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S2 Actual's reading list
The books S2 Actual has read and rated on Goodreads, searchable by title, author and topic.
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Details for Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland
Description (from Goodreads):
Compellingly written and even-handed in its judgments, this is by far the clearest account of what has happened through the years in the Northern Ireland conflict, and why. After a chapter of background on the period from 1921 to 1963, it covers the ensuing period―the descent into violence, the hunger strikes, the Anglo-Irish accord, the bombers in England―to the present shaky peace process. Behind the deluge of information and opinion about the conflict, there is a straightforward and gripping story. Mr. McKittrick and Mr. McVea tell that story clearly, concisely, and, above all, fairly, avoiding intricate detail in favor of narrative pace and accessible prose. They describe and explain a lethal but fascinating time in Northern Ireland's history, which brought not only death, injury, and destruction but enormous political and social change. They close on an optimistic note, convinced that while peace―if it comes―will always be imperfect, a corner has now been decisively turned. The book includes a detailed chronology, statistical tables, and a glossary of terms.
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- Air power
- Publisher
- New Amsterdam Books · 2002
- ISBN
- 1561310700
S2 Book Club episode for Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland Open Library, Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland
Details for The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Description (from Goodreads):
Draws on recently declassified documents and exclusive interviews to recount the dramatic story of a World War II rescue mission in 1944 during which the OSS embarked on a daring scheme to recover more than five hundred airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. 40,000 first printing.
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- WWII, Air power, Intel history, Biography
- Publisher
- Nal Caliber · 2007
- ISBN
- 9780451222121
S2 Book Club episode for The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II Open Library, The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Details for Spymaster: Startling Cold War Revelations of a Soviet KGB Chief
Description (from Goodreads):
From the dark days of World War II through the Cold War, Sergey A. Kondrashev was a major player in Russia’s notorious KGB espionage apparatus. Rising through its ranks through hard work and keen understanding of how the spy and political games are played, he “handled” American and British defectors, recruited Western operatives as double agents, served as a ranking officer at the East Berlin and Vienna KGB bureaus, and tackled special assignments from the Kremlin. During a 1994 television program about former spymasters, Kondrashev met and began a close friendship with a former foe, ex–CIA officer Tennent H. “Pete” Bagley, whom the Russian asked to help write his memoirs. Because Bagley knew so about much of Kondrashev’s career (they had been on opposite sides in several operations), his penetrating questions and insights reveal slices of never-revealed espionage history that rival anything found in the pages of Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, or John le Carré: chilling tales of surviving Stalin’s purges while superiors and colleagues did not, of plotting to reveal the Berlin Tunnel, of quelling the Hungarian Revolution and “Prague Spring” independence movements, and of assisting in arranging the final disposition of the corpses of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Kondrashev also details equally fascinating KGB propaganda and disinformation efforts that shaped Western attitudes throughout the Cold War. Because publication of these memoirs was banned by Putin’s regime, Bagley promised Kondrashev to have them published in the West. They are now available to all who are fascinated by vivid tales of international intrigue.
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- WWII, Cold War, Espionage, Russia / USSR, Biography
- Publisher
- Skyhorse · 2013
- ISBN
- 9781626360655
S2 Book Club episode for Spymaster: Startling Cold War Revelations of a Soviet KGB Chief Open Library, Spymaster: Startling Cold War Revelations of a Soviet KGB Chief
Details for Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla
Description (from Goodreads):
When Americans think of modern warfare, what comes to mind is the US army skirmishing with terrorists and insurgents in the mountains of Afghanistan. But the face of global conflict is ever-changing. In Out of the Mountains , David Kilcullen, one of the world's leading experts on current and future conflict, offers a groundbreaking look at what may happen after today's wars end. This is a book about future conflicts and future cities, and about the challenges and opportunities that four powerful megatrends--population, urbanization, coastal settlement, and connectedness--are creating across the planet. And it is about what cities, communities and businesses can do to prepare for a future in which all aspects of human society--including, but not limited to, conflict, crime and violence--are changing at an unprecedented pace. Kilcullen argues that conflict is increasingly likely to occur in sprawling coastal cities, in peri-urban slum settlements that are enveloping many regions of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia, and in highly connected, electronically networked settings. He suggests that cities, rather than countries, are the critical unit of analysis for future conflict and that resiliency, not stability, will be the key objective. Ranging across the globe--from Kingston to Mogadishu to Lagos to Benghazi to Mumbai--he offers a unified theory of "competitive control" that explains how non-state armed groups such as drug cartels, street gangs, and warlords draw their strength from local populations, providing useful ideas for dealing with these groups and with diffuse social conflicts in general. His extensive fieldwork on the ground in a series of urban conflicts suggests that there will be no military solution for many of the struggles we will face in the future. We will need to involve local people deeply to address problems that neither outsiders nor locals alone can solve, drawing on the insight only locals can bring, together with outsider knowledge from fields like urban planning, systems engineering, renewable energy, conflict resolution and mediation. This deeply researched and compellingly argued book provides an invaluable roadmap to a future that will increasingly be crowded, urban, coastal, connected--and dangerous.
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- Basic intel, S2 Book Club
- Topics
- GWOT, Guerrilla / COIN, Middle East, Intel history, Strategy / theory
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press · 2013
- ISBN
- 9780199737505
S2 Book Club episode for Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla Open Library, Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla
Details for Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
Description (from Goodreads):
S2 Book Club selection. Episode: S2 Book Club: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- Special ops, Naval
- ISBN
- 9780842308243
S2 Book Club episode for Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage Open Library, Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
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Details for Last Boat Out of Shanghai
Description (from Goodreads):
S2 Book Club selection. Episode: S2 Book Club - Last Boat Out of Shanghai
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- China, Cold War
- ISBN
- 9780345522337
S2 Book Club episode for Last Boat Out of Shanghai Open Library, Last Boat Out of Shanghai
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Details for Logistics in the Falklands War
Description (from Goodreads):
S2 Book Club selection. Episode: S2 Book Club: Logistics in the Falklands
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- Logistics, Naval, Special ops
- ISBN
- 9781473899049
S2 Book Club episode for Logistics in the Falklands War Open Library, Logistics in the Falklands War
Details for The 33 Strategies of War
Description (from Goodreads):
S2 Book Club selection. Episode: S2 Book Club: 33 Strategies of War
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- Strategy / theory, Guerrilla / COIN
- ISBN
- 9780143112785
S2 Book Club episode for The 33 Strategies of War Open Library, The 33 Strategies of War
Details for The Fourth Turning
Description (from Goodreads):
S2 Book Club selection. Episode: S2 Book Club: The Fourth Turning
- Shelf
- Read
- S2 lists
- S2 Book Club
- Topics
- Strategy / theory, Economics
- ISBN
- 9780767900461
S2 Book Club episode for The Fourth Turning Open Library, The Fourth Turning