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Author Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading?  (Read 396407 times)
Lumine
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« Reply #675 on: February 07, 2013, 12:09:48 PM »

I decided to learn more about the Spanish Civil War, so I just read Franco by Paul Preston (good analysis on Franco's propaganda), Every inch a King: Alfonso XIII by Princess Pilar of Bavaria (obviously biased, but good), Count Ciano's Diary (a work of narcissism) and España bajo el sable, by Rodrigo Soriano (good). I guess that will give me the viewpoint of foreign diplomats, monarchists, republicans and Franco.

Interesting. I need to read Preston's biography of Franco. Probably I'd take it in lending at the public library or at the university student's. I think that the last book on the Spanish Civil War that I read was one by Antony Beevor, but I found it a bit disappointing (probably Preston is better on this subject).

I really enjoyed reading Preston's book, but apparently the one I got was not the main biography of Franco, it was more of his life in the view of his own propaganda (Franco, el Gran Manipulador was the full title of this one), so I think I'll have to search for Preston's full book on Franco. I am really surprised that so many british historians wrote books about the subject, and I'm struggling to find an objective book from a spanish historian.

Spain during the 1920' and 1930' looks more and more fascinating, and I think I will need more material on both the Republican Leadership and Sanjurjo, Mola and Queipo de Llano. Could you please recommend some books about them?
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Velasco
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« Reply #676 on: February 07, 2013, 04:50:01 PM »

It's difficult for a Spanish historian avoiding an emotional identification with the topic, as you can imagine. However, there are fine works written in this country. As for the Republican leadership, Santos-Juliá (ideologically is a centrist) is an expert in the figure of Azaña, which is indispensable to understand the period. Here's an article about one of his books: Vida y Tiempo de Manuel Azaña.

http://elpais.com/diario/2008/12/08/cultura/1228690807_850215.html

Another figure on the Republican side, a very controversial one, is Juan Negrin, the last PM who tried desperately to support the resistance until the end. Negrin has been very ill-treated by Francoist historians (normal) and also from left-wingers. In recent times there has been an attempt of researching more thoroughly in his figure. Though Ángel Viñas cannot be considered impartial (he tekes sides with the Republican and Negrín causes), he's a serious historian and his efforts have been notable. Another historian in a similar way is Julián Casanova. In the Foundation of Juan Negrín there's bibliography. In favour of this institution talks that La gran Estafa: Negrín, Prieto y el Patrimonio Español by Francisco Olaya Morales is in the list. 

http://www.fundacionjuannegrin.com/bibliografia.php?actual=2&id=11

Personally I think that Ricardo Miralles' Juan Negrín. La República en Guerra is a good book. Here's a review:
http://www.historiacontemporanea.ehu.es/s0021-con/es/contenidos/boletin_revista/00021_revista_hc27/es_revista/adjuntos/27_35.pdf

I'm not very familiar with bibliography treating specifically the figures of Sanjurjo, Mola or Queipo de Llano. There's a book written by Gabriel Cardona, a person with a military background but opposed to Franco, with an interesting title: A Golpes de Sable. Los grandes militares que han marcado la Historia de España. Also I've found a brief article about Mola by the same historian:

http://www.laaventuradelahistoria.es/2002/03/29/mola-el-general-que-pudo-mandar.html

On a footnote, Juan Vigón (minister with Franco) wrote a book called El general Mola: el conspirador.

