25/08/2024
On War (Volumes 2 and 3)
Perhaps the most famous work on the philosophy of war, and the effective use of military force, by a European author. (Summary by Timothy Ferguson) [chương_files]
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25/08/2024
Canada’s Hundred Days: With the Canadian Corps from Amiens to Mons, Aug. 8 – Nov. 11, 1918. Part 2, Arras
This is Part Two of Four of the incredible story of the actions of the men and women of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canada’s contribution to the Great War 1914-1919, during the last 100 days of the First World War. After nearly 4 years of stalemate (trench warfare) the Allied Forces planned to break through the German Hindenburg Line and then push the enemy from their defensive positions. You will follow the CEF as they take Amiens (Part I – complete), Arras (Part II – this project), Cambrai (Part III) and then the pursuit of the German Forces from Valenciennes to Mons (Part IV) in Belgium, the same place where the war began on August 4, 1914 on November 11, 1918. (Summary by Richard Laughton.) [chương_files]
25/08/2024
No Man’s Land
This book was written by a British Army officer and decorated Western Front veteran. Soldiers could not publish books using their real names, so newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe christened McNeile, Sapper, to reflect his Royal Engineers background, under which pseudonym the book was published. McNeile also wrote the Bulldog Drummond spy/wartime adventures. No Man’s Land is made up of five parts: The Way To The Land is a preface to the rest of the book in which fictional character Clive Draycott travels in Europe prior to the outbreak of the war. Part II The Land consists of 8 stories detailing the day to day lives of soldiers in the trenches. Part III Seed Time is about a salesman turned soldier, and Part IV Harvest in which Sapper puts forward the theory that war is awful, and many suffer but those who survive it can be changed for the better. Themes of class, gender, history abound. – Summary by afinevoice with grateful thanks to M Porcius [chương_files]
25/08/2024
Canada’s Hundred Days: With the Canadian Corps from Amiens to Mons, Aug. 8 – Nov. 11, 1918. Part 1, Amiens
This is the incredible story of the actions of the men and women of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canada’s contribution to the Great War 1914-1919, during the last 100 days of the First World War. After nearly 4 years of stalemate (trench warfare) the Allied Forces planned to break through the German Hindenburg Line and then push the enemy from their defensive positions. You will follow the CEF as they take Amiens, Arras, Cambrai and then the pursuit of the German Forces from Valenciennes to Mons (in Belgium, the same place where the war began on August 4, 1914), on November 11, 1918. Summary by Richard Laughton. [chương_files]
25/08/2024
Art of War
“The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time. The Art of War is one of the oldest and most famous studies of strategy and has had a huge influence on both military planning and beyond. The Art of War has also been applied, with much success, to business and managerial strategies.” (summary from Wikipedia) [chương_files]
25/08/2024
Radio Gunner
Originally published anonymously in 1924, this intriguing work of science fiction, categorized by Bleiler under ‘imaginary wars and inventions’ (the work anticipates a ‘second world war’ and the importance of communications technology, including the coding, decoding, transmission & interception of messages). Alexander Forbes was a Harvard physiologist who contributed considerably to the fields of physiology and neuroscience in the 20th century. – Summary by E F Bleiler paraphrased [chương_files]
24/08/2024
Under Fire: The Story of a Squad
An English translation of the French World War I novel “Le Feu”, written by a French soldier and dedicated to “the memory of the comrades who fell by my side at Crony and on Hill 119.” Barbusse was invalided out of the army after 17 months in 1915, and given a clerical job, during which time he penned this work. He was greatly influenced by the Russian Revolution and joined the communist party. – Summary by Lynne Thompson [chương_files]
24/08/2024
Silent Rifleman: A Tale of the Texan Prairies
“Two, four, six, eight,” he muttered to himself at intervals. “Yes, there are eight of them.” Again he laid his ear to the ground and listened. “Yes, there are eight of them, sure enough,” he again muttered; and then, after a pause, he added: “But two of them are mules, I think; and they are coming right down hitherward.” Then he looked to his rifle lock, and cocked his piece. “Unless they turn aside when they reach the timber, they will be on me in five minutes; and if they know the forest, they will not turn, that’s certain; for here’s the only place where you can find hard bottom to ride in and out of the old Bravo, for ten miles up and down.” He paused from his soliloquy, listened again, and then a smile crept across his intelligent face. A tale from the 1800s in the Texas plains written by British author Henry William Herbert. – Summary by E.J. Wiley [chương_files]
24/08/2024
Son At The Front
This is an overlooked novel by the author of House Of Mirth, Age Of Innocence, and more. She already became the first woman to win the Pulitzer prize for literature before this novel was written. Edith Wharton is known for her combination of social observations, criticism, and compassion. This WWI novel is told from the point of view of parents, forced to live their own lives when their son is at the front. John and Julia are divorced parents. When their only son George enlists, Julia and her second husband do their best to give him a desk job. But George shocks everybody by enlisting. His mother is horrified, his father and stepfather are secretly proud. But would he return alive? – Summary by Stav Nisser [chương_files]
24/08/2024
Noble Woman The Life-Story of Edith Cavell
Edith L. Cavell (1865–1915) was a British nurse who attended to soldiers of both sides during World War I, and helped some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium, for which she was arrested, court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Attempts to mount an appeal failed, and she was summarily executed within hours of the sentence by a German firing squad. Publication of the news prompted spontaneous grief and worldwide condemnation. Many memorials were created around the world, including a statue adjacent to Trafalgar Square in London. –Adapted from Wikipedia NOTE: After recording Chapter 7, the reader became aware that the subject’s family pronounced the surname as it rhymes with “gravel”, and he therefore pronounces it CAvel in subsequent chapters. The first edition of this book was published in 1916. The final portion of Chapter 15 is from a later edition. ( Wikipedia page on Edith Cavell) [chương_files]