Author Discussion: Cornelius Ryan vs. Ian Kershaw

Both are respected historians of their time. Cornelius Ryan has written several famous books that wound up being movies, and Ian Kershaw seems to be the kind of author that likes to indulge in great detail and has written many respected volumes of works such as his biography on Adolf Hitler. Which of of the two authors would you prefer and why?

 

Kershaw. Possibly only because of my youth. I read Ryan for the first time in Secondary and High School, along with others. Good reads to keep me interested in those formative years, but lacking detail. Kershaw is an excellent writer who elaborates with tremendous detail and retains the reader. Also, Kershaw, being a modern WW2 author, has the luxury or up to date information. That helps.

 

Ryan. Ryan was a journalist so much more 'reportage' in his books. 'Bridge too Far' was a seminal work. As was 'The longest Day'..to the extent that those titles ARE Ryan's. Been a while since I've read it, but from what I recall, a real 'page-turner'. Kershaw is an 'academic' so his style is that much more 'dry'. I didn't really enjoy his last, 'The End' - it just felt like he was (re) stating the obvious most of the time...

 

I agree with KJ Jr. Its always beneficial to have the most recent up to date information, and although I haven't yet read Kershaw, I do know he has a good reputation for being very into detail like William Manchester, which is something I really like. But Cornelius Ryan is by far one of the best authors I have read. The Longest Day is one of the best narratives of D-Day I have read.

 

Ryan. His books are excellent. Informative and entertaining. He only wrote three: The Last Battle, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far. The former is not nearly as well-known as the latter two.

 

He also wrote two books with Frank Kelley
Star Spangled Mikado: https://archive.org/details/starspangledmika00kellrich
MacArthur: Man of Action: https://archive.org/details/macarthurmanofac002421mbp

Ryan also wrote "One Minute to Ditch!"(a collection of aircraft survival stories)

 

Interesting. I wasn't aware he wrote full-length books while he was a reporter. Thanks for the links.

 

I'll sit on the fence here and say that I enjoy reading both - but they are poles apart in style. Kershaw is a respected academic and one of his books - his enormous 2-volume Hitler biography - is currently regarded as a standard reference work in its field.

Ryan was one of a select group of front-line Allied journalists ( along with such as Chester Wilmot and Fred McKenzie ) in WWII and writes in a much more 'readable' style but his books do not pretend to be works of academic reference. Wilmot relies more on first-hand interviews and accounts whereas Kershaw's research is based more on archival work and original documents.