Scott Mingus' new book, "The Louisiana Tigers.'
More than a dozen books have been written on York County in the Civil War in the past 10 years.
Add another one: Scott Mingus' newest work "The Lousiana Tigers in the Gettysburg campaign."
For a mini-review of the book, visit: York County's Widow Zinn to Confederate Gen. Jubal Early in new Louisiana Tigers' book: 'Are you goin' to destroy us?'
Spring Grove resident Norman Fulkerson has written "An American Knight: The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley USMC."
The book was published Oct. 28, one year after the passing of Col. Ripley, who was known for his service in Vietnam.
For details or to buy the book for $14.95 plus shipping, visit www.AmericanKnight.org or call 888-317-5571.
Hanover YWCA is accepting used books for its annual used book sale Nov. 6, 7 and 8. Books can be brought to the YW at 23 W. Chestnut St. and placed in the "book box" located in front of the building. Please no encyclopedias, Readers Digest condensed books or magazines. Books should be in good condition and placed in bags or boxes.
When it comes to ancient warfare, Steven Pressfield really knows his stuff.
I previously reviewed the Thermopylae-inspired "Gates of Fire," and I just finished his novel "The Afghan Campaign," which again proves the writer's ability to mix a contemporary fiction narrative with faithfully historical subject matter.
The book is a soldier's account of Alexander the Great's attempt to conquer the area that is now known as Afghanistan.
The Macedonian king had already taken command of all of Greece, moved through the Greek and Persian settlements in eastern Turkey and subdued most of the Persian empire.
But the harsh desert and mountain climates of Afghanistan still remained, the portal to his next wish of dominating India.
Thomas (Wally) Clarke of Spring Garden Township has written "General George S. Patton's Typical Soldier."
Clarke's account of his experiences as a World War II combat infantryman includes maps, photos and battle descriptions. Letters to his parents and siblings are interspersed throughout the text.
By BETH VRABEL
For the Daily Record/Sunday News
If the Civil War conjures images of debonair soldiers in dashing uniforms and with unbreakable principles, "Seen the Glory" (Simon & Schuster, $25) might just dash those dreams.
The soldiers in former York countian John Hough Jr.'s meticulously researched historical novel leave all romantic notions of the war behind. They march for days on end without bathing. They eat a scarce, rotting diet of salted pork and wormy hardtack. They face as much danger from disease and bacteria as they do on the battlefield. Most have, at best, an eighth-grade education and a muddied idea of the war's motivation.
Sarah Byrn Rickman's book "The Originals" covers York native Aline Rhonie and other pilots of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in World War II.
The book has been around a few years but contains interesting material on female pilots who played an important role in World War II.
Aline Rhonie was one of the pilots. For more on this Renaissance woman, click here.
From the Associated Press:
Stories and scholarship from around the world were honored by book critics Thursday night, including works about the ancient and modern Middle East and a novel set in Mexico, the late Roberto Bolano's "2666."
and that definitely applies to book lovers.
The following Web sites offer used books for purchase or exchange, some for as little as the postage to ship them.
Check them out, and if you know of any others, please let us know.
Scott Mingus' book "Flames Beyond Gettysburg" is another link in a long chain of Civil War publications dating back to 2000.
That is, books linking York County and the Civil War.
Before 2000, well, the pickings were sparse.
For a working list, see: Stack of books on York County's Civil War past getting higher.
I recently had a long layoff in finishing any books because I was slowly making my way through Thucydides' "The History of the Peloponnesian War."
His history is rather dense, but quite remarkable for something written in the 5th century B.C.
As for the war itself, it was a long -- about 27 years -- conflict between Greek powers Athens and Sparta and numerous allies on both sides. It started for many reasons, but most notably because of Athens' expansion of its Aegean empire and its friction with Sparta, which felt threatened. The eventual defeat of Athens reshaped Greece.
Unlike an earlier historian, Herodotus (who I wrote about here), Thucydides attempts a chronological, factual account of the war. The author served as a general in the Athenian army for some of the time and seemed to have good sources otherwise, though he fails to name them.
Thucydides appears -- though this has been disputed -- to remain objective in his account and to shun propaganda. He states early on that, "My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever."
Under my little brother's direction, I read "Generation Kill," a 2004 book written by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, about the 1st Recon Marines who were at the tip of the spear in the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Baron von Steuben's drilling of Continental Army soldiers prepared George Washington's army during the dark days of the American Revolution in Valley Forge.
But no authoritative biography has been written on Steuben since 1937. Until recently.
Paul Lockhart's "The Drillmaster of Valley Forge" is a fresh look at the Prussian military man and offer glimpses into the York County scene, where the Continental Congress was then meeting.
For more on Lockhart's work on Steuben, see York Town Square post: York-commissioned Baron von Steuben credited with shaping up Continental Army.
The book: "No Time for Ribbons" (iUniverse, $17.95)
The author: Craig Trebilcock of Glen Rock is an attorney/partner with Shumaker Williams PC and a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
that books make great gifts, but now we can listen to famous authors tell us why.
Artist Bradley Schmehl's painting of the burning Wrightsville Bridge in 1863 serves as the focal point of the cover of Scott Mingus' forthcoming Civil War book.
Scott Mingus' detailed study of the Confederate occupation of York County, 'Flames beyond Gettysburg, in late June 1863 is moving along the printing trail.
Another forthcoming Mingus work follows one of the brigades that visited York County. "A Spirit of Daring: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign" will come from the LSU Press.
The turn of the new millenium eight years ago brought with it an onslaught of books on the Civil War in York County.
Before 2000, only a handful of books probed the Civil War and York County and they consisted of chapters in larger works on the Gettysburg campaign.
The York Town Square post Books probing York County in the Civil War come in strong, sudden onslaught lists the dozen local Civil War books published in recent years.
That includes a recent publication on the Battle of Hanover.
Here's hoping Cornell professor Barry Strauss, whose narrative history of the Trojan War I enjoyed immensely, keeps writing books.
I recently read a similar history of his, "The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece -- and Western Civilization."
The Battle of Salamis was part of the war between Greece and Persia -- the same war that included the much better known Battle of Thermopylae (see book reviews here).
But whereas the Spartans' courageous stand at Thermopylae served as a holding party to keep the Persian forces from quickly advancing into the heart of Greece, Salamis served as the war's turning point. Its Gettysburg, in some ways.
I've recently read two books related to the Battle of Thermopylae, one fiction, one non-fiction. Thermopylae was the battle in 480 B.C. in which 300 picked Spartans and a few thousand allies held a mountain pass for three days against the Persian army, which numbered in the millions or the hundreds of thousands, depending on whose account you believe.
Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Fire" is a novelization of the battle through the eyes of Xeones, a Spartan helot -- a type of serf, some of whom served the Spartiate warriors in battle.
