Book Description
"A gripping story." --Economist
An impressively accessible narrative depicting the three-day battle for the pass at Thermopylae (the Hot Gates)--a critical contest in Xerxes's massive invasion of Greece. The bloody stand made there by Leonidas and his small Spartan army in 480 B.C. has been hailed ever since as an outstanding example of patriotism, courage, and sacrifice.
Customer Reviews:
Very good read!.......2007-09-04
The book was very thorough and covered the subject very well. Each chapter was broken down into ten pages or less and each one took on a very specific subject, perfect for a light reading on the subject. It would have been nice to have some breakdown of the individuals in the beginning, because there are many and at times I had to back track to see who was who and what they had done. More maps, especially later when the details of where ships are sailing or troops are moving, maybe a map at the beginning of each chapter to help keep things moving without breaking the reading momentum.
Overall, a good read, and I enjoyed it very much.
Who you side with, says who you are.......2007-08-23
"it was the natural human tendency to elevate the battle at the hot Gates to an almost superhuman dimension and, having done so, to let the purpose of it be forgotten."
"Even the self-perpetuating bureaucracy of our modern Western, self-styled 'democratic', world would have seemed to the Spartans who died at Thermopylae an unacceptable thing."
There lies the moral of the whole story. It is not just a military history, it is a story of peoples choosing sides. Pushed to the brink were you have to choose what is really worth dying -and living- for. Here are the options that people (yesterday and today) consider before committing themselves to a country/party/policy/, etc. What would we fight for today? How much would you be willing to give up in the face of threats? Today we don't consider the real issues because wee don't see our lives threatened.
This book shows us what the people considered worth fighting for. Today things haven't changed, and that's what makes this book so relevant (besides well-written): we have today so much "noise" coming from the media and our elite classes (academia/bureaucratic establishment) that prevents us from listening to our own hearts when it comes to making sound and fundamental decisions.
Put yourself in the sandals of a Spartan or an Athenian in 5th century BC. and where would you stand? What would you live/die for?
The book covers Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea.
East versus West.......2007-06-27
I found the author gave a very good background to the story of Thermopylae. It is hard to add much to an event that took place nearly 2500 years ago but his description of the world picture and the battle were able to transport you to another level. He delim=neates the real reason for the importance of the battle the domination of the East over the West or Asia over Europe. I found the work well worth my time.
An Impressive Account.......2007-05-04
I have read other books by the late Ernle Bradford and did not have to think twice about purchasing this one. I know Mr. Bradford to be an excellent and thoughtful writer; he may qualify as an historian by profession but he has a profound love of the ancient Greek world and as a sailor who has navigated the waters of the Aegean he has special practical knowledge. His book is a refreshing look at the battle of Thermopylae and the events of the Greco-Persian War.
Mr. Bradford's is a concise history of the Greco-Persian Wars but by no means is it lacking in substance or an abridgement. Certainly Peter Green's excellent volume is, arguably, the best and most thorough book on the war but Bradford's Thermopylae is highly readable and presents a good discussion of the people and events of the Greco-Persian War.
Mr. Bradford lays out his chapters nicely beginning with a discussion of Xerxes and his forbearers who created the Persian Empire; he is even-handed in his portrayal of the Great King discussing his weaknesses and noble traits. We are them given an overview of the Greek world concentrating on Athens and Sparta followed by how soldiers on both sides were armed and fought each other and their respective navies. He also provides a chapter on the invasion of Sicily by the Carthaginians and round out his book with a good discussion of Salamis and the final battle of Plataea.
I think the Mr. Bradford's words would speak better than any I could put together so here is an excerpt from chapter 18:
"Thermopylae, which has been wrongly compared in recent times to the evacuation of Dunkirk, can be counted a victory in moral terms. The right men had been there, in the right place and at the right time - but far too few of them. Had Sparta sent a thousand men instead of a king's bodyguard of three hundred, the Phocian force guarding the pass over Kallidromos could have been stiffened by a leaving of Spartan officers who would have made sure that it was, at the very least, hotly contested. In the end, in view of the size of the Persian army, there can be small doubt that the result would have been much the same...Quite unlike Dunkirk, which was a withdrawal, Thermopylae was a deliberate self-sacrifice by a handful of men who died so that the fleet at Artemisium might stay in being."
This is an engaging book (certainly better than some books that I have read on the same subject) that holds the reader's attention and I would not hesitate to recommend to someone who wants to about Thermopylae and the events surrounding the battle.
Superbly researched and written.......2007-03-16
Thermopylae: The Battle for the West by Ernle Bradford is truly a marvelous work dealing with a moment in history that forever changed everything that came after.
With Xerxes and the Persian army set to invade Greece, the Greeks had little time to plan a defense. The Spartan King Leonidas and a small contingent of Spartan hoplites along with about 7000 other Greeks rushed to the pass of Thermopylae to engage and delay the Persian invasion. The intent wasn't to defeat the invading army but to buy time....to fight a delaying action. Bradford does a terrific job at telling this classic story anew.
After Xerxes learns of a hidden path by which he could circle into the Greek's rear, the cause at Thermopylae was doomed. Leonidas, his Spartans, and a small group of Thespians stay behind to fight a delaying action allowing the other Greeks to flee to the south and live to fight another day. In the end Xerxes failed in his invasion plans. He did burn Athens but he lost the naval battle at Salamis which forced his withdrawl from Greece and Greek culture was saved.
So why all the attention on this battle fought so long ago? Just as the struggle forced by Xerxes upon the ancient Greeks saved western civilization in the end, many feel that we're locked in a similar struggle today. That discussion isn't for this space, but keep in mind current events as you read Thermopylae: The Battle for the West.
I strongly recommend this work.
Customer Reviews:
Makers of Modern Strategy .......2005-09-22
"Makers of Modern Strategy" is a scholarly collection of high quality papers on strategy since Machiavelli to the present nuclear age. The beauty of the book is that one can focus on the era that one is interested in. There is no need to read the book cover to cover as the various essays are stand alone although they are presented sequentially and related papers are adjacent to each other. I have read and re-read some of the papers. The book is about strategy and the realities of war. The essays are clearly balanced and not biased. The phenomenon of war was clearly explained from the studies of past wars. It is clear that war has been a fundamental reality of social and political existence from an early stage of political organisation to the present times. The tragic aspects of war and the intellectual and emotional disturbances it creates could be discerned from the essays.
The book is divided into the following five parts:
Part One: The Origins of Modern War.
Part Two: The Expansion of war
Part Three: From the Industrial Revolution to the First World War.
Part Four: From the First to the Second World War.
Part Five: Since 1945.
The eminent contributors include Peter Paret, Felix Gilbert, John Shy, Gordon A. Craig, Maurice Matloff, Condoleezza Rice, Lawrence Freadman, Michael Carver and D. Clayton James. Their essays showed the role of force in the relations between states. It is now very clear to me that war has always been a compound of many elements ranging from politics to technology, to human emotions under extreme stress. Strategy is one of the critical elements of war.
