Reddit mentions: The best american civil war biographies

Reading: Just finished Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. AMAZING memoir. I love memoirs, and even though I didn't grow up in such bad circumstances as he did, I could identify a lot with his experience of going from being poor/on food stamps to making the American dream. I basically read the whole thing while on a flight recently.

Also just finished [Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01863JROC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1). She's a Christian author but this book was more of a memoir/reflection about slowing down in life from being so crazy busy rather than an inane self-help Christian-ese book.

Next book on tap is Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer, one of my favorite authors.

Cooking: Dragon Noodles was on the menu this week and it was delicious. Also Cheeseburger Pasta. Both by Budget Bytes, one of my favorite cooking chicks. Her recipes never fail and they're cheap AND delicious. I'll be making a batch of this sausage, bean, and kale soup but substituting spinach for kale.

Other: A former student of mine is paying me to edit her dissertation, so that's been taking up any extra time I have (ha!) between getting back from a cruise and packing up my house.

When I was at ASU, my boss told me how he was a super cocky guy, but then again most ASU jocks were. I also went to school with James Harden. That guy could ball! I just wish he hadn't left after sophomore year to OKC.

Check out Where Men Win Glory. It's a good book Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman https://www.amazon.com/dp/030738604X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_uPC3AbBCFP55Z

AdventurerSmithy, I understand your point and I agree with you in some aspects capitalism sucks. Obviuoslly you have to pay for all in a capitalist society, but will pay anyway even in a socialist country working in a state factory and you still poor while the rulling class lives with all priviledges. I know what is working for a/or less than minimum wage just like you and I know your pain. There are poors in Canada like Brazil, but being poor here is different being poor in your country or USA.

You mention the .1% but we have to consider the following: how could they get there? They just earn money because invented a product that anyone wants to pay or had some little help from state? Why I'm saying that? That's because a company cannot eliminate from market their competitor. The great companies hates the capitalism because they can be thrown out of the market by more efficient companies, remember Microsoft loosing its monopoly and Apple loosing market to low cost android smartphones of several brands and IBM. So, the some giant companies, mainly financial companies, create links with polititians to control the market because they need the state's power to do that, you cannot concentrate the wealthy without a central control and no companie can do that in genuine capitalist market where the competition can win from you, turning the capitalist system in a corporativism system. They need the state control to control the markets, destroying in long term the economy.

And, in socialist countries like Russia, China, Vietnam what measures those governments took to decrease the poverty? Adopting capitalism, and the worst kind of capitalism that has no respect to worker's rights, like China does. The capitalist system fits up well in any power framework, even in a socialist country because socialism and capitalism are not in the same category. Capitalism is a economic phenomena, the best system to distribuit wealty. Period. Socialism is a power framework that can live above a capitalist system like China or a corportative system like our contries, pretending to be a democracy.

You think that socialism is a solution for the injustices but I think different because whenever a socialist party get the power happens the same thing: mass murdering and porverty just like Venezuela nowadays and just like the past century socialist states. Why should I support, so? I cannot believe in a system that when implemented always ends up with the same results (poverty and mass murdering) and the excuses (that was not true socialism or the fascist screw up the system). The history shown that to us. I suggest you reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Socialism-Guides/dp/1596986492

In my opinion, I believe that in economics the capitalist system works well, just look at the most free economic countries and notice that wealthy it is more distribuited than in socialist countries. In politics, I believe in democracy and equality in law, and I don't have any problem if the state gets some some money from my pockets to help the poor people, but I strongly against when the state get your money to build a power system to control everyone economically and politically. That is exactly happening in Latin America socialism, and there a few bankers making profit with our disgrace. I know you disagree, but I respect your freedom of thought.

