Book Description

Provides a basic short life of one of the major American Founding Fathers.This biography focuses equally on his personal life and public career. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Adolf Hitler!
Adolf Hilter, a fascinating yet despised man of his times would be a hero to many, but a murderer to some. He has had the courage to lead thousands upon thousands of women, men, and children.He has changed my way of thinking and probably others who thing of Hitler as their hero. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Excellent autobiography even if its slightly bias......
I found Eric von Manstein's autobiography to be highly enlightening and insightful in its presentation. Eric von Manstein is considered by anyone who knows anything about World War II as one of the war's finest military commanders, on par with history's great captains. Von Manstein's accomplishments easily put - Patton's for example, to sad shame. As much as our American egos get ruffled at such statement, its pretty clear that von Manstein was the brain behind many of the greatest German military accomplishments in that war. It was therefore, quite interesting to have his take on how he developed the "sickle" plan which led to the fall of France in 1940, or his Crimean campaign and his effort to restored the Eastern Front after Stalingrad. His concept of mobile defensive warfare often ran countered to Hitler's rather entrenched warfare mode. The difference led to the dismissal of the field marshal.

I would say that only thing that held this book back was the usual old trap that most authors fall into when they write about their own career. The bias memory kicks in from time to time even for the great von Manstein as some of his errors were gross over and even acts that got him in trouble at Nuremberg war crime trials were overlooked.

But in retrospect, the book proves to be interesting, informative and well written by one of World War II's greatest military commanders who is almost totally unknown in our nation.

A good firsthand account from an important general
This book will be valuable to a military historian and possibly even to officers in the current military. What I found most interesting was Mansteins firsthand accounts of the decision-making process that Hitler and the commanders of the Wehrmacht went through; their urgency to invade France in 1939. If you're interested in the personal experiences during the way, Manstein talks about places he stayed in France during the offensive of 1940, experiences with the people on his staff, and conditions he himself endured in Russia.
Also interesting is the conflict he depicts between hitler and the army chief of staff. He does much to argue how the outcome of the war could have been much different had Hitler left military decisions up to his generals.
All in all, for me, there were parts with so much tactical detail I got a bit bored and skipped ahead, but if that is what you are looking for, this book is excelent for you.

Excellent First Person Account
This is a good read and there is alot of interesting information in this book. But also get: "Stalingrad: Memories and Reassessments", which has a rebuttal of a large part of this book by a Stalingrad survivor.

A good read
This book was a very good read, but I wouldn't believe everything he says either. However, if you're interested in
the Russian Front Campaign and the events surrounding the disaster the Germans never recovered from at Stalingrad, this book will put a lot of those events into perspective.

Manstein and Rommel
This book is Manstein's version of WWII. Manstein obeyed Hitler during the war but after the war was critical. Rommel in contrast rebelled against Hitler and paid for his rebellion with his life. Manstein himself went into comfortable retirement.

Hitler and his generals all believed that the losses they had inflicted on the Soviets had to be crippling. Their underestimation of Soviet strength was what led to Stalingrad. The time for the generals to oppose Hitler was before Operation Blue, not afterwards. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

EXTEMELY Interesting and HISTORICALLY acurate book
EXTEMELY Interesting and HISTORICALLY acurate book written just prior to World War-II by an American Theodore Abel who went to Germany, witnessed the Depression, Inflation, Right and Left Wing rioting and activities, first hand.

Theodore Abel went further into understanding WHY and HOW Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist party took root among the "ordinary middle class and uneducated lower class German people" and he obtained thousands of autobiographies from the ordinary German people by offering prizes under the auspices of Columbia University. He received over 600 essays from Nazi Party members which revealed why they had embraced Nazi-ism and Hitler with the enthusiasm that they did.

Some of these essays are printed word for word in this book which Abel presents as the life histories of A WORKER, A SOLDIER, AN ANTI-SEMITE, A MIDDLE CLASS YOUTH, A FARMER, A BANK CLERK.

This books main purpose is to show in the light of the author's unique personal data, the relative importance of each of the factors which led to Hitler's rise to power.

Afer reading this book,...you be the judge of "COULD IT HAPPEN AGAIN?". ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Review-Adolf Hitler
This book was an interesting documentary of Adolf Hitler's life.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in finding out information about Adolf Hitler's life before and during WWII.This book describes his life in detail many of his ideas and plans.This also tells how he rose to power and how this was not his intended future when he was a child.It tells about his relationships with his mother and others also.This book is good for those looking for information about Adolf Hitler.I would also recommend it to anyone who has any interest at all in Adolf Hitler. ... Read more

Book Description

The man with the blistering slapshot was the ultimate combination of power, speed, and intimidation. Bobby Hull, the leader of the great Chicago Black Hawks, remains one of the sport's most colorful characters, a master in a game with few new superstars. Dozens of vintage photographs and complete stats complete this tribute to an amazing athlete from hockey's golden era. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

MacInnis Does it Again
The "Remembering..." series transcends normal biography by showcasing top quality journalist's recollections with statistics and insights into the player and their game.

