Finished 2 books. Reviews copied and pasted from Goodreads -

When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Hyper-inflation by Adam Fergusson

>3.5/5 being harsh rounding down for Goodreads.

>Good at describing the causes and societal impact of hyperinflation during early 20s Germany. Not too heavy on the economic terminology and doesn't overload you with numbers. But the writing is a bit dry and I was sort of disappointed in that regard. Could've had more focus on the impact on normal people. Also has some stuff on Austria and Hungary. The main argument is that inflation on such a large scale damages the morals and structure of a society, leading to distrust between different groups. a loss of faith in democracy, aids extremists on the left and right, etc and basically traumatises a society. It also argues that the German hyper-inflation wasn't done deliberately to avoid paying the Versailles reparations but instead was done by a mix of incompetence and attempting to avoid unemployment (edit - plus to support the resistance to French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923). The book came out in 1975 and I haven't read that much on Weimar Germany yet so I don't know if the way it is presented here still holds up well academically.

Just finished Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric D. Weitz

>4/5 I feel like I got a lot out of it.

>Not much to say about it. Solid overview of the Weimar Republic. Mix of political, economics and cultural chapters. Well written and enjoyable to read. Personally I preferred the political chapters more, especially on the political right and the 'enemies of the republic'. The economics chapter was also good as it focused more on what the economic conditions meant for normal people instead of just a load of numbers about industrial production. The book is very good at giving a feeling of what the time period was like. My main criticism is that I found it to be a bit heavy on the architecture and the intellectuals at times, but that is more my personal taste than an objective negative. Overall a good introduction to Weimar Republic era Germany and despite it not being the cheapest book (at least on UK Amazon) I would recommend it for anyone interested in the topic, whether you've read other books on it or not.

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.

Managed to get through 2 books (reviews copied and pasted) -

The Radium Girls:The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore

>4.5/5 rounding down for Goodreads.

>Very good about women in the 1920s who got sick from painting glow in the dark watches with radium based paint. Covers their illness, the coverup by the companies involved, and the fight to get compensation. Lots of in-depth medical detail on the damage done to the women’s bodies. Overall very good.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson

>3.75/5. Not a must-read but decent if you want an accessible book about Americans in Nazi Germany.

>The book is mainly about the American ambassador William Dodd and his daughter Martha in 1933-34 Berlin. The main topics it covers are attempts to stop attacks on Americans by the SA, Dodd’s attempts to warn the USA about the danger of the Nazis while also fighting the rich pro-German clique in the state department, and the growing terror of the Nazis. Dodd’s daughter Martha starts off quite pro-Nazi but becomes very opposed over the course of the book due to witnessing the violence and oppression. The main bit of the book, 1933-1934, ends with the Night of the Long Knives and it’s aftermath (this part being the best of the book) but has about 50 pages after that for the rest of the 30s and what happened next to the main people involved. The book is good for the lives of the well-off in this period as well as the interactions between the ambassador and the various Nazis.

>The book is well written and because it is focused one on family you don’t really need to know much about the time period to read it.

I'm now about halfway through Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 by Adam Hochschild which has been fantastic so far, no complaints (his books Kings Leopold's Ghost about the Congo Free State and To End All Wars about WWI British concientious objectors are also great and worth reading)

Finished one book a few days ago Shots From The Front: The British Soldier 1914-18 by Richard Holmes

>3/5

>Covers all the main information about the tactics and life of British soldiers during the First World War combined with lots of pictures. Good mix of areas, not just the Western Front. The photos are also good quality in the hardback version I read plus there is a lot of commentary (what it shows, whether it was staged or genuine, when it was probably taken) etc and links in the text to the photos, rather than the photos just being completely random. Of the photos my favourite is probably number 47 which shows a woman from the Women's Royal Naval Service training the soldiers on how to use the gas masks. The writing was fine but for me personally I felt there was a little bit too much on regiments and uniform details, but it is a rather short book so it didn't drag too much.

>While the book was fine and I would recommend it if you can find or see a cheap copy I was also sort of disappointed with it. I've read a quite a few of Holmes' books and really enjoyed them all (in particular 'Tommy' which is a lot more in-depth about the WWI British soldiers, 'Redcoat' about the 18th and 19th century soldiers and 'Sahib' about British soldiers in India up to WWI) but this one just didn't work as well for me and I can't really say why.