The various essays trace the ideas and actions of past generations, as they used war to achieve their national goals, an analysis of military thought and policy in the recent past and present
My favourite part is Part Two. Here three great historical figures are highlighted namely Napoleon, Jomini and Clausewitz. I can now see the genius of Napoleon as one of the greatest soldiers in history in its proper strategic context. I think history need to rescue Jomini from the obscurity he is now relegated since it is largely him who has clearly related the greatness of Napoleon and the attempt to reduce war to some sort of science.
Makers of Modern Strategy add immense value to any study of warfare and strategy. I recommend it to Army Staff Colleges and those studying military history at postgraduate level.
Mandatory Reading for Army Staff Majors.......2002-03-13
As the title indicates, the Army's Command & General Staff College requires students to read Makers of Modern Strategy in the core history class. Professors can make best use of this book as a supplement. As other reviewers have noted, the chapters are disjointed with each other. Taken separately, however, many of the chapters help the history student or enthusiast to develop a depth of understanding on a particular subject. Authors such as John Shy, Douglas Porch, Michael Howard, and Condoleeza Rice, just to name a few, explore many of the strategic issues involved with the evolution of military thought.
From Machiavelli and Clausewitz to strategies of world wars and colonial wars, Makers of Modern Strategy adds value to any serious study of warfare. The high quality academic research and thought that underlies many of the articles is worth the price of the book. Highly recommended.
Good general military history overview........2001-03-05
One of the essentials, a good starting point for the study of military history and strategy.
Still, this is a good book............2000-08-12
Although I agree with the reviewer preceeding me that this might not be as strong of a book as was the masterpiece which preceeded it (by Earle), it is still a strong book and does (generally) what it sets out to do: to provide an accounting of major developments in military thought (i.e. western military thought) from the Renassance to the modern age.
As a text or as a reference, this is still a powerful and useful book. Each of the chapters discusses a major figure's thought in a fashion that can be dealt with easily in a sitting: for those people who don't want to sit and sort through Jomini (though everyone reading this should sit down with Clausewitz! ) or Douhet, to see their rights and wrongs....
I like this book. I bought my copy for $8.00 in NYC and have had it with me through a number of moves since....
Newer is Not Necessarily Better.......2000-07-18
This second version of the book is disappointing. I would have thought that it being edited by an historian as good as Peter Paret would have improved on the original, which was edited by Robert Earle. However, it is weaker both in scholarship and accuracy, especially John Shy's essay on Jomini. Old myths are resurrected about the Swiss renegade whose own works are generally historically inaccurate.
Many of the older, more professional, historians, who are unfortunately no longer with us were much more careful in their research and writing, hunting down sources that newer historians either refuse to look for or refuse to use. they also were more blunt, calling a spade a spade, and weren't worried about offending people or in 'revisionist' (read inaccurate) history. Political correctness was unknown to these stalwarts.
Books of this type are highly useful. If you are looking for this particular volume, get the first version edited by Earle, even if you have to go looking in second hand book stores or on the internet in used book services. I did, and it is well worth the effort.
Amazon.com
Survival in Auschwitz is a mostly straightforward narrative, beginning with Primo Levi's deportation from Turin, Italy, to the concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland in 1943. Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in the camp. Even Levi's most graphic descriptions of the horrors he witnessed and endured there are marked by a restraint and wit that not only gives readers access to his experience, but confronts them with it in stark ethical and emotional terms: "[A]t dawn the barbed wire was full of children's washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him something to eat today?" --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
In 1943, Primo Levi, a twenty-five-year-old chemist and "Italian citizen of Jewish race," was arrested by Italian fascists and deported from his native Turin to Auschwitz. Survival in Auschwitz is Levi's classic account of his ten months in the German death camp, a harrowing story of systematic cruelty and miraculous endurance. Remarkable for its simplicity, restraint, compassion, and even wit, Survival in Auschwitz remains a lasting testament to the indestructibility of the human spirit. Included in this new edition is an illuminating conversation between Philip Roth and Primo Levi never before published in book form.
Customer Reviews:
Non-emotional.......2007-07-07
A monotone, sort of scientific voice. His story is sad...but is told with very little emotion. It was hard to get into - a little harder to read due to the "scientist' type voice that I'm not used to. I found Elie Weisel's "Night" to be a much more candid look inside a survivor's haunted soul. Primo Levi is good for someone who prefers reading something about the Holocaust that is a bit more textbook vs. memoir.
A clinical memoir of the Holocaust -- and that's good.......2007-06-03
A touching, but not mawkish or dramatic, memoir. One realizes the randomness and happenstance by which he survived, and easily accepts the moral dualism of the life of thievery and connivance, within bounds of common decency and collective group self-interest, that kept any survivor alive. Some reviews seemed to fault the book for being unemotional, but one sees how Levi's essentially scientific and objective personality became a key to his survival, and necessarily informs his voice.
The meaning of being 'human'.......2007-01-16
This account of the imprisonment, internment, survival of Primo Levi in Auschwitz is written as a straightforward chronological narrative. Levi recounts his initial capture , the horrendous suffering of the journey of Italian Jews to Auschwitz, the selection there in which all the woman and children were immediately sent to their deaths in the gas- chambers, and in which the able- bodied sent to the work- camp at Buna. Levi tells the story , detail by detail of his getting into the work- order of the Camp. He describes in clear precise language the horrible humiliations the prisoners were subject to. He also describes in one central chapter, four different kinds of survivors, and the strategies they use to escape death. His accounts of his own getting through to the liberation include his appreciations of his friend Albert, and a few other individuals who with no reward to expect for it, helped him on the way.
The bestiality of the Nazis and their helpers is not sermonized about, but rather portrayed in specific incidents of unusual terrible cruelty.
Levi is deeply concerned with the whole question of what it means to be human , and how it is possible to retain human dignity in the most extreme circumstances.
His carefully written record of his own horrifying experience is to this day considered one of the most moving and effective of Holocaust memoirs.
Book Review for Survival in Auschwitz.......2007-01-13
The book Survival in Auschwitz is by Primo Levi. It is about a twenty-five year old chemist named Primo Levi, who is an Italian citizen of the Jewish race. He was captured by Italian Fascists in 1943 and was transported to a concentration camp in Auschwitz where he spent 10 months known as Haftling 174517. At the concentration camps they were authorized to build a Buna- a rubber processing plant. Those who were unable to work were immediately killed. Those who worked in the "Lagers" had a better chance of living because the Germans decided that the Jews in the lagers would be more of use alive than dead. Levi who works in the lager talks about how some people would trade possessions such as clothing, spoons, bowls, shoes etc. for rations of bread or food in the lagers. Those who got injured in work in the lagers were sent to Ka-Be. Ka-Be is the abbreviation of Krankenbau, which is a temporary infirmary. Those who seem to get better at Ka-Be were sent back to work and those who seem to get worse are sent from Ka-Be to the gas chambers. Later on in this book Levi and two other chemists were authorized to work in the labs. This job had some benefits. They were given a new shirt and were to work indoors, rather than out in the winter weather, and this job wasn't strenuous.
