Beevor, in this book on the entire second world war, attempts here what he achieves in his accounts of individual battles from that conflict; the pancaking of several layers of narrative viewpoint: analysis of grand strategy, power struggles of the 'great men' moving the map-pieces around, and vi...
Possibly the best general history of the war. Beevor does a good job with the familiar theaters of war (Eastern Front, island hopping in the Pacific) but he does not stint Burma, Greece, North Africa, and China. He does a particularly good job with the Byzantine politics surrounding Poland, Franc...
I read this book whilst in Crete, and with a fair amount of prior knowledge. I'd previously read Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper, The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation by George Psychoundakis, and Abducting a General: The Kreipe Operation and SOE in Crete by...
In two words: utterly compelling. Antony Beevor's widely praised account of the ultimate battle for the heart of the Nazi Reich, and the pure horror of it all, is a book worthy of high praise indeed. The scene is ably set in the opening chapters with the setting of the various battle orders, the ...
Antony Beevor is a master historian - his book on the fall of Berlin in 1945 is absolutely riveting. Compared to such previous works, this book is a minor achievement, but it is an enjoyable one nevertheless, mostly because the tale that unfolds is totally improbable - and yet completely true. Ol...
Vasily Grossman was the Ernie Pyle of the Russian army in WWII. He worked for newspaper The Red Star, and traveled with the Red Army from the start of the war to Berlin. This book is his field notes interspersed with broad descriptions of what was going on during the war. It is a fascinating gl...
There once was a young man, deeply convicted in the cause of Internationalism and Marxism, who was riding a city tram. A gorgeous, stunning, beautiful young middle class woman walks by him to exit the tram on her stop. The young man, eyes filled with hatred, glares at her until she disappears in ...
Seventy years after Paris was liberated and the subsequent end of World War II, it's easy to forget the bitter divisions that existed in France. France's surrender at the beginning of the war led to the Vichy government under Petain which collaborated with the German occupiers,, but there was...
Stalingrado, la ciudad de Stalin, es famosa por la batalla que se libró en ella durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Diversos autores opinan que fue el punto de inflexión de la guerra; el momento y el lugar donde se detuvo la maquinaria bélica alemana, hasta el momento victoriosa e imbatible, y emp...
Making use of overlooked and new material from over 30 archives in half a dozen countries, 'D-Day' is a vivid and well-researched account yet of the battle of Normandy.
At the end of October the provisional government banned it again, this time in response to a press campaign claiming that too many families were in mourning to permit such levity. On 16 January, cabarets and nightclubs were also closed. The Syndicat des Artistes Musiciens de Paris denounced the m...
He received a message from 1st SS Panzer-Division that it intended to advance through Trois-Ponts to relieve him. But Peiper’s reduced strength could not even hold Stoumont and Cheneux, and the relief force failed to get through. The enraged troops looted the Château de Detilleux south of the Amb...