I think at the the time of writing the review I just felt like I didn't have much to say about it, plus it feels like there is more to say about big picture books than books that focus on a general and his strategy.

Now that it's been a couple of days I can offer more thoughts -

When it comes to technology the author argues against the view that Haig was old-fashioned and didn't understand new technology. Instead he says the opposite, that if anything Haig was way too optimistic about how effective new weapons like gas and tanks would be.

For Haig's continued planning on a breakthrough Sheffield also defends this quite a bit. For a start it was politically difficult to do otherwise, the French wouldn't have accepted the British doing only small scale attacks and that the British public wouldn't have accepted neverending yet still costly bite and hold battles - hope of a eventual breakthrough the German lines was needed for morale. Additionally it would have been irresponsible of Haig to not have a plan if an offensive did have major success.

There is a lot of focus on the background and adminstrative stuff which led the British forces to be highly effective by the end of the war.

There is a also a lot on Haig's relationship with his subordinates. In these bits the author is quite critical of some of his Haig's commmanders like Gough and Rawlinson but also criticises Haig for not getting a strong grip on these men and making it clear what his intentions were.

Going to be quite a long comment as I managed to get through a few books (but mostly copied and pasted). All First World War.

Finished On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War by Holger Afflerbach

>4.75/5 very good about Germany's failure in World War One. Would recommend if you are interested in WWI and have an ok knowledge of it.

>Despite the book being translated into English I felt it was quite readable, not dry. The arguments suggested by the author, although I'm not sure I entirely agree with them, are well presented in a clear way. I've read quite a few books on the First World War by now and the author's takes feel fresh and new to me, I haven't really seen them in other things I've read. The bulk of the book is focussed on the decision making of the German political and military leadership - what decisions they made, why they made them, the factors that influenced the decisions made (public opinion, ideology, fear etc) and the consequences. Additionally there is also a lot on the disputes between the different factions and indivdiuals within the German political and military elite. There is a lot of information on the German peace efforts at the end of 1916 and also the role of the Reichstag compared to pretty much every other WWI book I've read.

>In terms of arguments presented the main ones are that 1 - The result of World War One was a lot closer than traditionally argued and that if Germany had made better decisions it could've been a draw (hence the focus of the book on decision making). 2 - Germany didn't set out at the beginning of WWI to have massive territorial conquests and that this goal came later as a consequence of the war rather than as a cause. so if Germany eventually had to return these territories as part of a compromise peace then it wouldn't represent a major defeat (although this would've been very hard to get the German public to agree to). 3 - Compared to other historians he takes the German requests for peace at the end of 1916 as legitimate attempts, rather than cynical propaganda for domestic audiences. 4 - The biggest mistakes Germany made was the invasion of Belgium (making it very easy for the British government to justify entry into the war) and the continuation of unrestricted submarine warfare, based on misjudging the attitudes of the Americans. 5 - The Central Powers made various 'moral mistakes' (my words) that gave the Entente motivation not to agree to a compromise peace, The Rape of Belgium, the Armenian Genocide, the harshness of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that justified to the continued fighting. 6 - That the Entente's refusal to agree to consider a compromise peace was the main reason for the continuation of the war and in the long-term was a major mistake, as the radicalisation and outcome of the war caused the future catastrophes of European history like the Nazis and the Second World War (this is one of the ones I'm iffy about, I'm not sure I agree with the view that the Entente's decision to fight to a full military victory was a mistake) . There are the main arguments but there are some shorter ones focused on military outcomes such as alternative outcomes of the Schlieffen Plan or what Germany could've done instead of the 1918 Spring Offensive.

