascism.
I highly recommend Dreadnaught by Robert K Massie. It is a fascinatingly in depth, if a bit dense, history of the events leading to World War I starting from the foundation of Germany. To be honest, I started it 5 years ago and still have not finished it (it is huge!), but I do not think there is another book on the subject that comes close to the level of detail it contains. Read it if only to understand the complex personal relationships of the Royal families of that era that had such a great impact on the coming war.
I see a lot of great books already listed. I'll offer a few lesser-known books that haven't been mentioned yet.
Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe series is brilliant for general readers of almost any age.
I see William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has been mentioned, but I find his book on France - The Collapse of the Third Republic - equally compelling.
For those who love Barb Tuchmann's Guns of August,
Dreadnought by Robert Massie and The Lions of July by William Jannen are excellent additions in covering the lead up to WWI.
For Roman History, I'd recommend Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar: Life of a Colossus and Anthony Everitt's Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor
This is absolutely right. I mentioned this briefly in my comment pitching Castles of Steel and Dreadnought. These are the two Massie books on the subject.
Dreadnought is the story of the naval arms race leading up to world war 1. It covers the development of the HMS dreadnought, and how this revolutionary ship immediately rendered the navies of the world obsolete. This effectively meant that Germany didn't need to build 500 ships to catch up to the British, they just needed to have comparable numbers of Dreadnought-calibre ships. This started a race on all sides, and caused Britain to end splendid isolation and build alliances to ensure naval supremacy, etc. Really great book on the naval aspect leading up to world war 1.
[Castles of steel] (http://www.amazon.com/Castles-Steel-Britain-Germany-Winning/dp/0345408780/ref=la_B000AQ6XVE_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1420834394&amp;sr=1-6) is the story of how the navies conducted themselves during world war 1. It is a very different book from dreadnought, but there's so much more to ww1 naval action than u-boats and Jutland.
Both are great books. Castles of steel more closely answers the question about actual naval combat in world war 1. But if you're going to read just one, go with Dreadnought.
Well there's been a few western written books about the topic. Ex: After the prophet. Mind you, both sides will criticize this book as being biased towards one side or the other.
Read “After the Prophet" by Lesley Hazleton: https://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split/dp/0385523947
It isn't written by a shiite, but it seems like she does lean more towards the shia point of view than the sunni one.
This is more novelistic than academic, but it's a great starting point: http://www.amazon.com/After-Prophet-Story-Shia-Sunni-Split/dp/0385523947/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376894644&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=after+the+prophet
This is also quite readable: http://www.amazon.com/Heirs-MuhammadIslams-Century-Origins-Sunni-Shia/dp/1590200225/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk
For a history written by a Shi'i about their origins: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Shi`i-Islam-History-Doctrines/dp/0300035314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376894805&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=momen+shia
Any more info needed I'd be happy to help.
>Dude believe what you want but for every manuscript written by an islamic person there are ten thousand written non muslim that portray a brutal life under muslims.
This is something you want to be true, but isn't. You want it to be true, so you will never seek out information that contradicts it. I get the impression that you've never read a primary source written from within the Muslim empire. You've been told these things, but you're too intellectually lazy to wonder if they might be lies, misunderstandings, and myths. If you want to be spoonfed you interpretation of history instead of researching it yourself, that's your business. But don't claim to have knowledge of history if second hand accounts and Crusades-era anti-Islam propaganda are the shaky foundation you want to build your worldview on.
Once again, the image of Islam would be seriously shaken if you read something written by scholars, like No God but God or After the Prophet, or Orientalism. Unfortunately it's pretty clear that you lack the curiosity to verify what you believe.
For those that may want to read further on the topic, Lesley Hazleton has written a book called After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia Sunni Split in Islam.
A copy in MOBI format can be found here
I wouldn't consider myself Shia nor Sunni; just simply a Muslim. But, I am fairly clued up about both sides through going to countries, mosques and engaging in conversations as well as reading books.
I think Shias curse Aisha because of her alleged role in Ali's (the first Shia Imam, son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet) so called Dust & Thornes tribulation. She, alongside her half brothers Zubayr and [cant remember] waged the first civil war in Islam (called fitna).
Also, according to Shia lore, every time something turbulent/weird [for lack of a better word] happened, Aisha was either in the middle of it or nowhere in sight. Shia accounts also document the tension and perhaps rivalry between Aisha and Ali - and may ultimately blame Aisha for Ali and his sons' suffering or just fall in line back chose Ali's side.
