Modern warfare Books

Book SynopsisThis concise history of France from the occupation in 1940 to liberation in 1944 focuses on the struggle between those who favoured collaboration with the occupying Germans and those who opted to resist. Roderick Kedward shows how ordinary people experienced the occupation; he examines the politics and ideology of the Victory regime, and he discusses the many different forms of resistance launched from inside and outside France. He particularly emphasizes the changing nature of both collaboration and resistance as the pressure of the occupatoin intensified, and asks whether France was involved in a civil war by 1944.Trade Review"A splendid book. It provides an admirably concise narrative of the major events and personalities that shaped the experience of collaboration and resistance in France between 1940 and 1944 with many new insights drawn from recent research." Teaching History "A tour de force. To write a history of Vichy, collaboration, resistance and liberation in only 80 pages ... is a feat only as skilled and scholarly a historian such as Mr. Kedward could have carried out." Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary FranceTable of Contents1. Occupation. 2. Victory. 3. Collaboration. 4. Resistance. 5. Liberation. Guide to Further Reading. References. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe Second World War was the greatest conflict in history. This book provides an introduction to the causes of the war. It charts the complex route from the failed peace following the First World War through the rise of right-wing radicalism in Italy and Germany, to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, and its subsequent spread to the Pacific.Trade Review"Crozier's book is an important addition to the literature on the deeper causes of the Second World War. Not only does the author present a comprehensive examination of the diplomacy of the European powers during the entire inter-war period, he also gives considerable attention to events in the Far East - a topic that is rarely dealt with in tandem with European developments. But it is his examination of the period in light of the historiography of the subject of the causes of the war that makes his work a significant contribution. Crozier's efforts to place the historical debates in context add to the work's value to the student or casual reader. Scholars of diplomatic history of the inter-war period will find the work thought provoking. The author presents an in-depth reconsideration of British foreign policy and, particularly, of appeasement and all it has come to stand for." Christine A. White, The Pennsylvania State University "This book is first class. It is perfect for those working for A levels, Highers or SYS and for university students at every level." HistoryTable of ContentsConsultant Editor's Preface. Preface & Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. The Powers in 1919 and After. 2. The Making of the Inter-War World, 1919-1923. 3. The Failed Peace, 1919-1933. 4. The Challenge of Fascism and the Democratic Response. 5. The International System Challenged 1933-1936. 6. The Deepening Crisis, 1936-1938. 7. The Outbreak of War in Europe. 8. The Crisis in the Far East. 9. From War to World War. 10. Interpretations and the Changing View. Conclusion. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisIn what will become the classic account, based on newly opened archival sources, David Kaiser rewrites what we know about the Vietnam War. Reviving and expanding a venerable tradition of political, diplomatic, and military history, he shows not only why we entered the war, but also why our efforts were doomed to fail.Trade ReviewKaiser has worked his way through the archives and emerged with an impressive account of what he terms 'the greatest policy miscalculation in the history of American foreign relations.' The book is a detailed narrative of the war-related decisions of the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations, tracing American involvement from the late 1950's to the dispatch of ground troops in 1965. All the familiar elements of the story are here--the early crisis in Laos , the hapless military advisory mission, the choices of 1964-65 that Americanized the war--along with some new tidbits as well, like a transcript of John F. Kennedy's private post-mortem on the 1963 coup against the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem. -- Gideon Rose * New York Times Book Review *American Tragedy is a superb analysis of the debate within the United States government thirty-five years ago over what we should do about South Vietnam. David Kaiser shows in impressive and meticulous detail how we stumbled into an unnecessary war. -- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.It's been a long time since we had a 'big' book on the war in Vietnam. American Tragedy is that book. -- Shimshon Arad * Jerusalem Post *As revisionists continue their hallucinatory attempts to re-write Vietnam as another WWII--if only we had had the will to win--careful scholarship is deepening our understanding of very different, painful story, from which wisdom to shape a better future still might come, giving belated meaning and significance to the lives of those who died there for other men's folly. American Tragedy is a landmark of such scholarship, and of the struggle to redeem something of value from the most wantonly destructive episode of our history in the past 50 years. -- Paul Rosenberg * Denver Post *Kaiser's grasp of the broader sweep of the flow of history enables him to analyse how the lessons of the history of the 1930s were misapplied by the G. I. Generation to Vietnam in the 1960s. Moreover, Kaiser's military background leads him to discuss in more detail and with greater authority than in most accounts the military aspects of the conflict. -- Peter Boyle * Times Higher Education Supplement *[Kaiser's] Vietnam book is strongest on the Kennedy period...[He] persuasively argues that Kennedy would have avoided a major American war in Vietnam had he lived. * Foreign Affairs *[Kaiser] presents an excellent, comprehensive chronological accounting of Vietnam War policymaking in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The book's strongest point is Kaiser's extensive use of newly released primary materials. Along with his narrative, the author also offers an opinionated analysis of what he calls 'the greatest policy miscalculation in the history of American foreign relations.' -- Marc Leepson * Dallas Morning News *David Kaiser has written a remarkably thorough, detached, yet sensitive book about the U.S. war in Vietnam. His previous scholarship has ranted over the whole history of modern warfare, and he sets the Vietnam War in that context. -- Ernest R. May, co-author of The Kennedy Tapes (Harvard)With newly declassified cables and high-level memoranda and policy instructions, good supporting research and clear prose, David Kaiser has written a very important book on Vietnam and the movement to disaster. Not before has there been such a compelling account of the pressures to which Presidents Kennedy and Johnson were subject from the military and its civilian acolytes, whose terrifying irresponsibility extended on to the proposed use of nuclear weapons. To repeat: a most important book, still relevant as to warriors advising on war. -- John Kenneth GalbraithIn the vast literature on American intervention in Vietnam, David Kaiser has added an indispensable and revelatory new book. Based on exhaustive research and profound scholarly insight, Kaiser makes clear that the nation's tragic involvement in Vietnam was neither arbitrary nor inevitable. No other study presents a fuller or more persuasive picture of this critical moment in our nation's history. -- Alan Brinkley, author of Liberalism and Its Discontents (Harvard)American Tragedy is a splendid reinterpretation of U. S. Involvement in Vietnam. David Kaiser has unearthed fascinating new archival material which helps us better understand why this remote Asian peninsula was such a contested Cold War prize. You cannot properly comprehend the Vietnam War without reading this first-rate book. -- Douglas Brinkley, Director of the Eisenhower Center, University of New OrleansDavid Kaiser's book on the origins of the American tragedy in Vietnam is now