Finished The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War by Adrian Gregory

>4.5/5 rounding down for Goodreads. If you want an academic book about the WWI British home front I'd say it is worth a go (if you want a lighter read with more personal accounts then All Quiet on the Home Front by Richard Van Emden and Steve Humphries is a good alternative)

>The writing is on the academic side but still readable, very little jargon or using dense language. The book is mainly about what motivated British people through the war as well as living standards and economics. The highlights of the book for me were the earlier chapters on beginning of the war and on atrocity propaganda. The chapter on the beginning of the war argues very persuasively IMO that the image of huge enthusiasm for the war is mostly untrue, that nobody believed that it would be a easy war "that'll be over by Christmas", that people recognised how bloody it would be and that the surge of recruitment was less from jingoism and more from unemployment, the sense of danger after the retreat from Mons and the confirmation of separation allowances so men knew their families would have some financial security. The main feeling the author suggests was a mix of sorrow and anger over the war which turned to hatred of Germany for causing it. The atrocity chapter argues that the government and the media (the Daily Mail mainly) didn't set out to deliberately make up atrocity stories and instead genuinely believed what they were reporting, and that the more bizarre stories (German corpse being used in factories for example) were started by the public as urban myths from a lack of info rather than being made up by the press.

>The other chapters focus on religion (the only chapter I didn't really like), recruitment and conscription, economics, living standards and working conditions and disputes. These chapters tend to be bit more numbers heavy with lots of percentages and some tables with info on them. The idea of sacrifice is mentioned quite a lot as well, with people on the home front being well aware of what was going on militarily and being willing to make sacrifices on behalf of the soldiers. There is some historiographical discussion and critiques of historians.

>The notes section is better than most as instead of just being a list of sources there is also a lot of extra information, debates, caveats etc.

Also managed to finish The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army by Gary D. Sheffield

>4/5 Not much to say about it. Solid, fair biography of Douglas Haig. Defends him against unfair criticism but also criticises hims when he deserved it. Overall quite positive about Haig. Worth a read if interested in the WWI British Army.

Now reading Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914-1918 by Richard Holmes. Short book with lots of photos. Decent so far.

I remember liking Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference by Frederick Cooper and Jane Burbank when I read it for university a few years ago. But it is more focused on how empires dealt with their diverse subjects rather than the decline and fall. The Amazon page for it does have the look inside feature to see if it has what you want.

Has anyone here read Weimar Germany – Promise and Tragedy by Eric Weitz and is it any good?

Read The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War by Lucy Hughes-Hallett which I mentioned in last weeks post.

>3.75/5 a good history book but very difficult to recommend.

>Chunky at 650 pages, the first half covers D'Annunzio's life pre-WWI - his works, his financial struggles (the man had a borderline mental problem with how quickly he spent money) , the numerous affairs. The second half covers his experiences in WWI, his capture and rule of Fiume, his life after he was forced out of Fiume, and his relationship with Mussolini (who saw Annuzio as an inspiration but also felt he was a potential threat he had to keep on side). The writing style is great, even the topics I'm not interested in were still entertaining to read. I very rarely skipped over stuff. The book basically covers everything anyone would want to know about Annunzio

>The reason I wouldn't recommend it is mainly due to the length. I went into the book for the political stuff, mainly around Fiume, and it took several hundred pages to get to that. But if you are interested in literary and artistic side of things then you have several hundred political and military pages to read.

Also read Weimar Germany (Short Oxford History of Germany series) edited by Anthony McElligott

>3.25/5 not bad but I wouldn't particularly recommend it.

>Basically a undergrad level textbook with each chapter by a different historian. The writing is very on the academic side and for certain topics (the urban reform and welfare chapters) quite dense. For other chapters despite having niche topics (Bauhaus and new housing, Weimar Jews) they were surprisingly readable and more interesting than I expected. Of the normal topics the politics chapter was good but focused on emergency powers and the shift towards authoritarianism in 1930-32 rather than x happened then Y happened. The foreign policy chapter was good about how the German government tried to undo the Versailles Treaty. The culture chapter was better than I expected and basically argues that the arts (theatre, cinema) of the time were a lot more conservative than the traditional image of Weimar culture suggests. I also liked the chapter on the Reichswehr about the different visions for the future of the German military and the militarisation of society. There is a economics chapter but it was complicated.

>There is a decent further reading list for each chapter but for the more niche topics (urban reform) most of the suggestions are in German.

Now reading 2 books - On a Knife Edge: How Germany Lost the First World War by Holger Afflerbach and The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army by Gary Sheffield (his Forgotten Victory - The First World War Myths and Reality is also very good) and really enjoying both but not that far into them yet

First off a request - I've recently been watching the Babylon Berlin TV series set in Berlin just before the Great Depression, and I really liked it. So does anyone have any suggestions on Weimar Germany or the Weimar republic, preferably not focusing too much on the Nazis.