Remembering the Golden Jet is no different. From Bobby Hull's early days playing minor hockey, to his watershed defection from the NHL to play for Winnipeg, a move that would rock the hockey world and force the league to re-evaluate it's salary policy forever.

For Blackhawks fans this book charts the progress of a player who was feared by goalies everywhere for his blistering slapshot.

I have read every Bobby Hull book out there, and nothing comes close in it's insights, in it's recognition of Hull as a true Legend of the game, as this beautifully designed book.

I can't recommend it highly enough. ... Read more

Book Description

By the acclaimed journalist and bestselling author ofThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, this day-by-day, eyewitness account of the momentous events leading up to World War II in Europe is now available in a new paperback edition.

CBS radio broadcaster William L. Shirer was virtually unknown in 1940 when he decided there might be a book in the diary he had kept in Europe during the 1930s -- specifically those sections dealing with the collapse of the European democracies and the rise of Nazi Germany.

Berlin Diary first appeared in 1941, and the timing was perfect. The energy, the passion, the electricity in it were palpable. The book was an instant success, and it became the frame of reference against which thoughtful Americans judged the rush of events in Europe. It exactly matched journalist to event: the right reporter at the right place at the right time. It stood, and still stands, as so few books have ever done -- a pure act of journalistic witness.

Reviews (19)

Shirer Does Not Present Both Sides
A reviewer above makes the excellent point that this book is "childish" because "Shirer was very prejudiced and hostile towards the regime in Germany at the time."How true! Shirer seems undisguisedly outraged as the Jews in occupied Austria commit suicide as their cohorts are randomly picked up to clean toilets. Shirer betrays hisdistress when Berlin Jewish store owners' glass is broken.Where is the other side of the argument? Sounds like the reviewer of "childish" would be pleased to defend the Nazi positions since he is correct that they are entirely absent in this monumental and un-put-downable book.

Superbly Personal and Readable
This diary by U.S. journalist William L. Shirer (1904-1993) provides a superbly personal look at life inside Nazi Germany.Shirer was stationed in Berlin from 1934-1940, watching and reporting as Hitler crushed freedom, rearmed the German military, and eventually launched his devastating war of conquest.Readers feel like they are right there as events unfolded; from the Nuremburg rallies, to the Rhineland, the sellout at Munich, and the first year of World War II.The author sensed danger from Hitler early on, while too many others embraced appeasement or isolationism.Shirer returned home in early 1941, and within months his diary was the year's top selling non-fiction, boosting interventionist sentiment prior to Pearl Harbor.I particularly liked the author's eyewitness accounts and his quiet outrage at Nazi abuses.

BERLIN DIARY is readable, gripping, and inconclusive - it was published while Hitler held most of Europe.The tenor of the times is provided in the last line of Shirer's introduction: "The Gestapo will find no clues."

Excellent
If you are interested in this period in history, you should read this book. Shirer offers a day-by-day history of life in Germany during the rise of Nazism and beginning of the war. That alone would be enough for a great book, but there is much more. Shirer covers many aspects of the war; he writes eloquently and accurately about the naivety of pre-war British diplomacy, strategy on both sides, and the Nazi clique. He provides an early glimpse at horrors of Nazi genocide. And his personal story is fascinating, as he travels across Europe, worries about his family, and matches wits with his censors to get as much of the story out as he can. Berlin Diary is very well written and hard to put down. Gems of description abound; for example, he describes a visit to a Lisbon casino: "Tonight, Ed [Murrow] and I did the casino. The gaming rooms were full of a weird assortment of human beings, German and British spies, male and female, wealthy refuges who had mysteriously managed to get a lot of money out and were throwing it about freely, other refugees who were broke and were trying to win their passage money with a few desperate gambles with the fickle roulette wheel..." Highly recommended.

SHIRER KNEW WHAT WAS COMING!
Although I have read many books on Nazism and the Second World War, very few have included contemporary eyewitness accounts.The authors have known what happened, and often why, and have (sometimes) simply described historical events.Shirer's diary gives us a day by day look at Europe and Nazi Germany during the crucial years of the thirties and after.The reader may be chilled as the book progresses, knowing the horror in store for so many.

And again and again it appears Shirer knows what will happen in advance.He is rarely wrong in his predictions.For instance,he predicts the German attack on Holland in May of '40 and British survival later that year.He finds the German Jews in 1935 to be 'too optimistic' and says that Hitler will turn on Russia before the USA.At times I was inclined to believe Shirer had backdated his diary after the fact.

