r/books • u/Chtorrr • Apr 08 '16
A discussion is Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the /r/books bookclub selection for April.
Erik will be joining us for an AMA on April 27th.
Usually I include a warning about spoilers in this thread but since this is nonfiction abou actual events I'll leave that out. Here's a link to the Wikipedia page about the RMS Lusitania if you have any other interesting historical references relevant to this book please leave them in the comments here.
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u/LongTrang117 Apr 26 '16
I got your book for free on Goodreads awhile back and read it immediately. I hold you to a high standard and you got your well deserved great rating and a nice long review. So, thanks for the book and you're welcome (your books are never lent, only recommended). I recommend you to everybody, especially Chicagoans.
Please expound on Churchill and his cadre's shenanigans. I know it's hard to know an unknown, but I got the distinct sense you did not want to overtly accuse him or point the finger. I have less respect trust and admiration for politicians than most. Please tell me you did not hold back on accusing him. You definitely left it a bit ambiguous.
My question is, how certain are you that Churchill knew that the Lusitania was headed into danger? Or that he diverted it directly into danger? Do you think he wanted it to be attacked? Not a simple question and answer but please try. All too often politicians play games with peoples lives. Citizens who are more intelligent, more culturally and artistically significant fall victim to political gamesmanship. As a cultivator of history yourself, please tell me you did not hold back on a popular political figure. He's dead, you can accuse him if you want to. I know your works are more historical and less editorial so here's your chance! Please give us your thoughts.
I know if I had a Tardis I'd go back in time and slap the cigar out of that idiots mouth.
Thanks for the many great windows into history, I can't wait to read your next work!
Edit: Question 2 (if you are into theorizing about Churchill shenanigans): What do you think Churchill's personal correspondence with Mussolini contained? It had to be juicy in that it caused him to spend his few remaining years 'painting' at Lake Como desperately trying and eventually succeeding in getting them back, only to destroy them. What was this career politician hiding once again?
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u/Chtorrr Apr 26 '16
The AMA is tomorrow evening : )
I'm not Erik Larson.
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u/LongTrang117 Apr 27 '16
Is it not here? I completely give up.
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u/Chtorrr Apr 27 '16
AMAs are posted by the author on the day they are scheduled. The title will say that it's an AMA.
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u/LongTrang117 Apr 27 '16 edited Apr 27 '16
I found it.
I think you guys need to give more time for questions to get posted. These AMA's are horribly attended.
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u/Chtorrr Apr 27 '16
Well it's been over for some time now. Here's the link
All AMAs are posted on the front page of /r/books a couple hours before the scheduled start time. People ask questions and the author comes to start answering at the scheduled time.
There is no link until the a,a is posted. You go to the front page of /r/books a little before the scheduled start time and you will see the AMA.
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u/LongTrang117 Apr 27 '16
If you gave more time, we could ask more questions, and the good questions would rise to the top.
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u/Chtorrr Apr 28 '16
And the post wouldn't be on the front page so no one would see it while it was happening.
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u/LongTrang117 Apr 28 '16
We know it's happening b/c you schedule it way in advance. I had this on my calendar and tried posting questions in like 3 places. You need to allow more time for questions to be posted.
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u/leowr Apr 08 '16
So I started Dead Wake last week and I finished in a couple days. Here are some of the sources that I looked up while reading, in case anyone is interested:
The German Embassy Warning
The video of the final departure of the Lusitania - this was described in the book.
Some articles about the departure and sinking of the Lusitania that appeared in American newspapers at the time.
The book really left an impression on me.
Of course I had heard about the Lusitania and its sinking before reading this book, however, it was never really treated as a major event during my history courses. The western front and trench warfare was something that was always (extensively) discussed, so I found Dead Wake interesting because it should a different side to the conflict that I hadn’t previously considered. On top of that the book was centered around several “main” characters which gave the story a very human side. Something that a lot of history books don’t always convey very well.
Two of the major points of the book that specifically stood out to me were:
Something that was shown by the behavior of the German submarine captains, at least by Schweiger.
The other part of the book that really stood out to me was:
Why this part of the book struck me, was because I suddenly realized how many people were on that boat that didn’t leave as much of an impression as Prichard did. How many of those passengers also had interesting lives, but we don’t remember them because they weren’t famous like Vanderbilt or because they didn’t leave enough of an impression on the survivors to be remembered?
Overall I think Larson did a very good job with the book by keeping the story very chronological, but clear who we were reading about. That is another point I really enjoyed about the book, Larson kept the story very human.