Noteable nonfiction author talks

[caesar novus]

I thought I might post some video links of nonfiction author talks from cspan tv that seemed unexpectedly good. Anyone can cherry pick ones with promising sounding titles using the weekend schedules at http://www.booktv.org/Schedule.aspx and http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/print-schedule.php (latter only shows same day shows). But others may promise to be boring but I happened to find favorable by channel surfing, then scramble to catch up online. For example:

 

The Civil War of 1812 http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Warof1 was a little US/UK sideshow war to UK's war with Napoleon. The UK mostly thought the US should cooperate with them fighting the Hitler of the time, but instead is outraged the US fights UK when it is down. Well, sometimes it wanted to vandalize and threaten the US. But it gets stranger.

 

Many battles occurred in British Canada. Most Canadian combatants happened to be recent emigrants from US! Most combatants on both sides were Irish born! The American Irish were fighting the British with an eye to eventually liberating Ireland, and were subject to hanging as a traitor if captured. In fact any UK born American was considered returnable to the UK military. NE US leaned toward the UK partly because there had been nothing but rural minded Virginians as presidents, alienated to their trader interests...

 

Mastermind: The Many Faces of the 9/11 Architect KSM http://www.booktv.org/Program/12550/Mastermind+The+Many+Faces+of+the+911+Architect+Khalid+Shaikh+Mohammed.aspx covers the endless failed opportunities to stop KSM, who was sort of a scatterbrained but ghastly terror idea-man that even drove Bin Laden up the wall. What hooked me was the author first hinting at then pretty much spilling the beans of the aggressive interrogation techniques that the CIA used against him and 2 others. Apparently misunderstood by news reports (and wikipedia I see) yet hushed due to lawsuits, their ultimate escalation sounds bearable and was even mocked in the process by KSM.

 

Some point out the alternate interrogation under military rules gave great success in WW2 where Japanese and Nazi prisoners were coddled and spilled a lot of stuff to hidden mikes. But this approach was used anyway in most cases by CIA, yet it outlaws key modern police techniques due to dating to 1940 before they were understood. Much CIA success apparently came from subtle Pavlovian dog type stuff, like imperceptibly rewarding truth tellers with more comfortable environment (and v. versa).

Edited June 20, 2011 by caesar novus

[caesar novus]

Here is a heads up before they post the video on the page below, but some WW2 enthusiasts may want to check it out on the weekend TV broadcast times they indicate.

 

The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War http://www.booktv.org/Program/12498/The+Storm+of+War+A+New+History+of+the+Second+World+War.aspx by Andrew Roberts who seems to be taking a fresh look at the whole war and reassigning blames and credits for various developments. Not just knee-jerk revisionism that you'd expect from modern monday morning quarterbacks, but pretty thoughtful. His conclusions almost seem disturbing (you're going to upset THOSE assumptions?) but they sound somewhat persuasive after getting over initial shocks.

 

There is also an author broadcast on WW1 and other clashes this extended independence US holiday weekend. Both of the schedules near top of the first post may prove more fruitful to history buffs than last weekend due to this. These are usually about an hour long.

Edited July 1, 2011 by caesar novus

[Maladict]

The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War http://www.booktv.org/Program/12498/The+Storm+of+War+A+New+History+of+the+Second+World+War.aspx by Andrew Roberts who seems to be taking a fresh look at the whole war and reassigning blames and credits for various developments. Not just knee-jerk revisionism that you'd expect from modern monday morning quarterbacks, but pretty thoughtful. His conclusions almost seem disturbing (you're going to upset THOSE assumptions?) but they sound somewhat persuasive after getting over initial shocks.

 

I read the book about a year ago I think. It's good, but apart from one or two anecdotes I didn't really read anything new.

[caesar novus]

I read the book about a year ago I think. It's good, but apart from one or two anecdotes I didn't really read anything new.

Sorry - I guess his "new" findings date from the early 1990's which he is just consolidating (not introducing) now. I am out of date due to immersing myself in WW2 decades ago at a military library with no followup. Now I have started to follow a book called something like "the third reich at war" and almost falling out of my chair due to stuff I didn't know (but probably widely known).

 

Anyway I jumped the gun since I hadn't seen his video yet. I saw another one he did and some overenthusiastic book reviews, but this video was poor. I guess cspan book site is in a summer slow period and not so great now - but don't lose heart and be sure to check it around September!