i can't learn enough
the value of rereading history
As I began contemplating retirement, the aspect I most anticipated was the luxury to read whenever and whatever for as long as I wanted. Of course I read all the time as a professor but over the years in D.C., one realises that reading the whole book rarely happens because you're off to some other topic before you can plow through a six hundred page volume. Every year as our new faculty, if agency or uniformed, commented on the tedium of reading long(ish), wordy articles written by traditional academics. Many people bemoan government writing but I actually had the pleasure of working with many folks who wrote pithy (and occasionally eloquent) policy papers directly and succinctly. These point of policy pieces is to provide sufficient evidence for a clearly articulated argument; academic writing too often struck these folks as volumes of words that never stated anything definitively for fear of having someone else pick it apart.
One of the oddities of living overseas as a kid was that we didn’t have many alternatives to reading. My father was an inveterate reader (irking my mother to no end as he believed meals were for reading time). Most post-dinner evenings were each of us reading our various choices in the smallish den where we could close the doors to keep the room heated as we all read. We did not have central heating but the den included a coal fireplace, but that was another era far far away. As long as the power didn’t flag, we read for a couple of hours each night. Sheer heaven.
The school library in the 1960s had some rather 1940ish books for an elementary school girl but these were the English books in a Spanish-speaking country. Have you ever heard of Cherry Ames, RN which paralleled the Nancy Drew collection? How about Vickie Barr, Flight Attendant? I plowed through each and every one, plus every history book I could find, English or Spanish. I was so proud that I won some sort of reading contest for the number of books I consumed.
In Bangkok, the three highlights of the day were receiving the Bangkok Post, The Stars and Stripes, and the Embassy post delivery. The International School had a phenomenal library where I could find much more up-to-date fiction and more history so we had books galore.
I also learned repeatedly over the years that it never hurts to reread things. Every instance provides me with a different perspective. Many of you know that I frequently laud the Japanese idea of kaizen, or gradual, sustained improvement of business, for the mind. I figure I learn from thinking and rethinking and rereading—rather like wash, dry and repeat. I find that even though I am not in a seminar room daily any more I still find incredible uses from what I used to call professional reading.
It was with that in mind that I looked around the condominium this weekend. I am a huge fan of the Libby app from the library but still feel so guilty when I read fiction. I found myself staring at Rick Atkinson’s fine series on World War II, his Liberation Trilogy. I remember reading An Army at Dawn when we were in the Berkshires on holiday perhaps a decade ago. It was enthralling as Atkinson applied his appealing prose to a deadly serious venture. He spared no one criticism nor did he fail to laud those who deserved praise. No wonder he won the Pulitzer for the first volume twenty-one years ago.
The Atkinson volume drew me, however, because I recall the overarching evidence of how the multitude of failures besieging the Army in North Africa became steps for institutional improvement. Of course personalities mattered a great deal: George C. Patton obviously had an ego that barely fit into the battlefield as a single example we all know. But the other names so respected eight years later as we approach the D Day commemoration in June did not fare all that well in North Africa as the U.S. Army faced utterly unfamiliar challenges of a great war. The Army that went to the Philippines in 1900 or confronted Mexicans along the border did not face the Wehrmacht. The Army’s campaigns against indigenous populations in Wyoming or New Mexico prepared it poorly for World War I and certainly the follow on twenty-five years later. Institutional lessons were painful but unavoidably necessary if these men were going to meet the challenges the Axis threw at them.
So, I picked up Atkinson again as I ponder the challenges so many people believe will result in a conflict in the Asia. The Army is a far more sophisticated than when the fleet ferried them from Norfolk to North Africa, but of course the same is true potential adversaries we might face.
What Atkinson provides is not specific decisions that officers ought memorise but the processes of studying questions. An Army at Dawn also tackles the damning assumptions the force has about itself, the nation it defends, and the adversaries. Those assumptions are every bit as powerful as the weaponry and valor—or fear—the Army brings to the fight.
I never got around to the other two volumes, The Day of Battle or The Guns at Last Light. I am confident I can put my photography down to read these as I am already hooked on volume one with an open calendar ahead of me.
