Fav Historian?

[lancesergeant]

Originally Posted by Von Poop

Lord Alanbrooke.
(learnt the most from, are diarists historians? or something else??.)

Max Hastings.
(most 'readable' general histories.)

Jentz, Doyle, Spielberger, Gander, Hogg, Chamberlain, Ellis, Zaloga, Forty.
(Technical)

Most influential...errr.... AJP TAYLOR & whoever commisioned The World at War (The series).

And many more... It's damnedly hard to pick 'favourites' isn't it.

VP would you reckon that while Churchill was the powerhouse and the figurehead, that Alanbrooke was the stabilising influence in as much as his advice and strategic skills.

[Hagen]

Hard to say, I have read so many excellent books over the years. However there are certain authors (historians) that come to mind such as Cornelius Ryan, John Toland, Max Hastings, Paul Carell has some interesting books, James Lucas, Antony Beevor and alot of soldiers who have written the story of their war.

[von Poop]

Originally Posted by lancesergeant

VP would you reckon that while Churchill was the powerhouse and the figurehead, that Alanbrooke was the stabilising influence in as much as his advice and strategic skills.

Absolutely!

By the end of Alanbrooke's diaries (In which he seems to have very little axe to grind) I felt genuinely amazed at the endurance of the man. As if the massively stressful business of the highest levels of strategy, for so long, in the largest war ever, wasn't enough he also propped up and to a great extent tolerated the highly emotional and exhausting private world of Churchill.
A true British second war hero, yet most people would see his statue alongside Slim & Monty by the houses of parliament and think "Who he?".


And Morse, I know exactly what you mean (I think) with regards to Irving. Any book, especially well written ones, can be interesting regardless of the author and sometimes especially because of some bias. As long as the reader keeps an awareness of where the Author's coming from then why not read anything and everything? How else can we really know about other opinions than our own? I can read Von Manstein's, Guderian's, Hoess's and even Hitler's books (though 'well written' may have little to do with them) and know full well what I'm dealing with. Same could be said for Monty's and Bradley's Histories, incredibly biased but that never stops them from being a genuine part of the bigger picture..

[Herroberst]

Basil Liddell Hart, Albert Speer, Richard Law, Peter Senich, Paul Carell, John Keegan, Kenneth Macksey, James Lucas, Hans von Luck, Frido von Senger und Etterlin, James Lucas, Ian Hogg, Ralph Peters, Mathew Cooper, George Forty, Robin Lumsden, and Len Deighton.

Na Fragen?

[Owen]

Originally Posted by morse1001

You ask why Irving, and in reply to another poster, I am not being ironic, I do like Irving not because of his views on the Holocaust but his style of writing and the fact that it is packed with evidnce which is readily accessible to the normal reader. The depth of his research is amazing.

it is worth pointing out that I studied under prof Richard Evans who was the expert witness called against Irving.

You can read his stuff with an open mind and still learn something from it.

Dare I say, I have written to him in prison and pointed out that i disagreed with most of his conclusions.

This posting may sound defensive but I stand by my comments.

OK morse I admit I've never read an Irving book. Mainly as his Holocaust Denials have put me right of him. Therefore my arguement I have against him has a huge great hole in it.
Having looked at his website at the amount of research and the sources he used in his Rommel book http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Rommel/ I will give it a go. A controversial character for certain of his views which is a shame if he really has something worthwhile to contribute that then gets ignored.
I know you say you disagree with most of his conclusions but it was a shock at first to see someone admitting publicly they rate him as as historian. I'd never seen a pro-Irving point of view before.

[spidge]

What about Churchill's biographer Martin Gilbert.

Does anyone like his work?

[spidge]

As long as you are able to distinguish the "forest from the trees" you can always appreciate another writing style.

Whether or not you agree with Irvings writings, and anyone else for that matter, the choice is available.

As a well read adult you have the ability to discard, however you have to read it first to make a judgement. This allows you to make up your own mind, not have it dictated to by someone else's opinion of the same book.

[smc]

Originally Posted by Owen D

OK morse I admit I've never read an Irving book. Mainly as his Holocaust Denials have put me right of him. Therefore my arguement I have against him has a huge great hole in it.
Having looked at his website at the amount of research and the sources he used in his Rommel book http://www.fpp.co.uk/books/Rommel/ I will give it a go. A controversial character for certain of his views which is a shame if he really has something worthwhile to contribute that then gets ignored.
I know you say you disagree with most of his conclusions but it was a shock at first to see someone admitting publicly they rate him as as historian. I'd never seen a pro-Irving point of view before.

Historians in effect do two things, use sources and intepret them. I'll back Morse up on this one, Irving is excellent at finding and using sources, unfortunately it is his interpretation that has given him his reputation. For an alternative view he is always worth reading.

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by spidge

What about Churchill's biographer Martin Gilbert.

Does anyone like his work?

I have several of his books dealing with the holocaust, which are very interesting

[Gotthard Heinrici]

As a student of History you can NEVER afford to completely discard any work even if you disagree with it. Although I've nver read Irving's work I would be interested to read it to see what all the furore was about and also to keep an open mind.

Some of my favourites are: Anthony Beevor, David Glantz, Max Hastings, Field Marshal Slim, Heinz Guderian, and Von Mellenthin