Finished one book I started last week and really enjoyed plus two shorter books that were not as good. All reviews copied and pasted

Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 by Adam Hochschild

>4.75/5

>Not much to say about. Very well written. Half about the various Americans involved in Spanish Civil War (mainly the volunteers in the Lincoln Battalion and various journalists) and half general introduction to the war. By the topic of the book it has to be mainly focused on the pro-Republic Americans in Spain but there is also quite a bit on Texaco oil company providing huge aid to the Nationalists. (oil for the Nazi and Italian provided trucks and planes, intelligence on where the oil tankers headed for the Republic would be for submarines). Additionally there is some stuff about the British volunteers as well, mainly Orwell on the Republic's side and a guy called Peter Kemp who volunteered for the Nationalists.

>It would be a good first book on the subject I think and overall I highly recommend it.

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome by Emma Southon

>3/5

>Each chapter covers killing in a different context, political killing, killing within the family, execution etc. My favourite chapters were on 'murder in the slave state' which covered killing of slaves and by slaves and the chapter on gladiators. The information is good and there is a lot of insight into the Roman world view. The book is pretty easy to get into and doesn't need any prior knowledge of the Romans.

>The main reason I am only giving it 3/5 stars is the tone and writing style. There are a lot of jokes, modern culture references like TV shows and movies, joking about modern British politics (from a leftwing perspective) and generally just trying to be funny. Additionally there is a lot of swearing - things like "stabbing the shit out of each other", "massive fuck off monuments" and insulting various people (who probably deserve it) like describing the emperor Domitian as a dickhead. Some people might like that style of writing but personally it didn't appeal to me. The information in the book was good but it could've been a lot shorter without the comedy.

>Would I recommend it? Only if you like the sort of writing I described.

Just finished up War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret MacMillan

>3.5/5 rounding down for goodreads.

>Each chapter covers a different topic of military history such as reasons for war, the impact of war on society, how civilians are affected, attempts to regulate war (one of the better chapters imo) etc. The writing is clear and accessible but with a tendency towards stating things that are sort of obvious. There isn't any great analysis and the book hasn't really changed my views much. As an introduction to various military related topics it is fine but if you've already read a bit on the topic you're not going to get much new out of this. Considering I really liked MacMillan's 'War That Ended Peace' and 'Paris 1919' books this one is a bit disappointing.