So Thomas, as you must know (but are probably too modest to acknowledge) this series on the Great War is fabulous. I hope that you are planning to turn it into a book. If you are, please do everything that you can to find a literary agent. I know it’s not easy. But with a real publisher, you will get a much broader audience than you will if you self-publish.
Two books that I would add to a World War I reading list are:
George Kennan’s “The Fateful Alliance: France, Russia and the Coming of the First World War.”Unlike the “Guns of August” and “The Sleepwalkers” and your Substack series, it’s micro history as opposed to macro history. Kennan provides a nuanced picture about how the interactions of leading figures of the day led to the war. See,
Another book that was absolutely reamed by the critics but I found provocative if not entirely convincing is Patrick Buchanan’s “Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost It’s Empire and the West Lost the World.”
Buchanan (no shrinking violet) is audacious enough to claim the Great Britain, (including a then young parliamentarian, Winston Churchill) was as responsible for the war as the Germans were. The book suggests that World War II was the second part of the great civil war of Europe and that all of the horrors of World War II could have been prevented if only Great Britain had been wise enough to refrain from declaring war on Germany at the start of World War I. Buchanan even hints at the possibility that the Shoah and the incipient collapse of the great powers of Europe never would have happened if Germany had been victorious in the Great War or if Britain had refrained from joining the conflict.
Buchanan’s thesis is widely viewed as blasphemous by contemporary historians, but it’s a different perspective that you might find interesting given your interest in the subject. See,
If I recollect correctly, you’ve mentioned in the series some of the incredible poetry that was stimulated by World War I. The only other war that generated as much remarkable poetry was the American Civil War. Examples of poets who wrote about the Civil War include Carl Sandburg, Stephen Crane and the incomparable Walt Whitman. (I would put Whitman up there with Dante and Shakespeare).
What I don’t remember you writing about is some of the extraordinary movies produced about the Great War. There are so many of them. Do you have any favorites?
Last night I watched Sergeant York. I never knew that the story told in the movie was almost entirely true with very little Hollywood embellishment. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.
So Thomas, as you must know (but are probably too modest to acknowledge) this series on the Great War is fabulous. I hope that you are planning to turn it into a book. If you are, please do everything that you can to find a literary agent. I know it’s not easy. But with a real publisher, you will get a much broader audience than you will if you self-publish.
Two books that I would add to a World War I reading list are:
George Kennan’s “The Fateful Alliance: France, Russia and the Coming of the First World War.”Unlike the “Guns of August” and “The Sleepwalkers” and your Substack series, it’s micro history as opposed to macro history. Kennan provides a nuanced picture about how the interactions of leading figures of the day led to the war. See,
https://www.amazon.com/fateful-alliance-France-Russia-coming/dp/0394534948
Another book that was absolutely reamed by the critics but I found provocative if not entirely convincing is Patrick Buchanan’s “Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost It’s Empire and the West Lost the World.”
Buchanan (no shrinking violet) is audacious enough to claim the Great Britain, (including a then young parliamentarian, Winston Churchill) was as responsible for the war as the Germans were. The book suggests that World War II was the second part of the great civil war of Europe and that all of the horrors of World War II could have been prevented if only Great Britain had been wise enough to refrain from declaring war on Germany at the start of World War I. Buchanan even hints at the possibility that the Shoah and the incipient collapse of the great powers of Europe never would have happened if Germany had been victorious in the Great War or if Britain had refrained from joining the conflict.
Buchanan’s thesis is widely viewed as blasphemous by contemporary historians, but it’s a different perspective that you might find interesting given your interest in the subject. See,
https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Hitler-Unnecessary-War-Britain/dp/0307405168
If I recollect correctly, you’ve mentioned in the series some of the incredible poetry that was stimulated by World War I. The only other war that generated as much remarkable poetry was the American Civil War. Examples of poets who wrote about the Civil War include Carl Sandburg, Stephen Crane and the incomparable Walt Whitman. (I would put Whitman up there with Dante and Shakespeare).
What I don’t remember you writing about is some of the extraordinary movies produced about the Great War. There are so many of them. Do you have any favorites?
Last night I watched Sergeant York. I never knew that the story told in the movie was almost entirely true with very little Hollywood embellishment. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.
Wishing you continued good luck with the series.