Sorry I can't remember exactly which one, but I'm pretty sure it was one of these:
http://smile.amazon.com/Seal-Team-Six-incredible-operations-ebook/dp/B004OA63JE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397330250&sr=8-1&keywords=seal+team+6

http://smile.amazon.com/Warrior-Soul-Memoir-Navy-SEAL-ebook/dp/B000FC0XZK/ref=pd_sim_kstore_10?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DMA7D0QB52DR9XKD9P3

http://smile.amazon.com/The-Finishing-School-Earning-Trident-ebook/dp/B001RLTFDO/ref=pd_sim_kstore_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DMA7D0QB52DR9XKD9P3

http://smile.amazon.com/Inside-SEAL-Team-Six-Missions-ebook/dp/B005HFNK28/ref=pd_sim_kstore_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DMA7D0QB52DR9XKD9P3

EDIT: Or this one. http://smile.amazon.com/The-Red-Circle-Americas-Deadliest-ebook/dp/B0071NMCKA/ref=pd_sim_kstore_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=01PHG2R9GTTNCCKK7Y60

By the way, all of these are excellent books (in my opinion), if you're interested in this kind of stuff they make a great read.

You're going to ruffle some feathers and your going to run into bigger fish that will put you in your place as well. But people forgive charisma and boldness all the time, so it will balance itself out. Look at Pat Tillman. Gentle, down to earth alpha and amongst his special forces team I'm sure he was just one of the guys. Of course you can be 100af and still be respectable. Maybe try reading No More Mr. Nice Guy. Or read up a bit more on Tillman. Jon Krakauer has a good book on him; It's called Where Men Win Glory.

Bruce Catton's Civil War, a great history of the greatest event in American history. Beautifully written, full of fascinating detail.

If you have not read Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer I highly recommend you do. It's an extremely good account of exactly what happened, and why men like Pat were over there in the first place.

It's one of the best books describing the whole war over there I've ever read.

I've got three books that would be pretty good. If you only read one, I would suggest the last one that I've listed. It focuses on US history after WWII. Not gonna lie, but most people in the US don't seem to care about much from events earlier than, oh, Desert Storm. This will give you a good idea of what has lead up to things more recent.

First is "That's Not in My American History Book" http://www.amazon.com/Thats-Not-American-History-Book/dp/158979107X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406744669&sr=8-1&keywords=thats+not+in+my+history+book

Second is "Lies my Teachers Told Me"
http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0743296281/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406744669&sr=8-2&keywords=thats+not+in+my+history+book

Lastly: American Dreams: The United States Since 1945
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143119559/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Bonus books:
American Revolution:
http://www.amazon.com/The-American-Revolution-History-Chronicles/dp/0812970411/ref=pd_sim_b_14?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QADK50FADAGE3XG7JGE
Civil War:
http://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Curiosities-Oddities-Coincidences/dp/155853315X/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406745439&sr=1-6&keywords=US+Civil+War+books


Edit: This is a monster looking book, but it is visual as well. (Okay it is a monster book) but it touches on nearly everything. I've used it as a reference multiple times during college and Kurin is fairly spot on with his assessments.

http://www.amazon.com/Smithsonians-History-America-101-Objects/dp/1594205299/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406745533&sr=1-1&keywords=a+smithsonian+book+of+history

The same author also has a similar book on The Great Depression and the New Deal, feel free to take a crack at it. The author is also a creationist (pardon me, he actually "challenges the Darwinian paradigm" by promoting "intelligent design") who supports some of the craziest conspiracy theories about the UN.

Bonus: This book in the "Customers also bought this" section. Here's an enlarged cover and the books contents.

So here it is folks: Woodrow Wilson lead a Socialist coup on the US, Obama is a communist, healthcare reform is literally the Great Leap Forward all over again, it's just a matter of time before the US has Stalinist gulags around, "Socialism" has destroyed Sweden and Karl Marx has voted for Obama from beyond the grave!

I need a drink.

I just finished a book about him that is really good. It makes it worse knowing how amazing of a person he really was.

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman https://www.amazon.com/dp/030738604X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FhxYzbGF69HAP

One of my favorite books, love John Krakauer.

Where Men Win Glory

Check out Where Men Win Glory if you haven't yet.

Jon Krakauer is a very popular author and does his typically thorough research into the story.

Gives some great insight into his personal drives and motives, the portions describing his days on the football field will really take you back if you remember watching him.

For those who haven't read Where Men Win Glory, you should consider reading it. Pat Tilman was a damn interesting and inspiring man. Additionally, the writer, Jon Krakauer does a great job of presenting the history and context of Afghanistan.