the finest study on this much discussed subject. Kaiser's prodigious research and keen analysis gives us persuasive answers to the many questions journalists and historians have been asking for years about the roots of our involvement in the conflict. Kaiser's book will stand as the principal work on this compelling subject for years to come. Every one interested in the recent history of the United States will want to read this book. -- Robert Dallek, author of Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His TimesIn American Tragedy, David Kaiser examines the origins of the war and the fateful decisions that resulted in issues that haunted the country in subsequent decades. With new evidence from the State and Defense Departments, Kaiser documents Kennedy's wariness of intervention Kaiser writes very good history; he deserves a wide serious audience. -- Stanley I. Kutler * Chicago Tribune *His historiographical argument is sure to antagonize the military establishment, the CIA, surviving key policymakers like William Bundy and McNamara, anti-war critics on the left, defenders of the American commitment to fight Asian communism--and even some of his fellow historians...Kaiser is spectacularly persuasive in placing nuclear weapons at the pregnant center of the Joint Chiefs' assumptions in Vietnam. There were indeed 'wild men waiting in the wings,' as McGeorge Bundy later put it, ready to invade North Vietnam with tactical nuclear weapons. And that would have even been an even greater disaster than what happened. It is in this light that Kaiser's book is an invaluable contribution to the on-going task of peeling back further layers of the history. -- Kai Bird * Washington Post Book World *What Professor Kaiser exposes fully is the early American preparation for nuclear war in Southeast Asia and, if necessary, with China. Skeptics may dismiss this as mere contingency planning, but the Joint Chiefs went beyond preparing for a contingency to advocacy; and Kaiser shows how superiors were willing to go along with them...Kaiser's theme throughout his fascinating but depressing study is that the main actors, defying expert knowledge, could not see that their project was doomed and never defined their ultimate objectives apart from keeping Hanoi from winning. -- Jonathan Mirsky * New York Review of Books *Kaiser, a professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College, bases his account of Vietnam policy-making not on the abstractions of international relations theory but on an exhaustive examination of the documentary record. The portrait he paints of Cold War liberalism is a frightening one. -- Bill Boisvert * In These Times *The Vietnam war has been studied exhaustively but never, in many minds, satisfactorily...That makes American Tragedy a valuable, even indispensable, addition to the long, groaning shelf of books examining the path the United States took when it stumbled into its most disastrous foreign war. David Kaiser has done prodigious documentary research, studying material that had not been previously available, and has arrived at a thesis that is sure to be controversial and to open, once again, the old and painful wounds. -- Geoffrey Norman * American Way *This masterpiece of governmental history locates the roots of the Vietnam War not in the Johnson era or even Kennedy administration, but back in the military policies of the Eisenhower era...Drawing on a host of documents from recently opened government archives and tape recordings of White House meetings, Kaiser offers voluminous and meticulous evidence that Kennedy repeatedly rejected, deferred or at least modified recommendations for military actions--most notably in Laos...President Johnson, less skilled than Kennedy in foreign affairs, readily reverted to Eisenhower's narrow policy framework, despite the emergence of critics among his advisers whose thinking echoed Kennedy's. Kaiser repeatedly says they ignored problems they couldn't solve and failed to heed clear evidence that their assumptions were flawed, making defeat a foregone conclusion. This is a commanding work that sheds bright light on questions of responsibility for the Vietnam debacle. * Publishers Weekly *An important addition to the sad--and growing--library devoted to the Vietnam war. Kaiser is a longtime professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College--an important qualification, given the provocative news he brings in his heavily documented tome...Highly useful to scholars, and certain to excite discussion and even controversy, Kaiser's book is a valuable contribution. * Kirkus Reviews *[An] excellent investigation of the roots of the Vietnam War...Having spent nine years researching recently declassified documents, the author describes in exacting detail the evolution of Vietnam policies from 1961 to 1965, the year that Johnson committed the United States to a war it couldn't win...The first-rate research is complemented by an intriguing model of intergenerational policy-making, whereby Kaiser attributes much of the failure to the heavy-handed actions of the 'GI generation,' the successful leaders of World War II. Highly recommended. -- Karl Helicher * Library Journal *Kaiser [attempts] to shift a significant share of the responsibility [for the Vietnam War] to those military and foreign-policy specialists in the Eisenhower administration who believed that Communist 'aggression' has to be resisted everywhere at all times. In Kaiser's scenario, a cautious President Kennedy consistently resisted the entreaties of State and Defense Department professionals (many of them Eisenhower holdovers) to dramatically expand our commitment in Vietnam. Unfortunately, Kaiser asserts, President Johnson was far more willing to accept the advice of those same men. Kaiser, utilizing substantial and newly available source material, deftly organizes a vast amount of data into a provocative and important contribution to the controversy. -- Jay Freeman * Booklist *The question of the [Vietnam] war's nobility will be debated for years, but Kaiser's deeply researched, thoughtful and fresh look at the origin of America's stumble into war sets the standard for all future books. Kaiser invokes 'tragedy' in its classical sense: good men, devoted to a worthy cause, putting in motion actions that would bring unplanned, dreadful consequences. -- Bruce Clayton * Plain Dealer [Cleveland, Ohio *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Eisenhower Administration and Indochina: 1954-1960 2. No War in Laos: January-June 1961 3. A New Effort in Vietnam: January-August 1961 4. War or Peace? September-November 1961 5. Limiting the Commitment: November 1961-November 1962 6. The War in Vietnam: 1962 7. A Gathering Storm: January-July 1963 8. The Buddhist Crisis and the Cable of August 24: 1963 9. The Coup: August-November 1963 10. A Decision for War: November 1963-April 1964 11. To the Tonkin Gulf: April-August 1964 12. Planning for War: September-December 1964 13. Over the Edge: December 1964-March 1965 14. War in Secret: March-June 1965 15. War in Public: June-July 1965 16. Bad History, Wrong War Epilogue: Tragedy and History Dedication Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Illustration Credits Index

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Book SynopsisThe Battle for Children links two major areas of historical inquiry: crime and delinquency with war and social change. In a study based on impressive archival research, Fishman reveals the impact of the Vichy regime on one of history’s most silent groups—children—and offers enlightening new information about the Vichy administration.Trade ReviewSarah Fishman approaches the subject of juvenile justice in France with admirable breadth, bringing to bear simultaneously a close study of politics, legal texts and institutions, professional interests, intellectual positions, and cultural values. Without minimizing Vichy's ugly aspects, she has emphasized the regime's capacity to mobilize experts and push through changes that turn out to be durable. Her conclusions give a significant new nuance to studies of France under the Vichy regime. -- Robert O. Paxton, Columbia UniversityMakes a contribution to a little-known aspect of Vichy social policy and to the longer-term history of juvenile criminal justice and treatment in France. Sarah Fishman's study is based on important archival work; the materials on internal Vichy debates are exceptionally rich and intelligently utilized. Her prose is absolutely first-rate. -- Robert A. Nye, Oregon State UniversityFishman makes a praiseworthy contribution to the growing body of Foucault-influenced scholarship on criminality in this study of the transformation of the juvenile justice system in 1940s France. She argues that the rise in juvenile crime during the Occupation, which contemporaries attributed to the absence of POW fathers, was in reality the result of economic privation and the rise of a generalized defiance of authority symbolized by the black market and the Resistance...A rare work of historical scholarship with clear contemporary relevance. -- D. A. Harvey * Choice *Loaded with numerous examples and a clear use of language, this book is an asset to research on juvenile courts and related political, social and expert views. -- Ingrid Van Der Bij * The European Legacy *

