tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post95872448120837081..comments2024-03-28T22:08:48.577-07:00Comments on Chant du Départ: Nobility of PurposeOldAFSargehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-36721072107365563322015-11-14T07:54:59.046-08:002015-11-14T07:54:59.046-08:00The Pillars of the Earth was a favorite of mine as...<em>The Pillars of the Earth</em> was a favorite of mine as well. Reading about how such and such cathedral took 100 years to build is one thing, actually having the process described was fascinating.OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-39916628141513539902015-11-14T07:53:13.673-08:002015-11-14T07:53:13.673-08:00I tried the same thing. It's worse in German.I tried the same thing. It's worse in German.OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-77309629182584715572015-11-13T21:35:34.577-08:002015-11-13T21:35:34.577-08:00I remember reading The Distant Mirror long ago. It...I remember reading The Distant Mirror long ago. It was illuminating to a young mind to read her history and its descriptions of coming into village after village in Europe and finding that everyone was dead of the plague. I read all of Tuchman's books and enjoyed them. She gave me an enduring enthusiasm for reading history that I nurtured on and off over the last 40 years. I got stuck into the Political History of England in 12 volumes back in 1981 and read them all which let me find another group of very good historians. I enjoyed Oman and found that The Pillars of the Earth was pretty good fiction because of the history. I stopped reading on WWII before I left the 6th grade. There was always enough of it and I took no pleasure from it. The Navy War College used to have an outstanding bibliography and provided reading for its Strategy and Policy Course. I wish I'd been able to keep all the books.HMS Defianthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10024721130102173694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-80672620574429455222015-11-13T20:45:05.911-08:002015-11-13T20:45:05.911-08:00Shirer's book was the first history I ever rea...Shirer's book was the first history I ever read outside of school. Fascinating stuff. I so wanted to get into the mind of Hitler, following that read, that I purchased a copy of Mein Kampf. I valiantly plowed through it, but it wasn't easy. Perhaps it is an easier read in the German, but the English translation was hideously repetitive and full of poorly constructed sentences, etc., which I'm fairly certain were just Hitler's bad style, but perhaps the fault of the translator; I don't know.<br /><br />(And look at me writing about bad style and poor construction after that gem!) Suldoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07778845367184916684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-52132219643928981952015-11-13T15:33:38.407-08:002015-11-13T15:33:38.407-08:00Some of us do, but you knew that.Some of us do, but you knew that.OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-5149060182305495172015-11-13T15:33:02.323-08:002015-11-13T15:33:02.323-08:00Same here Ron.
(An historian's historian is j...Same here Ron.<br /><br />(An historian's historian is just another term for a boring academic. I was fortunate to have studied under only one of those.)OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-728857776232402152015-11-13T15:23:40.716-08:002015-11-13T15:23:40.716-08:00She, Churchill and Manchester are at the top of my...She, Churchill and Manchester are at the top of my list. I believe that "The Guns of August" is very much applicable to the situation we are in today. Mrs. Tuchman's personal history is fascinating and provided her with knowledge of and access to records and people that would not be available to the average person. I keep very few books, but two of them are hers: TGOA and "Stillwell and the American Experience in China". Extraordinary books. One of her biographers had written: Tuchman was "not a historian's historian; she was a layperson's historian who made the past interesting to millions of readers." -I was one of those millions. Ron Snyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217389199007968254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-10977606299895003502015-11-13T15:23:14.778-08:002015-11-13T15:23:14.778-08:00And historians know that we do not pay attention.And historians know that we do not pay attention.Ron Snyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217389199007968254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-11467922385962284802015-11-13T12:28:20.786-08:002015-11-13T12:28:20.786-08:00Not very motivating when no one pays attention.Not very motivating when no one pays attention.OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-10471837019051104932015-11-13T10:06:27.466-08:002015-11-13T10:06:27.466-08:00Wonder if the primary motivation of historians isn...Wonder if the primary motivation of historians isn't, "Look dummies, you don't need to repeat these mistakes"?Well Seasoned Foolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16670165728759453075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-27616074774215514862015-11-13T09:24:09.061-08:002015-11-13T09:24:09.061-08:00That would have been interesting to listen in on t...That would have been interesting to listen in on that conversation.<br /><br />Some of the other stuff in the free book rack isn't so, shall we say, erudite?OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-91867673765119913192015-11-13T09:15:05.237-08:002015-11-13T09:15:05.237-08:00Two things, it would have been quite a lesson in h...Two things, it would have been quite a lesson in history just to listen to the conversation those three were having. Second, says something for your place of employment and the people with whom you work when that book is in the free library.SoCal Pir8https://www.blogger.com/profile/15601598407298523580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-53101880301189728462015-11-13T07:11:44.959-08:002015-11-13T07:11:44.959-08:00There were so many things I loved about her approa...There were so many things I loved about her approach to history. She brought it alive for me.<br /><br />Heh, the librarians couldn't hold you back forever!OldAFSargehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15935839956936191547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7684531976778247960.post-11951465254208562142015-11-13T04:59:57.281-08:002015-11-13T04:59:57.281-08:00Dang keyboard!
Great post. Tuchman was pretty goo...Dang keyboard!<br /><br />Great post. Tuchman was pretty good about keeping her politics out of her history. Perhaps an honor thing? Perhaps a good lesson for today's zinnian propagandist historians?<br /><br />I had the hardest time as a lad wrapping my mind around the idea that the world could be set on fire by the shooting of a mustachioed prince in a town and country that no one had ever heard of (I was a bit provincial at the age of nine). "The Guns of August" sorted it all quite nicely for me, though the flipping librarians fought a valiant fight to prevent a callow ute from reading above his station.PrairieAdventurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06466447251827774900noreply@blogger.com