It would have been nice if the diary could have been continued to the war's end, even if the author no longer had access to sources so close to the action.I suppose this would have made for too long a book, though.

Nazi Germany from the Inside
"Berlin Diary" is a classic in reportage.Shirer was a journalist stationed in Berlin from 1934 to 1940 and thus an eyewitness to the growth of Facism in Europe, especially the Nazi regime in Germany.He observes and reports on the events leading up to World War II and the stunning German victories during the first year of the war.Shirer seems to have been about everywhere that anything happened and his eye-witness accounts are priceless as background to the "gathering storm" in Europe.

This is a diary which Shirer admits in his introduction was written with the thought of publication.Thus, like others I was irritated by the ethnic slurs he directs at Germans and by his obvious political partisanship. For example, he bemoans the defeat of the Republic in Spain with the statement, "our side has lost."I can only interpret that remark to mean that he personally identified with the Spanish Republic.His remark about "our side" certainly would make me suspicious about the objectivity of any of his reporting on Spain.Clearly, however, Shirer saw his diary (published before the US entered World War II) less as a balanced piece of reportage than as an anti-Facist manifesto backed up most impressively by his personal experiences.Read in that context, "Berlin Dairy" can be appreciated as one of the essential books on the origins of World War II.

Politics aside, Shirer paints an interesting picture of the life of young Americans in Europe during the 1930s with capsule descriptions of who he met, what he ate and drank, and his day to day life. Throughout the book is the atmosphere of impending doom.Shirer sensed it early and is thus one of the prophetic voices coming out of the 1930s.

Smallchief
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Amazon.com

From 1946 to 1966, while serving the prison sentence handed down from the Nuremburg War Crimes tribunal, Albert Speer penned 1,200 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. Titled Erinnerungen ("Recollections") upon their 1969 publication in German, Speer's critically acclaimed personal history was translated into English and published one year later as Inside the Third Reich. Long after their initial publication, Speer's memoir continues to provide one of the most detailed and fascinating portrayals of life within Hitler's inner circles, the rise and fall of the third German empire, and of Hitler himself.

Speer chronicles his entire life, but the majority of Inside the Third Reich focuses on the years between 1933 and 1945, when Speer figured prominently in Hitler's government and the German war effort as Inspector General of Buildings for the Renovation of the Federal Capital and later as Minister of Arms and Munitions. Speer's recollections of both duties foreground the impossibility of reconciling Hitler's idealistic, imperialistic ambitions with both architectural and military reality. Throughout, Inside the Third Reich remains true to its author's intentions. With compelling insight, Speer reveals many of the "premises which almost inevitably led to the disasters" of the Third Reich as well as "what comes from one man's holding unrestricted power in his hands." -- Bertina Loeffler ... Read more

Reviews (60)

As good an autobiography as can be expected
As a near autobiography written by a man sitting in a prison cell with a lot of time to think about things, the faults of this book are predictable. If we have any appreciation of human failings, it is unreasonable of us to expect complete honesty and objectivity from a man seeking for himself some understanding re the events he was both caught up in and partly responsible for. Bear this in mind, and many of the failings commonly associated with this book will be of little bother to you. We can no more expect Speer to be 100 per cent honest and accurate about his own life than we can expect ourselves to be honest and accurate about our own.

Naturally, then, when we read an autobiography, we read it for something other than historical objectivity. We want to glimpse events from the author's own eyes, and we hope that perhaps if we read carefully between the lines we will see something of the author that he or she wouldn't have consciously revealed to us. In the case of a man associated with the worst evil in history, we won't tolerate denial or excuses, but we can't expect much more than impersonal details and quiet humility. When I read this book, I was satisfied on these points. He denied little, he never explicitly offered reasons or excuses, and he seldom tried to disassociate himself from events.

So, having addressed these predictable weaknesses, I can now offer the book some praise. It is very well-written and engaging, it is fascinating from a historical perspective, and it is most interesting to read a book on the Nazis written by a man who had been one of the most powerful Nazis of all. If this later point is your reason for reading this book, then you won't be disappointed. How many times in history has someone from so high up in the enemy's hierarchy survived with the writing skills to give us such a thorough look from the inside? From this perspective, we are exceptionally lucky to have this book. Speer may have omitted various points, and he might have been wrong at times, but these failings will be unobtrusive to most people baring the experts, and little can compare with a book that was written by a guy who in many ways was and will forever remain more expert than anyone who was not, like himself, so completely part of it. The book was remarkable for its personal insights on Hitler and much of his entourage. It was also intriguing for Speer's account of his own doings and concerns throughout his story. (In reference to the Allied bombing effort on German cities and munitions' factories, it was something to learn that Speer, as Armaments' Minister, worried more about the problems that raids on humble ball-bearings' factories would cause. Such raids, which never came, may have been decisive given the all-round necessity of these forgotten pearls.) The book is for anyone interested in WWII, and it remains a valued part of my book collection.