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Book SynopsisThe central argument of this study of the development of a communications network linking the far-flung parts of the Japanese imperium is that modern telecommunications not only served to connect these territories but, more important, made it possible for the Japanese to envision an integrated empire in Asia.Trade ReviewYang carefully examines Japan’s submarine and wireless telegraph and telephone networks and the ways in which the emerging system grew within Japan’s expanding empire, as well as the ways in which the configuration of the system supported the empire and was, in turn, shaped by the demands and complexity of it. Scholars and graduate students interested in modern Japan, comparative empires, and/or technology and society will learn much from this new, important book. -- W. D. Kinzley * Choice *Table of ContentsFigures, Tables, Maps, and Photographs Abbreviations Epigraph Sources Introduction Part I: Genesis, 1853-1931 1. An Emerging Empire in the Age of Submarine Telegraphy 2. Wireless and the Crisis in the Informal Empire Part II: Technology, 1931-1940 3. Toward a New Order on the Continent 4. Inventing Japanese Technology 5. Envisioning Imperial Integration Part III: Control, 1936-1945 6. Negotiating Control at Home 7. Consolidating Control in China 8. Gaining Control in Southeast Asia Part IV: Network, 1939-1945 9. Integrating Systems 10. Operation, Meltdown and Aftermath Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn this compelling account of the decisive World War II battle of El Alamein, Jon Latimer brings to life the harsh desert conflict in North Africa. This is the story of two of the most intriguing commanders of the war and the story of the infantry soldiers who fought in a scorched wilderness.Trade Review[Latimer's] extensive research is evident both in the book's organization and in the endnotes...This well-written and-organized book is highly recommended. -- Lt. Col. Charles M. Minyard * Library Journal *Exhaustively researched and comprehensive...[Latimer's] inclusion of veterans' recollections and memoirs will grab the interest of generalists looking for something more than simple war stories. Latimer's critical but balanced view of Rommel, British general Montgomery and others is welcome; the inclusion of their opinions of, and dealings with, eachother are in keeping with the best professional military history...All aspects of the battle are covered...All well presented in a carefully crafted and exciting style...Painstaking yet gripping, this should be the definitive account of the battle itself for years to come. * Publishers Weekly *Jon Latimer's Alamein is the work of a former British Army officer, a meticulous military history inclusive of accurate and often hitherto unknown details. It is a classic, near-encyclopedic reconstruction. -- John Lukas * Los Angeles Times *Latimer meticulously describes how, after a couple of dispiriting years of desert warfare, British and Commonwealth forces achieved in October 1942 the victory they craved over German and Italian forces at El Alamein in Egypt. -- Lawrence D. Freedman * Foreign Affairs *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Maps Introduction Part I: An Obscure Railway Halt 1. Colonial Rivals 2. Enter Rommel 3. The Fall of Tobruk 4. The Alamein Line 5. Malta 6. Enter Monty 7. Alam Halfa 8. Lightfoot 9. In the Line 10. Final Preparations Part II: The Battle 11. Barrage 12. The Assault 13. The Armour Stalls 14. Crisis Conference 15. Crumbling 16. The Defence of Outpost Snipe 17. Thompson's Post 18. Supercharge 19. The Beginning of the End 20. The End of the Beginning Appendix: Orders of Battle, 23 October 1942 Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe decision to fortify northeastern France has usually been considered a tragic mistake, an example of bad planning and missed opportunities. Not so, says Judith M. Hughes, who provides a convincing view of how France’s military and political leaders tried to safeguard their nation and why they failed.Trade Review[A] stimulating and excellently documented book…Individual personalities are particularly well handled. Foch and Pétain, Poincaré and Blum—all emerge with veritable life in them. The trends of French interwar history are deftly carried through onto these pages with an unobtrusive lucidity and persuasiveness. -- Michael Hurst * American Historical Review *[An] admirable little monograph…[Hughes] has demonstrated what can be done to overcome obstacles of official secrecy through resourcefulness in collecting evidence and ingenuity in interpretation. Moreover, instead of working backward from 1940, seeking causes and culprits of collapse in the 1930s, Ms. Hughes has wisely chosen to begin in 1918 and to focus upon the 1920s. This chronology has given her a fresher perspective and a wider scope for sympathy than other commentators of the period. It is the great merit of this book that it passes judgments with compassion and restraint. Indeed, Professor Hughes insists upon viewing French military policy in the broadest possible context of international developments, domestic politics, economic problems, and intellectual moods; from these elements, she weaves a dilemma of tragic dimensions in which the confusions and mistakes of individuals are reviewed with kindness and realism. -- Charles C. Bright * Political Science Quarterly *Dr. Judith Hughes has devised a modest title for her very wide sweep of interbellum French military history. Not content with penetrating analyses of the post war ‘population problem,’ the intricacies of politico–military relations, the unfolding formulation of strategic–tactical concepts in light of 1914–1918, the intermeshing of foreign and military policy, and, on title-target, the political alignments in legislating army reform and frontier organization (Maginot Line), Dr. Hughes offers an epilogue on the implication of the 1920s for the 1930s and even for May–June 1940. If at times Dr. Hughes covers familiar ground, she does so with the same thoroughness and perception she exhibits in more ‘original’ sections of this well-researched book. -- Donald J. Harvey * Military Affairs *