Of course, this is all my opinion and represents what I believe in the moment in time only. There are so many varying accounts on what happened within the first century of the Prophet's death, and it just so depends on what 'story' you side with.
I'd recommend you to read a book called After the Prophet which i am reading right now and it gives a very good account (from the author's particular bias and perspective obviously) of Aisha and Ali's relationship after Muhammad pbuh.
Peace
I don't have my + so don't use this recommendation for the contest, I just wanted to recommend this book: A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II. It's the true story of Luftwaffe ace that spared the escorted a heavily damaged American bomber out of Germany and what happened to the mean after the war. Amazing book. It's also often the subject of TIL threads.
Read the book - http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425252868
There was a book wrote about it,A higher Call.
The book was very well written and interesting: definitely worth a read!
There were many of these events, though they are largely forgotten. A Higher Call tells the amazing true story of a badly damaged american bomber which was escorted home by a german fighter pilot... the story was largely kept quiet during the war, before the pilots found each other years and years later. Its an amazing story :)
http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425252868/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1381670921&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=a+higher+call
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0425252868/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
For those interested.
Fun Fact: Franz Stigler, a German WWII Pilot Ace, took a round with his Head and survived it. IIRC, the projectile went through the front window and HUD (its quite thick) of his BF109 and struck his head. There are pictures/ videos showing the indent mark on his head.
Source: A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II
I can absolutely recommend this book!
I just found out that many of the bombers didn't have the Norden and just bombed when the Norden equipped leader did. If that plane was blown out of the sky....well then thing fell where they may. Also timing/movement/chaos caused errors even when the lead was undamaged. Read that in this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Higher-Call-Incredible-Chivalry-War-Torn/dp/0425255735
I might have to disagree. That song told a tale of a noble deed in the midst of unimaginable horror, and while one could argue it is not exactly sunshine and rainbows, is not quite, well, sad.
The whole story is quite incredible, really. I highly recommend this book.
Quote from the Pilot section about Franz Stigler.
>The things he experienced could easily fill a book
here it is (tho not just about him, it does give out alot of Franz's life in it)
Please, i beg you, read it, and if you have, Read it again. i've read mine 4 times in the past 2 months. please, just do. it's my favorite book, and as 16 who do nothing but play war thunder all day, reading a book, yet alone having a favorite one is something i rarely experience.
For a more tactical point of view you have Heinz Guderian's treatise on armored warfare; Achtung - Panzer! In it, he crafts the very tactics that were employed in the war.
Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck is also quite good and may be more what you're looking for. Hans von Luck was a commander in Rommel's Panzer divisions at many points in the war including El Alamein, during D-Day, and on the eastern front.
Oh yes Mario raced under the American flag. He's a rather proud naturalized citizen.
If you mean world championship, yes Phil Hill won in 1961. A highly recommended read: http://www.amazon.com/Limit-Life-Death-Grand-Circuit/dp/0446554731
Actually the 60's were a pretty good time for US drivers. Hill, Gurney and Richie Ginther all had pretty good success. Then Revson in the early 70's until his death.
After Andretti the last remotely successful US driver was Eddie Cheever, 9 podiums but no wins.
The Limit: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit
by Michael Cannell
one if the best books I've read on any subject
https://www.amazon.ca/Limit-Life-Death-Grand-Circuit/dp/0446554731#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1488207401716
My two favorites.
https://www.amazon.com/Go-Like-Hell-Ferrari-Battle/dp/0547336055/ref=sr_1_1?crid=368C6TS70KZSG&amp;keywords=aj+baime+go+like+hell&amp;qid=1570326528&amp;sprefix=AJ+Ba%2Caps%2C181&amp;sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Limit-Life-Death-Grand-Circuit/dp/0446554731/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1Z02C9YX16Y22&amp;keywords=the+limit&amp;qid=1570326512&amp;sprefix=The+Lim%2Caps%2C183&amp;sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Highly recommend giving this a read.
Try the ice cube trick if the anxiety ever hits and you have a drink handy. I just hold an ice cube in my left hand until it melts. Can still shake hands and everything but the ice cube seems to force my heart to slow down a bit. My best guess is that it triggers the Mammalian Diving Reflex and turns off whatever is derailing.
That trick came from a Viet Nam Vet, has been a huge help as time has gone on.
