Over the last couple of weeks, I spent alot of time on planes and trains, and therefore did a large amount of reading. Included in this was about 600 pages worth of Hitchens...which made me realize just how woefully inadequate my understanding of some major 20th century history is (thanks a lot, American school system). So, I'm looking for recomendations for books on the following topics:
-The Pinochet regime in Chile, from the lead-up to the overthrow of Allende, all of the CIA involvement/support, through the fall of Pinochet.
-A good solid history of WWII. Not specifically a military history or something holocaust or Hitler-centric, but something that pulls the political, military, social and cause-and-effect together for all of the countries involved. Yes, I know there's unlikely to be anything that meets this definitation that is less than 600 pages, but that's fine. The more objective, the better.
-A history of Stalinism, possibly something that goes back as early as the Bolshevik revolution
-A history of the rise & reign of Hitler...preferably something more academic and focusing on the politics, rather that the "Hitler was a bad man!" genre.
-A recent history of Iran (last 50-100 years), covering the external forces behind installatallation (and removal) of the Shahs.
-Something covering the before, during and after of the Vietnam war...without whitewashing US miscalculations, stupidity or general horribleness.
In fairness, I'll make a few recommendations myself:
-Gulag: A History (
https://www.amazon.com/Gulag-History-Anne-Applebaum/dp/1400034094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325437332&sr=1-1). Covers all aspects of the origins, operations and life of the Soviet prison camp system, and covers the relevant aspects of Soviet political history. Excellent, but very unsettling.
-The Aquariums of Pyongyang (
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_3?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=aquariums+of+pyongyang&sprefix=aqu). A first-hand account of the DPRK prison camp system, with a few chapters on acclimation to like outside DPRK after the author escapes the country. Offers some insights into the political climate both inside the country and outside in the (very naive) pro-Kim Il-Sung groups on Japan and elsewhere.
-Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy (
https://www.amazon.com/Cataclysm-First-World-Political-Tragedy/dp/0465081851/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325448081&sr=1-1). I'm only maybe 1/3 of the way thorugh this. but it's thorough, even-handed and fairly academic. It organizes by themes or components within a country, rather than being purely chronological, and so is a bit more "holistic".