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Book SynopsisStudies of collaboration have changed how the history of World War II in Europe is written, but for China and Japan this aspect of wartime conduct has remained largely unacknowledged. In a bold new work, Timothy Brook breaks the silence surrounding the sensitive topic of wartime collaboration between the Chinese and their Japanese occupiers.Trade ReviewA fascinating book that offers a wealth of material on issues and events that are not well known. The prose is informal and engaging, bringing the reader into the problems Brook faced in researching such a sensitive topic. The stories he explores are part both of a distinctive Chinese history and a common (and difficult) history of conquest and rule in the twentieth century. -- R. Bin Wong, Director, UCLA Asia InstituteBrook has written a very rich study, drawing on exceptional primary sources, that brings forward new facts and deals with burning issues. -- Marie-Claire Bergère, author of Sun Yat-senBrook has with great care taken up the sensitive topic of Chinese collaboration with the Japanese conquerors during the Sino-Japanese War--a subject that the Chinese are still hesitant to address. His study concentrates on local collaboration in the Yangtze delta region in Shanghai's hinterland, avoiding the more shocking cases of puppet regimes in north and northeast China and the 'national government' in Nanjing. China, unlike France after World War II, had no chance to work out the moral and psychological issues related to collaboration, and even today outrage at Japanese atrocities obscures questions of Chinese collaboration. Brook builds his thoughtful analysis on Japanese archival documents, Chinese memoirs, and interviews. By concentrating on the local level, he makes vivid the personal relationships between Chinese and Japanese administrators as they dealt with day-to-day problems. He concludes that there was no shortage of Chinese elites ready to work for the Japanese, but that the relationship remained complicated and tense. -- Lucian Pye * Foreign Affairs *[A] finely researched and subtly nuanced study of collaboration in the Lower Yangtze Valley during the initial year of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45... What is remarkable is that Professor Brook has uncovered from both the Chinese and Japanese sides archival and memoir literature of a quality that allows him to present case studies that illuminate the ambiguities and complexities of collaboration, not to mention the essential mechanics of how it was sought and arranged...This work is not only a major contribution to the history of the Sino-Japanese War and that of modern China; it also makes an invaluable addition to the comparative history of wartime collaboration through recounting the Chinese experience of survival under the occupation state. -- David P. Barrett * Chinese Historical Review *Timothy Brook's superb book is an example of the doing and writing of history at its best...In addition to painting a compelling picture of the multileveled and multidirectional complexity and ambiguity of politics and society under the occupation, Brook's work is studded with notable insights...Brook's writing style is at the same time urbane and engaging. In sum, this is an excellent study and a great read as well. -- R. Keith Schoppa * American Historical Review *Timothy Brook's study of wartime collaboration between Chinese local elites and Japanese army agents is a welcome and necessary part of the new historical thinking about wartime China...Brook's book is a meticulously researched, subtly argued, and courageous study of a still delicate topic. It will be of value to all readers who wish to explore the dynamics of the 1937-45 Sino-Japanese War in more detail, and adds depth and maturity to a field that has sometimes seemed the prisoner of the type of nationalist paradigms that Brook seeks to undermine. -- Rana Mitter * International History Review *Timothy Brook has produced a superb book about the vexed problem of collaboration...Of all the studies of collaboration—or those that touch on it—in East Asian studies, Brook’s provides us with the most interesting perspective. One of the book’s great strengths is the clear and methodical way in which it proceeds through its historical investigation. Brook hews closely to his principal sources and texts, which he both utilizes and interrogates. He cross-examines Chinese and Japanese, collaborative and denunciatory, occupier and resistor texts, often with regard to the same phenomenon, if not the same event or person. Yet Brook is sufficiently a stylist that this procedure rarely lapses into a dry, judicial mode of inquiry. At the same time, the conclusions he draws feel remarkably faithful to his methodology. -- Prasenjit Duara * The China Journal *

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Book SynopsisThe Allied landings on the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944, have assumed legendary status in the annals of World War II. But in overly romanticizing D-day, Wieviorka argues, we have lost sight of the full picture. Normandy offers a balanced, complete account that reveals the successes and weaknesses of the titanic enterprise.Trade ReviewThis remarkable work rests on a series of sharp and convincing analyses worthy of a latter-day Thucydides. There isn't any aspect of the colossal and risky enterprise that Wieviorka has neglected. He is as impressive in interpreting the political calculations and motivations of the leaders as in describing the battles and evaluating the gaps between military plans and achievements. His discussion of the psychological trauma of the Allied soldiers is both moving and essential. On a topic on which so much has been written, Wieviorka has come as close to a definitive treatment as one can expect. -- Stanley Hoffmann, Harvard UniversityAccounts of the Normandy campaign are not in short supply, but this one from a French military historian delivers an energetic, mildly revisionist overview...This is an engrossing history of the Normandy campaign. * Publishers Weekly *This is a useful and provocative book, drawing our attention to the complex relationship between servicemen, civilians, and national authorities in the newly liberated state. -- Richard Holmes * Financial Times *Possibly the best summary of the Normandy campaign I have yet read...[Wieviorka] brings the contradictory, harsh realities out from the margins into the center of the page. -- Roger K. Miller * Chicago Sun-Times *Engaging and well written, French historian Wieviorka's analysis of the Normandy campaign superbly illustrates the political and military complexities of coalition warfare. Perhaps more striking, this cogent narrative of the 1944 Anglo-American amphibious operation and subsequent ground campaign in northwest France powerfully demonstrates the importance of logistics in modern mechanized warfare, the critical role of intelligence and deception in Allied success, and the limitations of airpower in ground operations...Wieviorka's fresh perspective is thoroughly thought-provoking and a welcome addition to the historiography. -- D. R. Snyder * Choice *Table of Contents* List of Abbreviations and Code Names * List of Illustrations * Introduction: Return to France * Allies, Not Friends * Preparing for War * Planning for D-Day * Logistics, Training, Rehearsals * Strategies and Stratagems * The Other Side of the Hill * D-Day, H-Hour * To Win a Battle * Stalemate * Psychoneuroses * From Avranches to Paris * The Battle of France--and France's Battle * Liberators and Liberated * Conclusion: Farewell to Crusades? * Notes * Acknowledgments * Archival Sources * Select Bibliography * Index

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Book SynopsisTo continue doing business in Germany, Hollywood studios agreed not to make films attacking Nazis or condemning persecution of Jews. Ben Urwand reveals this collaboration and the cast of characters it drew in, ranging from Goebbels to Louis B. Mayer. At the center was Hitler himself—obsessed with movies and their power to shape public opinion.Trade ReviewUrwand draws on a wealth of previously uncited documents to argue that Hollywood studios, in an effort to protect the German market for their movies, not only acquiesced to Nazi censorship but also actively and enthusiastically cooperated with that regime’s global propaganda effort. -- Jennifer Schuessler * New York Times *[An] eye-opening study of Hollywood and the Nazi elite… The Collaboration unfolds a story that rather knocks the shine off the golden age of cinema… Urwand has done some energetic digging in the archives, quoting letters, memos and newspaper reports to uncover a shameful policy of compromise and kowtowing on the part of the studio bosses. And what lends the story its peculiar irony is that those bosses who did their utmost to appease the crazed ideology of Nazism were by and large Jews themselves. -- Anthony Quinn * The Guardian *Urwand…sheds new light on the way the studio bosses responded to Nazi pressure, from 1933, when Hitler assumed power, to 1941, when the United States entered the war… Drawing on American and German archival material, the author shows that Hollywood began working with the Nazis in 1933. The collaboration was not passive, but voluntary: part of a strategy necessary in order for the studios to maintain their market in Germany—which had more movie theaters than any other country in Europe… Urwand describes how the