The Gathering Storm
The Second World War, part 1
by Winston S. Churchill · first published 1964
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First half of the original The Gathering Storm book, sold as the first of 12-volume editions.
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…is probably the most informed pundit on war and military strategy. WW-II "The Last Lion" books 1 and 2 are about Churchill and they involve lots of military strategy. You should also check out "The gathering storm + the other six books Churchill wrote on WWII. Man I could go on forever. I have "Panzer General" and "Caesar's Conquest of Gaul" on my nightstand... Enjoy... PS: Once you're well versed you'll hear…
on “Ask HN: good books about military strategy?” ↗Unfortunately not; the most recent book I read on the period was Gathering Storm, by W. S. Churchill (not the most unbiased observer, but very engaging reading).
on “People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say” ↗…appointed. If you've been in this game long enough you've seen projects and companies destroyed by a failure to take decisive action when it could have made a difference (or read, for example, Churchill's The Gathering Storm, or any shorter version of how WWII could have been so easily averted by preventing German rearmament). The odds are pretty high this is going to be another example of that.
on “S.F. programmers build alternative to HealthCare.gov [video]” ↗…Reading (and rereading) "the classics" has long been a method for that, and one that works for me. Emphasis on the re-reading, never stop learning, e.g. I'm on perhaps my 3rd pass of Churchill's The Gathering Storm, about the post-WWI period, it ends with him being appointed Prime Minister as the Nazi blitzkrieg falls upon the Low countries and France. First pass was in the '80s, 2nd I can't remember, and now I'm…
on “The Only Entrepreneurship Lesson You Need, with Do/Don’t Reading List” ↗Read "The Gathering Storm" for an argument to topple Saddam made before we went in (but post 9-11) There is a long list of reasons which I won't go into here. 9-11 was the tipping point in terms of domestic politics, no doubt.…
on “The world's most toxic value system” ↗…US policy wasn't sensible for the US, just that WWII is not a clear testament to the latent strengths of democracies and free markets at waging war. And on the point of democracy specifically, in "The Gathering Storm," Churchill nearly pins the breakout of WWII on the inherent difficulty of conducting sensible foreign policy under democracy (both in the case of the badly designed peace treaties at the end of WWI,…
on “Why dumb recruits cost the Army, big-time (2006)” ↗Started yesterday to read Churchill's "The Gathering Storm", where he describes the follies of the victors after the first world war: "Wise policy would have crowned and fortified the Weimar Republic with a constitutional sovereign in the form of an infant grandson…
…re-armament and war preparation which ended in a renewed outbreak of destructive war. Let us profit at least by this terrible lesson. In vain did I attempt to teach it before the war. In his book The Gathering Storm, he adds several more points where Hitler could have been easily stopped before he started.
on “Donald Knuth was framed” ↗But there are thresholds of danger. Right now I'm re-reading Churchill's The Gathering Storm, which covers the pre-WWII era and ends with him being appointed PM. Just past the part where Hitler tells a British official that Germany had achieved air parity, which was true, which was a shock since…
on “Bruce Schneier: 'The Internet Era of Fun and Games Is Over'” ↗Hmmm, Churchill's "greatest" histories, The World Crisis (WWI) and The Second World War, which I've recently started re-reading (or at least The Gathering Storm, the first volume of the interim period ending with him being selected as PM as the Nazis descended upon the Low Countries and France), were written first when he lost his seat in Parliament altogether…
on “Thucydides Roundtable, Book IV: History Is Written by the Losers” ↗I just found a reference to this concept in Churchill's The Gathering Storm (WWI->him being appointed PM), first page of chapter 11, he talked about opinions events had caused to become no longer "excluded from lawful thought", at least by several major groups of people. The…
on “The Overton Window and Political Control” ↗…Tebreille, Naime, Rysael use the Bowl of the Winds. Winter's Heart (Chapters 24 and 37) - The Bowl of the Winds is used to stop a massive storm that is threatening to destroy the city of Ebou Dar. The Gathering Storm (Chapter 34) - The Bowl of the Winds is used to create a powerful windstorm that helps to defeat the Seanchan army at the Battle of Maradon. A Memory of Light (Chapters 19 and 35) - The Bowl of the Winds…
on “Llama 2 – Meta AI” ↗