WAR BOOK CLUB MINUTES: November 6th, 2018 meeting

Books discussed:

*1918: Winning the War, Losing the War:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/2475360

*The Battle of Arnhem: the deadliest airborne operation of World War II/Antony Beevor:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/2538601

Canadian Vehicles in Korea/Don Dingwall:

https://servicepub.com/product/canadian-vehicles-in-korea

*The Cold War’s Killing Fields: rethinking the long peace/Paul Thomas Chamberlin:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/2520900

Czechoslovakia between Stalin and Hitler: the diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 1930s/Igor Lukes:

https://www.amazon.com/Czechoslovakia-between-Stalin-Hitler-Diplomacy/dp/0195102673/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1542864578&sr=1-3&keywords=igor+lukes

*Death Ride of the Panzers: German armor and the retreat in the west, 1944-45/Dennis Oliver:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/2472737

Extraordinary Heroes: the amazing stories of the George and Victoria Cross recipients/Ruth Shepphard and the Imperial War Museum:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks-intl-ship&field-keywords=extraordinary+heroes+ruth&rh=i%3Astripbooks-intl-ship%2Ck%3Aextraordinary+heroes+ruth

*On Desperate Ground: the Marines at the reservoir, the Korean War’s greatest battle/Hampton Sides:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/2543789

*Presidents of War/Michael R. Beschloss:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/2543773

*Verdun/Jules Romains:

https://www.reginalibrary.ca/search/723713

Next meeting: Tuesday, December 4th at 7 pm; topic: War Memoirs.

Hope you can join us.

On the Slaughter Bench of History

On this eve of the centenary of the Great War, an essay by Algis Valiunas, published in the Claremont Review of Books in 2014:

https://www.claremont.org/crb/article/on-the-slaughter-bench-of-history/ 

Books cited in the article:

1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War, by Charles Emmerson

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, by Christopher Clark

The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War, by Peter Hart

The First World War: The War to End All Wars, by Geoffrey Jukes, Peter Simkins, and Michael Hickey

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, by Margaret MacMillan

July 1914: Countdown to War, by Sean McMeekin

The Guns of August; The Proud Tower, by Barbara W. Tuchman

The Great War and Modern Memory, by Paul Fussell


Never forget.

The Politics of Starship Troopers

At the September meeting, wsj reported on Robert A. Heinlein's "Starship Troopers," a World War Two novel set in outer space. wsj had watched the 1997 movie whilst vacationing in Edinburgh and was moved to read the novel in the Scottish National Library. It features some degree of Canadian content, as Johnny Rico and his mates do basic training at Camp "Arthur Currie" near the Rockies and spend part of a leave in Vancouver.

But is the society Heinlein describes "Fascist?" For those interested in this particular question, I refer you to the following video by Sargon of Akkad: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpYvV0O7uI&t=3556s

Warning: Geek alert!