How Do You Read 20Th-Century Military History?
The 20th century reigns as the bloodiest in history. Mankind has sought to throw off oppressors’ chains and nations have confronted aggressors’ ambitions, but as humanity has struggled toward freedom and democracy, we have left a trail of sacrifice. Read the master works of Stephen Ambrose, Samuel Eliot Morrison, Paul Fussell, John Keegan, Barbara Tuchman, Robert Leckie, John Toland and Cornelius Ryan. Read the great war correspondents such as Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin, Dickey Chapelle and Michael Herr. Read Gen. Eisenhower’s “Crusade in Europe” and other studies written by those who were at the helm of history, perhaps even those instrumental in the workings of the Third Reich, such as Albert Speer. Read Winston Churchill. Learn about the untold devastation and useless deaths brought on by Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s plan to conquer the Soviet Union. Read William L. Shirer’s “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.” Find a copy of Bernard B. Fall’s “The Street Without Joy” for a defin
