Strange defeat;

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• lsc · Nov 25, 2018 · Recommends

  …conditions or more likely to surrender than other countries, that "the last brave frenchman died during Napoleon's retreat from Russia" to be... ahistoric. ) May's "Strange Victory" isn't as good as Bloch's "Strange Defeat" - but as I recall (it has been some time) May seemed to suggest that much of this seemed like chance on the German side, too. That you had ridiculously overconfident people in charge, that a lot of…

  on “For Decades, Southern States Saw Thanksgiving as an Act of Northern Aggression” ↗
• thrillgore · Jan 25, 2017 · Recommends

  If there's another book that people need to read, its "Strange Defeat" by Marc Bloch, as its a commentary/oral history on the fall of France to the Nazis and Vichy regime. The comparisons are eerily similar to what many of us are seeing now.

  on “George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon” ↗
• wazoox · Jul 13, 2018 · Recommends

  …Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell : This is a wonderful book. Read it. - Why the West rules -- for now, Ian Morris : How geography drives history. really deep and thought-provoking. - the Strange Defeat, Marc Bloch : A gripping, living narration of the French armies collapse in 1940, from the inside (Marc Bloch was an officer). With a very deep analysis of the long maturing reasons for this defeat.…

  on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗
• crdb · Oct 19, 2014 · Recommends

  …classical era to such details he could point at disappeared buildings, he was well read and thoughtful about how to best wage war. What is it like to be "disrupted"? Read it first hand from Bloch's "Strange Defeat", describing just what it was like to face the new, fresh, efficient Wehrmacht when you are led by the last war's winners. Sir David Stirling's biography reads like a long list of impossible things -…

  on “Military Professional Reading Lists” ↗
• crdb · Sep 2, 2016 · Recommends

  …they did not teach me. Clayton Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma/Solution presents a very enticing idea but I think the core explanation for what it covers is much better set forward in Marc Bloch's Strange Defeat. There are regular sub-threads on the book on HN so I won't go into it further. I also read a couple of Jack Welch books and thought, wow, this guy knows what he is talking about. This was before 2007.…

  on “Ask HN: Non-tech books that have helped you grow professionally?” ↗
• lsc · Apr 4, 2017 · Mentions

  …must be willing to accept for the men under him, no less than for himself, sacrifices which may be productive of good, rather than a shameful yielding which must remain for ever useless" - Marc Bloch "Strange Defeat" This quote really hit me because I have been thinking about my own failures as a leader and as a businessperson; I approached leadership as you would approach a technician job. Honesty is important.…

  on “The Case for More Intellectual Humility” ↗