 Editor in Chief Bill   | 26 Oct 2018 8:38 p.m. PST |
You were asked – TMP link 17% – Art of War, The (Sun Tzu)
13% – On War (Clausewitz)
12% – Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Gibbon)
11% – War and Peace (Tolstoy)
8% – History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides) |
| 14Bore | 27 Oct 2018 7:56 a.m. PST |
I only ever claimed On War but lost my copy and War and Peace ( twice actually) |
| Winston Smith | 27 Oct 2018 9:41 a.m. PST |
I quote Machiavelli all the time, but I doubt I'm fully accurate. I pick up quotes on line from dudes who probably didn't read him either.
"When you shoot at a Prince, you must kill him."
Cool, huh? Is it accurate? Truly Machiavellian? Darned if I know. I only pretend to have read him.
I tried to track it down via Google once. It's like Edmund Burke. "All that is necessary for evil to triumph…."
Good luck tracking that one down too. Even Burke scholars, who actually read his books, can't track it down either. |
Oberlindes Sol LIC  | 27 Oct 2018 9:41 a.m. PST |
Wargamers lie about reading those books? Didn't they all have to read them in high school? |
 Parzival | 27 Oct 2018 11:44 a.m. PST |
The Art of War is a short book, so I will believe wargamers have read that. Whether they have understood it is an entirely different question. |
| saltflats1929 | 27 Oct 2018 1:22 p.m. PST |
Read a whole book? I don't even finish an Osprey before I dive into the centerfold color plates. |
| langobard | 27 Oct 2018 7:49 p.m. PST |
I just don't see the point in lying about reading some of these books. I have read Art of War (as pointed out above, not sure that I understood it) and War and Peace. I fell asleep trying to start On War. Never even tried to read Decline and Fall, or Thucydides, though I do enjoy Homer and Ovid. |
| Benvartok | 27 Oct 2018 11:39 p.m. PST |
I've burnt some of those,… |
| ChrisBBB2 | 28 Oct 2018 7:21 a.m. PST |
If you fell asleep reading On War, try this:
link "Interested in Clausewitz but lack the stomach (and the Sitzfleisch) for On War? Here is the antidote, one of the Prussian sage's more snackable historical works. Napoleon's 1796 Italian Campaigns has it all: flash campaign narrative, deep analysis, and snide remarks about Jomini. Murray and Pringle are erudite commentators and smooth translators. A volume for novices and expert alike."
—Robert M. Citino, author of The Wehrmacht's Last Stand: The German Campaigns of 1944–1945 |
| Winston Smith | 28 Oct 2018 11:55 a.m. PST |
As proof that I did not read Machiavelli, I googled the quote.
Closest modern equivalent is Omar on The Wire (which I have not seen), who seems to be channeling Ralph Waldo Emerson, whom I have not read.
I'm not saying it's not there.  I strongly suspect that some TMP "scholars", naming no names, haven't really read all those "damn'd thick square books", either.
Google some damn'd thick square book preserved in the Yahoo Plagiarism Project, and cut and paste the sexy paragraphs. Just Google The topic, and voila. Did Pilate really say in Luke, "Do what you want. Just leave me out of this!"
Maybe. Look it up. Maybe not those exact words…. |
| langobard | 28 Oct 2018 6:48 p.m. PST |
@ChrisBBB2,thanks for the recommendation, just ordered a copy :) |
| Memento Mori | 29 Oct 2018 1:02 p.m. PST |
All of the books mentioned were required texts in various University courses that I took. As this was 50 years plus there were no Ebooks so Mark 1 eyeball was the only device. I have read "War and Peace" several times now using different translations. A leisureable read, with no pressure or deadline, can be very enjoyable and a great break from the world. |
| Kevin in Albuquerque | 29 Oct 2018 8:42 p.m. PST |
Art of War – once all the way through. Occasional parts now and then. Looked up 'attack where the enemy isn't' when the movie "Battleship" 2012 came out On War – multiple times read through DaFotRE/Gibbon – once. Hated it. Got rid of it. War and Peace – never HotPW/Thucydides – several times. I'll bet none of my wargaming friends have read any of them. |
| Dynaman8789 | 01 Nov 2018 5:20 a.m. PST |
No need to lie, I didn't read any of them though I tried to read "War and Peace" and found it insufferably boring in the first few chapters. |
| Cloudy | 01 Nov 2018 7:53 a.m. PST |
I read all except "War and Peace" which I just couldn't make it through. I remember liking Thucydides the most and that is the only one still in my library. I had actually purchased Gibbon which was in five volumes as I recall. Pretty good for as old as it was. Would I read it again? No… |
| Howler | 02 Nov 2018 5:08 p.m. PST |
I've read The Art of War AND Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun. Will never, ever read On War |
| Nick Pasha | 02 Nov 2018 8:35 p.m. PST |
I own all 5.History teacher. |
| Handlebarbleep | 06 Nov 2018 3:35 p.m. PST |
I read War and Peace when I was 12. Not all of it, I "fast-forwarded" through the mushy stuff! Sun Tzu was on the reading lists for Sandhust and Staff College, so I made the effort. |
