What are you reading this week (09/30/2007)?

Having been mostly reading fiction and general history of late, I've started Russia's First Civil War.

Looks interesting but I hate the misuse of terms. Russia in the 1600s is a classic dynastic struggle. The War of the Roses is no civil war either nor is the Jacobite Rebellion. How can there be a civil war if there are no citizens (cives) of relevance? Using the term civil war only obscures the issues. These were battles among noblemen (and clerics). The merchant colonies in Russia's cities as the only proto-citizens were populated mostly by foreigners (Germans and Scots).

One of Russia's problem always was and still is its lack of a distinct burgeouisie that could keep the aristocrats/plutocrats in check. I heartily recommend Geoffrey Hosking's social history Russia : people and empire, 1552-1917.

I'm at the end of Woodworth's smart study Six armies in Tennessee. A pleasure to read. The inclusion of the Tullahoma and Chickamauga campaigns in one work is an excellent choice. The only drawbacks are his laziness in citing mostly secondary sources and the puzzling absence of battle maps for both Chickamauga and Chattanooga. Without external maps, a reader is lost in the complicated battle of Chickamauga, which defeats the book's purpose of being an introductory work.

Sorry, touchstones don't seem to be working.

Started Drama on the Rappahannock: the Fredericksburg campaign. It's been aging for over 20 years in my stacks and I thought it time to finally read it.

Still working on Crucible of War by Fred Anderson. It's turning out to be a very interesting book. Not a page turner, but thought provoking and refreshing in it's approach towards this period of history.

I just started The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.

#2: The answer would be that while the Tsarist Russia 1.0 didn't have citizens, it did have regions and estates. I gather that Dunning sees this as basically being a regional fight. A review will be posted.

Rereading Charles Esdaile's The Peninsular War: A New History, excellent.

Have started Why The Allies Won and am 1/4 through Stalingrad (audiobook).

I never cease to be amazed at the absolute stupidity and brutality of Stalinst Russia. I'd say the great calamity of history would be the October Revolution.

Why Allies Won's a good one.

Finished Stephen O'Shea's Back to the Front - which mixes travel book with history of the First World War on the Western Front with modern commentary. A great read and I'm afraid he may have set me off on a WWI reading jag now (fortunately it in part fits in with what I'm trying to do otherwise) but the planning for the extended trip to Belgium and France may be harder to explain, justify, and pay for.

Robert A. Mosher

Geoffrey Wawro The Franco-Prussian War

Ammianus -

Just finished Wawro this afternoon, an interesting read. I was particularly interested to note the differences between his treatment of events and Michael Howard's accounts.

Now I'm trying to decide what to read next - maybe Bruce Gudmundsson's Stormtroop Tactics

Robert A. Mosher

I put aside "The Prize" because 1805 Austerlitz by Robert Goetz arrived. I'll finish that one first.

B&K: Let me recommend that you look into Scott Bowden's Napoleon and Austerlitz: An Unprecedentedly Detailed Combat Study ...excellent treatment.

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll get it on the "wish list".

Starting in on Frank Kitson's Low-Intensity Operations today.

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson.

Just finished Wartime (WWII) by Paul Fussell, excellent study of wartime attitudes, propaganda, etc. Now reading Liberators: Latin America's Struggle for Independence. (Will have to switch back to Civil War in prep for stay at Antietam in min-NOV!)