Hey all, Im Ben and I just recently got really interested in the history of the war. I learned about the basics in high school and college of course, but those history classes were brief by necessity, cause of the they werent focused on the war but US history/World history. I've gotten interested pretty much by accident. I read a book by Erik Larson called Devil in the White city, about the Chicago's world fair and a serial killer that was active at the same time. I liked the so much that when Larson's book "In the Garden of the Beast" about the US ambassador (Dodd) to Berlin in the 1930s, I snatched it up. That got me interested in the war, and according to Larson, one of his sources was "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer. I've just finished reading that, along with a couple survivor accounts from Auschwitz. I'm now reading Hitler's Hangman about Reinhard Heydrich. In any case, just wanted to say hi and introduce myself.
Greetings Ben and welcome to the forum! Erik Larson is a favorite author of mine. My ex-gf turned me onto him when she loaned me her copy of "Issac's Storm" - awesome book. I have not gotten around to getting his newest outing "Dead Wake - The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" yet, but will be doing so shortly.
Wow, you got to read it, what a great book. His first book that caused tears from me. I'm in the middle of Thuderstuck, then Im on to Issac's storm. Trying to drag it out as much as possible. He has promised, after Dead Wake (cause it was too heart wrenching) to never write another book about a ship sinking, which is kinda depressing since he did such a great job about the Lusitania, he would do great at others, like the empress of Ireland or the Titanic. But "In the Garden of the Beast" was truly eye opening. Ambassador Dodd's children ended up working as KGB agents in the US, not to mention his daughter was sleeping with a ton of the high ranking Nazi officials.
