Biography as history

[David Wilma]

I am reading Jean Edward Smith's Eisenhower in War and Peace and read
in parallel, one chapter at a time, Jim DeFelice's Omar Bradley:
General at War. There were a number of surprises (to me) about the war
in Europe and about both men as commanders. The main realization was
how varied biographers can be in their coverage of their subjects. In
particular, Smith comments about different generations of biographers
who covered Eisenhower. It would appear that while the earlier
generations might have the advantage of personally interviewing their
subjects, later generations have the advantage of additional
scholarship, e.g., Enigma, and less hero worship. (Smith cautions a
"grain of salt" with Ambrose's work)

Bradley's hadn't been covered much and his two autobiographies may
have missed or glossed over points of interest to his readers. Bradley
was always self-deprecating and Patton was better press. I think Smith
was pretty balanced in his view of Ike and points out incidents where
he spun things after the fact to make himself look better, e.g., his
role in the Bonus Army in 1932. Ike was very lucky and had important
friends. Patton called Ike "Divine Destiny." Both books give me a new
view of Patton whose image along with Bradley's, was solidified by
Hollywood.

If I read the books right, Montgomery had the answer for the final
assault on Germany (Smith) and so did Bradley (DeFelice), but both
authors acknowledge the supply situation in '44. (That is probably the
B-24 vs. B-17 question of northern Europe.)

So, what are the good bios-as-history of World War II figures? Why?
Since the victors write history do we have any good bios of Axis
figures (excepting the ilk of Reinhard Heydrich)? I enjoy reading how
men develop from junior officers into effective commanders/managers.

David Wilma

[Tronscend]

"David Wilma" <David...@comcast.net> skrev i melding
news:05455023-ce9d-4bb7...@t2g2000pbg.googlegroups.com...

>
> So, what are the good bios-as-history of World War II figures? Why?

I enjoyed the one about/by Hans von Luck, though perhaps not overly
scholarly.

Perhaps others on the forum would know about some of the titles listed here
(Can't vouch for the forum ... google does not reveal any scandals ... I see
they are quoted several hundred times
wrt wwii history on English wikipedia ... so here goes ...):

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=24648

> Since the victors write history do we have any good bios of Axis
> figures (excepting the ilk of Reinhard Heydrich)? I enjoy reading how
> men develop from junior officers into effective commanders/managers.

"Ender's War" is for you, then ...

MVH,

T

[dumbstruck]

Not biographies, but memoirs are the thing. William Shirers "Berlin Diary"
is a must for 1934 to 1940 viewpoint, published just before invasion of
Russia, but predicting all the invasions without the benefit of hindsight.
Amazing, fresh view of what was known and not known on the ground.
Of course Speer's Inside the third Reich is #1.

[Mart van de Wege]

David Wilma <David...@comcast.net> writes:

>
> So, what are the good bios-as-history of World War II figures? Why?
> Since the victors write history do we have any good bios of Axis
> figures (excepting the ilk of Reinhard Heydrich)? I enjoy reading how
> men develop from junior officers into effective commanders/managers.
>

"Die Ersten und die Letzten" by Adolf Galland is pretty good, especially
on the evolution of combat aviation.

He is also an entertaining writer when it comes to chronicling his
personal exploits as a pilot.

His general historical views and political views should be taken with a
grain of salt, as he is quite obviously trying to clean up his own
record.

And read it in German. Galland's German is rather dense, so it is heavy
going if you're not fluent, but on the other hand, it does meant that
translations are *very* dependent on the quality of the translator.

Mart

--
"We will need a longer wall when the revolution comes."
--- AJS, quoting an uncertain source.

[dumbstruck]

On Tuesday, April 10, 2012 5:19:30 AM UTC-10, Tronscend wrote:
> Perhaps others on the forum would know about some of the titles listed here
> (Can't vouch for the forum ... google does not reveal any scandals ... I see
> they are quoted several hundred times
> wrt wwii history on English wikipedia ... so here goes ...):
>
> http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=24648

Thanks. As for those German war leader autobiographies, Lukacs calls them
generally too full of excuses that Hitler was to blame for their failures. This
was in a scholarly book "The Hitler of History" where he critiques how Hitler
was depicted in histories. On the other hand, he says the German populace
during 1950's was too excusing of Hitler, claiming others had failed him.

[J]

On Apr 18, 9:10 pm, dumbstruck <dumbst...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks. As for those German war leader autobiographies, Lukacs calls them
> generally too full of excuses that Hitler was to blame for their failures.

Also, when you read biographies about German WW2 leaders, first look
at who
the author is. Check their history if you can. Sometimes these authors
are biased
in favor of someone they served under. See if the author uses primary
sources,
interviews, letters, diaries, memoirs, papers, etc. If the author uses
all secondary
sources, keep a salt shaker handy.

Cheers . . . J

[David Wilma]

One limitation of autobios and bios is that unless someone comes
along and challenges the information it becomes fact.

One example in Crusade for Europe by Eisenhower is the
air raid on Bari, Italy that resulted in the release of mustard gas.
Ike contends that the gas cloud blew out to sea. In reality it
blew inland and killed hundreds. He might be forgiven since
the incident took place far from his headquarters and he
might not have ever known the complete story.