Who's Your Favorite Military History Author

[Wanker]

Mine is John Toland. I grew up reading his books, and I still find myself re-reading his books today.

Here are his major war books, in order of my affection for them:

The Rising Sun -- Japan's view of WW2

But Not in Shame -- Story of WW2 from Pearl Harbor to Midway.

No Man's Land -- Chronicles 1918, the last year of WWI.

Adolf Hitler -- Amazing biography of Hitler.

The Last 100 Days -- Events of the last 100 days of WW2.

Battle: The Story of the Bulge -- Engrossing account, one of his first books.

Infamy -- Fascinating look at the investigations of Pearl Harbor

In Mortal Combat -- Interesting book on the Korean Conflict.

Some of these books are out of print, but all can be found at the library. What really turns me on about him as an author is that he gives not only the big picture, but also tells of the human struggle, through his many interviews with people who were in the battles.

[SirLoin]

Edwin P Hoyt


Kamikazes
Guadalcanal
The Militarists
Japan's War
 Yamamoto
U-Boats
Hitler's War
Carrier Wars

[Angus]

Hmm. A good question.
Christopher Shores is quite good, and quite professional.
And Len Deighton, although maybe not the most authentic one has a way of putting things up nicely, and stirring things up as well. A highly readable author. Did anyone read "Bloood tears and folly"

[Viper17]

Read the Wild Blue by Stephin Ambrose (spelling?) It is a great book.

[Curval]

Anthony Beevor for his work "Stalingrad"....the best book I have read on the subject.

I like Ambrose too, but I was mortified when I heard he admitted plagarism recently.....but, he did a great job with "D-Day" and "Band of Brothers".

[Bluefish]

My two favorites are John Keegan ("The Face of Battle", "The Mask of Command", "The Price of Admiralty", "Six Armies in Normandy" and two excellent single volume histories of the First and Second World Wars) and Alistair Horne ("How Far From Austerlitz?", "The Fall of Paris, 1870", the "Price of Glory" [about Verdun], "The Fall of France 1940", and "A Savage War of Peace" [about France and Algeria in the 1950s]).  

Horne assumes a great deal of background knowledge on the part of the reader, and also has an irritating habit of inserted untranslated phrases in French which have me wracking my dim memories of college and high school language classes.  He is also a dedicated Francophile (which makes you wonder why he only writes about the most gloomy events in French history).

[Kisters]

Martin Middlebrook by a long long shot, his research on bombing raids (both american and british) is just simply the best to be found, he also did some great work on naval convoys, WWI battles and even Falklands/Malvinas war.
Recommended.
Kisters

[Yeoman]

Gerhard L Weinburg's "A World At Arms" atm.  It's a collective history for the entire war, but a big book.., It's over 1000 pages.

[Kratzer]

Originally posted by Curval
Anthony Beevor for his work "Stalingrad"....the best book I have read on the subject.

I agree completely, Curval.  That book is just about the best history book I've ever read.

Charles MacDonald and Stephen Ambrose are also good reads.  I was disappointed about the plagiarism stuff as well, but the books are still good.

[Wanker]

Martin Middlebrook by a long long shot, his research on bombing raids (both american and british) is just simply the best to be found, he also did some great work on naval convoys, WWI battles and even Falklands/Malvinas war.
Recommended.
Kisters

Aye! I just got done reading "The First Day on the Somme" By Martin Middlebrook. Excellent book, very engrossing.

Now I'm just finishing up "The First World War" by John Keegan, yet another fantastic historical document.

If you have an interest in the Great War, I highly recommend these two books(and authors).

[Sikboy]

I have to go with Keegan. He has the best mix of ease of reading/Scholastic reputation in my opinion.

Did anyone ever read Studs Turkel's "The Good war?" I only read the first interview, but it looked like a very good read. Not what you would typically get from a WWII history book.

-Sikboy

[iwojima]

I agree with sikboy
keegan's Second World War was a great book with tons of info on WW2




         ........Wadke.....

[SirLoin]

.

[Lancer]

Reading a bio on Yamamoto.Edwin Hoyt.

[Pongo]

Probably the best military history book I have read was
Brute Force-How the allies won WW2
By John Ellis.