@Grunk i located the John Reed book you recommended a while back that I lost and dove into it last night. Made it through the first 4 essays. Very interesting viewpoints and way different than anything I have read before.
I am really enjoying his writing style and how concise he keeps things. Still had to reread more than a few paragraphs to make sure I was grasping his point before moving on lol
One thing that really stuck out to me was in the Traders War essay regarding the German Empire in the early 1900s he says "and other such jingo organizations depends on the fact that nice Germans out of ten read history that way." Reminds me of the quote that history is written by the victors and makes me wonder what stuff I missed in the Public School education system