As for things sticking around, now that I'm well into my 40's the flashbacks and nightmares seem to have slowed to almost nothing - though they can still get triggered by trauma anniversary and other surprises. I have one trauma around a car accident so anytime the brakes squeal behind me I get to have a fun day.
Totally agree that basic Meditation is necessary to get through, can't see it ever being accepted in the public school system here in the US though - hell some places refuse to teach Evolution.
I also think that Philosophy has helped me cope some - Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius have been incredibly helpful reading to sort of adjust the way I see the world these days. I highly recommend the two following books:
http://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Dover-Thrift-Editions-Epictetus/dp/0486433595
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
Books regarding how to build your online business / extract value out of an email list come from people who collected their online offerings.
For example: Ryan Levesque "Ask" on how to build products through email lists are a compilation of user stories from what he's done online.
With that said if you're looking for general entrepreneurship books here are a few I would check out:
The best books to read to get through the thick and thin however are not business books. For example, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is excellent
Buy this book asap: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1409378436&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=meditations
/r/mgtow
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
wiki
amazon
Local library might be worth checking out.
I prefer to buy paperbacks so I can fill up my bookcase. Girls are always impressed when they see it because it seems like nobody reads anymore.
**Off topic but Mediations by Aurelius is $1.00 right now. I picked it up last week because I was sick of reading it on my Galaxy.
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1492454670&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=meditations+of+marcus+aurelius
hi! you commented a long time ago, but hopefully you have a dollar to spare (and a prime membership: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1420595333&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=marcus+aurelius
I found this copy of MA's meditations for a dollar.. and when I went to check out, my final bill came to $.33 after some discounts, and the fact I have amazon prime. Check it out and order this if you want to!
This book changed my life. Im sure anyone on this sub will recognize themselves and the situations Donovan writes about.
How to become powerful, seductive and master yourself.
This book helped me overcome my fear of death, which made me give less fucks. Because in the end, nothing matters.
I dont have anymore than that at the moment, but i would suggest reading biographies of great men. Right now im reading Seven Pillars Of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence(of Arabia)s first hand account of the Arab uprising during the First World War
I'm not Jeff, but I've struggled with this as well. Some books that have helped me were Way of the Superior Man, 50th Law, and Meditations. They're worth a read.
Seems like the body is great, but if you think your mind is lacking, you have to train that too! Mens sana in corpore sano, you know. I will like to support the idea of meditation; guided meditation is great, and it really helps you put things in perspective and create the self-awareness that you need to know where you stand. Also, I'll recommend you read Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. Seriously a good read, and it's cheap (or free online)
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
https://www.amazon.ca/Meditations-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
For Canadian Amazon.
I love reading biographies, I find them more inspiring and enjoyable to read than self-help books. Currently I'm reading Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. I highly recommend this book to anyone, prior to this book I only knew what they taught us in History class, this explores so many more aspect of his life, some of which we can all relate to (like his constant drive to improve himself).
[Meditations by Marcus Aurelius] (http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X) is another great book I just finished. Written by a former Roman emperor who ruled during the time of frequent war, disease, and natural disasters, it's about how he dealt with it all as a leader by following the stoic philosophy. Amazing book and helped changed my outlook on the world.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This is one of those books that isn't geared to self-improvement, but to updating your view of the world. In it Taleb talks about how highly improbably events happen all the time, but we only see them as probable in hindsight. I think it's a great read since we tend to think in cause-and-effect ways, when in fact the world works more in a probabilistic way.
Hm, I bought this one just because it's the best seller. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/048629823X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
I put the one you mentioned on a list for later if I decide to read it again. What makes the Hays' version better?
If you really want a physical book there's a budget one on amazon.
I bought it when it was only $1 and now it's $1.78
Here is the mobile version of your link
My list would have to include
The Ball is Round this is an amazing history of the sport. It is a very big book but very good.
The Numbers Game This has been one of my favorite soccer reads and I am surprised at how little people talk about it.
This love is not for cowards Truly an amazing story.
Amung the Thugs a fun and alarming tale of holgainism. Something I am very glad has not developed around the sport in the USA.
also if your not already receiving them you should subscribe to
Howler Magazine and
Eight by Eight
I hope this list gets you started. I have more on my list but have not got around to them.
In addition to the other books mentioned here, Among the Thugs and Winning at All Costs are both really good.
http://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351
When the glass starts breaking, the ruck is on.
You may be interested in Among the Thugs.
