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Remembered Today:

Most Boring/disliked WW1 Book


PBI

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First visit to this thread. Phew! (work it out - if you don't know, I'm not telling you.)

Bernard

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Laffin and Clark would just be a bad joke except that's all a fair amount of people know.

The greatest failing with Laffin is that he did not record the exchanges betwee Prime Minister Hughes and President Wilson.

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Mosier's book "The Myth of the Great War" is a must for any GW buff. Its critism and clean up with many myths is not liked by everybody. But it belongs in every GW library due to its different and diverse point of views. I can say: I won't miss it! For some pals its extremely painful to accept some corrections on their beloved myths....(it would be too simple to quote the Marne drama; he does not say it was a German win win; in another, related thread I quoted some eye opening passages from the excellent book )

Would have to agree entirely.

By the virulent opposition to each mention of Mosier, one can appreciate the clear evaluation attempted by his knockers

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Would have to agree entirely.

By the virulent opposition to each mention of Mosier, one can appreciate the clear evaluation attempted by his knockers

We've had this out many times before. Try doing a search. Most of us are just summarising past positions - me and egbert alike. Perhaps as a fresh face, fresh voice, you would like to share with us why YOU like it, other than agreeing with egbert.

However, if you really want a piece by piece demolition, I'd be happy to oblige. We'll take it elsewhere.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

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Duckman,

How about cutting Banool a bit of slack? Do you remember the first time you posted? I can remember mine, and I still feel a sense of trepidation in case I ask the wrong question or say the wrong thing. I think that rather than ridiculing newcomers we should be actively encouraging them. Now here's a game of irony for you: 236 postings in three years, and don't tell me it's about quality not quantity, I've read some of your threads.

WELCOME TO THE FORUM BANOOL AND DON'T LET SNIED OR CURT COMMENTS PUT YOU OFF :lol:

Regards,

Dave

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I would hate to think that an ungracious or Sarcastic comment would put Off any New Members from contributing to Further Topics or creating their own New Post,or indeed leaving the Forum.My comment is not aimed at anyParticular Forum members,but it might serve us all well to remember that we were all Beginners on the Forum once. :D

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For my pleasure, I just opened a random page of "The Myths of the Great War" and it says for the Cambrai campaign on page 237ff :

By September 1916, the British had 49 tanks ready to go into action. Only 32 actually made it to the start line on the British side, and only 9 made it across to the German lines and accomplished anything."Thats indeed not a myth thats the truth <_<

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For my pleasure, I just opened a random page of "The Myths of the Great War" and it says for the Cambrai campaign on page 237ff :

By September 1916, the British had 49 tanks ready to go into action. Only 32 actually made it to the start line on the British side, and only 9 made it across to the German lines and accomplished anything."Thats indeed not a myth thats the truth <_<

Luckily they had a few more tanks in time for the Cambrai campaign of November 1917.

Jon B)

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For my pleasure, I just opened a random page of "The Myths of the Great War" and it says for the Cambrai campaign on page 237ff :

By September 1916, the British had 49 tanks ready to go into action. Only 32 actually made it to the start line on the British side, and only 9 made it across to the German lines and accomplished anything."Thats indeed not a myth thats the truth <_<

But was the Book Boring/or did you dislike it ?

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For my pleasure, I just opened a random page of "The Myths of the Great War" and it says for the Cambrai campaign on page 237ff :

By September 1916, the British had 49 tanks ready to go into action. Only 32 actually made it to the start line on the British side, and only 9 made it across to the German lines and accomplished anything."Thats indeed not a myth thats the truth <_<

Even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then; and for WW1 knowledge Mosier is as blind a hog as ever lived.

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Duckman,

How about cutting Banool a bit of slack? Do you remember the first time you posted? I can remember mine, and I still feel a sense of trepidation in case I ask the wrong question or say the wrong thing. I think that rather than ridiculing newcomers we should be actively encouraging them. Now here's a game of irony for you: 236 postings in three years, and don't tell me it's about quality not quantity, I've read some of your threads.

WELCOME TO THE FORUM BANOOL AND DON'T LET SNIED OR CURT COMMENTS PUT YOU OFF :lol:

Regards,

Dave

Dave--I'm still terrified!! LOL.

But have to agree with you.

regards,

Ivan.

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Do you remember the first time you posted? I can remember mine, and I still feel a sense of trepidation in case I ask the wrong question or say the wrong thing.

Yes, indeed I do, and felt the same. I don't feel fear that my questions will be regarded as stupid any more, but I do expect that if I make a flippant remark, it might attract flak. And while I had a chip at banool, I also encouraged a further contribution...

Now tell me, was your second post a sarcastic throwaway designed to do no more than irritate people?

To be honest, I thought "troll"...

Now here's a game of irony for you: 236 postings in three years, and don't tell me it's about quality not quantity, I've read some of your threads.

Dave, you have the advantage of me. I'm afraid I don't recall any of yours off-hand.

I'm not sure what the irony is*, but I'm sorry you have not been impressed. I'm rather proud of some of my posts here - not the ones you've been reading, I hope, or I'm in real trouble, but in the main I claim neither quantity nor quality, only that I have a care-factor. I could spin a long post of no significance as to my intermittant posting patterns and the joys of trying to read every thread here but I'm not sure what it would prove. And it would have no place in a thread about disliked books. Perhaps you could PM me...?

