WWI and II non-fiction

[regentrude]

DS will be studying 20th century history, focusing on WWI+II.

We will be using the Great Courses lecture series WWI: The Great War (36 lectures) and WWII: A Military and social history (30 lectures).

 

I want to add reading, but not a textbook and not literature. What readable non-fiction books can you recommend?

Thanks.

[Melinda in VT]

Oooh! I know! Pick me! :seeya:

 

Operation Mincemeat. Highly readable nonfiction about an intelligence operation in WWII.

 

"In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated— Operation Mincemeat. The purpose? To deceive the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece or Sardinia, rather than Sicily, as the Nazis had assumed, and the Allies ultimately chose."

 

 

[Laura Corin]

Husband recommends Stilwell and the American Experience in China, by Barbara Tuchman.

 

I enjoyed A Life in Secrets, by Sarah Helm.

 

 

[regentrude]

Thanks, everybody.

 

Margaret, that's a huge list and I'm as clueless as when I searched amazon. Can you recommend your three favorites?

 

Also, I would love something comprehensive that covers an entire war, not a spotlight on a single person or event. Recommendations?

[Reefgazer]

I am currently reading "Hiroshima and Nagasaki" (Paul Ham), about the war in the Pacific. It is extremely detailed, well-referenced and well-documented,and draws heavily on primary source documents. It's a heavy duty book and takes a while to plow through, but it's also a page turner.

 

ETA: The book has generated some controversy because of the author's contention that the bomb was not critical to the surrender of Japan and that Japan surrendered because of the involvement of Russia at the last moment. Maybe, maybe not. But in any case, he makes some good points to consider in defense of his point.

[shawthorne44]

Thanks, everybody.

 

Margaret, that's a huge list and I'm as clueless as when I searched amazon. Can you recommend your three favorites?

 

Also, I would love something comprehensive that covers an entire war, not a spotlight on a single person or event. Recommendations?

 

I'm not Margaret, but I saw my favorites in there.  Anything by Stephen Ambrose.  

 

Bonus is that I suspect your local library has some of his on audiobook.  

[8filltheheart]

A World Undone http://www.amazon.com/A-World-Undone-G-J-Meyer-ebook/dp/B000PDZFKM

 

(I found this book while doing research for Homeschooling at the Helm.  Even though I am not teaching WWI material to anyone this year, it is on my reading list for myself.)

[Dana]

Code Talker

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Talker-Memoir-Original-Talkers/dp/0425247856/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

 

Set in America initially growing up on Reservation and being put in boarding school, then bulk of book in war in Pacific.

[Reefgazer]

I have this book also - it's excellent.  The last Codetalker died recently.

Code Talker
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Talker-Memoir-Original-Talkers/dp/0425247856/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Set in America initially growing up on Reservation and being put in boarding school, then bulk of book in war in Pacific.

 

[katilac]

I have this book also - it's excellent.  The last Codetalker died recently.

 

Another vote for Code Talker. 

[Jamee]

Thanks for the Code Talker link, I've only seen the fictional book.  I just listened to Hiroshima by John Hersey which I found very interesting.  In addition to something from the Pacific and Atlantic, I'd try to pick a book from the other side too.  Unfortunately, the only one that comes to mind is All Quiet on the Western Front. It's not that long though.  I need to copy Margret's list for future reference.  I've not read a lot of non-fiction about the wars, but Herman Wouk taught me a lot about World War II and got me researching other areas. 

[JennW in SoCal]

Any of the collected works of Ernie Pyle.  He was a journalist imbedded with the troops in North Africa and Italy, and was perhaps the best known war correspondent.  His writing is vivid, beautiful and honest, and for many in America, his was the voice of the war.

[Carol in Cal.]

The Marrin biographies of Stalin and Hitler are very good and cover both wars to a great extent.  They are, of course, primarily biographies, so they are focussed on the men not the surroundings, but there is a lot of good background material in them.  They are very readable.

 

I would put them at about a 7-9 grade level.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I really like Stephen Ambrose.  Band of Brothers covers one company from before D-Day through the end of the war.  Citizen Soldiers covers D-Day in more detail and (iirc) on through the end of the war.  Both are centered on US soldiers.  (There are good audio versions of Citizen Soldiers, including an abridged one that is relatively short.)

 

Lyn MacDonald has some outstanding books that collect oral histories of WWI veterans.  Many of the histories were collected decades ago so the interviewees were still pretty spry.

 

This object based book looks interesting, but I haven't read it yet.  http://www.amazon.com/History-First-World-War-Objects/dp/1844037444/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1439315814&sr=8-31&keywords=imperial+war+museum+first+world+war

 

If you have Netflix, there have been some really good documentaries on recently.  The Wipers Times and 14: Diaries of the Great War have been good.  The movies The Red Baron and Joyeux Noel are also well done and present either a German viewpoint or a mix of German and Allied.

 

[shawthorne44]

I just read the last post and it reminded me of something.  Some of his later books have the German side too.  His son had a close friend whose father was high up in the German military.  That connection allowed some access he hadn't gotten before.  

[Carol in Cal.]

The Marrin biographies of Stalin and Hitler are very engaging and cover both wars.  In fact, there was a lot of stuff about Hitler's WW1 experience that I was glad to learn.

 

 

[Matryoshka]

One I haven't seen mentioned that is excellent is Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti.  It's written as a YA book, but it's really well done.  We listened to the audio, which is a good format, as much of the book is interviews.  I feel like they might have had the people they interviewed on the audio, and if they didn't, it's well-done enough that I seem to remember it that way.  It shines a light on a not often talked about but I think very important part of how Hitler managed to rise to power.

[Luckymama]

One I haven't seen mentioned that is excellent is Hitler Youth: Growing up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. It's written as a YA book, but it's really well done. We listened to the audio, which is a good format, as much of the book is interviews. I feel like they might have had the people they interviewed on the audio, and if they didn't, it's well-done enough that I seem to remember it that way. It shines a light on a not often talked about but I think very important part of how Hitler managed to rise to power.

This is such a good book! We read it when dd was in seventh grade as part of US history. Very powerful and challenging to her.

[shawthorne44]

I thought of a couple of not-mainstream ideas.   

 

I remember a book I read called "Hitler's Jewish soldiers".  Based on the title, you might think it was whack-a-doodle.   But it is both scholarly and interesting.  In high school the author did a genealogy project and discovered he was Jewish on the purely matrilineal line.  This came as an interesting surprise.  So he did some more research and discovered someone that was both Jewish and a German soldier in WWII.   Then he went to Yale and needed to write the thesis they require.  He proposed "Hitler's Jewish soldiers".  His adviser didn't believe there would be enough to write about, but he agreed to the project if X number would be included.  Not only did he find many, but the people he interviewed dumped their documents on him because their families weren't interested and they were near death.   Author was also homeschooled starting early elementary after the school told his mother they wouldn't teach him to read because he was destined for a group home.  

 

Other idea would be to check ebay for someone's personal WWII documents and mementos.  I have a buddy that is into history and he picked up some interesting things.   The 'kids' aren't interested when the WWII vet dies and puts them up as a lot on ebay.  

 

[Carol in Cal.]

"Mothers in the Fatherland" is good--adult though.  It covers the German home front during WWII.