Chris

Superb an Annual Listen

Revisado: 12-26-24

Brian’s podcast has been a part of my own Christmas traditions for the better part of a decade now and this book is a wonderful compilation of some new material and some of his best prior material (hoping for a volume 2 soon!). The narration is excellent, the history good but entertaining and concise - it’s perfect for breaking up over a couple weeks. Thank you Brian!

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Beautifully Executed Audiobook

Revisado: 07-03-21

This is perhaps the best executed audiobook I’ve ever enjoyed. The problem is that the underlying narrative simply doesn’t bear up well under factual scrutiny. At it’s root the Gladwell who is a brilliant storyteller has, wittingly or not, been drawn into the half truths and factual twilight that even in 2021 dominate discussion of the strategic potential of air warfare. As it was at its inception, strategic bombing (particularly in its “precision”
Variety - LeMay incidentally was also an adherent of strategic bombing just in its more brutal form which is undesirable for reasons more easily observed) is a piece of very effective argument in favor of a specific branch over its sister services. It’s a beguiling argument and an effective one in both the halls of Capitol Hill and in popular media, the tragic flaw is that it is and remains a fundamentally unproven concept which is devilish difficult if not impossible to accomplish. Claims at the tail end of the book by the departing COS USAF of dropping any munition within 20 meters of an American servicemember aren’t just fabrication, they’re fantasy. Mr. Gladwell may officially count himself yet another victim of the bomber mafia.

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Worthwhile, but not Chernow’s Best

Revisado: 04-23-18

Grant is a vitally important figure in American history, in understanding “American-ness” such as that exists, in appreciating the importance of each and every person no matter how humble their origins - and in grasping the flow and meaning of the American Civil War.

So read (or listen to) the book. But this is far from Chernows best work for three critical reasons:

1.) it’s narrative pacing and structure is jerky - especially in Grants presidency where events and themes get jumbled with uneven treatment obscuring clarity.

2.) it’s shamelessly biased. Grant was a great man in any age, Chernow works too hard to make him greater - a point that I think Grant himself would have quibbled with at least in the image we want to have of him. The author does not deal well with grants political ambitions, his adroit political style in the war. Nor does he deal with his failings. This emerges most prominently in Chernows repeated revisionist efforts to counter what he views as the negative view of grants generalship generated by the Lost Cause movement. Grant was a brilliant strategist, but he was not particularly skilled as an operational leader - he wasn’t just bested by Lee on the field like many great commanders he lost a lions share of his operational contests frequently at lopsided losses. That’s okay. Chernow attempts to elide this by frequently attacking both Lees generalship and character - neither of which are a credit to the books thoughtfulness or thoroughness. It is enough to say that Grant won because he was strategically brilliant - he was - and in many ways original - he was.

Worth the read, but I’ll look for something a bit better.

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Buy This Book in Hardcopy!

Revisado: 01-03-18

It’s beautifully illustrated, it’s well put together and it is organized to be a visual and tactile experience - the audiobook, though wonderfully performed by the talented Mr. Molina, just isn’t enough.

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Invaluable and Timely

Revisado: 11-07-17

McMeekin’s excoriating assessment of the Russian revolution’s actors both hapless (the Liberals and Social Revolutionary “SR” Party) and malignant actors the Bolshevik Leninists (to include the demonstrably treasons Lenin himself) is as valuable as it is timely. The epilogue alone is worth the price of admission. In our restive political times, the failures and the outcomes of the Russian Revolution as examined in this fine book deserve our attention and of course our capitalist dollars!

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