Anyway managed to get 2 books finished but both were short (reviews are copied and pasted) -

Finished Confronting Leviathan: A History of Ideas by David Runciman

>3.5/5 going to be a bit harsh and round down for Goodreads. I got a hardcover new on clearance for £5 and for that I am happy with it. Maybe worth a read if you can find a reasonably priced copy but not a must read.

>The book is 260 pages long and summarises/explains the author's interpretation of 12 important thinkers and their works. The main theme the book focuses on is the idea of the state and state control. In terms of scope the book begins with Hobbes' 'Leviathan' and ends with Fukuyama's 'The End of History'. Each chapter has a brief biography of the individiual and explains the historical context they were writing in, then explains their ideas and ends with a bit on how this applies to the 21st century (mainly COVID related). Of the 12 works chosen there are two anti-colonial works (Gandhi and his 'Hind Swaraj' and Frantz Fanon's 'The Wretched of the Earth', I found Fanon more interesting) and two feminist ones (Wollstonecraft's 'Vindication of the Rights of Women' which was an interesting chapter and Catherine MacKinnon's 'Towards of a Feminist Theory of the State' which I found rather boring). The rest of the book is mainly political thinkers like Arendt, Weber, Tocqueville etc. At the end of the book there is a further reading section for each chapter which always includes a watch/listen like lectures on Youtube or podcasts as well as books.

>Personally I enjoyed the chapters on Hobbes, Wollstonecraft, Tocqueville, Marx and Weber the most.

>To me the author's interpretations seemed fine but I am very much an amateur on the subject. I haven't listened to the author's Talking Politics podcast this book was based on and apart from Marx and Engel's Communist Manifesto I haven't actually read any of the works mentioned. So I am basically assuming the author's takes are reasonable rather than knowing for certain.

A Brief History of The Birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps Blazed a Trail for Hitler by Nigel Jones. I think for ebooks it is called Hitler Heralds.

>4/5 Worth reading if interested in immediate post-WWI Germany and definitely worth reading if you are interested in the Freikorps or the German rightwing paramilitary groups after WWI as there doesn't seem to be much else in English.

>The book is short at 280 or so pages and mainly covers the period from the end of the First World War to the failure of Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The book is fairly easy to read in my opinion and doesn't feel like it needs much background knowledge. Despite the name of the book the Nazis don't really get mentioned till the last chapter (my guess is publishing gimmick as including Nazis and swastikas on the cover would boost sales). The topics that are included are the formation of the Freikorps, their use by the SPD government to fight the far left, the anti-government activities of the Freikorps (the Kapp Putsch gets a good chapter) and the nationalists and the political violence and murder campaigns once the large scale fighting had stopped. The book then ends with a relatively large (but still good) chapter on Hitler's rise to prominence in Bavaria and his attempted coup at the end of 1923. The author is sympathetic to the left (fair enough considering the subject) and does often point out the blatant bias of the authorities on behalf of the right, for example the average sentence for a leftwing political murderer was 15 years, for a rightwing murderer it was 4 months. Or that out of 354 rightwing political murders, 326 went unpunished. There are two appendices - the first is a list of all the main Freikorps, their leaders, size, dates of operation, eventual fate and any symbols. The second a biographical list of any Freikorp member who eventually became prominent within Nazi Germany or who had a major falling out with the Nazis.

>My main complaint is that the Freikorps' Baltic Campaign - offering to help the new Latvian and Estonian governments against the Bolsheivks then trying to turn these areas into German colonies, was only covered in one brief chapter. I wanted more about that topic. Additionally I felt that sometimes the more military focused bits felt like just lists of names and units.

>There is a decent further reading list but this is a book that originally came out in 1987 and was republished in 2003 so all of the books mentioned will be rather old and possibly out of date researchwise.

I'm now reading The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War by Lucy Hughes-Hallett about an Italian proto-fascist poet who captured the city of Fiume (Rijelka) and turned it into an independent city state because he was upset about the amount of territory Italy was going to get from the post-WWI peace negotiations. Personally I have mixed feelings about the book so far, it's not bad but I'm about halfway through it (300 pages or so) and it is just about his literary work (fair enough for a biography of a poet), his financial difficulties and who he was sleeping with - it hasn't even gotten to the beginning of WWI yet and rather little on politics so far.

