If you could be transported back in time to any five historical events, which ones would you choose to witness?
Assume that it would be in your mind’s eye only, so you could not be involved in, change or be physically affected by the event, and you could come back to the present at any point you wished. Also assume, though, that you could take photographs (or videos) to prove that you were there and what you saw.
Mine are below the fold.
…or, an unvarnished look at the WWII German Messerschmitt 262.
Along the way, this screamingly-funny chap slaughters all sorts of sacred cows, e.g. that the Me262 could have won the war for the Nazis, that Albert Speer was a genius, that German technology was superior to that of the Allies, and that Herman Goering was an incompetent asshole.
Okay, that last one happens to be true, as historian Lord HardThrasher sets about him with a cricket bat, calling most of history’s revered sources a pack of liars and completely debunking the myth of Germany’s technocrats, e.g. Willi Messerschmitt (yeah, the guy who designed the Me109).
Along the way, he proves that Allied bombing actually worked better than today’s naysayers would have you believe, and that bad things happen when you allow the reigns of power to be wielded by simpletons and incompetents.
But you all knew that.
There is plenty of bad language, but as Readers of this here website, you should be used to that by now.
On this day, a few years ago:
Not that we’re still angry about it, or anything — or else Toyota wouldn’t still be the top-selling automotive brand in the United States.
For some reason, I’ve recently been reading French History, because why not? I don’t know how it got started, but it did: and once started, I couldn’t stop. Here’s the bibliography, so far.
The Collapse of the Third Republic — William Shirer
The Franco-Prussian War — Michael Howard
Dawn of the Belle Epoque — Mary McAuliffe
The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914 — Philipp Blom (re-read, because it’s brilliant)
The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World — Holger H. Herwig (told from the German side)
The French Army and the First World War — Elizabeth Greenhalgh
France and the Après Guerre, 1918–1924 — Benjamin F. Martin
La Belle France: A Short History — Alistair Horne (I’m still busy with this one; I’m only up to the succession of Henry II in 1547, so still a way to go.)
On deck: France On The Brink — Jonathan Fenby
Yeah, that’s what’s been keeping me busy over the past three weeks. All are well recommended except the last one (because I haven’t read it yet).
One last note: I cannot recommend The Vertigo Years highly enough. When people talk about the social- and psychological dislocation of the Information Age, you have to know that we’ve experienced it before: when the Age of Speed dawned, in around 1900. If you read no other book from the above list, this is the one.
Seen SOTI, this intriguing little question:
Note too the reference to Cuba. Then this:
Someone tell James Cameron… and speaking of getting it wrong:
Still asleep, apparently.
Finally:
Given the newspaper, I’m amazed they didn’t lead with “Connally Shot” and only then in the sub-head: “Kennedy Caught In Cross-Fire”.
Good times, good times.
I just finished reading Lynne Olson’s Citizens Of London, and all I can say is I wish I’d read it before Tony Judt’s Postwar (which I recommended earlier).
Of course, as a keen student of 20th-century European history, I’m very familiar with the WWII period — or at least, I thought I was. In fact, I’ve always been more interested in the military history thereof rather than the diplomatic side… and Citizens Of London took care of that for me, in spades.
Oh, good grief: how could I have been so ignorant? Of course I knew about Edward R. Murrow (“the voice of the Blitz”), and Averill Harriman (more so for his post-war career). But Gilbert Winant? All I knew about him was that he was successor to the horrible-in-every-way-imaginable Joe Kennedy as U.S. Ambassador to Britain, and I vaguely remember him as one-time governor of New Hampshire.
Olson’s book has set me straight on that, and if you are similarly ignorant about this period and these characters, it will do the same for you. Run, don’t walk, to your favorite bookstore or to Amazon, and buy this book because it will change your perspective on WWII completely.
I should point out in passing that in this history, Franklin D. Roosevelt does not come out well (not that this is a Bad Thing, of course), and nor does his successor Harry S Truman. And I have never read so personal and compelling a story about not just Winston Churchill, but also the entire Churchill family during this period.
It is clear that but for Murrow, Harriman and Winant — with an excellent assist from Dwight D. Eisenhower — there may well have been a completely different outcome to the events of 1939-45.
And if that doesn’t get you to read Citizens Of London, we can’t be friends.