Be a fly on the wall in Nazi Germany
This is a brilliant record of history. By reading this cathartic memoir written by Speer you get the chance to immerse yourself into his candid thoughts, selfish motives, but contrite tone, and walk away with a real understanding of the inner circle of the Nazi government. You are transported back in time to the inner sanctum of the political apparatus. Learn the behavior of Hitler and his generals by having tea with them, you have a front row seat through the eyes of Speer, as if you are there during the daily activities. To fully appreciate the tome of detailed information the reader would benefit most if they already have a good knowledge of WWII, but it is not necessary. Granted, all memoirs have the inherent risk of being self-serving, but that applies to all writers, of all countries, of all epochs.

Best Insider History of the Third Reich
Albert Speer's "Inside the Third Reich" ranks, in my opinion, among the three seminal books covering the history of Nazi Germany. (Albert Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" and Heinze Hohne's "Order of the Death's Head" round out the group) This book excels where the others fail in its elegance and readability.Set up as a memoir of his life Albert Speer lucidly provides a very insider account of the Third Reich throughout the 1930's and through the war.Speer himself as an architect was extremely close to Hitler and often was in more intimate circles with him than Goering, Himmler, and Hess. The book is a fast read in spite of its large size.It is written for the casual reader though a general knowledge of German history is probably better.Overall however Speer's use of anecdotes and his style at large is indicative of his intellect and upper class upbringing. This book is certainly a must read for those interested in WWII and German history.

The book naturally begins with Speer's upbringing and education in Manheim.The author spends little time here though and within the first 25 pages we read how Speer casually became a party member, as did his mother, and how he first began to interact with the party.Here we have to be a little skeptical of his account of the story.He says quite emphatically that he did not join the party for through any political motivation yet in 1930, when he joined, the NSDAP did not have the extreme power it held a few years later.It seems unlikely that an architect who claimed to have little political motivation would go out of his way to join a workers party.Whatever his motivations were however he joined the party and before long he went from being an officer in the NSKK to taking on a few architectural projects for the party including redoing Joseph Goebbels' office and the decorations for Joseph von Hindenburg's funeral in 1934.By this time he was traveling with Hitler and realizing how captivated with architecture the Fuhrer was.His biggest achievement during these years was the building of the rally grounds at the zeppelin fields outside of Nuremburg. Hitler was extraordinarily pleased with Speer's work and by this time he was within his inner circle and required to wear a party uniform in public.It is around this time that he begins creating his expansive plans for Germania.Naturally the plans never resulted in any buildings but this plan became Hitler's hobby and made enforced Hitler's affinity for Speer.As peace became tenuous and war became inevitable Speer still holds on to the fact that he wasn't aware of the big picture.Yet within a few years he is named minister of armaments and certainly by this time he is aware.He shows and described his brilliance for logistics and his ability to make great judgments on the fly.Here we get even more fascinating accounts which you will have to read.

Overall, the book is the best insider source for the goings on at the very top of party and the high command. His tone is apologetic and honestly I do believe him.Early in the work he says how while in prison he re-read many of Hitler's speeches and found them utterly lifeless. This book is enlightening also in that it shows how disorganized and distracted the party really was both in the early days and throughout the war.Reading it becomes strikingly amazing that the party could even come to power when it was so factionalized.This book is a fascinating read and is very enjoyable.This is one that a historian or layman can enjoy equally. As the 60th anniversary of the end of the war approaches take some time and look back into those strange years.





Ted Murena

A fascinating look behind the curtain
Speer says he has tried to be as honest as he could be in retelling his experience of life in Hitler's inner circle. That alone should ring the alarm bells. One is either honest or one isn't.
On one hand, Speer gives us what is probably as accurate an account of his day to day diary first as an architect, then as Hitler's architect then his armaments minister as it would be possible to provide, given the circumstances in which it was written, and that is as far as one should trust this book.
The reader finds how easy it is to sympathise with the author, even consider Speer a decent chap but that is because the largest aspect of German industry from 1942 until the end of war was based upon slave labour and of the thousands who were worked to death, Speer makes no mention until he decides to "come clean" on the stand at Nuremburg, which he precisely did not.
So, for a whitewashed and largely dispassionate account of what happened from day to day in Hitler's Third Reich, this book is truly a fascinating read, but it most definitely is not a tell all autobiography from the man whose efforts probably prolonged World War 2 by at least 12 months thereby costing the lives of millions of innocent civilians.
There is another biography of Albert Speer of roughly equal size which tears away the shroud of decency with which Speer attempts to cover himself in this book. One shouldn't read one without reading the other.