Nazis tried to shape the very content of American films—and often succeeded. -- Samuel Blumenfeld * Le Monde *Urwand’s book uncovers important material about the relationship between the American film industry and the Nazi regime… Readers may or may not agree with Urwand’s conclusion about the perils of Jewish self-denial. But in highlighting it, he provides a useful reminder that scholarship on the Nazi era continues to serve as a mirror in which Jews view themselves. -- Gavriel Rosemfeld * Forward *Urwand…presents explosive new evidence about the shocking extent of the partnership between the Nazis and major Hollywood producers… [A] riveting book… As you turn its pages you realize with dismay that collaboration is the only fitting word for the relationship between Hitler and Hollywood in the 1930s. Using new archival discoveries, Urwand alleges that some of the Hollywood studio heads, nearly all of whom were Jewish, cast their lot with Hitler almost from the moment he took power, and that they did so eagerly—not reluctantly. What they wanted was access to German audiences. What Hitler wanted was the ability to shape the content of Hollywood movies—and he got it… What is shocking and new about Urwand’s account is its blow-by-blow description of Hollywood executives tailoring their product to meet the demands of the Nazi regime. -- David Mikics * Tablet Magazine *Hard-hitting… Urwand has dug deep…and come up with some genuine revelations… The story is quite dramatic, and shameful. -- Philip Kemp * Times Higher Education *Urwand’s book about how Hollywood conducted business with and within Germany after Hitler’s ascent to power is a fascinating examination of capitalist amorality in the face of evil. Urwand does a good job of cataloging the ways Hollywood studios—largely headed by immigrant Jewish entrepreneurs—took measures to placate the Nazis so they could continue to show films in Germany throughout the 1930s, until the Nazi invasion of Poland… Urwand has uncovered a very interesting, heretofore unknown, true Hollywood story. -- Philip Martin * Arkansas Democrat-Gazette *[A] provocative book. -- Rosemary Neill * The Australian *The Collaboration expertly dismantles Hollywood’s rose-tinted view of history, proving it wasn’t standing up to fascism as it has claimed, but eagerly appeasing the Nazis so long as the money was coming in. -- Kyle Ryan * A.V. Club *[The] revelations in Ben Urwand’s controversial exposé, The Collaboration, are nothing short of astonishing, going well beyond what was known about Hollywood’s timidity during that era. With damning archival evidence, Urwand argues that the studios, motivated by profits, were reluctant to abandon the German market, where American films were popular and Hitler himself was a fan… Urwand’s finely documented account is even more chilling—in large part because the ‘collaborators’ to whom he points were American, and in many cases also Jewish. -- Julia M. Klein * Boston Globe *[Urwand] has revealed in terrifying detail how Hollywood was at the whim of the Nazis throughout the 1930s—censoring films and dropping others in a sinister collaboration with Hitler. * Daily Mail *Impeccably researched and impressively argued, Ben Urwand’s gripping volume systematically reveals the way major Hollywood studios were willing to protect their financial interests in the German market by appeasing the Nazi regime. Urwand has unearthed remarkable evidence from archives in Germany and America, confirming that the road to hell was paved with a thousand concessions. Hollywood studios went to astonishing lengths not to offend or upset the Nazi regime. What began with minor adjustments to scripts eventually reached a point where projects that were unsympathetic to Germany’s past or critical of the Nazis were simply never made… The studios didn’t just follow a policy of accommodation they became willing partners with the Nazis to reach an understanding of what could be mutually beneficial to both parties. The book is such a revelation because it goes against the grain of commonly held assumptions… Urwand is particularly good at marshalling hard facts and solid evidence that builds into a horrifying indictment of studios that continued to operate in Germany throughout the first eight years of Hitler’s rule… Even as the full horrors of the Nazi regime became apparent to the world, Hollywood continued to offer the hand of collaboration, a fact all the more ironic considering that many of the studio bosses were Jewish… This is a book that challenges every rose-tinted view of Hollywood’s Golden Age. It sheds a piercing light on dark deeds and is an invaluable work of political history that has all the page-turning urgency of a thriller. -- Allan Hunter * Herald (Scotland) *The Collaboration felt genuinely original and eye-opening as Ben Urwand systematically revealed the way major Hollywood studios were willing to protect their financial interest in the German market of the 1930s by appeasing the Nazi regime. The road to hell was paved by a thousand concessions. -- Allan Hunter * Herald (Scotland) *The book is a fascinating take on the shady politics of Hollywood and should be read by anyone interested in going behind the glamour of 1930s cinema. -- Taylor Downing * History Today *Urwand has dug deep in the German archives and found evidence that the Nazis’ business dealings with some of the studios were much closer than previously realized. He also draws attention to the flagrant lobbying of the Nazi emissary to Hollywood. -- J. Hoberman * London Review of Books *Urwand’s investigation of this dark chapter in the history of the American film industry is as intriguing as it is compellingly told. -- Theis Duelund * Los Angeles magazine *Urwand’s book details in sometimes shocking fashion how the Hollywood film industry, including studios run by legendary Jewish film moguls such as Louis B. Mayer, were willing to pre-screen their films for Nazi officials and remove content they found objectionable. -- Andy Goldberg * Military.com *In Urwand’s account of the relationship between the American film industry and the government of Germany in the 1930s, he shows that Hollywood studios put profits ahead of scruples in their dealings with the Nazis. -- Lisa Jarvinen * Philadelphia Inquirer *Urwand is tearing down the popular impression that the 1930s Hollywood community stood united in efforts to combat the Nazi regime. Quite the contrary, says Urwand, whose research reveals a shocking level of collaboration (or Zusammenarbeit, i.e. ‘working together’) between the German government and Tinseltown’s studios—many of which were famously headed by Jews… The Collaboration depicts a studio system in which films were submitted for approval to aggressive German propaganda officials, who demanded cuts and changes to material deemed ‘detrimental to German prestige’—not only to film versions created for the German market, but for the U.S. and countries around the world. -- Lesley M. M. Blume * Vanity Fair online *With great attention to detail, Urwand describes multiple contacts between the studios and German officials, and he apparently breaks some new ground with his descriptions of Georg Gyssling, who became a Hollywood fixture after Hitler came to power in 1933. -- Roger Currie * Winnipeg Free Press *A welcome addition to understanding Hollywood’s response to the rise of Nazism. -- J. Fischel * Choice *Offers a keen, unsettling look at the unholy alliance Hollywood made with the Nazis, which allowed both to keep packing movie theaters in Germany up until the outbreak of war… There was pressure on the studios to censor defense of Jews in certain films and suppress films that portrayed Nazis in an unflattering light (The Mad Dog of Europe). The result of this complicated and slippery relationship, as Urwand depicts with subtlety, was the absolute disappearance from film of Nazis and Jews until the end of the decade. * Kirkus Reviews *This eminently accessible, often riveting account of a little-understood chapter in American cinema history should appeal to a wide general readership. -- Roy Liebman * Library Journal *Urwand keeps the jaw-dropping revelations coming in this damning indictment of the complicity of the major Hollywood studios—and their mostly Jewish heads—in the Nazis’ campaign to exterminate Europe’s Jews… Urwand deserves immense credit for this groundbreaking—and truly unique—take on the WWII era. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *A tremendous piece of work, fully sustained, building momentum charged by thrillingly detailed storytelling, increasing suspense, and a consistent movement from outrages to atrocities, with a stunning conclusion of heroism and tragedy—and it is as well a devastating RIP to what we’ve been told, all down these years, about ‘the genius of the system.’ -- Greil MarcusFull of startling and surprising revelations, presented in exemplary fashion, without any moralizing or sensationalism. The Collaboration shows how Hollywood and especially the big studios went along with German demands to censor movies not only before but especially after the Nazi seizure of power. -- Richard J. Evans