If you are interested in battles and military questions, I found interesting the books written by Jorge Martínez-Reverte: La Batalla del Ebro, La Batalla de Madrid and La Caída de Cataluña. Martínez-Reverte has not an academic background (he's journalist) but his researches are serious and well regarded by historians, also his books on these battles are exhaustive but entertaining. As for the Battle of Madrid, he discovered some documentation that threw some light on the controversial events of Paracuellos del Jarama.
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Lumine
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« Reply #677 on: February 07, 2013, 08:41:11 PM »

It's difficult for a Spanish historian avoiding an emotional identification with the topic, as you can imagine. However, there are fine works written in this country. As for the Republican leadership, Santos-Juliá (ideologically is a centrist) is an expert in the figure of Azaña, which is indispensable to understand the period. Here's an article about one of his books: Vida y Tiempo de Manuel Azaña.

http://elpais.com/diario/2008/12/08/cultura/1228690807_850215.html

Another figure on the Republican side, a very controversial one, is Juan Negrin, the last PM who tried desperately to support the resistance until the end. Negrin has been very ill-treated by Francoist historians (normal) and also from left-wingers. In recent times there has been an attempt of researching more thoroughly in his figure. Though Ángel Viñas cannot be considered impartial (he tekes sides with the Republican and Negrín causes), he's a serious historian and his efforts have been notable. Another historian in a similar way is Julián Casanova. In the Foundation of Juan Negrín there's bibliography. In favour of this institution talks that La gran Estafa: Negrín, Prieto y el Patrimonio Español by Francisco Olaya Morales is in the list. 

http://www.fundacionjuannegrin.com/bibliografia.php?actual=2&id=11

Personally I think that Ricardo Miralles' Juan Negrín. La República en Guerra is a good book. Here's a review:
http://www.historiacontemporanea.ehu.es/s0021-con/es/contenidos/boletin_revista/00021_revista_hc27/es_revista/adjuntos/27_35.pdf

I'm not very familiar with bibliography treating specifically the figures of Sanjurjo, Mola or Queipo de Llano. There's a book written by Gabriel Cardona, a person with a military background but opposed to Franco, with an interesting title: A Golpes de Sable. Los grandes militares que han marcado la Historia de España. Also I've found a brief article about Mola by the same historian:

http://www.laaventuradelahistoria.es/2002/03/29/mola-el-general-que-pudo-mandar.html

On a footnote, Juan Vigón (minister with Franco) wrote a book called El general Mola: el conspirador.

If you are interested in battles and military questions, I found interesting the books written by Jorge Martínez-Reverte: La Batalla del Ebro, La Batalla de Madrid and La Caída de Cataluña. Martínez-Reverte has not an academic background (he's journalist) but his researches are serious and well regarded by historians, also his books on these battles are exhaustive but entertaining. As for the Battle of Madrid, he discovered some documentation that threw some light on the controversial events of Paracuellos del Jarama.

Thank you very much! I've already started to search those books, and I managed to get the full works of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera to have the view of the Falange. I think I can relate to the emotional identification of historians, since most of the works here about moments such as Allende government and Pinochet's regime are incredibly biased due to the division of the country.

Despite the fact that most of my attention goes to the monarchists, the Republican leaders seem very engaging (especially Azaña, who seems more moderate than what I suspected). The whole period is complex and full of irony and interesting characters (I was surprised at how young Azaña, Franco, Gil Robles and Calvo Sotelo were for the times), so I think I will be reading about it for a while.
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Rooney
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« Reply #678 on: February 13, 2013, 09:21:16 PM »

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles, a biography grand enough to fit the ego and importance of the Commodore. 
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #679 on: February 13, 2013, 09:38:09 PM »

Just finished The Rage against God by Peter Hitchens. A convincing argument for God's existance.
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Paul Kemp
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« Reply #680 on: February 14, 2013, 11:36:16 AM »

Just finished Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis.

I thought it was OK. Nothing left me too affected. I didn't particularly care for the way it was written and I thought at times it tried too hard to go over the top.

I think I'll be reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises next.
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20RP12
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« Reply #681 on: February 19, 2013, 05:51:22 PM »

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justfollowingtheelections
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« Reply #682 on: February 19, 2013, 06:11:32 PM »

I've been reading The World in 2050: Four forces shaping civilization's northern future by Lawrence C. Smith.  It's a rather interesting book about how climate change is changing the Arctic, the difficulties, the new opportunities, and the role indigenous populations will play in this new world.
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Nhoj
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« Reply #683 on: February 19, 2013, 06:11:39 PM »


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« Reply #684 on: March 06, 2013, 02:54:38 PM »
« Edited: March 06, 2013, 02:56:18 PM by Governor Scott »



Got it yesterday, started it today.