Not sure what you're interested in but I read Among the Thugs by Buford in a sociology class and it's a great and interesting exploration of mob mentality/crowd psych through the lens of the life and activities of soccer/football hooligans.
http://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351
Hey /u/Revinn, why don't you look up "Among the Thugs" by Bill Buford? I started reading it and I set it down but it seems like a fitting book to contribute to your paper.
http://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351
Among the Thugs by Bill Buford.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0679745351/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/191-6902564-3828909
If you're looking for a German soldier perspective Blood Red Snow by Günter K. Koschorrek and Siege: A Novel of the Eastern Front, 1942 by Russ Schneider
Is this it?
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Red-Snow-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/0760321981/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376439664&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=red+snow
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51gZyXIwBmL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Books seen from the german perspective
Books seen from the russian perspective
Much more good books to find, but then its gonna be a very long list, lets first see how you guys like the books above
This one:
http://www.amazon.ca/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko/dp/0802144039/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1330806054&amp;sr=8-1
I'd suggest that you read "One Soldier's War" for an idea of what Russia is capable of.
I've been reading this book about the Chechen War, and it's only reinforced my belief of that quote.
Tigers in the Mud was really interesting to read, cool to see WWII from a different perspective.
The Art of War is a good read as well. I like how it combines military strategy and Taoism.
Those are my favorite ones so far, but I read a lot more fiction than anything...
That depends entirely on how you define "better tank" - if you compare the tanks at the tactical level - platoon or company level engagements - sure, Tigers usually came out ahead. However, that changed as the T-34's were upgraded to the T-34/85 with an improved gun that could penetrate the Tiger's armor, from farther than the earlier 76mm gun. And Soviet crews gained experience and better training as the war went on.
Additionally, if you examine the strategic effectiveness of the two tanks, that's when things start to weigh heavily in the T-34's favor. You have to look at it as a numbers game, basically. I'd roughly estimate that a T-34/85 (like the one pictured above), had probably 85% of the combat effectiveness of the Tiger 1. But when that T-34/85 costs only, say, 30-40% of the resources it takes to make a Tiger 1, then that math does NOT work in favor for a country with very limited industrial capacity like Germany.
And that's not to mention all of the horrific reliability and mobility problems that the Tiger 1 faced. It was under-powered and its drivetrain was critically overstressed, leading it to regularly break down and require many precious spare parts and man hours. You can have the best tank in the world, but if it can't get to the battlefield and fight, its just a big waste of fuel, parts, and manpower.
If you're interested in a first-person perspective on the Tiger vs the T-34, I highly recommend Tigers in the Mud by German tank ace Otto Carius.
Just gonna take this opportunity to plug his book. It's a fascinating read and sheds light on what it was like to actually be in the tank during the war.
http://www.amazon.com/Tigers-Mud-Commander-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811729117
This is one Ive been meaning to read for a super long time. Its called Tigers in the Mud. Its about a commander of a Tiger tank. https://www.amazon.com/Tigers-Mud-Commander-Stackpole-Military/dp/0811729117
Its been a while but A Bridge Too Far gave some perspective on the individual soldiers. Its probably one of my favorite history books because it reads more like a story. He goes also does the big picture of the battle and then narrows it down to soldiers and their thoughts. He even throws in some jokes from the time. My favorite was when these paratroopers were talking cover in a cellar during an artillery barrage. There was one guy that made the joke "they're throwing everything at us but the kitchen stove." Then at that moment a shell hit the house and the kitchen stove actually fell through the floor in front of them. The guy followed up with "I knew the bastards were close but I didnt think they could hear us." Cornelius Ryan did an amazing job. I gotta get around to reading his other 2 books eventually. Just too lazy
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Edelweiss-Conscience-Soldier-Waffen-SS/dp/0966638980
You should read this. It's about the SS mountain troops fighting in Finland, would've been close to the same areas as your grandfather.
It's a complex topic most don't bother to understand. Easier to categorise every German soldier including Waffen SS as "evil Nazi".
If you want to read some very interesting (and entertaining) first hand accounts of Waffen SS and what it was like to fight in their units, I recommend the following books (can be found and downloaded online):
https://www.amazon.com/Campaign-Russia-Waffen-Eastern-Front/dp/B000ZD3A8Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1502739053&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=campaign+russia+degrelle
Both of these guys especially the second (Degrelle) were Waffen SS who survived some of the craziest fronts and battle in the history of humanity on the Eastern Front (Kursk, Kharkov, etc).
