"Boys, I may lead you into hell, but I'll get you out if you do exactly as I tell you to do. I'll never send you into a battle, I'll lead you. All I ask any man to do is follow me." -Leander McNelly
You Cannot Get Away
An Accidentally United Little Lump of Something
“The question without answering which one cannot live: Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy?”
Victory in the Pacific
Description of the book (from publisher): Beginning with the Honolulu Conference, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met with his Pacific theater commanders to plan the last phase of the campaign against Japan, Twilight of the Gods brings to life the harrowing last year of World War II in the Pacific, when the U.S. Navy won... Continue Reading →
Island Fighting
Japanese bomb hits USS Enterprise (CV-6) flight deck during Battle of Eastern Solomons (August 24th, 1942)
Pacific Blitz
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt on the morning after the Pearl Harbor attack
The Rising Red Tide: Fall of Berlin
Soviet soldier raises flag over Reichstag in May 1945
La Peste
The Plague, a novel published by Albert Camus in 1947, was my first introduction to a subset of existentialist thought popularized by Camus known as absurdism. While much of the content of absurdism was covered in the earlier post on The Stranger, I did want to begin this post by familiarizing the reader with a... Continue Reading →
Arnhem / Ardennes
“A Pint of Sweat Will Save a Gallon of Blood.” -General Patton
Overlord: Normandy Campaign
Michael and David discuss Antony Beevor's book, D-Day: The Battle for Normandy after visiting The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana together. Description of book: Renowned historian Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad and The Battle of Arnhem, and the man who "single-handedly transformed the reputation of military history" (The Guardian) presents the first major... Continue Reading →
Wild Frontier: My Journey Through the 1800s in 2022
"The West is a story. It's not a place. It's a story we tell ourselves about where we've been and where we're going." - Ken Burns
Brains and Brawn 