Category: World War I
-
Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War (1991) by Robert K. Massie
Robert K. Massie’s “Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War” (1991) is a monumental achievement in narrative history, weaving together biography, diplomacy, military innovation, and geopolitical rivalry into a compelling and deeply human account of the path to World War I. It stands as one of my all-time favorite books. At its…
-
The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command (1996) by G. A. H. Gordon
On the eve of the decisive showdown with Napoleonic France, Admiral Horatio Nelson was offered the opportunity to select any officer from the Navy List to serve in his fleet. Nelson’s confident, if not arrogant response was “Choose yourself, the same spirit actuates the whole profession.” The end result was Trafalgar, one of the most…
-
Guerrilla Leader: T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt (2011) by James Schneider
The author, James Schneider, is a professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. In the Preface and Acknowledgements in the advanced proof of “Guerrilla Leader” he hints that he sees T.E. Lawrence as an exemplar of the type of military officer the U.S. Army needs to cultivate in order to be successful…
-
Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea (2003) by Robert K. Massie
Robert Massie is a genius. He writes long, but beautifully, crafting narratives that are compulsively readable while creating characters with the skill of a novelist. His scholarship is intensely detailed – the Battle of Jutland alone takes up 130 pages of text – but fluid and engaging. “Castles of Steel” is the sequel to his…
-
Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East (2013) by Scott Anderson
The story of T.E. Lawrence and the Sykes-Picot agreement has been told many times before. Nowhere perhaps better than David Fromkin’s award-winning “A Peace to End All Peace.” Scott Anderson tackles the topic from an interesting angle. He tells the story in narrative form following four inter-related characters: T.E. Lawrence; the Jewish spy-leader, Aaron Aaronsohn;…
-
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (2015) by Erik Larson
The sinking of the Cunard luxury liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915 is perhaps the most dramatic waypoint on America’s three-year long political and diplomatic journey before formal military intervention in the First World War. Bestselling author Erik Larson adds much texture and new detail to this familiar story in “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing…
What's Tim Reading Now? 