Comments on: World War I Book Recommendations

By: Willie Maize 24

Willie Maize 24 — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 06:13:56 +0000

A few that I liked were: Dardanelles Patrol by Shankland — about a British sub that gets behind Turkish lines. The sub can't go very fast or very deep and radio communication is limited to 30 miles under good conditions, but Turkish WW1 ASW technique wasn't good enough to catch up with them. Somme Mud by E. Lynch — Australian grunt in the trenches. Ebb and Flow of Battle by P. Campbell — British artillery officer's experience on the Western Front.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 14:18:44 +0000

I haven’t trusted Penguin Classics since I picked up their version of the 1st book of “On War.” It was a poor translation (the old one in this case not being better, as it was a British officer translating a German military work at around the time of the Great War), and at least a third of the volume was devoted to a poorly informed diatribe against Clausewitz by Anatol Rapaport.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 13:03:54 +0000

So, I may be disappointed by the Penguin Classics version I just bought, featuring Michael Hofmann’s “brilliant new” translation? Sigh.

By: Etype

Etype — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 07:32:46 +0000

If you are going to read Storm of Steel, I advise you do some research on the various translations. None of the English translations fully convey the clarity of Jünger's thought. Some of the newer translations actually distort the narrative into something not intended. In many books written in a foreign language, translation is everything. Unfortunately none of the English translations of Storm of Steel capture the atmosphere of the original, so that you may be disappointed — but, as usual, the older translations are better.

By: Dan Kurt

Dan Kurt — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:34:02 +0000

Read the book Command or Control by Martin Samuels if you want to understand WWI.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 05:29:21 +0000

Courses taught on WWI are expected to take the side of the classes that shirked the war and have held power since about a generation later. Students are expected to know and believe some good sermons against the hard-faced men who did well out of the war. Students who show disloyalty to this project are at some minor career risk, and if I was teaching a course in this area I’d try to help them minimize this risk.