This is a book about survival. I dint like this book too much. I found this book hard to understand at some points and most of the German words are hard to pronounce. I would recommend this book to people who have interest in World War 2 or the Holocaust.
Great book on the Holocaust.......2006-12-19
Ever since I first studied the Holocaust in the eighth grade, I love reading and listening to the stories of the people who were in the Holocaust. This is the first Holocaust book that I read. I first read this book when I was in high school. This is one of my favorite Holocaust books.
Amazon.com
Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag along with other captive Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, and even a few English, French, and American unfortunates who had been caught up in the fighting. A year later, he and six comrades from various countries escaped from a labor camp in Yakutsk and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans. The Long Walk recounts that adventure, which is surely one of the most curious treks in history.
Book Description
"I hope
The Long Walk will remain as a memorial to all those who live and die for freedom, and for all those who for many reasons could not speak for themselves."--Slavomir Rawicz
In 1941, the author and six other fellow prisoners escaped a Soviet labor camp in Yakutsk--a camp where enduring hunger, cold, untended wounds, untreated illnesses, and avoiding daily executions were everyday feats. Their march--over thousands of miles by foot--out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man's desire to be free.
While the original book sold hundreds of thousands of copies, this updated paperback version includes a new Afterword by the author, as well as the author's Foreword to the Polish book. Written in a hauntingly detailed, no holds barred way, the new edition of
The Long Walk is destined to outrank its classic status and guaranteed to forever stay in the reader's mind.
Customer Reviews:
The Long Walk-Rawicz.......2007-10-12
How much of this adventure is indisputable fact? And how much is recalled in the mind of a man mostly crazed by thirst and hunger and thus distorted by the nigtmares suffered on the journey? I give literary license to the author and say it was a fantastic adventure. Shame on the doubters!
The Long Walk.......2007-10-11
I am an avid reader, and this is by far one of the most fascinating books I have read. It shows the strength and willpower of a human's will to survive in the most horrific condtions. A must read.
Thrilling adventure, lousy history.......2007-09-26
I would have admired this book without reservation if it were represented as a work of fiction, but since its supposed to be a true story, I can't be as positive. Even without the information about the author uncovered by the BBC, which pretty much ends the debate regarding the veracity of this account, I would have questioned the authenticity of this story anyway.
I can believe most of the horrible things described about the author's arrest, interrogation, transport, and incarceration in a work camp (though the forced march seems less plausible, but we should never underestimate the cruelty of the gulag camp system). If anything, the way he describes the work camps sounds too tame in light of what we know about the gulag. He describes a work camp without criminals (most gulag inmates were classed as criminals, not politicals) and with very relaxed boundaries between the commandant and the inmates. This sounds more like Hogan's Stalag 13 than a real gulag. (read Anne Applebaum's remarkable book on the gulag.)
What seems most implausible to me is the novelistic quality of the book. First, there are the supporting characters - in true hollywood fashion, each of whom has a characteristic that distinguishes him or her from the others - toothless guy, the gentle giant, the wisecracker, and most implausibly, a beautiful young escapee who miraculously crosses their path amid the vast wastes of Siberia. Next, there's the dialogue (always recalled by the author verbatim), which reads more like a hollywood script than actual conversation between people (e.g., each of the wisecracker's quips is recalled verbatim). Finally, there's level of detail that no memory could recall, such as who found what kind of snake on which day.
Read this book side by side with real stories of survival, accounts of undisputed veracity (omit those written by journalists or authors who kept a notebook during their travels). Next to a book like Herzog's Annapurna or Worsley's book on the Endurance, the Long Walk reads like a very good novel, but not a true account of survival.
Frankly, I'm surprised that so many people have accepted its authenticity over the last several decades. Credit should go to the journalist who wrote the book with the help of the "author." The true story I would like to read is how a journalist and a Polish camp survivor cooked up this tale and sold it to the public. The author's tells us that he donated his time to good causes. I have to wonder if he was trying to ease his sense of guilt or rationalize his long involvement in this hoax.
A Maze Ing.......2007-09-11
What an amazing life. I was expecting another "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" or "Gulag Archipelago." But this story is different -- there is very little bitterness, very little savoring-of-the-details. Instead, it is cleanly told and incredibly true. It is a simple book, not much complexity, just human nature laid bare. Amazing.
Escape from the Soviet Union.......2007-09-05
There is some debate as to whether or not this story is true, but it is not at all improbable. Sentenced to 25 years in the Soviet gulag system, Polish cavalry-officer Rawicz was determined to escape from the remote Siberian labor-camp, somewhere north of Lake Baikal. The brutality Rawicz experienced at the hands of the communist government is typical of such accounts from this era. It reminds one of the memoirs of Alexander Solzhenitzyn.
Rawicz assembled a group of six other prisoners: two more Polish soldiers, a Latvian, a Lithuanian, a Yugoslavian, and ...an American! They made their break in early 1941, during a winter storm. Along the way, a teenage Polish girl also joined the party. The resulting narrative (if it is all true) is a harsh tale of survival as they trekked across some of the most rugged and dangerous terrain on Earth: frozen pine-forests, open plains, the Gobi Desert, and the mountains of Tibet.
Sadly, only half the party made it to the objective, which was India. Had they been less hasty in their trek once free of Soviet territory, the entire party could have survived. Had they planned more, traveled with caravans, and learned some basic survival skills, they could have brought everyone out.
The crossed Siberia, Mongolia, north China, and Tibet, cut off from all civilization and news of events abroad. They passed through lands where life was largely unchanged in a thousand years, and oblivious to the titanic events of World War II. Had Rawicz's party stopped in Lhasa, they surely would have met the famed mountaineers Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschneider (read "Seven Years In Tibet").
The most sceptical account, is a sighting of the "Yeti", while in the Himalayas. Did they really see some as yet unclassified primate? Who is to say?
