Decision ‘08

McCain’s Five Best

This Memorial Day weekend, John McCain contributes the five best books about soldiers at war in the Wall Street Journal’s Five Best series, and it is a truly excellent set of choices. His number one choice, For Whom The Bell Tolls, is the wrong Hemingway novel, in my view; much, much better is A Farewell to Arms. Kudos, however, for including All Quiet On The Western Front and the late great Bernard Fall…

4 Responses to “McCain’s Five Best”

1 Ryan Bonneville Says:
May 27th, 2007 at 12:20 am
I would add the Iliad to that list. Or, if that’s too fantastic, at least Herodotus’ Histories. The Spartan stand at Thermopylae is one of the great entries in soldiers-at-war literature.
2 Mark Says:
May 27th, 2007 at 10:42 am
And I would add John Keegan’s The Face Of Battle and Alistair Horne’s The Price of Glory…
3 JB Says:
May 27th, 2007 at 11:48 am
In my humble opinion, Cornelius Ryan’s ‘The Longest Day’ remains the best book about D-Day. Brinkley’s recent “The Boys of Point du hoc’ is a poor re-telling of a truly heroic and amazing story. And sort of on the strange, comical, existential side - perhaps Heller’s ‘Catch 22′.
4 Mark Says:
May 27th, 2007 at 11:56 am
The Longest Day is indeed a great one - as is Catch 22 - haven’t read the Brinkley…