Came here to post this. Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great way for the layman to become scientifically literate, and it's entertaining. I like all of Krakauer's works, but would particularly recommend Where Men Win Glory for a perspective on the war in Afghanistan as well as a portrait of Pat Tillman, a complicated man.

If you want to dig really really deep into Grant, read Dr. John Marzalek.

He is the top Grant scholar well, ever. He is why the Grant presidential library is at Mississippi State.

https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Memoirs-Ulysses-Grant-Annotated-ebook/dp/B0765265QV

http://www.johnfmarszalek.com/

While you are free to voice your pleasure or displeasure with the choice, just a reminder that this sub is not a place for political discussion. Thanks.

Edit: Gonna plug his biography in case anyone wants to learn more. It's amazing.

If you can find it, The Golden Book of the Civil War is an amazing work that I still consult even though it was written for children and I've owned it for around 45 years. One of the items it includes is a fantastic bar graph that illustrates the vast differences in various types of assets between the North and South.

I don't think it matters. Read anything you find interesting or entertaining. The last two books I finished were this and this - neither of them particularly dense but both of them made me just a little bit more educated and you can't beat that. I'm also drudging through ASOIAF (is that right?) book 4. :)

Fiction:
The Terror by Dan Simmons

Non-Fiction:
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer

If you haven't read the book "Where Men Win Glory" by John Krakauer, you really really should.

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory-Odyssey/dp/030738604X

Have you ever read anything about Pat Tillman?

It might change your perspective about what being a hero means. That man was a hero.

Here's a book about Pat Tillman, a man of integrity who led an exceptional, albeit short life: Where Men Win Glory by John Krakauer

link to Amazon page

I'm sure most of y'all know already, but if you don't...Howard Wasdin's book is pretty solid. All about his experience in Somalia.

Bruce Catton's works introduced me to the ACW. His writing isn't always very thorough from an academic perspective (fewer citations, etc) but his florid prose is a great way to get hooked into the broader Homeric narrative of the conflict and how it plays on the American consciousness. He wrote a few general histories, including the classic 1960 American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (if you want to go the pictorial route). But the best thing of his, to my recollection, is the beautifully-written Army of the Potomac trilogy (Mr. Lincoln's Army, Glory Road, and A Stillness at Appomattox), which you can now get in a single volume (https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Cattons-Lincolns-Stillness-Appomattox/dp/0517447711). Its focus, however, is on the Union's Army of the Potomac, so you only see the war through one side and theater (the Eastern campaigns).

Would you be interested in American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, Under the Banner of Heaven, or Where Men Win Glory?

They are. His first sentence was that secession isn't reactionary, when in fact the secessions of 1860-1861 were reactionaries.

The great irony is of course, is that in trying to defend their way of life and their institutions, they destroyed them. While I don't buy all of those arguments I think many of them ring true. http://www.amazon.com/The-Confederacy-as-Revolutionary-Experience/dp/0872497801/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381347304&sr=8-1&keywords=the+confederacy+as+a+revolutionary+experience

EDIT: I will also say is full of crap when he says that the conservative planters were not fans of secession, considering they planned it all. Just a quick look shows that all major Confederate officials were slaveholders along with all those who were "fire eaters", the men who planned secession. I would love to see this mans sources because they are some pretty wild claims.

Interesting the quote is denounced because it was assumed the letter was a fraud without providing any evidence. It references a book but searching through the publication for key words yields not a single hit in regards to this. The question to ask is what would John Nicolay have to gain by creating this supposed "fraudulent work" of Lincoln in 1860? I can't say for sure but I have learned over the past few years not to trust Snopes any more.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

>by 1860, there were more millionaires (slaveholders all) living in the lower Mississippi Valley than anywhere else in the United States. In the same year, the nearly 4 million American slaves were worth some $3.5 billion, making them the largest single financial asset in the entire U.S. economy, worth more than all manufacturing and railroads combined.

-Source

I think my favorite thing is that almost every time I see a le fuk u amerikkka circlejerk, it's done via an American platform or website.