Regardless, the story is profoundly fascinating...I hope its all true! The only improvement to the tale: what happened to the survivors after they left India? Unfortunately, thats where the story ends.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Chinese
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Irish
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Japanese
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Women
| Specific Groups
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Augustine, Saint
| ( A )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Doctors & Medicine
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Lawyers & Criminals
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Love, Sex & Marriage
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Early Civilization
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Historiography
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Asian American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Asian American
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Erotica
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Victorian
| Erotica
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Epic
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
German
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Russian
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Spanish
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Chinese
| Classics
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Conspiracy Theories
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
War on Drugs
| Crime & Criminals
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
English (All)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Arabic
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Armenian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Czech
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Greek
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Hungarian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Japanese
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Korean
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Norwegian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Persian & Farsi
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Polish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Portuguese
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Romanian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Russian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Swedish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Turkish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Science
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Online Research
| Genealogy
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
History of Science
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Magic & Wizards
| Fantasy
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Sailor Moon
| Popular Characters
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Pilates
| Exercise & Fitness
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Fashion
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
-
History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
-
Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
-
Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory
-
They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
The battles in Russia played the decisive part in Hitler's defeat. Gigantic, prolonged, and bloody, they contrasted with the general nature of the fighting on other fronts. The Russians fought on their own in "their" theater of war and with an independent strategy. Stalinist Russia was a country radically different from its liberal democratic allies. Hitler and the German high command, for their part, conceived and carried out the Russian campaign as a singular "war of annihilation." This riveting new book is a penetrating, broad-ranging, yet concise overview of this vast conflict. It investigates the Wehrmacht and the Red Army and the command and production systems that organized and sustained them. It considers a range of further themes concerning this most political of wars. Benefiting from a post-Communist, post-Cold War perspective, the book takes advantage of a wealth of new studies and source material that have become available over the last decade. Readers from history buffs to scholars will find something new in this exciting new book.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent general history of the Nazi-Soviet War.......2007-10-11
I read this book after reading a review of a number of books on the subject that was publiched in Atlantic Monthly. I am not an expert on this subject but I have read several dozen books on the Eastern War, and I found this to be an excellent overall review. Very readable and very thorough within the confines of a single book covering such a vast sequence of events across such a vast front.
Lacking.......2007-02-03
This book could and possibly should have been titled "Zhukov, Stalin, and the Stavka" because that is the overwhelming focus. Evan Mawdsley is a Russian historian, and it definitely shows here. It gives an in depth analysis of RUSSIAN strategy and wartime evolution, but very little of the German side. Look elsewhere if this is what you desire.
This is a CONCISE history. Concise histories are usually rather dry and skeletal. I slogged through the whole thing, but I fell asleep reading it many a night. Compelling reading it is not.
Be forewarned that this is a history of the war from a GRAND STRATEGIC LEVEL. Mawdsley covers army GROUP movements. An army group is just that--a whole number of various tank and infantry armies grouped together. DO NOT EXPECT TO BE DOWN AND DIRTY IN THE TRENCHES HERE. The cold and desperation at Stalingrad, the T-34 versus the Panther tank at Kursk, the Sturmgewehr versus the PPsh-1, Messerschmidt versus Yak, the morale of individual Soviet versus German soldiers as the war dragged on etc. etc. is NOT here. It's all senior generals, marshals, and supreme leaders stuff. You know, the guys with clean buttoned-up uniforms that move little flags around on a table map.
So much is omitted. Incredibly Mawdsley devotes exactly 3 sentences to the appalling behavior of the Red Army once it entered eastern Europe. The systematic wholesale atrocities committed by the Red Army in East Prussia, Pomerania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary are not mentioned. The three sentences refer to Russian bad behavior only during the final battle around Berlin. Similarly, Nazi Einzattsgruppen activity is also barely mentioned. Why? This savagery made the Eastern front UNIQUE from the Western and Italian fronts and characterized the war between these two reprehensible regimes.
Most unforgivable of all are the woefully inadeqate maps. There are exactly 11 of them. Not nearly enough, and they are poor sparse black-and-white affairs with nothing more than front lines drawn on them. You will constantly need an atlas at your side to comprehend the army movements.
There are a very few photos--none memorable.
Only recommended if you are looking for a short history of Zhukov and Stalin's growth as war leaders, and grand strategic army group movements from the Russian point of view.
Now THIS is military history!.......2006-09-19
Beautifully written, extremely informative, and well-packaged by the publisher, this is another must have for the WWII buff's library. Using the info from the Russian archives which has come out in the past 10-15 years, Professor Mawdsley does a magnificent job of presenting an overview of the War on the Eastern Front. It touches on about every matter you can think of, and has quality footnotes taking you to leading secondary works on almost each subject. A good bibliography, but an annotated one would have been even better. It focuses far more on Russian matters than German, but also has some interesting information on the Nazi side of the hill. Not the only book you should read on the Eastern Front, but a great place to start.
WWII Eastern Front History at Its Very Best!.......2006-08-04
This is a brilliant book; incredibly well researched, organized and written. Having exploited the latest Soviet and German archival material, "Thunder in the East" provides new and important insights into the German-Soviet war on the Eastern Front. And unlike previous Eastern Front histories, which tend to focus on one side or the other, Mawdsley, a professor of Soviet and Russian history, tells the story from both sides. The result is a powerful and balanced narrative, which touches on every aspect of the titanic struggle between Hitler's Third Reich and Stalin's Soviet Russia.
World War II historians have attempted to provide different explanations for the survival of the Red Army in 1941 and 1942, despite horrendous losses, and then its reemergence and resurrgence in 1943, leading to the defeat of the German armed forces in 1945. Mawdsley shows that rather than a single explanation, a number of factors were at work, depending on the period of the war, including the quantity of troops and equipment, the quality of technology, and the industrial capabilities of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.
The author doesn't shy away from addressing the Holocaust in the Soviet Union and the deliberate elimination of Jews and Red Army prisoners by the German army working willingly alongside the SS. Accordingly to Mawdsley, some 500,000 Jews were murdered outright by mobile SS killing units and other Nazi police units, assisted by the German Army, in the first sweep of killing in the USSR.
In his conclusion the author discusses the cost of the war to the Soviet Union, noting that some 27 million Soviet citizens were killed, including 10 million Red Army soldiers. The war damaged the USSR more than it damaged Germany and cost the country ten years development. "It is probably also true," writes Mawdsley, "that the Soviet economy never recovered from the war." And he makes it clear that a Wehrmacht victory in Russia would have been far worse for both the Russians and the rest of Europe and the world.
"Thunder in the East" is World War II history at its very best!
A good start.......2006-05-12
If you are new to the Eastern Front this is an excellent new short history of the war. It concentrates a little on the military aspect, on the politics, economics, and of course the social intricacies of the war. The author uses a lot of newly released Soviet secondary sources, many of which I have at home and can vouch for, to present the war in a somewhat new light. There are a few mistakes and some omissions throughout the book but nothing too major. I like the authors conclusions about the purges in 1937-1938, while they were costly for the Red Army there is no reason to think that it crippled the officer corps, although it did create an atmosphere of fear and compliance with Stalin which in the end simply added to the disaster that was 1941. All the battles, offensive and defensive operations, are listed and gone through. Losses are given for the Red Army from Krivosheev's book for every operation, this book has become the standard use for Red Army losses in WWII although there are still some controversies about it. But in the end it's very interesting to see how Soviet losses (KIA, MIA, and POW) went down throughout the war. The author gives a good account of the Warsaw uprising and shows how impossible it was for the Red Army to do anything when it occurred, but something might have been done in late August or mid September. Then again the Poles wanted to take the city and use it as a bargaining chip against the Soviets, so it would have served no purpose in putting the Red Army in that kind of situation with no benefit to Stalin. Overall with the use of these new Russian sources from a variety of authors I have to say this is today the best short history of the war and I would gladly recommend it to anyone who wants an introduction to the Eastern Front.
