Assorted Musings from an Unknown Historian
Bourbon, Books, and Bemusement
We as a species have *always* romanticized wartime figures, from the classic “Knight in Shining Armor” trope to putting fighter aces in movies and on postcards. Who in our lifetimes is more worthy of such treatment than President Volodomyr Zelensky, who refuses to bow to a 21st century tyrant? But wait – is it even healthy to create heroes in such times?
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy halted the seemingly unstoppable progress of Japanese expansion across the Pacific at the Battle of Midway. On the other side of the world, German and Russian forces were engaged in the titanic struggles of Stalingrad and Kursk. Both campaigns have been called turning points. Evaluate the accuracy of that statement. Was there an earlier shift in momentum on either front?”
Of all the campaigns of the Second World War, none produced the shock and utter disbelief created the German defeat of France in the early summer of 1940.
Just put it down, man. Put the thesarus down and slowly… back… away.
Leave it to Man’s Best Friend to turn a combat zone into play time.
How might the great heroes of Chekhov respond to the discovery of torture in the Gulags? Solzhenitsyn muses in a tome which requires MUCH bourbon… or a whole bottle of vodka.
Assorted Musings from an Unknown Historian 