Fav Historian?

[mahross]

Just wondering who is your favourite historian of WW2? Also who do you think is the most influential WW2 historian?

Ross

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by mahross

Just wondering who is your favourite historian of WW2? Also who do you think is the most influential WW2 historian?

Ross

hard to answer because there are more subjects involved with WW2 that are covered by specialist historians.

[mahross]

Well at leastwho is your favourite and why.

Ross

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by mahross

Well at leastwho is your favourite and why.

Ross

Alfred price - electronic warfare
David Irving - Holocaust - german side
Richard browning - Holocaust - jewish side
AJP Taylor General history
FM Slim, Far Eastern
LIddel-Hart Military History
to name some

[lancesergeant]

Originally Posted by morse1001

Alfred price - electronic warfare
David Irving - Holocaust - german side
Richard browning - Holocaust - jewish side
AJP Taylor General history
FM Slim, Far Eastern
LIddel-Hart Military History
to name some

Could I ask why you have David Irving down as your favourite author as concerns the holocaust, considering the flak he has took and his well known views on it. I'm curious not critical of your choice.

[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.

[mahross]

Cheers so far guys. I am interested by the choice of Irving, especially on he subject of the Holocaust.

Ross

[Owen]

I hope morse is being ironic, mentioning Irving.
I like Ken Ford's books and Patrick Delaforce's Divisonal Histories.
Also John Terraine but that's mainly for his Great War history.

[morse1001]

Originally Posted by lancesergeant

Could I ask why you have David Irving down as your favourite author as concerns the holocaust, considering the flak he has took and his well known views on it. I'm curious not critical of your choice.

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.

[lancesergeant]

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.

You don't have to justify yourself. I wasn''t out to be critical of your choice just the reasoning behind it. Since your decision is based on Irving's depth of research and his style of writing I can see why you chose him. The initial response one would pick up is a big confused why. Like you say you like his style of writing and that you can learn from what he says. Valid choice.