Comparison of a Woman in Berlin and the Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier

Comparison of a Woman in Berlin and the Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier

Herb H. Hanson
History 311
May 13th 2010.

An Anonymous Woman and an Napoleonic Foot Soldier.

Throughout this semester we have read from a number of books. The Diary of A Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter, Confronting War by Ronald J. Glossup, Silent Night by Stanley Weintraub, and a good three or four more books to boot. Out of all the books, The Diary of a Napoleanic Foot Soldier and A Woman in Berlin, by Anonymous, are the only two which take a look at war and the results of war through an eyewitnesses account. This is why I am going to write about the similarities and differences of these two books and will first begin with what is earned and given in reading a book about war which was a persons diary at the time.
To me, when I read a book that was written by someone who read about an event in history, or an encyclopedia, or some other means than a good hearty first hand account, I can't help but sit back and second guess every single word that is written. To me it is difficult to accept someones interpretation of events in history when that person wasn't even their in the first place. I come across this all the time in my own life. I admit that my time in Iraq wasn't a daily battle like some soldiers lives were in Vietnam or World War Two, but when I read a newspaper article about what someone feels about Iraq or read in a book about what is going on in Iraq and they are written by someone who has never set foot in Iraq, let alone left the North American Continent, I view it the same way as someone who has googled rape a lot in their life and then wants to tell people what it is like to have been raped. On the other hand, when I read these two books, The Diary of a Napoleanic Foot Soldier and A Woman in Berlin, I accept almost everything that is written as fact, real, and above all genuine. Not just because they went through these events themselves, but I view them as genuine to the other people who have gone through the same events...

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