Where Men Win Glory
author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man's haunting journey. Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan. Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman's own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman's wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman's name to promote his administration's foreign policy. Long after Tillman's nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had "probably" been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible.
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What Hacker News says
- Where Men Win Glory is a really great book by Krakauer.
All the controversy lately over American Sniper has me wondering where the Hollywood drama about Patrick Tillman is.
- Polemic, passionate in a one-note way, pleading, to an extent that sacrifices the narrative. Two great examples from Krakauer: _Under The Banner Of Heaven_, which veers into a straight-up litigation against the Mormon faith†, and _Where Men Win Glory_, whose latter third is practically tear-stained.
Note: I'm not saying either of those books are bad; I liked them. I loved _Into The Wild_.
† I'm not one.
- All consumed as audiobooks.
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America - Colin Woodard; I learned much about early US history.
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman - Jon Krakauer
Find Me - Laura van den Berg
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
The Dog Stars - Peter Heller
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing; I was fortunate enough to read this right before Seveneves, so the references made immediate sense. Endurance looks to be popular on this list/this year. How many were inspired by Seveneves?
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson
The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age - Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson; I highly recommend this book. Like The Making of the Atomic Bomb, but for the transistor. Lots of background on John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain. I was unaware of the great legacy of John Bardeen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bardeen
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes; If you have not read this book, read it, just for the summary of discoveries that lead to the atomic bomb.
Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage - Anthony Brandt
The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen - Stephen R. Bown
I am looking for other books similar to Crystal Fire and The Making of the Atomic Bomb, that cover the history of scientific and technological discoveries. Any recommendations?
