List #7: Witness to the End...
I recently became obsessed about the end of wars. It started, not intentionally, with the book, Bloody Crimes about the last days of the Civil War. I can't imagine what the country went through to heal and come together. Lincoln was assassinated and Jefferson Davis was trying to evade capture to keep the Confederate cause alive, even after General Lee surrender. It’s unlikely the country will ever endure such a period of turbulence again. I began to wonder how people behave at the end of wars, at the end of causes. Why do some fight to the end, even when it's hopeless. What’s left for the living? How do the victors conduct themselves and how do the defeated return to society? In putting together this list, I found my interest goes all the way back to my junior high years when I was fascinated by WWII. The book Hitler: The Last Ten Days was my earliest purchase. The rest came in the last several years--mostly World War ...