The Great War

This forum is for discussions on the noteworthy events, people, places, and circumstances of both the past and the present (note: pop culture etc... is on the back porch).
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Darrell
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The Great War

Post by Darrell »

Fascinating week by week look at World War I, this is the first episode:

https://youtu.be/6FgaL0xIazk?list=PLB2v ... w3KxuKsMvT

Makes me wonder how the result of the Franco-Prussian War echoed through time.
Eppur si muove--Galileo
Johnnyreb
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Re: The Great War

Post by Johnnyreb »

Have you ever truly wanted to understand the word Balkanised? Michael Mahoney can explain it to you. I know, he lives here in my town, a retired Postmaster who is really into the history of Eastern Europe and the Balkan States. He has published 2 books on the subject so far. They weren't just killing each other in the Balkans long before WWI, they were killing each other a lot. Everyone was killing everyone else, Muslims, Greeks, Austro-Hungarians, Turks, Serbs, you name it. Only the Jews weren't running around killing people by the village, they were just getting killed themselves.

And after the end of the 1st year of WWI, not one national leader involved was trying to call off the fighting.

The writing style is a bit different. He goes through things day by day, what was happening and where it happened. Which jumps you all over the place and really gives you a feeling that stuff was happening all over the place. Which dealing with events in orderly, regional sections doesn't really do.

The stuff about Russia, and how many rebellions and so forth were happening there is eye opening. It was a miracle the Russian Empire didn't go down a couple of decades sooner. Like the time the Czar was at a dock on a river attending a religious ceremony, a blessing of the waters, and the artillery that was supposed to fire his salute... fired it right at him. They all missed, a testimony to the quality of the Imperial Russian Army. And the Czar and his family acted like it never happened. There's another bit, in the 2nd book I think, about an Italian regiment fighting the Autro-Hungarians in the mountains. One night it got so cold the entire regiment froze to death.

He also has a biowar apocalypse novel out and his wife Kay has published two EMP end of the world novels.

Here's the links for Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Ravaged-Lands-190 ... aged+lands

http://www.amazon.com/Ravaged-Lands-191 ... aged+lands
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Kommander
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Re: The Great War

Post by Kommander »

The Great War is a really good series and I recommend that everyone with any interest in the subject watch it. They have apparently been getting a good deal of money via patron and whatnot so the episodes are becoming more frequent and detailed.
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Catbird
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Re: The Great War

Post by Catbird »

For those of you who listen to podcasts or audio books, Dan Carlin has a great 7 part series on the first world war called "Blueprint for Armageddon". (Free)
"If at first you don't succeed, that's one data point." XKCD
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JAG2955
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Re: The Great War

Post by JAG2955 »

Blueprint for Armageddon is incredible. Highly recommended. I listened to it on two days of a road trip. Absolutely riveting.
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Kommander
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Re: The Great War

Post by Kommander »

Dan Carlin is awesome too. Really Kickstarted my interest in WWI. I listened to his series while playing the early pre-drednaught and WWI era ships in World of Warships.
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scipioafricanus
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Re: The Great War

Post by scipioafricanus »

This is great on youtube. I have been binge watching it trying to catch up to 1916.
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If God wanted men to play soccer, he wouldn’t have given us arms. - Mike Ditka
Goods2010
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Re: The Great War

Post by Goods2010 »

Catbird wrote:For those of you who listen to podcasts or audio books, Dan Carlin has a great 7 part series on the first world war called "Blueprint for Armageddon". (Free)
Teacher from high school recommended this. It was amazing. Way different than anything covered in high school (Global studies 2 fifteen minutes of coverage).
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Windy Wilson
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Re: The Great War

Post by Windy Wilson »

Johnnyreb wrote:There's another bit, in the 2nd book I think, about an Italian regiment fighting the Autro-Hungarians in the mountains. One night it got so cold the entire regiment froze to death.
That was a brutal area to fight a war in. My Grandfather fought in that area. He missed the battle in which his regiment got turned into "honored dead" because ALL his teeth got abcessed from the diet or the bad hygiene, and had to be extracted.
The use of the word "but" usually indicates that everything preceding it in a sentence is a lie.
E.g.:
"I believe in Freedom of Speech, but". . .
"I support the Second Amendment, but". . .
--Randy
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