I know many of us here enjoy reading history books.

Question:
Which U.S. war interests you the most? And if you feel like sharing, which aspect(s) of that war do you find most interesting?

Choices:
Revolutionary War
War of 1812
Mexican-American War
Civil War
Spanish-American War
WWI
WWII
Korea
VietNam
The Gulf Wars

 

WWII for certain.

I voted WW1 (Great War). Pretty much the entire History of the 20th Century comes from the aftermath of that War.

The “Long 19th Century” began on/about 1789 with the French Revolution and lasted until 1914 with the Sarajevo Assassination. WW1 has cast a “Long Shadow” on events that exist even unto today, especially in the Mid-East region.

In this order:

WWII
Civil War
WWI
Cold War (if I may include such)
Vietnam
Korean War
Revolutionary war

others in no particular order

WWII without a doubt. The reasons:

-My dad and most of my uncles served during the war.
-Lots of movies/television shows about it when I was growing up fueled an interest.
-The fact that the entire country and population united and mobilized behind a single goal. I doubt we will ever see another effort such as this again.

WW2 because my grandfather was a Marine in the South Pacific and he told me some great stories about his time there.

quote:

Originally posted by tk13:
WWII without a doubt. The reasons:

-My dad and most of my uncles served during the war.
-Lots of movies/television shows about it when I was growing up fueled an interest.
-The fact that the entire country and population united and mobilized behind a single goal. I doubt we will ever see another effort such as this again.

This is the answer for me as well. There is good reason why it is called 'The Greatest Generation'.

Jim

No interest in the Midnight War??

WWII has the most interest for me, followed by the Civil War and WWI.

But the story of President Wilson's bowing to the British/French idea to (and, to quote Dave Barry, "I'm not making this up") try to get Russia back into WWI on the Allied side, by having the Allies invade Russia to intervene in their civil war is fascinating, and a very good object lesson on the fallacy of blindly going along to get along.

It did happen, on a comparatively small scale relative to the Western Front battles, and surprisingly the US kicked some butt even in winter fighting against the Bolsheviks, till someone with sense figured out it was pointless, and we made like bananas and split.

Not a history buff, but WWII probably interests me the most, particularly when it comes to espionage/special operations. Been reading bits of pieces here and there, and watching the occasional documentary, on OSS/SOE operations. Still looking for some good books on the subject.

Its a tie for me. Revolutionary and Civil.
Revolutionary for the aspect of a tiny country taking on the worlds superpower of the era and how close we came to losing.
Civil for the huge sacrifice and courage shown by both sides.

I'm a huge WW2 history nerd. I devour everything about it. I've been reading about and studying WW2 for 20ish years.

Second would be WW1 (or World War Part 1, depending on how you look at it...)

I am a huge nerd of military history.
I even got a BA and working on an MA in the subject.

I am torn:

World War Two and Vietnam
My paternal grandfather slugged his way through the Pacific Island campaign so that has always swayed me, but I am also an armor guy at heart so I will stop everything to read anything armor related.

My father was in Vietnam attached to an Armored Cav unit in the Song Be region. His stories along with the introduction of the Air Mobile Units, along with SF working with the Montagnards makes for some interesting reads.

I am starting to read more on the Korean War to broaden my horizons.

I would like to know more about the Korean War because I don't know much about it.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I would like to know more about the Korean War because I don't know much about it.

I felt the same way, so I'm currently almost finished with Max Hasting's "The Korean War". It's a good single-volume overview.

quote:

Originally posted by tk13:

-The fact that the entire country and population united and mobilized behind a single goal. I doubt we will ever see another effort such as this again.

I voted for the Civil War because I am currently reading Bruce Catton's "Grant Takes Command". But I recently read Ian Toll's "The Conquering Tide" and was amazed at the production effort the U.S. could achieve when focused on that single goal.

At Guadalcanal (Aug. 1942), the Navy task force consisted of 3 fleet carriers, 1 fast battleship, 9 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 31 destroyers.

Just 2 years later, at the Battle of the Philippine Sea (June 1944), the Navy brought 7 fleet carriers, 8 light carriers, 7 fast battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 13 light cruisers, and 70 destroyers.

Except for the fact that I became deeply interested in World War II in my teens nearly 60 years ago and my father served in the European Theater, it would be easier to strike off the ones I haven’t ever had a lot of interest in. More of my recent reading, including what I’m reading at present, has been about the Gulf Wars, but I just finished a semi-fictional account of naval actions in the War of 1812, so I’m hardly limited to one.

Having served in Vietnam myself actually made it harder in some ways for me to delve as deeply into that conflict for emotional reasons. It’s easier to remain intellectually detached from things I have not participated in. I think I saw something similar in my father who was affected much more strongly by his experiences.

As I would also add the Cold War to the list. I have read countless books about the secret activities of both sides.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
I would like to know more about the Korean War because I don't know much about it.

Have you read “On Desperate Ground” by Hampton Sides? Like many other authors, it focuses on the Marines and Chosin Reservoir, but there’s new research, some original viewpoints, and a closer look at MacArthur’s leadership during the Korean War.

For myself, WWII and Vietnam.
My dad and all my uncles were WWII vets. As others have said, growing up, the War was omnipresent. We built model airplanes, dug foxholes, played with toy soldiers, listened to the stories and watched the movies.

Vietnam, because that’s the war of my generation.

1. The next one.
2. WWII
3. The War Between the States
4. The Revolutionary War
5. WWI

WW1: and the subsequent treaty (Armistice) which pissed off Germany and lead to WWII.

Not a US war but, Russo-Finland War, 1940. The "Winter War" which led Hitler into believing the Soviet armies were a pushover.

Korea: MacArthur's inept intelligence on China's entry into the war after he entered deep into North Korea.

WW2, because my grandfather, father and most of my friends fathers were in it. Enough time has passed and it was well documented so you have an almost unlimited amount of material to read/study.
WW1 is something I wish I knew more about because it has had a profound effect on shaping many things since then, mostly in a negative way.
The short version is we did many things right after WW2, most things wrong after WW1.
Unfortunately there are a number of things we have done wrong repeatedly and since many younger folks don't seem to have much interest in history, will continue to get wrong.
History can be a great teacher if you just take a little time to understand it and costs a lot less than the alternative.