February
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What are people in the Roger Williams University community reading? The From the Nightstand team asks which books are on people’s nightstands—either being read, or waiting to be read.
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Professor Jeffrey Meriwether
Current Reads: Wrong Turn by Gian Gentile. Out of the Mountains by David Kilcullen. And the U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Manual. With unique perspectives, each book focuses on the United States’ involvement and strategy in the Middle East—specifically looking at the relationships between counterinsurgency and modern warfare. On a slightly different tact, Simon Harrison’s Dark Trophies explores the macabre subject of soldiers that “collect war trophies taken from POWs and KIAs, and why they do it… it’s a terrible and fascinating story.”
Upcoming Reads: Absolute Destruction by Isabel Hull, which chronicles the rise of the German Imperial Army, from its genocides in colonial Southwest Africa to the battlefields of Europe in the first world war. “Also, in anticipation of the upcoming 100th anniversary of World War I, I can’t wait to read From Boer War to World War by Spencer Jones, and The War that Ended Peace by Oxford Professor Margaret MacMillan, who also wrote Paris 1919.”
Memorable Reads: Any of the various series of British historical fiction by R.F. Delderfield. God is an Englishman. A Horseman Riding By. Theirs Was the Kingdom. All Over the Town. “And especially To Serve Them All My Days—a true classic about a man who returns from the Great War to work as headmaster at his old school.”
Essential Reads: The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville. “Saville has created an amazing alternate history in which Germany essentially wins World War II and extends its Holocaust to Africa.”
Dr. Jeffrey Meriwether is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History and American Studies. He has been at RWU since 2001.
Interview conducted by Zachary Mobrice
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