Download or read book Strange Victory written by Ernest R. May and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ernest R. May's Strange Victory presents a dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940. Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances? Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field. Why did Hitler want to turn against France at just this moment, and why were his poor judgment and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? It is May's contention that in the future, nations might suffer strange defeats of their own if they do not learn from their predecessors' mistakes in judgment.

Download or read book Germans No More written by Margarete Limberg and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-08 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most books on Nazi Germany focus on the war years. Much less is known about the preceding years although these give important clues with regard to the events after November 1938, which culminated in the Holocaust. This book is based on eyewitness accounts chosen from the many memoirs that Harvard University received in 1940 after it had sent out a call to German-Jewish refugees to describe their experiences before and after 1933. These invaluable documents became part of the Harvard archives where the editors of this volume discovered them fifty years later. These memoirs, written so soon after the emigration when the impressions were still vivid, movingly describe the gradual deterioration of the situation of the Jews, the daily humiliations and insults they had to suffer, and their desperate attempts to leave Germany. An informative introduction puts these accounts into a wider framework.

Download or read book Paris at War written by David Drake and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paris at War chronicles the lives of ordinary Parisians during World War II, from September 1939 when France went to war with Nazi Germany to liberation in August 1944. Readers will relive the fearful exodus from the city as the German army neared the capital, the relief and disgust felt when the armistice was signed, and the hardships and deprivations under Occupation. David Drake contrasts the plight of working-class Parisians with the comparative comfort of the rich, exposes the activities of collaborationists, and traces the growth of the Resistance from producing leaflets to gunning down German soldiers. He details the intrigues and brutality of the occupying forces, and life in the notorious transit camp at nearby Drancy, along with three other less well known Jewish work camps within the city. The book gains its vitality from the diaries and reminiscences of people who endured these tumultuous years. Drake’s cast of characters comes from all walks of life and represents a diversity of political views and social attitudes. We hear from a retired schoolteacher, a celebrated economist, a Catholic teenager who wears a yellow star in solidarity with Parisian Jews, as well as Resistance fighters, collaborators, and many other witnesses. Drake enriches his account with details from police records, newspapers, radio broadcasts, and newsreels. From his chronology emerge the broad rhythms and shifting moods of the city. Above all, he explores the contingent lives of the people of Paris, who, unlike us, could not know how the story would end.

Download or read book An Iron Wind written by Peter Fritzsche and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid account of German-occupied Europe during World War II that reveals civilians' struggle to understand the terrifying chaos of war In An Iron Wind, prize-winning historian Peter Fritzsche draws diaries, letters, and other first-person accounts to show how civilians in occupied Europe tried to make sense of World War II. As the Third Reich targeted Europe's Jews for deportation and death, confusion and mistrust reigned. What were Hitler's aims? Did Germany's rapid early victories mark the start of an enduring new era? Was collaboration or resistance the wisest response to occupation? How far should solidarity and empathy extend? And where was God? People desperately tried to understand the horrors around them, but the stories they told themselves often justified a selfish indifference to their neighbors' fates. Piecing together the broken words of the war's witnesses and victims, Fritzsche offers a haunting picture of the most violent conflict in modern history.

Download or read book Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918 1945 The aftermath of Munich Oct 1938 March 1939 written by Germany. Auswärtiges Amt and published by . This book was released on 1951 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich 1933 1939 written by Thomas Xavier Ferenczi and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2021-07-11 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every phase of the Third Reich s foreign policy was determined by its authoritarian leader, Adolf Hitler. Following his rise to power, his political acuity and utter lack of scruple enabled him to achieve numerous diplomatic successes against the well-intentioned but largely ineffectual Anglo-French democracies. First by duplicity, then by bluff and bluster, and finally by brinkmanship, Hitler succeeded in establishing a strengthened and united Greater Germany (Grossdeutschland) in preparation for a Second Great War. This book examines in depth the revanchist foreign policy of Hitler s Germany from 1933 to 1939: the withdrawal of Germany from the League of Nations, German rearmament, the introduction of compulsory military service and the enlargement of the German Armed Forces, the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the notorious Hossbach Conference, the Austrian Anschluss , the Munich Conference, the brazen seizures of Bohemia-Moravia and the Memel District, the Danzig crisis, the cynical brokering of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and the German invasion of Western Poland.

Download or read book Document on German Foreign Policy 1918 1945 written by United States Department of State and published by . This book was released on 1951 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Last Lion Box Set written by Paul Reid and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 3008 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Universally acclaimed for their compelling narrative, their fresh insights, and their objective renderings of Winston Churchill's life, The Last Lion trilogy presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic adventurer, aristocrat, soldier, and statesman. Born at the end of the 19th century when Imperial Britain still stood at the splendid pinnacle of her power, Churchill would witness the shift a few years later as the Empire hovered on the brink of a catastrophic new era. One of the greatest wartime leaders of our time, he would go on to stand alone, politically isolated in Parliament, as he took the lead in warning of the growing Nazi threat, and would lead Britain to victory against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers in World War II. Now, celebrated historian William Manchester's landmark biographies are collected together for the first time, along with the eagerly anticipated final installment Churchill's last years in power. More than thirty years in the making, The Last Lion is the definitive work on this remarkable man whose courageous vision guided the destiny of a nation during darkly troubled times-and who looms as one of the greatest figures of our century.