Heard about the book on this podcast which is probably the better choice than reading the book as it gets to the key points -

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/194-the-first-fascist/id1537788786?i=1000565720363

No I haven't. The only other thing I could find is Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill by Andrew Adonis which I haven't read. The author is a Labour politician/lord with strong views about certain areas of foreign policy so isn't really writing from a position of neutrality.

Probably Statesman of Europe: A Life of Sir Edward Grey by T.G. Otte which is about the British Foreign Secretary in the years before the First World War (and up to 1916). Pretty long, something like 700 pages of main writing. It had a lot on his personal life, the inner workings of the Liberal party as well as his foriegn policy and decision making.

Runners up are The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshall, the Power Behind Five English Thrones by Thomas Asbridge and Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie (all of his biographies are very good)

Finished Cry Havoc:: The Arms Race and the Second World War 1931-41 by Joe Maiolo (review copied from Goodreads)

4>.25/5

>The book starts with the First Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union in 1928 and ends with the USA's entry into WWII. Covers a wide range of topics including economics, political divides (left vs right in the 1930s France for example), factional disputes and arguements between different military services (the Japanese army vs navy but also things the British navy and airforce competing for funding etc), the logic of the various political leaders and the reasons for their decisions etc. There is also a lot on how business leaders responded to rearmament (a mix of positivity due to the extra business with fears over the level of state intervention and control) and how democratic leaders tried to rearm without causing their countries to fall into being totalitarian states. The book is more positive about the prewar democracies than in the traditional 'appeasement' viewpoint, with a lot of focus on how they effectively rearmed. For example when the book comes to the fall of France the author blames that more on French military leadership and intelligence mistakes than any particular prewar economic or political failures of the Third Republic. There are some chapters on the USSR, Japan and the USA but the bulk of the book is about Britain, France, Germany and Italy. While the book does have lots of statistics (steel production, workforces, aircraft production etc) it doesn't feel like constant non-stop numbers. In terms of the different military areas I'd say the book priotises aviation the most, then naval and finally the land forces (artillery, tanks etc) the least.

>The book is 400 pages of (in the edition I read) rather small writing so it took me longer than I thought I would, but I still enjoyed it. I'd recommend it if you are interested in the politics and leadup to WWII but I would say you would benefit from going in with a basic knowledge of the big events and names. Not a first book on the time period. While it is a complex topic I'd say for comparison this book is a well easier read, in terms of writing and terminology, than The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze.

Now reading Confronting Leviathan: A History of Ideas by David Runciman which is basically summing up the works and ideas (mainly around the state and control) of various important thinkers starting with Hobbes then going onwards from that to more recent ones (I'm nearly halfway through the book and it is up to Marx and Engels). It's based on a podcast called Talking Politics which I've never listened to.

Started and gave up Betrayal in Berlin: George Blake, the Berlin Tunnel and the Greatest Conspiracy of the Cold War by Steve Vogel. About a British and American plot in 1950s Berlin to dig a large tunnel and tap into Soviet communication wires and how it was stopped by a communist spy/traitor. It was clearly well researched and very detailed, with a strong opening of Blake's time as a Korean prisoner of war. But it started to drag with all the biographical details of everyone involved and I just wasn't enjoying it enough to read nearly 500 pages or so. Not a bad history book but not for me.

I did start and quickly finish Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston

>4.5/5 despite the topic (corrupt businessmen) not being one I normally read I enjoyed it enough (read it in 2 days) that I am rounding up for Goodreads. Very good at describing Maxwell's rise to prominence, corruption, weirdness (bullying, gluttony, childishness etc) and eventual downfall. Quite a bit on his rivalry with Murdoch. While the topic of spying does come up from time to time it is not mentioned in any large amount of detail. It's the first book I've read about Maxwell and I thought it was great, but I have nothing to compare it to. In terms of Maxwell's death the author mostly rules out murder and puts it as sort of 50/50 accident vs suicide. The book mostly ends with Maxwell's death and the scandal of the pension theft being revealed. There is a brief aftermath for the various family and people involved, but almost nothing on Ghislaine as the book came out in 2020 before she was found guilty in 2021. The book is a bit broader in detail and scope rather than as in-depth as the author's A Very English Scandal about the 1970s Thorpe scandal.