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewSynthesize[s] dozens of accounts to powerful and illuminating effect…A fascinating, insightful, and nuanced work that incorporates much fresh research. Particularly rewarding is the close attention Peri pays to language. -- Anna Reid * Times Literary Supplement *[A] fascinating and perceptive book. -- Antony Beevor * New York Review of Books *A remarkable record of 125 unpublished diaries written by the blokadniki who endured the 872-day siege of Leningrad from 1941–44… Much has been written about Leningrad’s heroic resistance. But the remarkable aspect of the Boston University professor’s book is that she tells a very different story: recounting the internal struggles of ordinary people desperately trying to survive and make sense of their fate. -- John Thornhill * Financial Times *Stand aside, Homer. I doubt whether even the author of the Iliad could have matched Alexis Peri’s account of the 872-day siege which Leningrad endured after Hitler’s army encircled the city in September 1941…[A] magnificent narrative. -- Jonathan Mirsky * The Spectator *The battle for Leningrad lasted 1,127 days; the city was under siege for 900 of them. Between 1.6 million and two million Soviet citizens died, 800,000 of them civilians—40 percent of the city’s prewar population. (As Peri points out, the overall death toll approximates the total number of members of the U.S. military who died in war between 1776 and 1975.) Leningrad residents of all types—from factory foremen to teachers, party workers to professional writers—kept diaries during the ordeal. Peri searches through 125 of them to capture how the nightmare deconstructed the writers’ prior realities and altered their sense of humanity. Her portrait is a sensitive, at times almost poetic examination of their emotions and disordered mental states. It both contrasts with and complements the equally accurate official Soviet portrait of a stalwart population standing firm in the face of evil and in defense of Soviet ideals. Peri makes plain that even though the diarists endured the total transformation of their fundamental sense of reality, their social relationships, and the nature of their social order, most of them did not become alienated from the values and basic outlook of the Soviet system. -- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *A powerful book…In a groundbreaking history, Alexis Peri has sifted through scores of previously unpublished diaries that have lain largely forgotten for decades in Russian archives. As a result, we now have a far fuller picture of the siege. It may make disturbing reading, but these journals personalize the catastrophe far better than any conventional history. -- Guy Walters * Daily Mail *[An] important new book…Peri’s book is not a tale; it is arranged thematically rather than chronologically, and it does not reprint any diary in full. But oh, these voices from a frozen world of starvation and fear! They will haunt you. It is time they were heard. -- Laurie Hertzel * Star Tribune *In devastating intimacy, the diaries [written during the siege of Leningrad] disclose the private struggles of individuals to extract meaning from unimaginably dire circumstances, as well as the philosophical and psychological approaches they brought to bear on their suddenly unrecognizable lives and their own disappearing bodies…This is a People’s History of the siege, realized at last, and as such should be added to the short list of essential reading on the subject. -- Debra Dean * Washington Independent Review of Books *In this fascinating analysis of the experience of average Soviet citizens during the Siege of Leningrad, Peri investigates the everyday experiences of the blokadniki, those who survived for over 900 days during the German blockade of the city during WW II. Using 125 unpublished diaries, [Peri] provides a unique perspective on those who lived inside the ‘ring’ created by the German siege. -- R. W. Lemmons * Choice *From 1941 until 1944, the city of Leningrad was under siege from Germany and Finland for a total of 872 days; almost one million citizens perished during that time. Peri takes readers on a terrifying journey of the turmoil faced by the residents of Leningrad via reviewing and synthesizing 125 unpublished diaries from those imprisoned in the city, the Blokadnik or Siege of Leningrad survivors…Readers interested in the effects of a military siege on individuals will find much to digest here. Moreover, history buffs will learn new information about the people of Leningrad during this terrible time. -- Jason L. Steagall * Library Journal *Vivid, true, and magnificently crafted. Peri has peeled away layer after layer of the human record to its core—physical, mental, spiritual. -- Nina Tumarkin, author of Lenin Lives!By mining an extraordinarily rich treasure trove of unpublished diaries, Peri moves beyond relating what happened during the blockade and instead explains how Leningraders made sense of it. Sophisticated, nuanced, and extremely well written, The War Within is a major contribution to our understanding of the mentality of Leningrad’s civilians during the blockade and the role that diaries played in Soviet history. -- Richard Bidlack, coauthor of The Leningrad Blockade, 1941–1944: A New Documentary History from the Soviet ArchivesDiaries from the Stalin era tend to be analyzed in numbers too small to provide more than a glimpse of everyday life. Here, however, Peri has assembled over a hundred of these rare records, which allows for unprecedented insight into the trials and tribulations that ordinary people experienced during one of their greatest ordeals: the 900-day siege of Leningrad. This is a truly groundbreaking study. -- David Brandenberger, author of Propaganda State in Crisis: Soviet Ideology, Indoctrination, and Terror under Stalin, 1927–1941In the winter of 1941–1942, civilians in blockaded Leningrad lived on the very edge of death. Conveying their life stories and struggles with great sensitivity, Peri draws on more than a hundred largely unpublished diaries to explore how the external crisis provoked an internal crisis that destabilized Leningraders’ fundamental understandings of themselves, the Soviet Union, and the world. -- Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, author of The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1995: Myth, Memories, and Monuments