Book Description
For five years during the Second World War, the Allies launched a trial and error bombing campaign against Germany's historical city landscape. Peaking in the war's final three months, it was the first air attack of its kind. Civilian dwellings were struck by-in today's terms-"weapons of mass destruction," with a total of 600,000 casualties, including 70,000 children.
In The Fire, historian J& ouml;rg Friedrich explores this crucial chapter in military and world history. Combining meticulous research with striking illustrations, Friedrich presents a vivid account of the saturation bombing, rendering in acute detail the annihilation of cities such as Dresden, the jewel of Germany's rich art and architectural heritage. He incorporates the personal stories and firsthand testimony of German civilians into his narrative, creating a macabre portrait of unimaginable suffering, horror, and grief, and he draws on official military documents to unravel the reasoning behind the strikes.
Evolving military technologies made the extermination of whole cities possible, but owing, perhaps, to the Allied victory and what W. G. Sebald noted as "a pre-conscious self-censorship, a way of obscuring a world that could no longer be presented in comprehensible terms," the wisdom of this strategy has never been questioned. The Fire is a rare account of the air raids as they were experienced by the civilians who were their targets.
Customer Reviews:
Detailed German Viewpoint of the Air War; Inadequate Contextualization .......2007-07-19
In this "encyclopedia of pain", Friedrich elaborates on Allied bombing tactics, Nazi countermeasures, civil defense, etc. He goes city-by-city, giving the reader a German-history lesson before discussing its bombing.
Consider the forced laborers: "Poles and Ukrainians were considered the most loyal workers. Poles, marked with a `P' on their clothing, showed great attachment to their farmsteads and the livestock they cared for. Near Cologne, `two Poles rescued the livestock out of burning stalls despite the flames; they had to be protected all the while by the spray of the water hoses.'" (p. 430)
Friedrich includes ironies. He comments: "The Huns returned in modern times as a slang term for the Germans. Emperor Wilhelm II, in his brash manner, even referred to himself as one." (p. 223). The Trawniki (Ukrainian and Baltic collaborators), who earlier burned the bodies of Jews in massive pyres at such places as Treblinka, now put their expertise to use in the mass cremations of German bodies (p. 379). The V2 rockets claimed more lives in their construction than in their explosions (p. 113).
The behaviors of German civilians help the reader understand comparable actions by others under wartime conditions. Much has been made of the Poles' looting of recently-Jewish properties. Yet some 15,000 German civilians were sentenced to death for various antisocial acts, including looting (pp. 392-394).
Friedrich tiptoes around the Germans' choice of Hitler by pointing to all those German children killed by Allied bombing who couldn't even know what a Nazi was (p. 483). Nice try, but it won't fly (pardon the pun). Actions have consequences. When voters go to the polls, they fully understand that they are voting not only for their own future, but also for that of their co-nationals and, of course, their children. In MEIN KAMPF, the Fuhrer-to-be planned a large war against the Slavic east for lebensraum. By voting for Hitler, the Germans were also tacitly voting for the destruction of Slavic children. The German people had a choice about the precipitation of a new war; the Poles and other recipients of German aggression had no such choice.
Friedrich also under-emphasizes the precedent-setting conduct of German aerial warfare. He cites the bombing of Warsaw, including the strategy of using explosive bombs to drive people into their cellars, followed by incendiary bombing to suffocate (or burn) the people now trapped there (p. 50). However, the bombing of Poland dwarfed the subsequent horrors at Rotterdam, Coventry, and London. Already in the predawn hours of September 1, 1939, the Luftwaffe was slaughtering large numbers of Polish civilians in wholesale attacks on obviously nonmilitary targets (including hospitals and cultural shrines). In Warsaw alone tens of thousands of Polish civilians perished in three weeks of furious German overkill. Not until some 3 years into the war did a single Allied air raid cost the lives of 10,000 or more German or Japanese civilians! Friedrich mentions the Allied strafing of Germans (p. 128), but not the fact that the Luftwaffe habitually strafed columns of fleeing Polish civilians already back in 1939.
Friedrich elaborates on the destruction of libraries (pp. 472-479), notably the painful loss of over 2,000 incunabula in Berlin (p. 478), but again without adequate contextualization. After the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans systematically burned all of the libraries and archives of Warsaw, causing the loss of some 13 million volumes, including some 500,000 irreplaceable ones. That, rather than the destruction of German libraries, was perhaps the greatest book-burning in history. Ditto for architecture: The retreating Germans didn't blow up the militarily-innocent cultural cities of Krakow and Czestochowa only for failing to complete the laying of the explosive charges before the unexpectedly-early advance of the Red Army.
Interesting WW1 perspective.......2007-06-27
Rather lengthy account of the result of Allied bombing in OF Germany during ww2. Graphic and dismal,yet sheds light on the terrible consequences of war.
Astonishing and Riveting.......2007-06-14
I am a WWII buff and have read an awful lot about the war generally and the firebombing campaigns in particular. But this book takes it to a new level, a riveting, highly depressing account of the intentional targeting and slaughtering of tens of thousands of civilians in an explicit effort to "weaken the will" of the German people and thus hasten the end of the war.
Churchill really comes across as the instigator of much of the detailed destruction of historic city centers, ancient churches and steeples, dams, water mains, you just about name it. Roosevelt is described by the author as "more humane" and mostly focused on the targeting of legitimate military and industrial targets.
But according to this book, the British worked for years with fire prevention specialists to devise the best method to destroy old and largely defenseless historic German cities. Careful attention was paid by the British to which buildings would burn fastest, how it would best be spread, which fire walls and water mains to destroy, and how to stop the fire from being put out in order to maximize civilian death and destruction. The author makes no real attempt to justify any of this, other than to say that the British were desperate and being bombed themselves.
Interesting facts - Churchill ordered from the US military a large quantity of anthrax, to be dropped on German cities, but the anthrax was set to arrive after the Allies landed on the continent, so the plan was disbanded.
New facts recounted of the horrific British destruction of the massive dams protecting the Ruhr river valley, leading to massive drowning, drought, and devastation of defenseless women and children living in villages downriver. The technology of firebombing, and the effects on the civilians who retreated to cellars, are all discussed in painful detail. Attention is paid to the great likelihood of dying that the British bombers knew went along with their dangerous missions, but the pilots are hardly described here as "heroes."
The book, however, lacks a narrative structure and could have been more crisply edited. It is simply a collection of death and destruction, intentional and targeted directly at civilians, with account after account of successful bombing raids and their effect on the historic treasures there were destroyed as a result -- along with the many many thousands of civilian dead.
