David,
I did indeed buy a copy of Weinberg’s book in the past, but since that time I
discovered that too much hard-copy reading gives me eye-strain & so I buy a
Kindle copy as well whenever one is available and read that. I still like
having a hard copy in order to use indices and more easily find references. So
I’m a long way from being paperless.
I see from the Kindle copy that Weinberg wrote a preface to a reprint ten-years
after his 1994 original; so if you ordered a new copy you will have that as
well. If you ordered a used copy without the 2004 preface, not to worry. He
made only minor corrections that people found in his original. He corrected
them but there is no errata for the original edition.
My Russian friend thought that most historians of WWII writing in English
neglect the Eastern Front but Weinberg apparently gives it adequate coverage.
Weinberg describes his intention to do that in his introduction.
Weinberg also says he is not going to dwell upon the blood and guts of
individual battles. He says there are plenty of other books that do that.
Those “other books” are apparently the ones I read in regard to the Eastern
Front.
Weinberg was born January 1, 1928; so he is 92 and probably more ambulatory
than I am. I read that he was in the Army (his parents fled Germany & ended up
in the U.S. so Weinberg is a U.S. citizen) in Japan during the 1946-1947
occupation. I don’t have a good sense of this occupation. I was sent to Japan
by means of the General Gordon troop ship in I think March of 1953 & from there
flown to Korea in a DC-3. At one point during the 13 months I was in Korea, I
went with a group on R&R to Itami Air-Base in Japan, and from there to a town
off the beaten R&R path. So my friend and I were rubbing shoulders with a
great number of Japanese a very short time after their surrender – at least it
seems like a short time from my present vantage point, but at the time we gave
that war no thought. We had a new war to think about and by the time I got to
Korea it was winding down. The truce with North Korea was signed when I was on
Cheju Island next to a Prison Camp. After the truce was signed the prisoners
were simply turned loose and told to make their own way to the North. [That
doesn’t sound reasonable now, but that is what we were told at the time.] Some
chose not to go north and instead to hide up on Cheju Mountain. We could see
camp fires burning up there at night.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of david ritchie
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 7:15 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Slezkine and Weinberg
On Feb 12, 2020, at 3:34 PM, Lawrence Helm <
<mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But Slezkine has inspired me to at long last tackle Gerhard Weinberg’s A World
At Arms, A Global History of World War II. I mentioned somewhere that I was
once in a series of arguments with a Russian who had a website praising the Red
Army. He urged Weinberg’s book upon me. I bought it, but before I got around
to reading it, he disappeared (Not “was disappeared,” I hope). Weinberg’s text
is only 40 pages shorter than Slezkine’s, but Weinberg is dealing with an
entire World War.
I’ve ordered a copy. I’ll read along. I am, however, still working
so…patience.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
