A thread for history buffs: Eddie Rickenbacker remembered

Maybe it was a different book. I remember reading a WWI history in the late '90s. That's why I thought it was a foreign guy who made the last charge.

 

I've read all of Shaara's work except the one on the Revolution.

As for "To the Last Man," I frankly didn't like the aviation stuff, primarily because he portrayed von Richthofen as this existential, questioning man who became a killing machine in spite of himself. This was the absolute antithesis of what von Richthofen was really like.

Having read three books on the man, he was anything but: a cold, calculating creature who didn't question anything about what he did -- except what time was his next sortie. In contrast to the training he received from Oswald Boelcke, this was a man who literally threw newbies up in a Fokker Triplane (probably the hardest plane to fly during WW I) and told them to shoot down an Englishman -- then showed little remorse when many of them didn't come back.

I did, however, like the parts on Roscoe Temple and the infantry. Much more realistic and much more enlightening.

 

Has anyone read "Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman? Older book, but supposedly one of the best on WWI.
Was supposed to read it for a college history class. Never did.
Would've only gotten 50 cents for it at the bookstore, so it's sat on my shelf for over a decade. Tried to read it last summer, got through one chapter and never got back to it. Maybe I'll try again next week. I've got a couple days off.

 

And by the way, I wasn't just talking shit to Bubbler about the Belleau Wood. It's an amazing story of the battle and the formation of the modern USMC.

I recommend this one: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Belleau-Wood-Modern-Marine/dp/1599210258/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204258792&sr=8-13">Miracle at Belleau Wood</a>, written by Alan Axelrod, who's authored a couple of other good ones, too.

 

Guns of August is a fantastic book. You want to reach into the pages, grab some of the diplomats during the lead up to the war and go "Stop it! You have no idea what you are starting!" Brilliant book.