TRUE THOUGH PERHAPS NOT 100% HONEST 1st HAND ACCOUNT
This is a 5-star biography because it does present real firsthand personal accounts from someone within Hitler's inner circle. To be sure, this person was quite bright, has an excellent memory and wrote many notes for this book on toilet paper during his 20 years at Spandau Prison. However, the same apathy or apparent indifference which led Speer to eagerly join Hitler and his cronies and do many things that a seemingly- decent well-bred man [as Speer was] would never do raises some concern about Speer's judgment. If we assume that the prosecution's case [at Nuremberg 1945-46] which insisted that Speer was a "clever liar" was untrue, then we must assume that he at least was a profoundly naive, foolish egghead. Most likely he fits somewhere in between. The point I am trying to make is that he may not be quite as innocent as he claims, although he has given us every reason to believe that HE himself believes what he says.

During the trial in Nuremberg, he did tap his chest and utter "my fault, my most grievous fault" in Latin often and you can see this on videos of the trial. He has stated during many interviews in both English and German that he feels "not going to Hitler" about many of the atrocities as he learned of them, most notably the death camps, was the "greatest wrong of my [his] life". Does this imply that Hitler would have put a stop to the genocide? Does Speer actually believe that if he simply said, "Adolf buddy, I think you ought to know that the chicken farmer, Himmler, is doing some nasty stuff to those nice Jewish people in those camps that we thought were Jewish resorts?" that Hitler would have put an end to them? When I read and hear that kind of stuff from Speer directly, I scratch my head and wonder to whom he is lying -- US or HIMSELF? In the end, will we ever know the truth, the real truth, as to who knew what and when.

Having said all this, I must say that this is a great read and that Speer does comport himself well [perhaps too well]. Being at the most decisive spot in history as an inner circle player makes his writing of historic importance in its own right [or Reich in this case]. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a personal account of Germany during WWII from the inside out.
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Book Description

Target Hitler not only documents the plots of many individuals and groups who actively opposed the Nazis, it acknowledges the perseverance of Nazi insiders against Hitler, including General Ludwig Beck and Lieutenant-Colonel Hans Oster, whose ceaseless activity in the German resistance may be unknown to many readers. This eminently readable narrative concentrates on the efforts of a group of conspirators within the German army who first began to plot against Hitler in the fall of 1938, and whose story culminates in the famous July 1944 bombing. Target Hitler is a work of historical significance. For as Duffy and Ricci remind us, it is important to know and remember that even in the most tyrranical states, with all the odds against them, there are men and women who are willing to risk all in order to oppose evil. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

really interesting and important
Most books about the Third Reich mention the von Stauffenberg plot (sometimes called the General's Plot) against Hitler, and a few allude to "other" plots, but Target Hitler attempts to provide a history of not only the General's Plot, but the other serious (and sometimes tragically comic) plots against Hitler. Contrary to some other writings on the subject, Duffy & Ricci assert that Rommel was not a conspirator in the Stauffenberg scheme, but simply one of the many officers who chose to remain silent about the plot, waiting for the risks to be taken by others.

There were plots discussed here that were completely new to me, such as the bomb that appears to have been planted with Himmler's active assistance -- though it is unclear whether this was an internal power struggle of Himmler to replace Hitler, or an attempt to produce a plot for propaganda purposes, for which it was well used.

There are tragicomic efforts here, such as Maurice Bavaud's. Bavaud was an anti-Communist Swiss seminary student who sought to assassinate Hitler for cozying up to the Communists -- and thought he was going to succeed using a .25 pocket pistol, which even Bavaud knew was only accurate enough with this gun to kill Hitler if he could get with 25 feet of his target! Unfortunately, Hitler walked down the wrong side of the street in Munich in commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Duffy & Ricci also demonstrate that, contrary to the view taken by some other historians, the General's Plot was not simply the result of the German officer corps attempting to save their own necks once the war was lost, but the last in a long series of efforts made before the war to remove Hitler from power, out of opposition to the immorality of National Socialist Party rule. Much of the opposition was founded on the belief that Hitler's actions in provoking wars, passing of the Nuremburg laws, and other such actions against the Jews, were contrary to Christianity. Especially among the military and diplomatic opposition, this Christian basis to opposition to Hitler created a serious problem, because of a profound reluctance to commit murder, even of someone such as Hitler. Eventually, as the nature of the brutality of the Nazi policies became impossible to miss, the major plotters, such as von Stauffenberg, overcame their reluctance. The plot to depose Hitler became a plot to assassinate.