This is a hard read, and I found myself reaching for someone or something to help me understand the moral equivalency of what I had been reading -- something to put it into perspective so you are not left with the sense that war is hell, and many war crimes were committed by the participants with no understanding of the whys or the moral justifications for same. For this book, it is the hows that are itemized in dark deadly detail.
Tom's Review.......2007-06-13
Very comprehensive review of the bombing of Germany during WWII, but not very readable.
I consider it to be a good reference book. Anyone seeking specific information or details about the bombing will probably find it in this book, if they look hard enough. And that's the problem. The wealth of information is not very well organized, making the narration hard to follow and a difficult read, even for this died-in-the-wool WWII buff.
Recommended, but a Partial Perspective.......2007-05-19
A different type of history, not a narrative history but an impressionistic one of the terrible effects of the Allied bombing in Germany on both the German public and cultural treasures. This book must be balanced by books such as Robin Neilland's "The Bomber War" and Donald Miller's "Masters of the Air." The U.S. Eighth Air Force tried daylight precision bombing for the initial period of their operations, but in the Schweinfurt raid they lost 60 bombers (600 air crew). This loss rate could not continue, so they switched to area bombing, following the British Bomber Command example. This is the only possible strategy they could have adopted. Bombing was just not accurate enough in those days (unlike today) to be able to precisely hit military targets. The results were devastating on German civilians and precious cultural treasures like churches and books, but no other means of attack would have worked. This only emphasizes the great tragedy of war and how much it should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. Another point the author makes is that at a certain point Germany was beaten, why did the bombing continue? Answer: the government would not surrender, and the fight was brutal until near the very end. After the Germans started the second world war within two generations, the Allies insisted that Germany be totally defeated, unlike the WW I armistice. Even after the WW II surrender there was armed action by the Werewolf organization. Disclosure: my father was career U.S. Air Force and served in WWII, though in the Pacific. I've worked as a civilian for the Air Force for over 20 years. I've never met anyone who hated war more than those who have fought them, the soldiers who bear the brunt of the action. But sometimes the human tragedy of war is the only choice if tyrants are not to rule the world. The author realizes that, he's not a pacifist. We can join him in mourning the loss of life and cultural treasures, but not in his unrealistic view that an alternative course of action could have been taken. Certainly, read this book, but don't stop there if you want the full history on these tragic issues.
Book Description
The never-before-told story of the American pilots--idealists, adventurers, romantics--who joined the RAF before America entered the war in order to fight Hitler and save Britain
By the summer of 1940 World War II had been under way for nearly a year. Hitler was triumphant and planning an invasion of England. But the United States was still a neutral country and, as Winston Churchill later observed, "the British people held the fort alone." A few Americans, however, did not remain neutral. They joined Britain's Royal Air Force to fight Hitler's air aces and help save Britain in its darkest hour.
The Few is the never-before-told story of these thrill-seeking Americans who defied their country's neutrality laws to fly side-by-side with England's finest pilots. They flew the lethal and elegant Spitfire, and became "knights of the air." With minimal training and plenty of guts they dueled the skilled pilots of Germany's Luftwaffe in the blue skies over England. They shot down several of Germany's fearsome aces, and were feted as national heroes in Britain. By October 1940, they had helped England win the greatest air battle in the history of aviation. At war's end, just one of the "Few" would be alive. The others died flying, wearing the RAF's dark blue uniform-each with a shoulder patch depicting an American eagle. As Winston Churchill said, "Never in the fieldof human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Customer Reviews:
Very, very interesting........2007-09-03
I learned much about the "Battle of Britain" and the eight Americans (one was listed on the RAF rosters as Canadian) who faught in it. Occuring before the US entered the war, this account is about the people who defended Britain from Hitler's attempt to destroy the RAF and London before invading the island. Hitler almost succeeded but for the heroism of the entire RAF including the eight Americans who, against the laws if the US enlisted and fought. Well written. Battle accounts are riviting. I highly recommend this book.
God Bless You Boys, Every One, For Your Sacrifice to Freedom.......2007-06-23
Well, as I come here to review this awesome book, I see that many have beaten me to it! And that, certainly, is a very good thing! This shows that I am not alone in trumpeting this book to you.
Kershaw is an excellent author, and I shall be seeking out his other books for my library, I'm sure. Through his prose, these sturdy, brave young men come to life again that you may experience their story, and their sacrifice that freedom should still remain throughout the world. Have you ever wondered "I wonder how close Hitler came to taking over the world, really?" Well, this will give you the answer, straight up. Had England lost the Battle of Britain, we would, for sure, be living in a very different world today. Yet, while these eight very brave young Americans were risking life and limb fighting across the Atlantic, we were twiddling our thumbs and looking the other way. What did it take to wake us up? One Sunday morning 9 miles west of Honolulu...that Sunday--December 7, 1941.
I recommend this book so strongly to anyone who is a history lover, or interested in WWII, or The Battle of Britian, or anyone who enjoys the self-affirming "rightness" of those who truly give of themselves, and stand up for what they believe in. Again, "God Bless You Boys, Every One" for standing up and being counted as true heroes against Hitler's Nazi Scourge.
It Was Their Last Full Meassure of Devotion.......2007-06-05
They came from all walks of life. Each with his own personal story and reason for being there; but, the one theme that ran constant throughout. They cherished freedom and love for country even if it was not their own.
Alex Kershaw documents the courage and tenacity of 8 American flyers who defied the odds by circumventing America's neutrality to become " The Few" to serve in the RAF prior to, during, and after the Battle of Britain. Their story has, for the most part, been only a footnote in the titanic struggle that took place in the skies over England. The author, known for his recognition of near-forgotten men in WWII, has once again featured the contributions of men, undistinguished but for the fact that they forsook the safety and security of their country to answer a higher calling, namely to aid in the vanquishing of a world tyrant. The defeat of the German Luftwaffe was the first step in achieving that goal.
The story of the legendary two time olympic gold medalist, William Fiske, was particularly fascinating. The man had everything one could hope for or dream of; but instead, chose to devote his last days to what was then thought of as a losing cause. In addition to his considerable athletic achievements, he is now remembered as the first American airman to die in combat flying for the RAF in Europe.
Prime Minister Winston Churchhill said it most eloqently and appreciatively when he stated: " Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. " This was in marked contrast to the cowardly utterings pacifist Charles Lindbergh and the defeatist ambassador Joseph Kennedy.
Mr. Kershaw keep writing! The noble warriors of WWII deserve the best and you have neither forgotten or forsaken them.
Wow.......2007-04-04
I couldn't put it down! The Battle of Britain was unbelievable and what these pilots did was beyond belief.A book not for the faint of heart. A book for every pilot to read. A wonderful history lesson,all true and not a Hollywood movie.
Th best war history of the year.......2007-03-13
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Both the writing and the storylinewere excellent. My wife, who normally does't read history of any kind, and very little non-fiction, read this book avidly.