Setting out on a trilogy feels so delicious, evoking split-second guilt like a wonderful piece of cake or a decadent cookie. At the same time, I am so mindful of the sacrifices and the options that could have taken us down a more tragic path.
What have you reread recently that affected your thought processes? What revised your thinking? What would you recommend to others that you might not have six months back because you’d forgotten about the impact it left upon you? I look foward to hearing.
I got some great advice about my gardening frustration, as a reader called it Saturday. I also heard that I should use mushroom dirt on the garden. I had never heard of mushroom dirt but since I have no use for mushrooms, dirt sounds pretty good to me. But I know I can count on you, the ACC readers, to provide much civil, enhanced learning as actions create consequence. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your support. Please circulate this if you find it of value and weigh in on any topic.
The clouds sadly returned again today but the forecast for next week looks much warmer. I did dart out for a couple of shots of colour when I needed to give my eyes a wee rest.
Be well and be safe. FIN
Rick Atkinson, An Army at Dawn. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2002.
—-, The Day of Battle. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2007.
—-, The Guns at Last Light. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 2013.
I probably should get it. I am always concerned about weeds versus really desirable plants
This posting reminds me of a common refrain I used when recounting my experience at NWC. I've always told people that upon arrival and first few weeks surrounded by some of the smartest people I'd ever met, I determined two things: 1) I hadn't read enough in my military career... and 2) I'd read mostly the wrong stuff. Based on your post, I'm not sure #2 is really accurate in that reading is good regardless of what you're pouring through (for the most part). But I had centered on easy (might say "lazy") reading which were those books I didn't have to really think much about; mainly, historical military leadership, biographies of great leaders and such. Those books were much more like a warm word-blanket for me vs. a reading workout. NWC taught me that I needed to be a more wide-ranging, worldly reader to include topics like economics, business, finance, cultural issues, etc. As I had this epiphany, I used it to mentor younger military members by encouraging them not only to read often and more...but to read "outside their comfort zone."
My early reading experiences were much like yours. As you know, I too grew up in Thailand in a remote area devoid of any English speaking schools, so my Mom taught me 1st - 3rd grade via correspondence courses. She wasn't a "trained" educator...she was a mom. Class normally started when she got up in the morning (sometimes around 9 or 10) and ended when she was tired of my antics (sometimes around noon). She wasn't great at math so I struggled in that discipline throughout my education even through college (no Engineering degree for me). But she loved to read and instilled that in me. The first full book I recall reading was "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'dell. It was written in 1960 and described as a children's novel. Excerpt from Wikipedia: "tells the story of a girl named Karana, who is stranded alone for years on an island off the California coast. It is based on the true story of Juana Maria, a Nicoleño Native American left alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island during the 19th century." It was a magical book for me that took me to faraway places in my mind. I envisioned it being in some tropical location, probably based on me living in Thailand at the time, vs. off the California coast. And it wasn't until the early 90's when I was assigned to Vandenberg Air Force Based in Central California that the ruggedness and remoteness of the Channel Islands resonated with me and helped me better visualize the story line.
I also recall reading a book in the early 70s about Alexander Solzhenitsyn and his life as a prisoner of the Russian gulag system. It was pretty in-depth stuff for a kid of about 10 years of age. My dad introduced me to J.R.R. Tolkien and "The Hobbit" in the mid 70s and I read that one plus the trilogy several times as an escape. I trended toward more fiction in my early years, to include some westerns, but drifted back to more non-fiction as I aged. I attributed it to wanting to learn vs. escape, but looking back, I can see where including good fiction books is healthy for the brain.
A frequent re-read for me is "George Washington's War, The Saga of the American Revolution" by Robert Leckie. It's a 660 page detailed account of our Nation's independence that I first read in 1993. My paperback copy is yellowed and dog-eared with lots of my "reading notes" penned in the margins. It's one of my all-time favorite word-blankets.
Also like you, in semi-retirement, I do find I have the time for more reading. I just need to make it a part of my daily routine vs. other distractions. I have a shelf of books awaiting my attention and even more parked in my Kindle account. Guess I should go get after them.