After the war, many officers sought to find protection in the argument, "I was only following orders." Duffy & Ricci provide an example of the traditional German military view with a quote from General Beck's memorandum of July 16, 1938:

"Vital decisions for the future of the nation are at stake. History will indict these commanders [who blindly follow Hitler's orders] of blood guilt if, in the light of their professional and political knowledge, they do not obey the dictates of their conscience. A soldier's duty to obey ends when his knowledge, his conscience, and his sense of responsibility forbid him to carry out a certain order."

There were many officers in the German military who, because they had sworn a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler in the early days of the National Socialist government of Germany, were reluctant to directly participate in the plot against Hitler -- but were ready to help as soon as Hitler was dead.

There were other factions as well, including labor leaders not already incarcerated, and various Social Democrats. While they and the aristocratic conservative elements that made up the plot were not able to completely agree on what the new Germany should be, they were able to reach agreement that Hitler had to be removed, one way or another.

The courage of many of the conspirators is astonishing. Duffy & Ricci recount a number of instances where high officers put plastic explosive charges in their pockets, started the fuses, then attempted to get close enough to Hitler to grab hold. Other generals attempted to enter Hitler's presence while armed, in the hopes of getting at least one lethal wound inflicted on Hitler before being killed themselves.

Hitler's luck is also astonishing. Plot after plot were foiled by Hitler's habit of changing plans and schedules at the last moment. The General's Plot, however, failed because many elements in the plot failed to take action immediately after the bomb went off -- and in failing to take action, provided enough time for Hitler loyalists to mobilize.

One annoying error is that throughout the book the military intelligence organization, which was a center of the conspiracy against Hitler, even going so far as to give military intelligence ID cards to Berlin Jews, to enable them to leave the country safely posing as military intelligence officers, is consistently misspelled as "Abwer" instead of "Abwehr." Since the authors have relied heavily on memoirs of survivors of the plots, this error is all the more mystifying.

The book concludes with a description of what finally happened to the major participants in the General's Plot. The courage of these people, confronting the Nazi People's Court, destroyed whatever propaganda value these trials might have had. As Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben told Judge Freisler, "You can hand us over to the executioner, but in three months' time this outraged and suffering people will call you to account and drag you alive through the mud of the streets." ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Buy Agte's bio of Peiper
Fluff... Buy Peter Agte's masterpiece on Jochen Peiper instead, by far and away the best book ever written on Peiper.

Just a popular history
This popular history of SS colonel Jochen Peiper's exploits turns out to be short on substance, as well as substantiation. Still, it reads quickly and does flesh in some of the action surrounding the old storm trooper. Not a very satisfying read for die hard history buffs (most of it is already well known) and the editing is an atrocity, but for youngsters and others unfamiliar with Peiper and his role in the Battle of the Bulge, this book will probably serve to stir some interest in the events of those days.

Give this a miss!
This book was not the full biography I hoped. It only deals with Peiper's part in the Battle of the Bulge and the Malmedy Masacre. The details of even this are poorly researched and poorly written.

For a full biography read the outstanding 'Jochen Peiper Comander Panzerregigiment Leibstandarte' by Patrick Agte published by J. J. Fedorowicz. This contains Peiper's full, remarkable career both before WWII and in combat.

For a far more accurate, well researched and well written account of Peiper's part in the Battle of The Bulge, try 'The Devil's Adjutant' by Michael Reynolds. This also contains the most likely account of the Malmedy Masacre.

Typical Whiting propaganda
I have already written a extensive review of this book which for some reason never appeared here, follows is a very abreviated version. This book is typical of Whiting's poor work, no listing of any sources whatsoever, no foot notes, nothing to indicate this work of "fact" is anything but fiction.

The title suggests this is a biography of J. Peiper, in fact it only examines Peiper and the Malmedy incident in any detail, and most of the details come from Whiting's own imagination. This is a book that can and should be easily ignored. ... Read more

Book Description

An influential justice who refused to bow to politics and devoted his keen mind to the U.S. Supreme Court until the age of 90, Oliver An influential justice who refused to bow to politics and devoted his keen mind to the U.S. Supreme Court until the age of 90, Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) helped formulate some of the most progressive judicial thought in 20th-century American history. G. Edward White first sketches Holmes's early years-his childhood in Boston, undergraduate years at Harvard, and his valiant service in the Civil War, during which he was severely wounded three times. After the war, Holmes went into private law practice, wrote his landmark treatise The Common Law in 1881, had a short tenure on the Harvard Law School faculty, and spent 20 years as a judge on the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts before being named to the U.S. Supreme Court. The author focuses on his remarkable 30-year service as a Supreme Court Justice, beginning in 1902, and details Holmes's most significant cases--Abrams v. United States, Northern Securities Co. v. United States, Lochner v. New York, Schenck v. United States, and others--which limited working hours, set a mandatory minimum wage, protected women's rights, legalized labor unions, and defined freedom of speech.