Also, for our Christian users here, I highly recommend the Kissing Fish book.  Even if it doesn't resonate with you entirely (I have found myself disagreeing with Wolsey at times), I consider it pretty transformative.
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Miamiu1027
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« Reply #685 on: March 06, 2013, 10:29:36 PM »

somewhat continuing on the theme, I picked up CS Lewis' Mere Christianity a few days ago.
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #686 on: March 08, 2013, 11:00:48 PM »

Colbert's "Rebcoming the Greatness we never were not" or whatever it is called is amazing. Funniest book ever.
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Blackacre
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« Reply #687 on: March 10, 2013, 05:06:59 PM »

Chris Mooney's The Republican Brain. Great book on political psychology, takes a couple stabs at both sides but explains how fallacies in science and economics is mostly on the Republican side, and why that is. More objective than the title suggests
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« Reply #688 on: March 11, 2013, 07:14:36 PM »

Started Six Days of War. I picked it up for fifty cents at the local Catholic Churches annual fair/rummage sale. My friends grandpa sold it to me, and said it was a good read.
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anvi
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« Reply #689 on: March 12, 2013, 03:00:40 PM »

Die Interkulturalitätsdebatte: Leit-und-Streitbegriffe edited by Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach et. al.  I agreed to review this collection of German and English essays for a friend last year, but, now than I'm reading it, am finding it the most mind-numbingly boring book in the history of the universe.  A phone book would make for far superior reading.
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #690 on: March 12, 2013, 03:06:41 PM »

Two days ago I finished No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight by Tom Delay

One of the biggest bunch of lies and CYA I have ever seen compiled into 180 pages.
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« Reply #691 on: March 18, 2013, 05:37:21 PM »

Having finished "Return of the King", I've moved onto another great trilogy, "The Divine Comedy" starting with "The Inferno". "The Purgatorio" is located in my room, though I haven't seen "The Paridisio" for a good number of years...
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #692 on: March 18, 2013, 07:25:08 PM »

About two days ago I finished a book called "The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History" by Jason Vuic.
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anvi
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« Reply #693 on: March 18, 2013, 07:30:58 PM »

(Re)reading Arthur Schopenhauer's 1836 essay On the Will in Nature,, as I'm teaching it over the next two weeks in a graduate seminar.
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tmthforu94
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« Reply #694 on: March 19, 2013, 12:12:18 AM »

As Strong as the Mountains: A Kurdish cultural journey by Robert L. Brenneman. Good start.
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Rooney
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« Reply #695 on: March 22, 2013, 11:48:47 PM »

Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition, 1742-2004 by Tracy Campbell. I like how it pinpoints the errors of both the vote buyer and the vote seller. It also goes into the funny corrupt history of the Gateway Arch. I advise all libertarians to read this work.
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Platypus
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« Reply #696 on: March 23, 2013, 06:29:53 AM »

Suzy Zeus Gets Organized

Very, very funny and rather touching.
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Lumine
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« Reply #697 on: March 23, 2013, 06:33:26 PM »

Red Alert by Peter Bryant. A magnificent and chilling novel, but having seen Dr. Strangelove before gives me some troubles to take the novel seriously... (I keep thinking of the insane General Jack Ripper instead of the disturbed General Quinten)
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« Reply #698 on: March 23, 2013, 06:48:09 PM »

Finished "The Inferno". Hoping to get through at least "The Purgatorio" before Easter, given the holiday around which the entire Comedy happens...
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JerryArkansas
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« Reply #699 on: March 23, 2013, 06:49:30 PM »

The Fountainhead
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