EPIC LENGTH WARNING
One way terrible things can happen is for many people to take on small pieces of responsibility for making an evil thing happen. This is all hypothetical and blind guessing with no research into how this hospital happens to be run, so don't take it as analysis, but as a thought exercise, let's say that the hospital is owned by a corporation and the Board of Directors tell the CEO that his job is on the line if he doesn't reduce costs.
Does the CEO say "dump patients?" Does the board say, "CEO, dump patients?" No. The CEO says "Our corporate goal is a XX% reduction in the costs of treating uninsured patients across our network of hospitals."
The CFO now analyzes which facilities have the highest costs and through a chain of intermediaries, tells this facility in Vegas, "YOUR goal is a greater percentage cost reduction, because your costs are overrunning by more than the other facilities' costs do. You are to get this done, period, and it comes directly from the CEO."
The hospital director knows his job is in danger, so he gathers the staff and says, "We need you all to impress upon your teams that the cost of treating uninsured patients must be reduced dramatically. We will reward teams that reduce their cost overruns for uninsured patients." Nowhere in that meeting does he give more than a token mention to the hospital's code of ethics or the Hippocratic oath -- of course, it's a hospital, if you asked him he'd say it went without saying, but the managers hear, correctly, "Forget ethics, we MUST meet this goal or this facility may be closed as too costly."
The department heads go back and tell their teams, "Anyone who is running up big bills for uninsured patients is in danger of being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. You need to be more cost-conscious. We're spending too much. Find ways to cut costs."
Then in this environment, an uninsured schizophrenic walks in the door for the 17th time off his medication and self-harming again. They know he has family in Iowa. They know the last time he came in, he ran up $35,000 in costs that were denied by Medicaid and were never recovered and written off. Night nurse looks at night doctor looks at night orderly looks at custodial staff, and somehow it's decided that they'll put him on a bus to Iowa, because everyone just got an ass-chewing about costs and someone's going to lose a job if a $35,000 bill that will never be paid gets run up tonight, and then who's supposed to care even for the patients who can pay?
The night staff say, "It wasn't our fault. We just did what we had to do to keep our jobs to keep providing patient care."
The department heads say, "It wasn't our fault. We just told them to watch the costs. We didn't tell them to dump patients."
The director says, "It wasn't my fault. I expected our department heads to explain that the cost-cutting goal wasn't an excuse to violate our Code of Ethics here."
The CFO says, "It wasn't my fault. I just crunched numbers and told them what numbers to hit. I'm just the math guy. I don't make the decisions as to how you hit numbers."
The CEO says, "It wasn't my fault. I just set an ambitious goal to deliver shareholder value by reducing cost overruns throughout our network of care facilities. That's what I'm here for. I'm very disappointed that facility made the decision it did."
The BoD says, "It's not our fault. We invested our own money in this corporation. We just want value for money. All we asked is that the CEO do what we hired him for, and get this business growing by reducing costs."
The President says, "It's not my fault. I tried the public option, and I had to trade it away to get anything at all, because insurers wouldn't budge."
The insurer says, "It's not our fault. We pushed for a national insurance mandate so we can cover every patient. It'll be in effect soon. There may be some continued challenges in delivery of care in the meantime."
The voters say, "It's not our fault. This is all too complicated to understand, and there's nothing we can do about the influence of money in politics. We can't afford higher taxes--we need to save and scrimp already in case we ever need health care, so we don't end up in that position."
And nobody takes responsibility, because nobody made the whole decision, and the person who looked a patient in the eyes and gave him a bus ticket instead of care sleeps soundly thinking they're just a victim of the system--and unfortunately, they're right, because even with a nationwide nursing shortage, the quickest way to lose your job as a healthcare provider is to take personal responsibility for patient outcomes, because that creates costs and liabilities to the hospital.
References/suggested reading:
On Killing
Black Edelweiss
The Sociopath Next Door
Confidence Men
Note that none of these are about the health care industry and only one is about politics at all. They're just about how people work and what kinds of people can do bad things.
and for the record I don't have any connection to any of the authors or publishers or anything similar
Actually, quite a lot, especially in Africa. The most graphic and horrifying happened with Kofi Annan on the phone telling UN forces not to save Bosnian children in a grade school. While UN forces did not do the rapes, the UN's highest authority allowed it to happen. Excellent read.
https://www.amazon.com/My-War-Gone-Miss-So/dp/0140298541
Yep. Hans Von Luck talks about this idea in good detail in Panzer Commander.
http://www.amazon.com/Among-Thugs-Bill-Buford/dp/0679745351
related soccer hooligans
Absolutely serious. You can go ahead and read any memoirs from soldiers who survived the Battle of Berlin. Stalin encouraged the Russians to exact revenge on Germany. He demanded they remember all the atrocities they saw committed unto dead Soviets during the push across Eastern Europe and into Germany, and then go pay back the Germans for that. That shit didn't happen in the west.