Book Description
In terms of sheer numbers of soldiers, armored vehicles, guns, and the scale of destruction and casualties, the Eastern Front was the most active and decisive theater of war during the 20th century. For four years, the armies and air forces of the world's two most powerful and brutal dictators savaged each other over terrain that stretched from the Arctic to the Middle East. The map of Europe was changed forever by the fighting on this front, and even today, the world reverberates with the echoes of that fighting, in places like Chechenya and the Balkans.
Despite the enormous importance of the fighting that occurred between Nazi Germany and her allies and the Soviet Empire, we are still uncovering vastly important and long concealed facts about the war. For almost 50 years, the world had to depend largely on captured German records for its understanding of the Eastern Front, since almost all information made available by the Soviets was propaganda or even disinformation. Over the last decade, following the fall of the Communism in Europe in general, and Russia in particular, long-sealed archives have begun to open, and the truth about the Soviet side of the war is finally being discovered.
In this concise, yet highly comprehensive, volume, readers can begin to gain access to the more accurate and complete information that is now becoming available. Through the diligence and expertise of a team of highly capable and experienced military researchers and historians, including David Glantz, the widely-acknowledged foremost Soviet military historian in America, new information has been synthesized with the best of long-available data. The result is Slaughterhouse, the single most comprehensive and up to date work of its kind.
Slaughterhouse includes the following features:
—Two chapters by famed Sovietologist David Glantz: "Chronology of the War on the Eastern Front" (with nine detailed maps) and "Forgotten Battles" of the Eastern Front.
—The German armed forces and their allies: Thumbnail histories of 487 army groups, armies, corps, and divisions that saw combat on the Eastern Front.
—The Soviet armed forces: Thumbnail histories of 881 directions, fronts, armies, corps, and divisions.
—Biographical sketches of 57 key Axis and Soviet wartime personalities.
—Highly-detailed organizational diagrams of 55 types of Axis and Red Army divisions that served on the Eastern Front.
—Comprehensive, meticulously researched performance data comparisons of hundreds of Axis and Red Army weapons, including small arms, mortars, artillery, tanks, assault guns, combat aircraft, and more.
520 pages, supported by 88 photos; 9 maps; notes; and extensive 16 page bibliography.
Customer Reviews:
Eastern front for dummies.......2006-05-07
Both of my grandparents fought in WWII on the soviet side, so I'm pretty comfortable with the subject. I've read alot of good stuff about Mr. David Glantz from american, german and russian sources(check out battlefield.ru, choose english language option at the top left, awesome site with lots of info on the subject as well as overview of Mr.Glantz books). In any case this effort by Mr.Glantz is not a book and this is surely can't be called an encyclopedia of Eastern front. This is nothing shourt but a Eastern front for dummies. From a man who knows so much on Eastern front and has access to so much information this book is a joke.
Excellent compact guide to Eastern Front.......2006-01-30
The brilliant work, Slaugterhouse, by David Glantz is a one of its kind to give the Russians their rightful due in the Second World War. As Mr. Glantz points out in the book, had it not been for the Eastern Front where the Russians took most of the thrust of the Wehrmacht, the war most likely taken a different course. This hand book is a useful guide to anyone wishing to understand this very most important theater. It took many nations to team together to defeat Germany, Italy and Japan. The Allied bombings in Western Europe, the sea battles in the pacific and in Asia, the North African Campaign, and the campaigns in Western Europe have been given total credit for the victory. Mr. Glantz corrects for this and shows how the Russians would have defeated the Germans on their own merit. The reader can find readily information of significant battles and commanders. It is a great guide to use while visiting the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow. When I was in Moscow the Russians were impressed with this handy book.
A "Must-Have" for the Eastern Front.......2005-11-11
Without echoing what others have written, this book is one that will appeal to both the neophytes and the veterans of researching the Eastern Front. It is useful on several levels, and contains a wealth of information that in some cases is newly available in the English language!
While there is a considerable amount of information in the book, it really is presented in such a logical fashion that it's quite simple to find what is needed. For example, unlike some presentations, the unit information sections are quite logically in numerical order by hierarchy, so everything is easy to locate.
Much of the information on the German forces is in point of fact available in other milieus, both on-line and printed. However, with this book you have not only a listing, but a synopsis of every German and German-Allied unit to fight on the Russian front, from Army Group down to division. For the German-Allied units, this is probably the first time the information on Rumanian, Italian, Hungarian and Finnish forces has ever been gathered together in one place.
The section on the Soviet will be very valuable to researchers and historians. Since the end of the war, very little factual information from the Soviet side has been available. Here in this volume, you will find information that has not been readily available previously. Admittedly, some of the information is limited, but that is due to original sources, not the authors of this book. It must be remembered that in the literal `meat-grinder' that was the Russian Front, many of these units didn't exist long enough to develop a pedigree. Record keeping wasn't always as efficient as historians would desire, either.
The unit organization section I believe was handled very well. Those who study the German military especially know how many incarnations there were of each major type of unit. In this volume, the basic types of divisions are displayed, with major differentiations noted as needed. A good example of this would be the diagram for the Waffen-SS Mountain Division. The basic provisions for this type of unit are shown, followed by notes for six different Waffen-SS Mountain Divisions, explaining how they differed from the norm.
In the weapons section, the publisher has presented important information comparing German and Russian weapons side by side. Disregarding factory specifications, the information here shows things like effective range, which is much more important to the soldier and the historian. By putting the information side by side, it is easy to compare capabilities of different weapons systems from the rifle all the way up to the heaviest artillery. For vehicles, the information provided is that which is pertinent to combat. Offensive capability and defensive survivability is presented.
If one were to read this book from cover to cover, one would not know all there is to know about the war in Russia. Like any encyclopedia, this book provides a considerable amount of information, without going into exquisite detail. It will provide an excellent starting point for any research, though. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about combat on the Russian Front in World War II.
The Eastern Front in a nutshell.......2005-10-18
The Eastern Front is a huge subject which cannot be covered in any detail in one single book. Someone considering buying this work should understand what it is and what it isn't. This book is not for anyone looking for detailed accounts of individual battles and campaigns. Nor is it for anyone wanting detailed orders of battle or biographies of the main commanders involved on both sides and it's not for anyone wanting detailed information on the weapons and equipment used.
What it is, is a 'one stop shop' of useful summarised information for the whole campaign and it's participants. This book will be useful for those who wish to look up facts and figures on the war in the East but don't require in depth information or wish to part with what can be a considerable amount of money aquiring more detailed and specialised works.
The book is exactly what it says it is on the cover, a handbook of the Eastern Front.
Comprehensive reference.......2005-10-16
It was a great idea to publish a handbook of Eastern Front units, officers and actions in a single English-language volume. There is plenty of interest in military-historical circles in this subject, and an encyclopedia-style reference covering both sides of the conflict was long overdue.
