Entertainment For Lively Minds
D Day
Posted by N2Peach on 30 July 2010 - 12:28pm.
Has any one else read D Day by Anthony Beavor? I first came across the historian on a spanish holiday when I worked (and the accent is on work)through his history of the Spanish Civil War. It was a small book but the print was microscopic. It was exceptionally detailed but dry. A history book for historians. His next block buster Stalingrad was a different tome. Longer but easier to read. That is if a description of unbelievable suffering is easy to read. It did however have a grip. The latest Beavor masterwork D Day is the finest. Many layers of light and shade descibe the insanity of war.
I don't know how he will improve on this.
- More from N2Peach.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Make sure you also look at his
Berlin: The Downfall. Another masterwork
I am
almost finished with it aqnd it is jaw-droppingly good.Most military histories tend to get bogged down in details and specifications of hardware but this is wonderfully written and really brings to the fore the suffering endured by all concerned. War is hell.
Another vote for Berlin
I've read Stalingrad, Berlin and D-Day. And I thought Berlin the best of the three.
Berlin
Berlin is my favourite Beevor book.Another one to look out for is 'Paris- after the liberation', it's co-written with Artemis Cooper and is a fantastic read.
There are a number of good authors out there
writing books on history that don't get bogged down by the detail. I have enjoyed reading books recently by Mark Urban, Saul David and Ben McIntyre - all of them wanting to tell the story. Currently reading an Andrew Marr, and surprised to find post-war economics more engaging than expected.
D Day is a great book
It reads like a novel and the section on the liberation of Paris moved me more than anything I've read all year.
Thankfully its the first book of his I've read so have a stack next to my bed to plough through.
I didn't think much of it.
The little bits about D-Day that I know about in detail, Beevor gets very wrong so I do wonder about the rest of the book. There were lots of other clumsy errors. It still fails to get properly "on the ground" although it does, for once, ask proper questions about Monty and his conduct.
If you want to read a really, really good book about Normandy and beyond, read George C. Blackburn's "The Guns Of War".
Stalingrad
Not read the others, but I commend Stalingrad. When the besieged Russians launch their counter-attack it suddenly rocks like a thriller. The very best kind of page-turner.
Sitting here on the 'inbound' stack.
This tome has recently arrived from the rainforest, and is going with me to Ireland on holiday. If the rain depresses me, the suffering in Normandy will surely put things into perspective.