Next up is Cry Havoc: The Arms Race and the Second World War 1931-1941 by Joe Maiolo which was suggested to me a while back on one of these weekly threads. Based on about 40 pages/2 chapters it does seem good so far. Has quite a bit on economic issues like domestic spending vs military spending and free market vs state planning (the first chapter is about the Soviets and the First Five Year Plan). Also has so far quite a bit about the internal factions and disputes over planning and spending like the Japanese civilian government vs the army vs the navy in the early 30s (the second chapter).

I've decided to try and clear out some of my spy history books as I've had some for years now.

Finished Hitler's Secret War: The Nazi Espionage Campaigns Against the Allies by Charles Whiting which was only £1 but I'm still annoyed about it.

>2/5 not worth reading due to poor sourcing. Feel like I've wasted my time. Writing style is ok I guess. The main problem is the sources, there is only a 1 page bibliography mostly of books from the 1960s and 70s (the book came out in 2000). The author relies a lot on interviews with the people involved but there is no proper notes or anything so it would be hard to verify. There is quite a few mentions of Canaris being homosexual but I can't seem to find anything about this online, which alone makes me doubt a lot of this book.

Yesterday I finished Agent Sonya: The True Story of WWII's Most Extraordinary Spy by Ben Macinytre Not a copy and paste review for once.

4.5/5 stars I really liked it and would recommend it. About a Jewish German woman who became a communist spy in the 1930s+40s and operated in China, Poland, Switzerland and the UK. Her biggest achievement was transmitting/transferring the British nuclear secrets stolen by Klaus Fuchs to the Soviets during WWII. In the end she got away with it but had to flee to East Germany where she became a children's author and survived the Cold War. The book is very well written and enjoyable to read.

This is just my opinion but the book was better than Double Cross and Agent Zigag, as good as The Spy and The Traitor but not as good as Operation Mincemeat or A Spy Among Friends all by the same author.

I've started but I think I'm going to give up on Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History by Frank Close about Klaus Fuchs. It's just a bit too in-depth for me, especially on physics and how nuclear science works.

For the immediate aftermath up to 1950ish I'd say Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II by Keith Lowe is very good.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18085006-savage-continent

Managed to get 2 finished but the second one took me longer than I thought it would The Last Emperor of Mexico: A Disaster in the New World by Edward Shawcross (both reviews copied and pasted)

>4.5/5 rounding down for goodreads (but I was close to rounding up to 5/5) . Read most of it over the course of one day.

>Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, using the oppurtunity of the American Civil War in the 1860s (so the US was distracted and couldn't intervene to enforce its Monroe Doctrine) and the excuse of Mexico's foreign debts installed Archduke Maximillian Habsburg as emperor of Mexico in order to counter the USA's expansion and growing influence. The book covers the process that led to Maximillian becoming emperor, his rule, the war with the republican former government forces and the fairly rapid decline of his empire before his execution by Mexican firing squad.

>The author argues that the plan failed for a range of reasons. In terms of Maximillian himself he had a tendancy to fuss about things like pagentry or royal tours of his lands, rather than important things like economic reform. Additionally he was a genuine liberal reformer, but could never compete with his opponents in terms of promise and policies but did alienate his conservative monarchy supporting base by trying to. But the entire scheme to make Maximillian emperor was also reliant on foreign support, mainly French and it was very expensive to them. Once the American Civil War was over the European powers didn't want to risk provoking the USA so cut off the supply of money and volunteers to Maximillian.

>The book is very enjoyable to read. No prior knowledge of Mexican history needed, I don't have any. Overall I'd recommend it.

Just finished today Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor which I recently bought and had also been suggested to me on one of the previous threads.

