Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Book:  Unbroken 

Author:  Laura Hillenbrand 

Grade:  B

Recommended To:  Anyone with an interest in WWII.  Especially the pacific theater. 

  I took a break from this blog, and I needed it.  I was too overwhelmed with this blog, wedding planning, and my job to actually keep up with the blog how I wanted to. 

But, I'm back. 

I have been reading a lot and Unbroken was one book that I just couldn't help blogging about.  I got this book for my birthday from my fiance's parents and it came highly recommended. 

This is the story of Louis Zamperini, an olympic track runner who joined the air force during WWII.  He worked on a B24 bomber as the user of a brand new proprietary invention that could sight targets and aim bombs directly at them.  

On one mission his plane crashed into the pacific and he survived for over 40 days and then became a POW in a Japanese camp.   This story was excellent.  I have read a lot of WWII non-fiction and this was one of the first books I've read about the pacific theater and the first book I've read about POWs. Everyone knows about the conditions in the concentration camps, but I hadn't seen any literature about the conditions in POW camps that were supposedly regulated by the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions.

This was often a very disturbing book, but also a book that left me believing in the American cause.  It was a book full of hope and resilience and I read it in about two days.  I recommend it to anyone interested in a real life hero and to anyone interested in a story that isn't often told. 

Happy Reading!! 

Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre

Book:  Agent Zigzag

Author:  Ben Macintyre

Grade:  B+ 

Recommended To:  Non-fiction fans who love a story that could be fiction.  

This book was outstanding.  If I didn't have to work so much, and if I wasn't so tired when I get home from work, then I would have finished this book a lot sooner, but alas, I have bills to pay and a job to perform. 

This book is about a British citizen, Eddie Chapman, who is a petty thief and criminal in Britain before WW2. He is finally arrested for a few of those crimes and is jailed on the Channel Islands when the Nazis invade and occupy the islands.  This is reminiscent of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society which was also about the occupation of the Channel Islands.  Anyway, Chapman uses his savvy to inform the Germans that he wants to become a spy for them.   Evidiently he does an excellent job of convincing the Nazis of his credibility because they expend enormous effort and money to train him as a spy, ship him into Britain and set up communications with Chapman there.

Things go awry for the Germans almost immediately and the book spirals into the world of Double Cross, the British plan to turn all German spies and feed false information to the Nazis.  This is an absolutely fascinating account of a real life spy who played a huge role in the War, but certainly isn't a character taught in an average history class. 

Macintyre had a big job when he took on this project because it seems that huge amounts of paperwork, including letters, reports, statements, documents survived the war.  There seemed to be very few gaps in the author's research which made this story even more compelling. 

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a incredible real life account of a spy who was able to fool the Germans, the English and come out far ahead after the war ended. 

Happy Reading!!

Vendee by Charles Tilly - Guest Review by Ben

*** Periodically I will feature guest reviews on this blog.  This is Ben's first and is an insightful and concise review of a real historical tome.***


Book: Vendée

Author: Professor Charles Tilly 

Grade:  B+ 

Recommended To:    Any European Historian Worth His or Her Salt 

Charles Tilly is the kind of historian that makes you want to quit trying to be a historian and just sit back and read history.  He constantly challenges accepted historical thoughts, but he is never revisionist (I am not a fan of revisionist historians, I'm looking at you, Goldstein).  His treatise on the Counter-Revolution of the Vendee is no exception.

Professor Tilly's Vendée is a fairly dry read by historical standards, he first examines the accepted historical rubric for the Counter-Revolution in the Vendée (CR in the V, from here on out).  He rules out the standards of French history text; the Peasants were not all that Rural! He Yells!  The Vedeans were not all that good Catholics, He shouts! and lastly, Everyone hated the Draft Laws!

If all of this is lost on you, no worries, as herein lays the problem for the reader.  The book is not incredibly user-friendly.  The reading is dry, the writing is addressed to students of French history.  To be honest though, it ought to be a little dry,  Tilly spent months pouring over the last will and testaments of many Western French nobles, as well as the tax records of the 1st Republic.  It's dry stuff, and I personally am very glad that I did not have to sit in a moldy French cellar with a glass of wine to learn about why the accepted facts of the CR in the V were wrong.  Tilly does the work for us.

When Professor Tilly does finally make his point, it's a bombshell.  He claims that geographical determinism - in this case, the market and economic forces of barley farming vs. winegrowing - is the REAL culprit of the CR in the V.  Again, dry but excellent (similar to a good Bordeaux). 


The CR in the V is an incredibly historical event, that deserves attention.  It holds key historical events, like the first targeted genocide in western culture, as well as dashing heroes and triumph and tragedy.  Charles Tilly's book is not the best way to learn about it for the first time, but it compliments historical knowledge in this area incredibly well (I think I'm out of wine lines). 


Lastly, read in concert with Fernand Braudel's A History of Civilization, to really rock your world. 

Happy Reading!