OXFORD PORTRAITS are informative and insightful biographies of people whose lives shaped their times and continue to influence ours. Based on the most recent scholarship, they draw heavily on primary sources, including writings by and about their subjects. Each book is illustrated with a wealth of photographs, documents, and memorabilia, framing the personality and achievements of its subject against the backdrop of history. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The Money: The Battle for Howard Hughes's Billions, by James R. Phelan and Lewis Chester, who each penned earlier books on the extraordinarily eccentric tycoon, focuses on the heated competition for a piece of the notorious recluse's enormous estate following his 1976 death. In spite of his well-known predilection for control, Hughes apparently died without leaving a valid will. And despite his lifelong penchant for secrecy, his curious demise set off a string of courtroom skirmishes and corporate infighting that involved more than 1,000 people and ultimately revealed much of the bizarre behavior that continues to fascinate us. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Not bad, if you haven't read any books on this before
This book has come under heavy criticism for not covering any new ground (both authors have written about Howard Hughes before). That may be so (the large biblography indicates the extent to which Hughes life and death has already been dissected). However, outside of America there is less of an obsession with Hughes; so if this is the first book you have read on the subject (as is the case with this reviewer), it is actually pretty entertaining - and that is how it should be read: as entertainment rather than heavy-duty information.

Phelan and Chester, after giving a reprise of Hughes' life and death, plunge into an analysis of the chaos he left behind: no will, not much idea of how much money was in the estate, no list of assets, not even a clear place of legal residence. The person press-ganged into the role of fireman was William Lummis, a lawyer and cousin of Hughes.

In ways that only Americans can manage, the determinaton and settlement of Hughes' estate was the subject of an avalanche of litigation and bizarre claims, as a parade of fake wills and fake relatives appeared and then were removed from the stage by a large hook. In fact, the outright looniness of some of these claims makes for the most entertaining aspect of the book, although they were perhaps not much stranger than Hughes' own life.

Lummis gradually managed to consolidate the estate: the last big struggle was with the IRS. The estate (under a billion dollars; the figure varied depending on how and when it was calculated) was eventually divided amongst Hughes retainers and employees, his relatives, and the bulk (after tax) going to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The HHMI had been set up as an elaborate tax dodge, but it eventually managed to rebuild itself as a genuine philanthropic and research organisation. So Hughes (as one commentator noted) did leave a useful legacy after all - but probably not what he expected.

This book might not add much to the pool of knowledge about Hughes, but for those to whom the subject! is fairly new ground, The Money is a pretty good read.

Yawn...
HRH fans - stay away! This is a very, very poor book, with no additional revelations about The Man. This is an exercise in fawning. Skip it, and wait for the HRH movies that rumor has in development at several Hollywood studios. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document, covering the life and work of Adolf Hitler, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thomson Gale. The length of the entry is 3504 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Reviews (3)

A Bizarre Work of History
Guido Knopp's "Hitler's Henchmen" is really a multiple biography of the six men the author identifies as the German dictator's most important disciples: Herman Goering, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbles, Albert Speer, Rudolf Hess and Admiral Karl Doenitz. In Knopp's chosen lineup lies the first problem. Most students of The Third Reich would certainly place Hitler's Chief of Staff Martin Boorman and SS Security Chief Reinhard Heydrich well above the ineffectual Hess or the plodding Doenitz in terms of their importance to the Nazi regime. Ignoring those two vital figures is a serious flaw in the book.

The second problem is the book's configuartion. Not witstanding the fact that a few chapters is not nearly enough space to adequately explain the lives and roles of any of these individuals, Knopp provides pages of direct quotes from and about each one, interspersed at random throughout the narrative. He also makes the fatal mistake in such an introductory work of assuming the reader is already intimately familiar with the overall history of Nazi Germany, referring to larger events without attributing dates or in what sequence they occurred. All of this left me wondering exactly who the intended audience was for this work? Nazi scholars won't learn anything they didn't already know, while casual readers are likely to find themselves hopelessly confused.

Overall, "Hitler's Henchmen" is not a well written work of history, even allowing for the fact that it was translated from German into English.

Hitler's Henchmen
I'm only on the 3rd chapter, but from what I've read so far this book is well written. I'm only 17 and I don't know much about that era besides the war. because my history books never said anything thing about these men. It gave me an insight on what went on nazi Germany. When I started reading this book I thought that Hitler was the behind everything. I didn't even know these people existed. This book is giving me a psychology and history lesson.