>4/5

>Good, straightfoward-ish (considering the complexity of the topic) mostly military history of the Russian Revolution and Civil War. Jumps straight into 1917 and the Feburary Revolution, so if you want the longer background with things like the Russo-Japanese War or the 1905 Revolution then look elsewhere as they are not mentioned much (maybe Figes' A People Betrayed or S.A Smith's Russia in Revolution). It is especially good for the on the ground accounts from all sides and from the various foreigners in Russia as part of the Allied Intervention, which makes the book great at showing the chaos of the time period. The book is also strong on the atrocities, brutality and suffering inflicted by both sides, with quite a lot of detail on that and the various methods used (degloving of hands, mass executions, putting people on slowly sinking barges etc). There is a decent amount on the mistakes and human error (early naivity, arrogance, inability to offer compromise to the distinct nationalities and peasants etc) that caused the Whites to fail. The book mostly ends with the end of the Polish-Soviet War and the fall of White Crimea, but there is a brief final chapter on the peasant revolts after that and the Kronstadt Uprising.

>While the book is well written I do feel there is something, but I can't think of what exactly, that is missing that stops the book from being great instead of just good. Maybe some more in-depth political analysis.

Wartime Britain 1939-45 by Juliet Gardiner is good for the British home front. Can't think of anything for the British military perspective.

He also had an interview podcast with The Rest is History that was pretty good

https://shows.acast.com/the-rest-is-history-podcast/episodes/163-the-last-emperor-of-mexico

Just finished A World Undone: The Story of the Great War 1914-1918 by G.J Meyer (side note - it seems to be difficult to get a cheap copy here in the UK)

>4.75/5 Very good overview of WWI. Long at 700 pages but apart from that accessible. Covers all the important political and military events. No prior knowledge needed. Has brief background chapters for things like biographies or the history of various countries prewar.

Next up and my first non-WWI related book of 2023 The Last Emperor of Mexico: A Disaster in the New World by Edward Shawcross about a Habsburg archduke who was installed as emperor of Mexico by the French in the 1860s.

I'm struggling to think of much

I liked Fracture: Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938 by Philipp Blom but that is more about the culture, mindsets/views and lifestyles of the time rather than an overview of the politics.

It's been a while since I've read it but you could try The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s by Piers Brendon . It has a little bit on the 20s and then in the 30s it covers each of the major powers with their own chapters. It's pretty long as well

Does anyone have any suggestions about the German Freikorps after WWI (but only in English)? The only one Google has found that sounds interesting is A Brief History of the Birth of the Nazis: How the Freikorps Blazed a Trail for Hitler by Nigel Jones (also called Hitler's Heralds on kindle)

Anyway finished my first two books of the year (reviews copied and pasted) -

Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915-1918 by John MacDonald, Zeljko Cimpric

>4.75/5 really good at what it sets out to do.

>Short at 187 pages plus a 2 page bibliography, all in English so good for further research. First 50 pages cover the stuff that isn't the battles, Italy's entry into the war, the terrain, the state of the armies in terms of morale and equipment then a biographical list of the main leaders on each side. Then the rest of the book covers each of the 12 battles of the Izonso, describing the main attacks, the reasons for success and failure, and what the battles actually achieved (most of the time nothing gained and at huge cost in terms of casualties). Each chapter tends to be under 10 pages but the more significant battles like the 6th battle and the 11th battle get about 15. The 12th battle, Caporetto, gets 20. 1918 and the final Italian offensives are wrote about in very broad strokes, not a lot of detail. The writing is accessible if you like military history, enough info on troop movements and locations to understand what is going on without getting bogged down with every unit. There are a lot of pictures throughout the book with mostly decent quality, but personally I wanted some more maps and for the maps to be better quality.

>I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in WWI but if you want a more indepth book (especially on the political side of things such as the Italian leadership deciding to enter the war and the cultural impact) then I'd suggest The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 by Mark Thompson alongside this book.

Just finished today The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism by Anthony Read

>Might be a little bit harsh but 3.5/5 rounding down for Goodreads.

>Narrative and chronological history of 1919. The writing style is pretty good but more focused on the narrative than analysis. A little bit of prior knowledge of the political time period might be helpful but I don't think it is needed. The book is mostly about two topics -

>1 - The post-WWI revolutions and civil wars in Europe, particularly Germany. These parts are decent imo and I personally found them to be the more enjoyable parts of the book. Despite the book being about the Western reaction to communism there isn't that much on the Russian Civil War beyond broad details to follow what was going on. The topic of the Russian Civil War is mostly just the Western leaders and politicians arguing over whether to continue the military intervention there. The political section is very focused on Europe and to a lesser extent the USA, there is a short chapter on the colonial issues (India with Amritsar and the Third Anglo-Afghan War) but it isn't that good.