Download or read book Documents on German foreign policy written by and published by . This book was released on 1951 with total page 830 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918 1945 from the Archives of the German Foreign Ministry written by Germany. Auswärtiges Amt and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 1256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Catalogue of Copyright Entries written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1941 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Permanent Revolution written by Sigmund Neumann and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Permanent Revolution stands out as a classic study of the social structure of totalitarian rule. The problem of totalitarianism and democracy is still with us, and Neumann's dictum 'that it is much more than a problem of constitutional structure of economic progress, it is above all the difference in basic human concepts' is as valid today as it was in 1942. Neuman's analysis of dictatorship opens a new approach to political dynamism for the democracies .(…) For it deals ultimately with a lasting problem: the dignity and personal responsibility of the individual." (from the Preface by Hans Kohn)

Download or read book British Strategy and Politics during the Phony War written by Nick Smart and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-02-28 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The so-called Phony War from September 1939 to May 1940 occupies a peculiar yet distinct place in popular memory. All the sensations of war, except the fighting, were present; yet, instead of massed air attacks and great land battles, very little happened. The British government was said to be complacent, and the people downright bored. Then, France fell to German attack, and the small British army was evacuated (minus its equipment) from Dunkirk. Reaction to this major strategic catastrophe was naturally to blame the men deemed guilty for bringing the nation to the verge of humiliating defeat. In sharp contrast to previous studies, Smart argues that there was more to the phony war than governmental complacency, that the period was more than a foolish or frivolous ante-chamber to a later more heroic phase. The extent to which the guilty men verdict on the first nine months of Britain's Second World War has stuck remains surprising. The notion that the phony war was a necessary, indeed over-determined, prelude to catastrophe has become cemented over time. Examining the workings of the Anglo-French leadership during this period, Smart picks this thesis apart and argues that disaster was not necessarily, still less inevitably, just around the corner. He concludes that Anglo-French decision-making during this time was basically sound, that the soldiers were well equipped and in good-heart, and that there was no malaise eating away at the entente. This study offers a challenging reappraisal of the phony war from a British perspective.

Download or read book Justice and the Genesis of War written by David A. Welch and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-08-10 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies of the causes of wars generally presuppose a 'realist' account of motivation: when statesmen choose to wage war, they do so for purposes of self-preservation or self-aggrandizement. In this book, however, David Welch argues that humans are motivated by normative concerns, the pursuit of which may result in behaviour inconsistent with self-interest. He examines the effect of one particular type of normative motivation - the justice motive - in the outbreak of five Great Power wars: the Crimean war, the Franco-Prussian war, World War I, World War II, and the Falklands war. Realist theory would suggest that these wars would be among the least likely to be influenced by considerations other than power and interest, but the author demonstrates that the justice motive played an important role in the genesis of war, and that its neglect by theorists of international politics is a major oversight.

Download or read book The Last Lion Volume 2 written by William Manchester and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of William Manchester's masterful account of Winston Churchill's life. Alone is the second volume of William Manchester's brilliant three-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In this volume, we witness the war within, before the colossal war to come. During this period, Churchill was tested as few men are: relentlessly pursued by creditors, disowned by his own party, vociferously dismissed by the press as a warmonger, and twice nearly lost his seat in Parliament. Yet despite his personal and political troubles, Churchill managed to assemble a vast, underground intelligence network-both within the British government and on the continent-which provided him with more complete and accurate information on Germany than the British government. Recognizing the horrifying truth, Churchill stood almost alone against Nazi aggression and the sordid British and French policy of appeasement. Manchester's luminous portrait never loses sight of Churchill the man-a man with limitations, especially his callousness toward others (including his supporters) and his recklessness, which could border on the foolhardy; but also a man whose vision was global and whose courage was boundless. Here is Churchill as a light in the approaching darkness, readying himself for the terrible stand to come.

Download or read book Fascist Italy at War written by Thomas X. Ferenczi and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2024-06-03 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late 1930s, Fascist Italy's participation in three wars-in Ethiopia, Spain, and Albania-had taxed its martial capabilities to the utmost. In June 1940, seduced by the prospect of glory on the battlefield and swift territorial acquisitions, Mussolini brought Italy into the war alongside his powerful German ally. This great folly, committed while the Italian Armed Forces were grossly unprepared for a sustained conflict against the Allied Powers, culminated in the deposition of the Duce, an Anglo-American invasion of Italy, and a brutal occupation by its former Axis partner.'Fascist Italy at War: 1939-1943' is a revelatory account of Italy's role in the Second World War. Drawing on rarely seen archival evidence, it examines Italy's disastrous military performance in the Balkan, North African, and Russian theatres-exacerbated by subpar training, inexpert leadership, and limited war materiel-to demonstrate the catastrophic consequences of Mussolini's war policy. It also explores in absorbing detail the political machinations behind the scenes. These cynical intrigues, not only between the Axis leaders, but also between the leading Fascist personalities, undermined the stability of the Fascist regime and ultimately led to its dissolution.

Download or read book The Polish Underground Army the Western Allies and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II written by Michael Alfred Peszke and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This military history covers the attempts of General Wladyslaw Sikorski and his successor (General Kazimierz Sosnkowski) to integrate Polish forces into Western strategy, and to have their clandestine forces declared an allied combatant. It addresses such topics as Poland's part in the Norwegian and French campaigns, the Battle of Britain, Polish intelligence services, Polish radio communications, the Polish Parachute Brigade, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Bomber Offensive, the Katyn graves, Polish air crews in the RAF Transport Command, the Tehran Conference, Polish Wings in the 2nd Tactical Air Force, the Bardsea Plan, the invasion of Normandy, the Pierwsza Pancera, the Warsaw Uprising, Operation Freston, the disbanding of the Polish Home Army, and the Yalta Conference.