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It's definitely real: https://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Socialism-Guides/dp/1596986492

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniatures_game

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6213970-the-ascent-of-george-washington

http://www.amazon.com/War-As-I-Knew-It/dp/0395735297/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=1QZEA8YP04DW3WJEW5RY

The bashing on officers is just what I do and yes the whole thing with Hannibal is speculation on my part.

Read Jon Krakauer's book. Apparently the movie "The Tillman Story" is good as well, but I havn't seen it.

One. The Drama of a Gifted Child by Alice Miller

Two. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Three. The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone De Beauvoir

Four. The Plague by Albert Camus

Five. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown

Six. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Seven. The Atheist Muslim by Ali Rizvi

Eight. A World of Three Zeros by Muhammad Yunus

edit: numbers didn’t show

A slight correction to your post is that Pat Tillman was an Army Ranger, not a Marine (Krakauer, 2009; Wikipedia, 2011). But indeed, he was certainly atheistic.

This really depends on what aspects of the Civil War you are looking to learn about. If you're just looking for a general overview of the entire war it's hard to go wrong with James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. If you're looking for a shorter read I would recommend Bruce Catton's single volume history called The Civil War. These are common recommendations, but for good reason.

If you're interested in specific battles or topics, let me know and I may be able to recommend something.

Jon Krakaur wrote a book, as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory-Odyssey/dp/0385522266

You should read this book

The book in the first photo.

Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism
[https://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Socialism-Guides-Paperback/dp/1596986492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486239980&sr=8-1&keywords=Politically+incorrect+guide+socialism]

Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay And The Secret Prisons

Where Men Win Glory is a great but heartbreaking book about Pat's life.

As an introduction that is both serious and readable, I don't believe even McPherson beats Catton.

The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (Two Volumes) Hardcover – 1960 - not only the history - but full of full color depictions of the major battles.

Chickamauga - these pictures should captivate and enlighten any young history buff.

Seriously, read this book.

So did Pat Tillman, initially, when he joined the army at age 25. There were a bunch of crazy 18-year old yahoos hooting and hollering after lights out. (Source: this book, highly recommended.)

NEVER FORGET - the way he was used by the military for propaganda, how they burned his uniform and journal, how they lied about and covered up his death by friendly fire.

https://www.amazon.com/Where-Men-Win-Glory-Odyssey/dp/030738604X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgU6SwuZJIY

Big ups to his brother for calling out the bullshit at his funeral.

I agree with your concerns for the future of the moderate left, especially when I see the likes of Sanders and Corbyn. But, honestly, the party’s are responding to the incentives given to them. The last generation of liberal politicians was the most moderate produced by either political system in a generation. And what did they have to show for it? Torn apart by both sides as out-of-touch elite technocrats, with the attack from the right feeling even more vicious for the party’s moderation.

A couple of decades of that also makes it pretty hard to muster the energy to say, “no, no, we should take the other side’s concerns seriously.”

Take Kevin Williamson. I honestly just don’t have much concern left for defending the author of this. Jonah Goldberg is another good example. I follow him on Twitter and like his dogs, but every time he says something about civility in discourse, this cover flashes through my head.

My grandparents emigrated from the bloodlands of Europe of world war 2. I was raised to be well aware of the horrors of totalitarianism from either side of the spectrum. Telling me that because I think government has a role in the solution to societal problems puts me on the slippery spectrum to Stalin and Hitler is both intellectually lazy and deeply personally infuriating. It’s better articulated and researched, but it strikes the same chord with me as old school John Birch Society crap. It’s exactly why the one point I reacted against in the first place was claiming that no one links liberalism and communism.

So what motivation do I have to come to the defense of thinkers who apparently are willing to lump my political preferences in the same camp as the 20th century’s worst monsters? Again, I understand that nothing I’m saying is particularly fair or constructive, and you could point to plenty of authors on the left guilty of similar rhetoric. But I also don’t see a groundswell of discussion insisting that those authors get a voice on Fox News or the National Review. I’m tired of being in the only camp (moderate liberals) apparently expected to take everyone’s views and preferences into account.