Killing Lincoln
Killing Kennedy
Killing Jesus
Killing Patton
Killing Reagan
Killing the Rising Sun
Killing England

They are 'written' by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. I really wonder how much work O'Reilly put into them; I suspect Dugard did most of the work and O'Reilly's name is there to sell more books.


I'm on "England" right now. I've read the entire series, and I think they are good books for understanding the historical contexts of each event (the last two are about the defeat of Japan and England, respectively - they used 'killing' in their titles to tie them into the rest of the book series). They were all good reading. I noticed the author(s?) goes off-track for quite awhile in the Rising Sun book, as he covers a WIDE range of topics relating to the war. I don't mind this, as he covers the widespread, condoned, and systemic atrocities committed by Japan throughout the war, and I don't think this is taught in schools anywhere. Therefore, casual readers are exposed to a lot of details about the war that may be 'new' to them. This is important, IMO, as it's vital to remember history accurately.

I didn't like Killing Jesus very much. Too much of the book was taken up giving graphic details of the horrid atrocities perpetrated by the various Caesars and other rulers. I understand getting a historical context, but the author seemed to spend too much time giving details that weren't entirely relevant. It was sickening to read of these events (that I will NOT divulge here), and the amount of pages dedicated to them make me suspect they were padding to make the book long enough to print. Either that, or the author had a sick obsession with them.

He also seemed to imply feelings and motivations by Jesus that can't be confirmed as authentic. He would state or imply what Jesus was thinking, when there is NO evidence of such thoughts. The book tried to do a 'non-religious historical' account of Jesus' life, while admitting that non-Biblical accounts didn't 'notice' Jesus until His last 3 years (when He left His 'normal' life and entered ministry and started to make a name for Himself).

Reagan was good, as it gave a broader context to the 80s (the first time I was even vaguely aware of the political climate, due to my age). I never knew that much about Ronaldus Maximus, so it was a good general bio of his life (the book covered his assignation attempt, though (obviously) it was unsuccessful).

Patton was really good, too, and convinces me there really was some plot to murder him.



Anybody else read the series? Are there any more books planned, in light of O'Reilly getting canned due to his harassment history? I was hopping Dugard would continue the series, now that it's established.


Edit: I got "England" as a Christmas present, but I bought all the others at Goodwill/Salvation Army/Arc thrift stores. Goodwill sells them for $3 each, and scrounging for good used books is a hobby of mine. Beats the heck out of the $30 cover price. I love reading, but don't like paying that much money for any book.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
I didn't like Killing Jesus very much.

That was my favorite one.

Kennedy was another good one. It really gave you a sense of just how incompetent the man was. The 1960 version of Hadji.

Reagan, to me, seemed like one big hit piece. Didn't care for that one at all.

First of all, they may be great books, but that's about the stupidest naming convention for a series I've ever seen.

Secondly, I'm not interested in anything written by Bill "Heavy Weapons" O'Reilly.

Lightweight "pop" history. A fast read.

I've gone through most of them. Killing Jesus was my favorite as well.

Killing the Rising Sun was ok. Worth a read but nothing I would be clamoring to read again and it was kind of short. It was basically a long essay justifying the use of nukes to end WW2 but I didn't really learn much from it. I did find the little anecdotes about Oppenheimer interesting but that was about it.

quote:

Originally posted by EasyFire:
Lightweight "pop" history. A fast read.

I suppose so. I specialize in WWII history (air and naval), so Rising Sun didn't teach me much new that I already didn't know. I didn't know much about Patton's actual campaigns (though I saw the movie "Patton" about 30 times and visited his grave when I was stationed in Germany). I just finished "England" and it was a good, fast read. I hadn't read any books on the American Revolution since high school American History class (though I found "1776" at a Goodwill store and plan to read it soon, as this promises to be a much more in-depth account of the war), so most of it was news to me.

I did notice in the past two books that the author(s) are definitely obsessed with sex - from describing, in detail, sexual assaults against women to various historical affairs (FDR, IKE, Benjamin Franklin, - I really don't want to read about how these people couldn't stay faithful to their wives). It was really heavy-handed and over-done. Despite the emphases on this aspect of human history, they are good for people that want a 'quick overview' of an era (as stated, I am glad for "Rising Sun" being so popular, as many Americans don't know jack about WWII history today).

If they write more books, I'll eventually read them.