>And 2 - Industrial disputes and how the fear of the Bolsheviks and Bolshevism was used by employers and governments to smear striking unions with mostly ordinary economic concerns (wages, hours, conditions etc) as being revolutionary communists intent on bringing down the government. While this theme is covered in a range of European countries I'd say the bulk of it is on the USA and the Red Scare. The author is pretty sympathetic to the unions and the workers. There is some content on the racial side of things but it is in the context of communism, the press at the time saying things like the "the blacks are being tainted by Bolshevism" or "Lenin and Trotsky are trying to lure in black support". As I'm not American and a lot of this content is about the USA I didn't enjoy this part as much.

>Overall maybe worth a read if you are interested in the post-WWI period as you can get used copies pretty cheap on Amazon nowadays. However the dual focus means that there are better books that focus on one theme or the other. If you want the post-WWI revolutions and civil wars just read The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End by Robert Gerwarth instead. I'm sure there are plenty of books on the Red Scare and the unions in 1919 America but I haven't read any of them

Next up is probably going to be A World Undone: The Story of the Great War by G.J Meyer which should take me a while

By my count 830, just over 50% unread. That includes kindle (but thats a small amount) and I count a book that contains multiple full stories, like a set of 3 Agatha Christie novels in one book, I would count that as 3 separate books.

The vast majority of it is non-fiction history. Biggest category within that being the First World War at 130ish books (including some fiction) taking up 4 and a half big shelves (probably a full 5 shelves by the end of next year). Other big categories are British history, Russian history, German history, random history where I don't have enough on a topic to justify having a seperate section, Second World War (probably my worst in terms of read vs unread, lots of cheap WWII books in British charity shops) plus some other small categeories.

Fiction wise its a mix of old fashioned murder mysteries, seperate section for Agatha Christie, historical fiction, and a small amount of fantasy and sci-fi (but a big Discworld / Terry Pratchett pile seperatly)

Last two history books of the year. They are those old fashioned massive hardbacks with loads of pictures, as I wanted a clean slate for the history books I got for Christmas. Only really mentioning them as they are my last history books of 2022 and I'm now just reading fiction till next year.

Uniforms and Decorations of World Wars I & II by John Batchelor (Illustrator), Bernard Fitzsimons (Editor)

>2.5/5. Charity shop find. Nothing wrong with it but overall just not for me. Read it very quickly as it is mostly pictures and captions.

>Rather old book, published in the 1970s. 170 pages, one of those big hardcover style books that don't seem to get made nowadays. Collection of artwork depicting the uniforms of soldiers from both the world wars. Surprisingly in-depth as it included many of the colonial troops and for WWI the various Balkan troops. For WWII it also had a section just for ties (which I skipped but it shows the level of detail). Additionally it has pictures of medals, decorations on aircraft, various insignia like all the SS division symbols plus some propaganda posters. There were some diagrams that displayed the unit organisation (division, batallion etc) in an easy to understand way and I did take photos of those so I could refer to them when reading other books. The artwork is decent but dated and the photos, while not that high in quality, are good enough to easily see.

>While it is in-depth and I do like military history, I personally am not that into learning about every single uniform or medal so I didn't get that much out of the book I'll remember but that is on me. If you are into that level of detail this book might be worth a read if you can find a very cheap copy (although there are probably newer easier to find books on the topic with higher quality images considering this book is nearly 50 years old)

Great Battles of World War 1 by Anthony Livesey

>3/5

>Writing was ok, not good but got the point across. Good quality maps and photos despite the age of the book. Decent mix of areas and battles, not just the Western Front. Some subsections with information about specific things like artillery, equipment or short biographies of the generals. But the main content is VERY focused on the operational side of things, very little on the experience of ordinary soldiers or the broader political context.

>Overall, only read on the small chance you see a cheap charity shop copy, not worth specifically seeking out

I got a lot of the ones I asked relatives for (used copies) so the ones I am most interested for -

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War 1914-1918 by G.J Meyer

The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War by Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor 1919-1922 by Michael Llewellyn Smith

Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War by Nicholas Lambert

The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism by Anthony Read

It's probably the most popular book on the subject so a good place to start would be King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/347610.King_Leopold_s_Ghost