Meantime, I'm back to re-reading Mosier with a view to starting the aforementioned thread in a week or so, which I hope will be civilised, and of interest to "both sides". I hope Banool takes part, and gives us a little more to work with...

Frank

*Unless it is this: 236 in 3 years is not much, but given that each one is about 10 times as long as it should be due to verbosity and repetition so it works out like a "normal" career.... <_<

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Back on topic - Liddell Harts History of the First World War. Not so much disliked as dissatisfying.

I was struck by coverage that it gave to events and theatres usually ignored. I was further struck by the authors willingness to drop those threads at will. He covers the Eastern Front really well for 1914 and then falls away. His coverage of maritime events ebbs and flows. Industry, peace overtures, Americas role all seem to drop in and drop out at...well, not quite random, but close to.

It reads like it was cut down from a much larger work, and quite poorly edited.

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Hello Frank,

It's interesting that Banool never returned after you criticised his input, which to be honest, I found deeply offensive and embarrassing. I have no problem with provocative remarks that are designed to further debate, but on this instance your remarks were counterproductive and in need of redressing. Your tone was also aggressive, and nowhere in Banool's two or three posts did I find him claiming to be an expert on any member of the forum, or wading straight in to demolish any of the views which were put forward. He was simply putting his point across, and your response was both unneccessary and demeaning. That was my point. He should have been made to feel welcome. I look forward to reading some of your furure posts--objectively :D

Regards,

Dave

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  • 2 months later...
WELCOME TO THE FORUM BANOOL AND DON'T LET SNIED OR CURT COMMENTS PUT YOU OFF :lol:

Regards,

Dave

Dave.

Thanks for that.

I was not too upset by Duckman's challenge, but was reluctant to pursue it at that time. I still peruse the forum with interest.

Gra

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The Missing of the Somme by Geoff Dyer

The Old Contemptibles by Robin Neillands

Two book which I had great hopes for, but ultimately let me down a bit( a lot really).

Oh, and I've always found the Pity of War by Niall Ferguson hard going......

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I am of the opinion that no factual book is an entire waste of time. There is always something in there which you didn't know or a point of view which you had not heard expressed before. The one book I have read which is the exception to this rule is " The Marne and After", Major A. Corbett-Smith. The crudest of propaganda with no factual content that could not have been gleaned from the daily papers. I read it from cover to cover, awestruck by its sublime disregard for evenhandedness. I suppose that even this book is not entirely useless, it can always be pointed to as a horrible example.

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Any fiction by Pat Barker, Ben Elton or Sebastian Faulks- I just can't stand it.

Faulks tells an incredibly vivid and moving story of the Battle of the Somme and Messines Ridge at Ypres in the following year. During his time in the trenches, we learn of Wraysford's mental attitude to the war and the guarded comradeship he feels for his friend Captain Michael Weir and the rest of his men. His story is paralleled with that of Jack Firebrace, a former miner, employed in the British trenches to listen for the enemy and plant mines under the German trenches. The novel ends with Wraysford and Firebrace being trapped underground as the war ends and being rescued by Levi, a Jewish German soldier. no.gif

First of all, Mosier worst by far & away...

But on the Faulks side, its a fictional book. (Birdsong) & as much as Ill read Great War Books by historians, my favorite being 'VIMY" by Pierre Burton, I found Birdsong an outstanding book for a great read, but not as a historical piece. Its a book about Wraysfords life over the period before to actually in the Great War. there are few books I have read thats scenes are so effectively written I find them disturbing to read, the picture is painted that well. One could have put the story in the Seond World war or another war as well & gotten the story through the same. Its a book that probably is something good for the layman who knows little of the horrors of WW1. A number of women are dedicated readers of his books & were educated on things about the Great War they would have normally not been exposed to. YES, its fiction, not a piece of WW1 history, merely a story set in WW1.

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The Anthology of Armageddon by Greenhill Books.......quite frankly the most dreary, soul destroying, nauseatingly boring thing I have ever read. Still it'll do until I get some proper toilet paper.........

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my worst is not a First War book but one of a series of novels about a family, the author had got to the Boer War and mentioned that our hero had been awarded the Military Cross, this irritated me so much i couldn't continue and never read another of his books.

Mick

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Regarding BIRDSONG,how much did the German Soldat feature ?,Faulkes seems to have added him into the Book as a Convienient Hero,which reflects todays Trends.

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Just for you, PBI, :lol:

Pat Barker's 'Regeneration' formed part of the subplot in last night's 'Kavanagh Q.C.' on TV. An officer [padre] who witnessed atrocities in Bosnia suddenly goes mute and then finds his voice. That's about the gist of Barker's book, if I'm not mistaken. ;)

Cheers,

Dave

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Dave.

Thanks for that.

I was not too upset by Duckman's challenge, but was reluctant to pursue it at that time. I still peruse the forum with interest.

Gra

Gra, I have only just glanced again at this thread and am DELIGHTED that you didn't let this provocative and down right rude posting put you off!

Keep on visiting and please above all, try and contribute, however un-important YOU may think your comments may be, they will be

considered important by the vast majority of pals I assure you! (you may have gathered that by the remarks he received from other members!)

You've made my day!

cheers Pal.

Ivan

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Regarding BIRDSONG,how much did the German Soldat feature ?,Faulkes seems to have added him into the Book as a Convienient Hero,which reflects todays Trends.

Your right, he was factored in literally right at the end. In fact he didnt treally need to be there.. lol!

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