In all of these memoirs, they note how different the Americans were. They note how the Americans didn't rape like the Soviets, nor did they torture like the Soviets.
Since I know you're just gonna reply with something you painfully think to be witty, I'll search for you. Here's a favorite of mine, Blood Red Snow by Gunter Koschorrek. https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Red-Snow-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/0760321981
If you're gonna suck Nazi dick, at least read one fucking book written by your kkkomrades.
https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Red-Snow-Memoirs-Soldier/dp/0760321981
Sure, but they are also much bigger and they have a lot more to lose at this point economically. By the way if you want some good insight about how Russian army fights, take a look at this book http://www.amazon.com/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko/dp/0802144039/
Its from the Chechen wars, but the Army more or less still works the same.
mie beletristica nu prea imi place asa ca merg cu ceva autobiografic scris chiar de soldati de pe vremea aia ex 1 2 3 4
You know, the funniest thing about this is that the initial impetus of this conversation was me saying that entertainment doesn't teach you anything. You then proceeded to get incredibly angry about this. And you're somehow deciding that the best way to respond to this is 4chan memes, reddit tags and capital letters, while completely failing to provide evidence that entertainment has taught you something. Like, is this really how you were intending to convince me that you're not a stupid idiot? Like when you were laughing at a well-respected author and veteran, you were like "yes, this will show that I am a good person and not an entitled baby".
So really, kind of curious at this point: why did you bother? All you did was make yourself look like a loud, angry 14 year old who can't deal with criticism. If you want you can post this conversation in /r/iamverysmart but I gotta warn you, dude, it's not exactly flattering for you.
They're the two most common branches of Islam (with each having sub-branches). It's hard to know the exact demographic breakdown, but Sunni Muslims probably make up something like 85% of Muslims and Shi'a Muslims something like 15% (a much smaller minority belong to other groups).
If you want an accessible (not written by academics/experts/scholars) book from a non-Muslim perspective that explains the historical events that lead up to the Shi'a-Sunni divide, I would recommend After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton. Neither Shi'a nor Sunni Muslims will 100% agree with her version of the story, but it's nicely told, and for the most part gives the right idea. It's written in a narrative format that doesn't make things dry.
If you want a really concise description of the fundamentals of Islamic beliefs and practices, from a Shi'a perspective, then I would recommend Discovering Islam by Sayyid Moustafa Al-Qazwini.
Unfortunately, resources on Shi'a Islam in English are usually translations of (often either classical or somewhat outdated contemporary) works that were originally written in Arabic or Persian. There's isn't much that's originally written in English.
This volume from the classical Hadith collection Al-Kafi (on intellect and foolishness) might be a good place for looking into Shi'a hadith.
Hitler invaded Poland. France and Britain then declared war on Germany when they didn't have to.
Patrick Buchanan has an incredible book on the subject matter, if you're curious.
I found this one really interesting: http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Without-Face-Unlikely/dp/1594486514
I would love to hear other peoples opinions about it.
You're far better off reading these books than wasting time with Peterson. Peterson's works are a soothing balm, these men sought after absolute truths -
https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Thrift-Editions-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/048629823X
https://www.amazon.com/Critique-Pure-Reason-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447474/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1527773842&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=kant
https://www.amazon.com/Madness-Civilization-History-Insanity-Reason/dp/067972110X/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1527773870&amp;sr=1-4&amp;keywords=foucault&amp;dpID=41FzjCBzJJL&amp;preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&amp;dpSrc=srch
https://www.amazon.com/Nicomachean-Ethics-Aristotle/dp/0872204642/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1527773951&amp;sr=1-6&amp;keywords=aristotle&amp;dpID=31b2stlDDgL&amp;preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&amp;dpSrc=srch
https://www.amazon.com/Republic-Dover-Thrift-Editions-ebook/dp/B00A73FJ10/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1527774019&amp;sr=1-4&amp;keywords=aristotle+the+republic&amp;dpID=51dfJWGupmL&amp;preST=_SY445_QL70_&amp;dpSrc=srch