New book coming out August 14th

[SYN_Mike77]

Talk about your perfect timing!

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1781550468/ref=pe_180000_120522460_em_1p_4_ti

 

Fighters over Stalingrad Volume 1: Air Operations of the Soviet Union VVS and Luftwaffe

 

Sounds like a must buy. 

[SYN_Mike77]

here is the blurb on the book above;

 

The first book to give a detailed description of the air war over Stalingrad including maps of all the airfields and unique details of specific air battles. The material has been sourced from the Russian archives and has never been published before. Both authors are based in the Russian Federation.

[[JG54]Vyper]

I've been watching that book for almost a year now, and am looking forward to it being released. It has been delayed 4 or 5 times now as it gets towards a release date....so I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I think it'll get pushed back 2-3 months yet again.

[javelina]

I'll order once the E-book is out. Love reading everything via my Kindle or Kindle app on my iPhone. thanks, I'll watch for this.

[SYN_Mike77]

Vyper, I ordered it today and got a confirmation of delivery on August 14th.  I'm not sure Amazon would confirm if they weren't pretty sure.  I'm looking forward to getting my hands on those maps. 

[Praetor]

Considering the source, I would be concerned about objectivity here...

[SYN_Mike77]

So I guess you would say that only books written by Swiss authors can be trusted? 

[Gambit21]

Yep! How would a Russian possibly know about Russian aircraft? Skip it!!!

While we're on the subject, make sure you don't pick up any books on the P51D penned by American authors  - it's all crap!

[LLv44_Mprhead]

I haven't read anything from these authors before, so I'm going to wait until it's published and check the reviews. One of the authors have worked with Christer Bergström, so that at least speaks well of the reliability and subject is ofc interesting.

[SYN_Mike77]

And while we are at it, a book on german fighters or dive bombers written by german pilots should be avoided like the plague!  Nothing to learn there, nothing at all.

[Matt]

I ordered just ordered Black Cross / Red Star volume 3 yesterday, but this looks interesting as well. I'll probably wait for some feedback though.

[Praetor]

Silliness.  I would question the objectivity of the reports because the source material is exclusively from the Russian archives.  I said nothing about the authors, but fee free to indulge in moral narcissism. 

[Gambit21]

Silliness.  I would question the objectivity of the reports because the source material is exclusively from the Russian archives.  I said nothing about the authors, but fee free to indulge in moral narcissism. 

 

Yes, it would be much better if the data came from German sources - we know how even handed those tend to be!

 

Look, there was no magical, neutral, history fairy hovering above the battle taking notes for us.

Any history you have about ANYTHING is going to be influenced by the source. This includes any book

you read about any battle of WWII. Welcome to reality.

[MiloMorai]

I haven't read anything from these authors before, so I'm going to wait until it's published and check the reviews. One of the authors have worked with Christer Bergström, so that at least speaks well of the reliability and subject is ofc interesting.

 

That means it will surely have some bias.

[SYN_Mike77]

Nothing scares me more than the claim of moral objectivity.

[LLv44_Mprhead]

That means it will surely have some bias.

 

Could you open that up a bit? I have read some of Bergströms books, but not all of them. Ofc everyone is biased to some extent, but is there something obvious?

[Praetor]

Yes, it would be much better if the data came from German sources - we know how even handed those tend to be!

 

Look, there was no magical, neutral, history fairy hovering above the battle taking notes for us.

Any history you have about ANYTHING is going to be influenced by the source. This includes any book

you read about any battle of WWII. Welcome to reality.

 

German?  Why would I have a preference for German sources?  I'm Canadian.

 

I would prefer the inclusion of sources from both sides, with the claims made by each weighed against those made by the other.  Isolating your source material to one stream when each side on the eastern front is known to have highlighted their successes and hidden their failures causes concern for objectivity.

 

This is said as an academic.

 

 

Nothing scares me more than the claim of moral objectivity.

 

Who said anything about moral objectivity?

[Gambit21]

I would prefer the inclusion of sources from both sides, with the claims made by each weighed against those made by the other. 

 

Well of course, wouldn't we all.

Most often though we don't get a book written in the perfect world, so we take it as it comes, and weight it against other research we've done.

Something you'll be familiar with as an academic.

[Praetor]

Of course, but remember all I said was that I would be concerned about its objectivity, given the source.  Then the pitchforks came out.

[Gambit21]

Well to be fair it came across at first like you were saying Russians couldn't possibly write a decent book about Russian aircraft.

Just the weaknesses of written communication we're dealing with.

[Praetor]

That wasn't my intention at all.  That is why I said "source" and not "author".  

[FlatSpinMan]

What to quibble over next, guys? Referencing styles? I'm an APA-man to the bone, myself.