Keep up the good work. Guido Knopp

Firebrands, Enforcers and Architects.
Guido Knopp has given us six psychologial pen portraits (not biographies) of leaders of the Third Reich - Goebbels, Goring, Himmler, Hess, Speer and Donitz. He will have no truck with the argument that Hitler was a weak, lazy or disinterested dictator. Rather, the henchmen portrayed in this book took their orders directly from the fuhrer. Knopp writes, "The Reich's murderous existence depended solely on him. Without him, it became a ship of the dead." Although the author has included some new material from British and Russian archives, the analysis of the characters does not break a lot of new ground (how could it?) although this reviewer was interested in Knopp's account that Speer may have returned to the Berlin bunker in late April 1945 to dissuade Hitler from appointing him as successor. The author's strength lies in putting these nazi leaders properly in context. He shows up very well the inconsistencies in Himmler's character which made him both a yes man and, ultimately, a traitor. Donitz by contrast was made of sterner stuff - he went on fighting for supplies and raw materials long after there was anything to distribute. If you want a summary of what made these men tick, interspersed with wry contemporary comments from their colleagues, Knopp's book is well worth studying. When Goring told Hitler in 1939, "We've got to stop going for broke," Hitler replied, "All my life I've gone for broke." Those few words aptly sum up the leadership problem of the Third Reich. ... Read more

Book Description

America's most beloved columnist shares 40 years of advice through letters to her only child, published here for the first time.In this witty, wise, and intensely personal collection of letters to her daughter Margo, Ann Landers delivers her own unintentional memoir. The volume is both a moving portrait of a mother/daughter relationship and a keen social history of America between 1958 and 2001. Peppered with incisive information and gossip, Esther "Eppie" Lederer (Landers' real name) offers insight on everything from marriage and divorce to growing up and growing old. A first-hand account of the myriad changes in attitudes and mores spanning the last half of the last century, readers will delight in Landers' signature practical wisdom and sharp eye for the absurd. As funny and loving as they are stern and acerbic, these letters reveal the real woman behind the Ann Landers moniker--a spectacularly original writer, wife, and mother. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Beautiful book but ...
Unless you worship Ann Landers for years and know her background to some degree, this book may be quite anecdotal and a gathered pieces of personal events.

A Wonderful Read
Growing up I regularly read Ann Landers' column. I can even remember my favorite ones --- the one with the meatloaf recipe and the one about how to hang a roll of toilet paper. Living in a small town in New Jersey, I got a new perspective on the world from letters signed by people with signatures like Desperate in Dallas and Confused in Cincinnati. Sometimes I would howl at what people were asking while other times I was shocked at the depths of the problems that people shared.

Reading the column each day I formed a picture of Landers. When she passed away in 2002, I read the tributes to her and realized this was the end of an era.

A LIFE IN LETTERS: Ann Landers Letters to Her Only Child showed me another side of Landers. For here were the letters that personally defined her ---- those she wrote to her daughter Margo over forty-four years. Broken up into four sections, the book tells the story of a close mother/daughter relationship. Here, again in her own words, we come to know Esther "Eppie" Lederer (Landers' real name).

Whether she was giving Margo advice, checking in to see how she was or lavishing praise, Landers wrote with the tone of a well-meaning friend. The excitement that Landers felt in sharing her life with Margo is touchingly evident. Many of her notes to Margo were hurried pieces while others were long and leisurely, but all were personal and laced with love.

Margo has said, "I loved putting this collection together. And strange as it may sound, reading them all, together, was an entirely different experience than seeing them one at a time. A LIFE IN LETTERS - even for me - is like watching two lives unfolding."

The book is punctuated with notes from Margo that give background to the letters. At one point in her introduction she was astounded to learn that her mom had saved all of her letters, just as she had saved her mom's. It's clear that this writing ---and their relationship --- meant a lot to them both.

Readers also get a look at another side of Landers. We see a woman who was politically active and had a strong business sense. She had access to the powerful and the famous because of who she was --- people such as Walter Cronkite, Hubert Humphery and Cardinal Joseph Bernadin. She also believed in many causes and supported them with her time and her opinions.

There is enough reference to the feud between Landers and her twin sister, who penned the Dear Abby column for years, to be honest, but Landers takes the high road and remains a real lady.

Right after Landers' death, I clipped her meatloaf recipe from the paper and made it. After closing Margo's book I vowed to write more letters to my sons. Last week I was passing my older son's room and saw a recent IM session between us printed and tacked onto the wall. Sure instant communication like that is wonderful, but the preservation of letters like those in this book reminds me how much history we lose when we do not write.

Whether you are a Landers fan or just relish the chance to voyeur a very special relationship as it grows over the years, A LIFE IN LETTERS is a wonderful read.

--- Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald ... Read more