Book picks similar to
Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870-1945 by Nancy Ruth Reagin
german-history
philosophy
germanic
humankind-plus
Hitler's Soldiers: The German Army in the Third Reich
Ben H. Shepherd - 2016
Ben Shepherd draws on a wealth of primary sources and recent scholarship to convey a much darker, more complex picture. For the first time, the German army is examined throughout the Second World War, across all combat theaters and occupied regions, and from multiple perspectives: its battle performance, social composition, relationship with the Nazi state, and involvement in war crimes and military occupation. This was a true people’s army, drawn from across German society and reflecting that society as it existed under the Nazis. Without the army and its conquests abroad, Shepherd explains, the Nazi regime could not have perpetrated its crimes against Jews, prisoners of war, and civilians in occupied countries. The author examines how the army was complicit in these crimes and why some soldiers, units, and higher commands were more complicit than others. Shepherd also reveals the reasons for the army’s early battlefield successes and its mounting defeats up to 1945, the latter due not only to Allied superiority and Hitler’s mismanagement as commander-in-chief, but also to the failings—moral, political, economic, strategic, and operational—of the army’s own leadership.
World War II Auschwitz: A History From Beginning to End
Hourly History - 2017
It is the site where more than one million people were systematically tortured and killed in support of Adolf Hitler's determination to eradicate entire populations that he viewed as racially impure. Dr. Josef Mengele conducted horrific experiments on live victims, treating his subjects as if they weren't human. The Jews, homosexuals, Communists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the mentally and physically disabled were less than human to the Nazis. The "Final Solution," a cornerstone of Nazi ideology, enacted a devastating sentence upon people whose only crime was their ethnic origin or their religious and political beliefs. But the voices of Auschwitz continue to be heard. Anne Frank's diary speaks for all the innocent who were sent there. Elie Wiesel spent his life speaking out against the horrors he and others endured at Auschwitz. The recorded histories of the survivors of the camps keep the memories alive for generations whose only knowledge of the Holocaust would otherwise be through a school assignment to read The Diary of Anne Frank or by watching a movie like Schindler's List. Auschwitz holds a bizarre fascination for those who hear about it; how could such evil thrive? How could an entire nation surrender to the rantings of a diabolical man who sought revenge against the followers of a religion? The names reverberate in a gallery of maniacs who purported to be leaders: Hitler, Goebbels, Mengele, Goering, Himmler, and the countless others who supported them. Inside you will read about... - Adolf Hitler and the Preservation of the Aryan Race - The Nazis in Charge - The Final Solution to the Jewish Question - The Angel of Death - Life in Auschwitz - Liberation and Judgment And much more! Germany today is staunch in its refusal to allow Nazism to thrive. The nation that built Auschwitz and employed its Final Solution is now the country that has enacted legislation to prevent the Holocaust from being repeated. But hatred is contagious. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once observed, Adolf Hitler operated within the law when he committed his vile acts. They were laws that he created. Evil can triumph if people allow it to do so. Today, Auschwitz is a museum where people can see for themselves the terrible extent to which humanity can hate. But Auschwitz is also a warning to subsequent generations. Do not be fooled into thinking that any ethnic group, any nation, any religion is safe. When demagoguery and prejudice are allowed to legislate their evil, genocide becomes a solution to a problem rather than an unthinkable act. It happened once; it can happen again. The survivors and the victims alike want their story to be told, lest we forget.
The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918-1923
Chris Harman - 1982
Here, Chris Harman unearths the history of the lost revolution in Germany, and reveals its lessons for the future struggles for a better world.
Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk
Len Deighton - 1979
Len Deighton brings to bear all the skills of a best-selling novelist in this compelling study.In Blitzkrieg, Len Deighton turns a searchlight on the rise of Hitler, the lightning dash of his armies to the Channel coast in 1940 and on the debacle of Dunkirk, where — in a mistake that was to trigger his eventual downfall — a quarter of a million British troops were allowed to escape.
The Political Testament Of Adolf Hitler: Recorded By Martin Bormann
Adolf Hitler - 1978
These are the "Bormann-Hitler" transcripts of conversations in February-April 2, 1945
The Hitler of History
John Lukacs - 1997
. . serious, entertaining, provocative and distinctive." --Cleveland Plain Dealer In the fifty years since his suicide amid the ruins of Berlin, Adolf Hitler has been the subject of more biographies than any comparable figure of our time--and at the center of a crucial historical debate over the nature of evil and moral responsibility in the twentieth century. In this brilliant and original book, the historian John Lukacs climbs above the fray to produce a definitive "history of a history: the history of the evolution of our understanding of Hitler's life and our debates about its meaning."Like an expert attorney, Lukacs puts the biographies on trial, identifying their strengths, weaknesses, and hidden agendas. And through their intersecting and conflicting accounts, he addresses the enduring enigmas surrounding the demiurge of the Third Reich. Was Hitler a revolutionary or a reactionary? How successful was he as a statesman and a strategist? What was his primary motive for the extermination of the Jews? The Hitler of History answers these questions as fully as any modern work can hope to, with an intellectual boldness that makes it absolutely essential to any understanding of the post-Hitler world."Lukacs is a shrewd historian and an engaging writer . . . a sharp and sober portrait." --Philadelphia Inquirer
The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders
Ernst Klee - 1988
This gruesomely sentimental and unmistakably authentic title introduces an disturbing collection of photographs, diaries, letters home, and confidential reports created by the executioners and sympathetic observers of the Holocaust. "The Good Old Days" reveals startling new evidence of the inhumanity of recent twentieth century history and is published now as yet another irrefutable response to the revisionist historians who claim to doubt the historic truth of the Holocaust.
Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany
Frederick Taylor - 2011
Only the fall of the Roman Empire fifteen hundred years earlier compares to the destruction visited on Germany. The country's cities lay in ruins, its economic base devastated. The German people stood at the brink of starvation, millions of them still in POW camps. This was the starting point as the Allies set out to build a humane, democratic nation on the ruins of the vanquished Nazi state-arguably the most monstrous regime the world has ever seen.In Exorcising Hitler, master historian Frederick Taylor tells the story of Germany's Year Zero and what came next. He describes the bitter endgame of war, the murderous Nazi resistance, the vast displacement of people in Central and Eastern Europe, and the nascent cold war struggle between Soviet and Western occupiers. The occupation was a tale of rivalries, cynical realpolitik, and blunders, but also of heroism, ingenuity, and determination-not least that of the German people, who shook off the nightmare of Nazism and rebuilt their battered country.Weaving together accounts of occupiers and Germans, high and low alike Exorcising Hitler is a tour de force of both scholarship and storytelling, the first comprehensive account of this critical episode in modern history.
Meditations: Adapted for the Contemporary Reader (Harris Classics)
James Harris - 2016
Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. These books have been carefully adapted into a contemporary form to allow for easy reading.
Heidegger: An Essential Guide For Complete Beginners
Michael Watts - 2014
He is a master at this!” (Roy Martinez, Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Spelman College, Atlanta, USA).“To write clearly and accessibly, and yet present a philosopher’s ideas without trivialising or distorting them requires considerable intellectual discipline. This challenge is, arguably, all the more severe in the case of philosophers such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein…Michael Watts has understood his responsibilities to the ‘newcomer’ very well.” (Extract from The Philosophers’ Magazine [Summer 2002] review by Jonathan Derbyshire, Culture Editor of New Statesman and Managing Editor of Prospect).“Michael Watts gives an exceptionally clear and readable account of Being and Time, while also performing the difficult feat of weaving this into an account of Heidegger’s later writings. He provides valuable guidance for the beginner through the complexities of Heidegger’s thought and much of interest for those who are already ‘on the way’.” (Michael Inwood, Trinity College, Oxford).Ideal for complete beginners, this is an exceptionally readable and reliable overview of Heidegger's thought, refreshingly free from the complex jargon typical of most academic philosophy. Full of concrete examples, Watts provides easy access to key Heideggerian notions of authenticity, falling, throwness, angst, guilt, conscience, technology and death, while also navigating the difficult relationship between earlier and later texts, to provide readers with a strong sense of the overall continuity of the Heidegger's thought. About the Author Philosophy Publications:1.The Philosophy of Heidegger, Acumen Publishing, Durham (2011)2.Kierkegaard, Oneworld Publications, Oxford (2003) E book version: Kierkegaard: An Essential Introduction3.Heidegger: A Beginner’s Guide, Hodder and Stoughton Educational, London, (2001) 4.Heidegger: A Beginner’s Guide, Spanish Language Edition: Heidegger Guia para Jovenes, Logues Ediciones, Madrid (2003)5.Heidegger: A Beginner’s Guide, Korean Language Edition: Korean Translation Joong-Ang Inc. Seoul, (2006)Psychology Publications:6.Doodle Interpretation: A Beginner's Guide, Hodder and Stoughton Educational, London (2000)7.Lovescript: What Handwriting Reveals About Love & Romance, St Martins Griffin, New York, (1996)8.The Naked Hand: Sexuality Revealed Through Handwriting, Headline Book Publishing, London (1995)9.Graphology: What Your Handwriting Reveals About You, Your Friends and Your Enemies, Simon & Schuster, New York (1991)Michael Watts graduated with honors in 1980 in Experimental Psychology, (Sussex University, UK). Continuing with post-graduate research in Graphology, he became a personnel consultant for companies worldwide, and in 1983 assisted the Security Commission in Whitehall.Writing for numerous magazines and national newspapers in the UK and USA, he has also been a frequent guest on radio and television (ITV, BBC and Sky News channels).An independent scholar and writer, his specialist interests are in philosophy, in particular in the practical application of East Asian thinking and Western Existentialism.
Airborne (The Airborne Trilogy)
Robert Radcliffe - 2017
In what will become known as the Battle of Arnhem, half of them will fall as casualties of war. Among their number is Theo Trickey, a young paratrooper so dreadfully injured he is not expected to survive.Under the care of Medical Officer Captain Daniel Garland, Trickey is shipped to Germany as a Prisoner of War. As Garland slowly nurses him back to health, he discovers that there's much that is unusual about Trickey, starting with a chance meeting he had with Erwin Rommel before the War...From the bestselling author of Under an English Heaven, Airborne is the first in an unforgettable trilogy that tells the story of a young soldier, of a new regiment and how, together, they altered the course of a war.
