Some good military books I've read lately...

speedwaffle

If you guys are military buffs, here's some recommendations from my current readings that may interest you:

Black Hawk Down (Mark Bowden) - Do I need to tell you what this is?
Thunder Run (David Zucchino) - About the armored push into Baghdad 2003
An Army at Dawn (Rick Atkinson) - North Africa WWII
Marine Sniper (Charles Henderson) - About Carlos Hathcock
Pride of Carthage: A novel of Hannibal by David Durham - Nice read...about Hannibal's march on Rome
and finally,
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae (Steven Pressfield)
For those of you who don't know, this battle was one where 300 spartan knights held fast against 100,000 persians at a narrow mountain pass (Thermopylae) for a week before being finally overrun. Quite a good story of courage. I think they're making a movie out of this story...coming out in march called "300"...

indeedwrestling

Well, the movie is about that story but the source material for the movie is the graphic novel "300".

pedrothelion

It's a neat story, both the graphic novel and the legend. I'm pretty psyched about the movie after having seen the trailer a couple of times..!

I am entirely sure, though, that the historical accuracy of the movie won't be anywhere near perfect. It looks a good action movie though, I'm thinking 'Sin City' in the ~500's BC.. Cool

vertigoflow

It's funny you would compare it to Sin City as Frank Miller is the man behind both graphic novels.

I was lucky enough to have a class on ancient history in high school. The teacher was a great storyteller and would really get into it when talking about the battles. Thermopylae was definately the high point. I will have to check out that book.