In his review of Heike B. Görtemaker’s biography of Eva Braun (Eva Braun: Life with Hitler, Knopf, translated by Damion Searls, reviewed in The New York Review of Books, April 26 2012, Vol LIX, Number 7), Anthony Beevor notes: Hitler’s “table-talk,” a ramble of banalities and crassly sweeping judgments on history and art, recorded asContinue reading “‘A Ramble of Banalities’: Hitler’s Table-Talk”
Category Archives: Military History
Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will: Still Scary After All These Years
I have a confession to make: I had not seen Leni Riefenstahl‘s Triumph of the Will till Friday evening. I’ve talked about it, seen clips from it, read critical essays on it, and even seen a biographical film–The Wonderful, Horrible, Life of Leni Riefenstahl–about its director, but never seen Triumph Des Willens itself. On Friday night,Continue reading “Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will: Still Scary After All These Years”
Workplace Coercion, the Military, and Resisting Superiors
Corey Robin’s post on Arizona’s new anti-birth control legislation centers on a recurring concern of his: coercion in the private sector work-place, which remains largely impervious to constitutional circumscriptions of state power. I want to use this opportunity to talk about coercion in a very particular workplace: the military. The coercion of subordinates by superiorsContinue reading “Workplace Coercion, the Military, and Resisting Superiors”
This Summer I Hear The Drumming, Sixteen Dead in Panjwai
It seems a peculiarly American destiny, hovering over the heads of this nation and its people, to keep on reading, in the morning papers, news paragraphs like the following: Any accelerated withdrawal would face stiff opposition from military commanders, who want to keep the bulk of the remaining American troops in Afghanistan until the endContinue reading “This Summer I Hear The Drumming, Sixteen Dead in Panjwai”
Why Write and All That – I: Bargains Struck
Two recent articles about writing, writers, and writing as a job–Tim Parks in the New York Review of Books blog and Seth Godin’s interview at Digital Book World–prompt me to take on the insufferably self-indulgent business of being self-referential. The issues covered in the pieces linked above should be familiar: Why write? Is writing aContinue reading “Why Write and All That – I: Bargains Struck”
Labor Relations in Low Earth Orbit: The Skylab Strike
Three weeks ago, the world celebrated the twenty-eighth anniversary of the end of the manned portion of the Skylab mission. Well, not really. Enthusiasts of manned space exploration certainly did; others had to be reminded. Students of the history of science can edify us about the scientific value of the three Skylab missions (meant toContinue reading “Labor Relations in Low Earth Orbit: The Skylab Strike”
Barbells for America? Crossfit, the Military and War
On any given day, if you were to click over to the Crossfit ‘mainsite’, the chances are you will find a reference to the military in the daily entry. Today, on February 25th, the blog prescribes a ‘Hero workout’ named ‘Zimmermann‘ named after U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant James R. Zimmerman, who died in action in Afghanistan.Continue reading “Barbells for America? Crossfit, the Military and War”
Girl, Napalm, and ?
So what did you fill in the blanks? Vietnam, I’m guessing ((Chrome’s autofill suggests “photo” and “attack” when I begin typing in “girl napalm”). And the reason for that in all likelihood is Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the subject of Nick Ut’s iconic, Pulitzer-prize-winning image of the Vietnam war. That straightforward association of “girl” andContinue reading “Girl, Napalm, and ?”
Sebastian Junger, AK-47 Bullets, and War Porn
Reporters on war’s frontlines often produce great investigative journalism (this was truer in the days before embedded reporters.) They also, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes not, produce “war porn,” writing that vividly, graphically, sometimes almost joyfully, details the carnage of war and weaponry, of organized violence, and the men who live and die by its rules. TheContinue reading “Sebastian Junger, AK-47 Bullets, and War Porn”
Nietzsche, Henry Moseley, and Conscript Armies
Years ago, as a schoolboy, I read Isaac Asimov on the evolution of the periodic table from Dmitri Mendeleev’s relative atomic mass version to Henry Moseley’s atomic number version. At the end of the essay, after describing Moseley’s contributions to devising the modern form of the periodic table of the elements, Asimov wistfully noted Moseley’sContinue reading “Nietzsche, Henry Moseley, and Conscript Armies”
Samir Chopra 