With Our Backs to Berlin
Tony Le Tissier - 2001
British and American troops were poised to cross the River Rhine in the west, while in the East the vast Soviet war machine was steam-rolling the soldiers of the Third Reich back towards the capital, Berlin. Even in retreat, the German Army was still a force to be reckoned with and vigorously defended every last bridge, castle, town and village against the massive Russian onslaught. Tony Le Tissier has interviewed a wide range of former German Army and SS soldiers to provide ten vivid first-hand accounts of the fighting retreat that, for one soldier, ended in Hitler's Chancellery building in the ruins of Berlin in April 1945. The dramatic descriptions of combat are contrasted with insights into the human dimension of these desperate battles, reminding the reader that many of the German soldiers whose stories we read shared similar values to the average British 'Tommy' or the American GI and were not all crazed Nazis. Illustrated with photographs of the main characters and specially commissioned maps identifying the location and course of the battles, With Our Backs to Berlin is a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in the final days of the Second World War.
Building Bone Vitality: A Revolutionary Diet Plan to Prevent Bone Loss and Reverse Osteoporosis--Without Dairy Foods, Calcium, Estrogen, or Drugs
Amy Lanou - 2009
Dairy products don't strengthen bones. Drugs may be dangerous.For years, doctors have been telling us to drink milk, eat dairy products, and take calcium pills to improve our bone vitality. The problem is, they're wrong. This groundbreaking guide uses the latest clinical studies and the most up-to-date medical information to help you strengthen your bones, reduce the risk of fractures, and prevent osteoporosis. You'll learn why there's no proof of calcium's effectiveness, despite what doctors say, and why a low-acid diet is the only effective way to prevent bone loss."This clear, convincing explanation of osteoporosis will change the way the world thinks about bone health. Lanou and Castleman prove beyond doubt that milk and dairy are the problem, not the solution." -Rory Freedman, coauthor of #1 New York Times best seller Skinny Bitch"The authors have tackled an almost intractable myth: that calcium is the one and only key to bone vitality. It isn't. Everyone who cares about preventing osteoporosis should read this book." -- Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study
Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany
Robert Gellately - 2001
Now, in this well-documented and provocative volume, historian Robert Gellately argues that the majority of German citizens had quite a clear picture of the extent of Nazi atrocities, and continued to support the Reich to the bitter end. Culling chilling evidence from primary news sources and citing dozens of case studies, Gellately shows how media reports and press stories were an essential dimension of Hitler's popular dictatorship. Indeed, a vast array of material on the concentration camps, the violent campaigns against social outsiders, and the Nazis' radical approaches to law and order was published in the media of the day, and was widely read by a highly literate population of Germans. Hitler, Gellately reveals, did not try to hide the existence of the Gestapo or of concentration camps. Nor did the Nazis try to cow the people into submission. Instead they set out to win converts by building on popular images, cherished ideals, and long-held phobias. And their efforts succeeded, Gellately concludes, for the Gestapo's monstrous success was due, in large part, to ordinary German citizens who singled out suspected enemies in their midst, reporting their suspicions and allegations freely and in a spirit of cooperation and patriotism. Extensively documented, highly readable and illustrated with never-before-published photographs, Backing Hitler convincingly debunks the myth that Nazi atrocities were carried out in secret. From the rise of the Third Reich well into the final, desperate months of the war, the destruction of innocent lives was inextricably linked to the will of the German people.
A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945
Ernst Jünger - 1949
Decorated for bravery in World War I and the author of the acclaimed memoir from the western front, Storm of Steel, he frankly depicted the war’s horrors even as he extolled its glories. As a Wehrmacht captain during the Second World War, Jünger faithfully kept a journal in occupied Paris and continued to write on the eastern front and in Germany until its defeat—writings that are of major historical and literary significance.Jünger’s Paris journals document his Francophile excitement, romantic affairs, and fascination with botany and entomology, alongside mystical and religious ruminations and trenchant observations on the occupation and the politics of collaboration. Working as a mail censor, he led the privileged life of an officer, encountering artists such as Céline, Cocteau, Braque, and Picasso. His notes from the Caucasus depict chaos and misery after the defeat at Stalingrad, as well as candid comments about the atrocities on the eastern front. Returning to Paris, Jünger observed resistance and was peripherally involved in the 1944 conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. After fleeing France, he reunited with his family as Germany’s capitulation approached. Both participant and commentator, close to the horrors of history but often hovering above them, Jünger turned his life and experiences into a work of art. These wartime journals appear here in English for the first time, giving us fresh insight into the quandaries of the twentieth century from the keen pen of a paradoxical observer.Ernst Jünger (1895–1998) was a major figure in twentieth-century German literature and intellectual life. He was a young leader of right-wing nationalism in the Weimar Republic, but although the Nazis tried to court him, Jünger steadfastly kept his distance from their politics. Among his works is On the Marble Cliffs, a rare anti-Nazi novel written under the Third Reich.