Amazon.com
Every few months you'll read a newspaper story of the discovery of some long-lost art treasure hidden away in a German basement or a Russian attic: a Cranach, a Holbein, even, not long ago, a da Vinci. Such treasures ended up far from the museums and churches in which they once hung, taken as war loot by Allied and Axis soldiers alike. Thousands of important pieces have never been recovered. Lynn Nicholas offers an astonishingly good account of the wholesale ravaging of European art during World War II, of how teams of international experts have worked to recover lost masterpieces in the war's aftermath and of how governments "are still negotiating the restitution of objects held by their respective nations."
Book Description
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
The cast of characters includes Hitler and Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall--not to mention works by artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' desperate effort to preserve it.
From the Nazi purges of "Degenerate Art" and Goering's shopping sprees in occupied Paris to the perilous journey of the Mona Lisa from Paris and the painstaking reclamation of the priceless treasures of liberated Italy,
The Rape of Europa is a sweeping narrative of greed, philistinism, and heroism that combines superlative scholarship with a compelling drama.
"Nicholas knows the art world as well as any military historian knows his battlefield.... Her work deserves the widest reading."--New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Nazi and non-Nazi German Rapacity; Planned Slav Extermination, etc........2007-08-14
Nicholas traces the plunder of cultural treasures by Nazi Germany followed by the Allies' efforts to locate and return the booty. The Germans also engaged in the wanton destruction of others' cultural treasures, beginning with the very start of WWII. For instance, the German forces deliberately bombed and shelled the historical section of Warsaw (the Old Town). (p. 61)
The reader soon learns that the pillage of conquered nations was done not just by Nazi hacks, but also by German intellectuals, as in German-occupied Poland: "Even the most distinguished German scholars were not immune to the opportunities presented by a cultural scene so open to exploitation...once the country lay at their feet many of these academics felt not the slightest qualms at transferring the collections, libraries, and even research notes of their erstwhile colleagues to their own use." (p. 74).
Spectacular German thefts include that of the giant Wit Stwosz (Veit Stoss) altar of Krakow (Cracow), and the Bursztyn Komnaty (Amber Room) of the city of Pushkin. The latter is yet to resurface.
Nicholas touches on those German genocidal plans against the Slavs that were to be implemented after Germany's expected victory over Russia: "The basic policies would be the same as those applied to Poland. After conquest, areas would be cleansed, exploited, and Germanized...In these [German-appointed districts] the cleansing would again be cultural, racial, and ideological. Not only Jews and `Bolshevists' would be eliminated by immediate execution; much of the general Slavic population would be allowed to expire naturally when their food supplies were diverted to the worthier citizens of the Reich." (p. 185)
There are some distortions and omissions in this book. Nicholas repeats the myth of the Poles "arriving at" an already-abandoned Monte Cassino (p. 247) when in actuality the Poles had to overcome fierce German resistance, and to take grievous casualties, in order to take Monte Cassino. She elaborates on the Germans' burning of the libraries and archives of Naples (pp. 232-233), and the agony of the Soviet-betrayed Warsaw Uprising (p. 77), but not the magnitudes-greater destruction of Warsaw's cultural treasures. AFTER the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, the vindictive Germans burnt and blew up the still-standing architectural treasures of Warsaw. They also burned all the libraries and archives of Warsaw, causing the loss of 13 million volumes, including about 500,000 irreplaceable ones.
All in all, however, Nicholas has given the reader a good overview of this sad subject.
should be on high school reading list.......2007-06-08
Interesting and detailed. The book is very good, but the movie, which is in art houses now (June '07) is excellent and it was easier to keep track of the thievery of the Nazis, and the efforts of the excellent Monuments men who tried to sort things out and return stolen property. I knew that the Nazis confiscated art, but I had no idea that it was on such a vast scale. I recommend reading the book AND seeing the movie.
now see the documentary film.......2007-05-23
For all who like the Rape of Europa there is now a documentary of the same name which just opened in theaters in San Francisco. This is a story based on images and the film makers have done it proud with fabulous photography plus amazing period footage. Watch for this film soon nationwide in your local art theaters and eventually on TV. Its fantastic.
Museum Robbery!.......2006-02-26
This book is a must for anyone involved in art - any aspect of it!
I was overawed by the preparation which was undertaken by both the Allies and the Axis forces pror to , during, and after WWII! This was one of two books I used for a report on Stolen Art. The only reason I rated this one as four stars is that it was sometimes difficult to plough through Chapter IX (The Red Hot Rake)- the rest of the book was absolutley fascinating. I would include another book -"The Lost Museum" by Hector Feliciano. "The Lost Museum" was easier to read and equally fascinating and portrayed the removal of the art from The Louvre in such a manner that it left me breathless! Read Both!
Outstanding.......2001-12-05
This book is more than just a hum-drum listing of works that were taken, lost or destroyed in the years leading up to and including World War II. It is an intriguing and thought-provoking look at the attempted cultural occultation of not just its own nation and ideals, but of the Nazi aggression on the world. The Nazi way of condemning certain "degenerate" works, either Jewish or Impressionist for example, painfully exhibit the ultimate crushing of free thought and expression which were so vital to the Nazi regime's recipe for authoritarianism.
But the underlying Nazi menace is only a part of the suspenseful undertone in this book. The various heart-wrenching stories of the brave souls who tried to protect and salvage the many works of art (on both sides surprisingly) are what give this account a real kick. To me the accounts on the Soviet front were especially remarkable.
My only complaint is that since I am not, as I suspect the majority of the readers are not, art historians, the significance of many of these works directly mentioned is lost. I would like to have seen more pictures of the art work in question. (I have uncovered a documentary in the works based on this book which might allieviate some of this problem, but until then...)
For those interested in the history of World War II and who might have exhausted the typical military accounts, I highly recommend this alternate angle into Nazi repression and its effect on those who lived through it. Heck, I recommend this for anyone who enjoys history.
Books:
- To Be a U.S. Army Green Beret (To Be A)
- To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13-25, 1864
- Urgent Fury: The Battle for Grenada (Issues in Low Intensity Conflict)
- Waffen-SS Encyclopedia
- War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
- When the Wind Blows
- Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime SarajevoRevised Edition
- 55th North Carolina in the Civil War: A History And Roster
- A BLUE WATER NAVY: The Official Operational History of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War 1943-1945, Volume Two, Part 2
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Alibi Man
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Transmission Electron Energy Loss Spectrometry in Materials Science and the EELS Atlas
- Animal Cell Culture: A Practical Approach
- Class Act: William Haines Legendary Hollywood Decorator
- International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior
- Death at Whitechapel
- Wallace Neff: Architect of California's Golden Age
- A Garden of Love and Healing: Living Tributes to Those We Have Loved and Lost
- Mosses of Arctic Alaska
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece
300
Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World
The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece -- and Western Civilization
