Excoriating Reviews.

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by von Poop, May 12, 2022.

Tags:
  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I like a nice vicious book review, despite being personally not very good at it.

    Share 'em here.

    Recent Churchill:
    What the Marxist Tariq Ali gets wrong about Winston Churchill | The Spectator

    Classic title of the genre, Naomi Wolf's book being near universally panned.
    Not sure the best worst review.; Thought Mr. Sweet had done it somewhere after his famous live skewering, but can't find.
    A fatal misunderstanding | The Spectator


    And from our own Old Git:
    WW2Talk - Book Review - Peter Caddick-Adams: 'Sand and Steel', a partial review.
     
    TTH, PsyWar.Org and Tolbooth like this.
  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    There was a military history review that hit home like a bomb from one of the 'Academic' big boys a few years ago.
    Sheffield, Overy, Kershaw, one of that sort.
    Did the soshul meeja rounds even outside our circles as it was so harsh.

    Mind's gone completely blank.
    Ring any bells?
     
    TTH likes this.
  3. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I don't suppose you were thinking of Malcolm Gladwell's reportedly terrible book, "The Bomber Mafia"?
     
    von Poop likes this.
  4. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Way too recent.
    Though I have seen some really brutal reviews of that.
    Well... more a constant online slew of hate. :army:
     
    Chris C likes this.
  5. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Oh, so you were thinking of an excoriating review of something by an prominent academic military historian?
     
  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    The review written by the academic.
    Doing my head in a bit as I shared it with quite a few myself. A full fisking.
     
  7. Jonathan Ball

    Jonathan Ball It's a way of life.

    Staffsyeoman and von Poop like this.
  8. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

     
    Last edited: May 13, 2022
    Dave55, TTH, PsyWar.Org and 2 others like this.
  9. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    A tongue in cheek and notional excoriation of a political scrutiny committee quizzing the military, but in this Falklands 40th anniversary year, I am minded of a speech that Caspar Weinberger GBE gave at a Trafalgar Night dinner in 1985.

    The piece - the Nelson Touch - was printed in the Spectator the following year:
    THE NELSON TOUCH » 11 Oct 1986 » The Spectator Archive
    and some who have not seen it before might enjoy a read.

    Weinberger - an admirer of Churchill - served in WW2 with the US 41st ID and also as an intelligence officer on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff.
     
    von Poop and dbf like this.
  10. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    I am occasionally in touch with the estimable Mr. Sheffield and can inquire if you wish.
     
  11. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    So far from being excoriating, I think our Mr. Git was actually more than fair to Mr. Caddick-Adams. He gave him the benefit of every possible doubt, but was still honest about the flaws he found in the book.
     
  12. Staffsyeoman

    Staffsyeoman Member

    My PhD supervisor started as an air historian and then branched out. We were chatting on the phone, after I'd got my doctorate. "Have you read Gladwell's book?" he asked. "No.." I replied "Don't...."
     
    Dave55 and Chris C like this.
  13. Old Git

    Old Git Harmless Curmudgeon

    Thank you for that TTH, to be honest I hadn't considered my partial review to be 'excoriating' but I was immensely frustrated by what I found in the first 300+ pages. I really wanted to enjoy that book and had hoped it would be a good companion piece to the Holland volume. In the end, however, I never did get beyond the 350+ pages, partly because it did frustrate me soo much but also because I knew that I needed to re-read from the start with a tighter eye on the detail; ... but for that to happen I needed a time gap to allow my frustration levels to subside somewhat. Might actually get back to it this autumn.

    To be honest I didn't know a lot about Caddick Adams before I picked up that book. Had never before read anything by him, never heard him lecture, or podcast, and have never met him. But on the other side of the coin I am no expert on the Normandy campaign or even 21st AG. Like most people here I have a broad, generalised understanding of the events \ controversies, and the over-arching structure of 21AG. I don't try to keep most of it in my head either, when something comes up for discussion I need to check my bookshelves to verify that what I think I know is actually correct. So, if a non-specialist like me can trip over so many 'issues' in the first 350 pages then something is off somewhere along the lines.
     

Share This Page