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Book SynopsisWorking with the Nazi-appointed Jewish Council in Amsterdam, Gertrude van Tijn helped many Jews escape. But she faced difficult moral choices. Some called her a heroine; others, a collaborator. Bernard Wasserstein’s haunting narrative draws readers into this twilight world, to expose the terrible dilemmas confronting Jews under Nazi occupation.Trade Review[Wasserstein] reconsiders the impossible situation of the ‘Jewish councils’ in Western Europe through a reconstruction of the life of Gertrude van Tijn, a leading member of Amsterdam’s council. As Wasserstein reminds readers, too much of the debate about the Jewish councils has been carried out in the terms proposed by Hannah Arendt, who emphasized complicity and culpability and failed to notice, much less understand, the extraordinary courage and creativity employed by activists like van Tijn. Wasserstein’s textured account recreates the tense and essential interactions with Nazi authorities as well as Allies and potentially friendly enemies; the unbearable daily emotional algorithms of rescue work, including choosing whom to exempt from deportation; and the inevitable rivalries and betrayals. But it also evokes the absolutely vital sustaining power of passionate friendships and loves in cataclysmic times. -- Dagmar Herzog * New York Times Book Review *In the life of Gertrude van Tijn, Bernard Wasserstein has found the perfect subject for examining the appalling options that faced Jewish leaders under Nazi rule… Wasserstein tells van Tijn’s story beautifully, weaving the historical background almost seamlessly into the narrative. While leaning on her unpublished autobiography, he corroborates her activity using documents from numerous archives. His evaluations are judicious and humane. -- David Cesarani * Literary Review *Absorbing… Wasserstein’s book is a powerful indictment, if another were needed, of the world’s failure to respond to the plight of Europe’s Jews in the 1930s and 40s… The Ambiguity of Virtue is a valuable, accessible book. It introduces readers to a fascinating woman, reminds us that the central experience for European Jews in the 1930s and even into the 40s was of being trapped in a nightmarish bureaucracy that made the figure of the refugee sadly central to political life, and allows us to conclude that ambiguity need not undo the possibility of virtue. As thousands of child refugees from Central America arrive at the U.S. border, van Tijn’s example is sadly only too relevant. -- Dorian Stuber * Open Letters Monthly *[A] sober, scholarly and often fascinating book… Partly a biography, partly a history of the destruction of Dutch Jewry… Was van Tijn, who died in the U.S. in 1974, a Nazi dupe or a champion of her people? Wasserstein’s carefully argued, compassionate narrative suggests that at different points in her life she was both. -- Rosemary Neill * The Australian *The story of Gertrude van Tijn is an amazing tale, but as Wasserstein’s magnificent biography shows yet again: in wartime anything was possible. * Het Parool *Wasserstein reexamines [Van Tijn’s] life and weaves her story beautifully into the fabric of Holocaust history… This book is an important contribution to the field of Holocaust studies, as it shows the ethical complications that Jewish leaders faced, especially leaders involved with refugees… Wasserstein eloquently articulates why we should remember Gertrude van Tijn. -- Allison Schottenstein * PopMatters *Whoever thought ‘virtue’ could be ambiguous? But the fraught period during which the book’s protagonist, Gertrude van Tijn, was active ensured that matters were rarely straightforward, as Bernard Wasserstein so adeptly relates. -- Emma Klein * The Tablet *In an attempt to understand her motives and actions, Wasserstein takes a close look at the background and behavior of his subject. He gives readers not just a personal portrait of van Tjin, a bourgeois German Jew who embraced Zionism as a young woman and acquired Dutch nationality upon her marriage in 1920, but also a stark picture of the plight of European Jews before and during World War II… A scholarly, thoroughly documented work that elucidates historical issues and explores moral ones. * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisHoffmann examines the growing recognition by some Germans in the 1930s of the malign nature of the Nazi regime, the ways in which these people became involved in the resistance, and the views of those who staked their lives in the struggle against tyranny and murder.Table of ContentsIntroduction Part One. The Rise of Hitler 1. Path to Dictatorship 2. Consolidation of Power 3. Toward World Conquest Part Two. The Resistance 4. Forces of Opposition 5. Varieties of Thought 6. Military Involvement 7. Failed Conspiracies 8. Contacts Abroad 9. Assassination Attempts Conclusion Selected Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisEven the demonic Hitler had a comprehensive philosophy, and Eberhard Jäckel probes deeply into the dictator’s mind to determine how he viewed the world.Trade Review[Jäckel’s] critique of the self-contradictions historical research has brought upon itself by abandoning systematic analysis and relying instead on intuitive judgments and the obiter dicta of ex-Nazis such as Hermann Rauschning is cogent and convincing. So also is his analysis of the development of Hitler’s ideas from the ‘conventional foundations’ with which he began in 1920. -- Geoffrey Barraclough * New York Review of Books *A highly intelligent and very valuable book by one of the ablest writers on Nazism in Germany. Hitler’s world view—the intellectual system which was the dynamic force of his career—is too often omitted from the history of his movement. Jäckel has reconstructed it with great skill and scholarship. His book fills a serious gap: it shows us the human motor which drove that otherwise inexplicable machine of brutal conquest and extermination. -- H. R. Trevor-RoperTable of ContentsForeword by Franklin L. Ford Translator's Foreword Chapter I. The Problem of a National Socialist Weitanschauung II. The Outlines of Foreign Policy Ill. The Elimination of the Jews IV. The State as a Means to an End V. The View of History as a Synthesis VI. From the Ordinary to the Extraordinary Notes

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewJames Dawes’s commendable new book, Evil Men, reflects, carefully and nervously, on the subject of human cruelty… For anyone interested in the bloody horizons of the human condition, it makes for essential reading. -- Christopher Byrd * Washington Post *Dawes juxtaposes the soldiers’ stories with a discussion of our own approach to contemporary war crimes, and although he doesn’t draw them explicitly, unsettling parallels emerge… As Evil Men eloquently attests, describing atrocities does not make them any more comprehensible. Nor, in trying to understand them, do we make them any more forgivable. -- Andrew Stark * Times Literary Supplement *Dawes approaches the topic in impressive turns as social scientist, psychoanalyst, philosopher, and human rights activist. His process of digging into the subject matter is intensely deliberate, always maintaining an assiduously respectful distance and an unwavering eye on the delicacy inherent in a public discussion about and with the perpetrators of heinous violence… The interviews accost us with their simple horror, and they make Evil Men a difficult book to read. One wants to quickly dash away stark images of children shot or women raped… Dawes has led us down the path of ethical inquiry, but after events like the marathon bombings, experience reminds us how difficult it is to talk about such horror in a way that conveys the full weight of our feelings. Language always falls short. There will never be comprehension; only a noble try. -- Geoffrey Young * Brooklyn Rail *In reading this text, in experiencing these stories, in reveling in these histories as we work our way into the center of them and then attempt to find our way back, our own hands are bloodied too. -- Legacy Russell * Guernica *Ranging across philosophy, literature and social science, Evil Men deploys a variety of sources—Augustine’s account of evil as the privation of good; Thomas Hardy’s poetry on the ‘Vast Imbecility’ that seems to inhere in the nature of things; and sociological studies of police torturers, among others—to produce a careful and sensitive exploration of some of the many different questions, not all answerable, that are posed by the ‘problem of evil.’ -- John Gray * Literary Review *[An] unsettlingly brilliant book. -- Brian Bethune * Maclean’s *Evil Men explores the causes and effects of human wickedness. At its heart is a series of interviews that James Dawes conducted with a group of Japanese war criminals who fought in the Sino–Japanese War of 1937–45… While he attempts to understand people for whom bayonetting civilians was something between an initiation rite and a training exercise, he also fears that understanding will trivialize what happened… It is because Dawes finds no ethical resting place that his relentlessly honest book is a moral act of the highest order. Required reading. -- Raymond Tallis * Prospect *Fascinating, original, and moving… We probably won’t solve the problem of evil by thinking about it. But we certainly won’t solve it by not thinking about it—and that is a good reason to read this remarkable book. -- Douglas Kerr * South China Morning Post *Evil Men is painful to read. Horror and terror are etched into every page. Atrocities are reflected upon—sometimes calmly; other times with cold fury. The book’s author, James Dawes, forces us to think carefully about the ethics of telling stories—true ones—about acts of staggering cruelty. Disturbingly, it is a book about friendship, too. When we are brought face to face with men who raped, tortured and murdered men, women and children, where should we look? Straight into their eyes, he advises… A complex, albeit totally absorbing and brilliant book. -- Joanna Bourke * Times Higher Education *Powerful and unusually told, the book raises questions that resist easy answers. * Publishers Weekly *This extraordinary book is by turns horrifying, enraging, and disturbing. Dawes both brings us into the thought world of criminals against humanity and simultaneously reminds us of the impossibility of entering anyone’s mind with any kind of confidence. Evil Men grapples with the impossible challenge of making meaning of what it sees; but most important, Dawes’s gaze never wavers. -- Noah R. Feldman, Harvard Law SchoolEvil Men lies well outside the boundaries of established academic discourse, and the form of the book is extraordinary in many ways. James Dawes not only probes the depths of the human capacity for atrocity, but also explores in an altogether original and nearly unrepeatable way the human capacity for sympathy or empathy with those whose acts have placed them beyond the pale of civilized society. -- Geoffrey Harpham, National Humanities CenterJames Dawes writes a deep, broad meditation on violence from Arendt to Zimbardo, from atrocity to forgiveness, the paradoxes of representation and the tears of war, sincere and otherwise. These Japanese men tell disturbing stories that will not let one go. While capturing their motives with a social scientist’s eye for causality, Dawes draws out the violent particulars with a novelist’s eye for personal meaning, self-care, and philosophical significance. This is a rare achievement. There are less than one hundred and fifty cases where torturers speak fully in their own words, and none that are written with such literary self-consciousness. -- Darius Rejali, author of Torture and DemocracyA brilliant analysis based on interviews with Japanese war criminals who committed atrocities in the Sino–Japanese War of 1937–45. * Times Higher Education *

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Book SynopsisIn 1939 Nazis identified Polish citizens of German origin and granted them legal status as ethnic Germans of the Reich. After the war Poland did just the opposite: searched out Germans of Polish origin and offered them Polish citizenship. John Kulczycki’s account underscores the processes of inclusion and exclusion that mold national communities.Trade ReviewKulczycki has written a fine examination of the origins of the idea to purify nations and its application during and after the Second World War, a process that resulted in the resettlement of many interwar Polish citizens in Germany. Kulczycki seeks to show how the stories of those who left Poland for West Germany in the 1950s do not easily fit the narrow categories of expulsion or economic migration… Kulczycki has written an engaging and deeply informative account of nationalization policies in the German–Polish borderlands. The book presents many of the findings of German and Polish scholars of the last twenty years in English and will be helpful to advanced students and scholars alike. Judicious and fairly written, the book reminds readers that the need to respect the cultural variety of the region remains relevant to this day. -- Winson Chu * H-Net Reviews *Belonging to the Nation is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the contentious re-engineering of European societies after the Second World War. Kulczycki’s magisterial account is the first systematic treatment in English of the enormously complicated and hotly contested question of how to deal with several million people with connections to Polish language and culture who had nonetheless spent the war classified as ‘ethnic Germans.’ Were they Poles who had been misidentified as Germans or rather Germans now potentially being mistaken for Poles? Kulczycki carefully tracks the fierce arguments and oscillating policies generated by this attempt to pin down national identities, demonstrating that the question of who belonged to the nation was never definitively answered. -- James E. Bjork, author of Neither German nor PoleThe complicated ambiguities and ambivalences in national affiliations—their exigencies, constraints, and sometimes surprising pragmatics—have recently inspired some of the best work on the twentieth-century nationality conflicts of east-central Europe. A wise and seasoned specialist in the Polish experience of German rule, Kulczycki now brings this lens to the Polish-German borderlands under successive regimes of occupation, with characteristically revealing and important results. -- Geoff Eley, author of Nazism as Fascism

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Book SynopsisFor South Koreans, the early 1960s to late 1970s were the best and worst of times—a period of unprecedented economic growth and deepening political oppression. Carter J. Eckert finds the roots of this dramatic socioeconomic transformation in the country’s long history of militarization, personified in South Korea’s paramount leader, Park Chung Hee.Trade ReviewA milestone in the literature of modern East Asia. Through close and careful examination, Eckert shows that Korean military leaders, preeminently Park Chung Hee, learned how warfare and industrial development could go hand-in-hand in the hothouse of 1930s Manchuria. They later used that model in the South to accomplish one of the most rapid developmental surges in world history. This is an enormous contribution to our understanding of modern Korea and East Asia. -- Bruce Cumings, author of Korea’s Place in the Sun: A Modern HistoryProdigiously researched and fluently written, Eckert’s book throws fascinating light on how Imperial Japan’s harsh colonial rule in Korea and Manchuria bequeathed a legacy of both authoritarianism and economic transformation to South Korea. This is a truly original contribution to our understanding of Japan’s as well as Korea’s modern history. -- John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War IIThis is a profound and important work, the culmination of decades of research and thought by a leader in the field. Timely, deeply researched, and engagingly written, this book occupies a unique place in the scholarship on modern Korea, and addresses a topic whose impact extends well beyond Korean and East Asian history. -- Charles K. Armstrong, author of Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World, 1950-1992Eckert, one of our most distinguished historians of Korea, comprehensively details the revealing background to how Park Chung Hee acquired the dedicated spirit to lead Korea’s modernization: spiritual training in Japanese military academies. -- Ezra F. Vogel, author of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of ChinaA masterly treatment of the pre-1945 origins of militarism that would later become manifest in the programs, leadership style, development philosophy, and political tactics of the Park Chung Hee era. This crucial work will have an enormous impact on the debates surrounding a number of issues in the postwar history of Korea. -- Michael E. Robinson, author of Korea's Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short HistoryThis pathbreaking book contributes to both modern Korean history and Japanese colonial history by exploring the instruction that Park Chung-hee (who went on to lead South Korea from 1961 to 1979) and others of his generation received when they were officer trainees in the Japanese colonial army in the 1940s…The book is not a biography, but it uses Park’s early career as a window onto Japanese militarism, which shaped the ethos of the men who later guided the first decades of an independent South Korea. -- Andrew J. Nathan * Foreign Affairs *Less a standard biography than an analysis, through the figure of Park Chung Hee, of Korea’s authoritarian past…The book is a work of historical ethnography demonstrating how Japan’s militarist ideas helped form modern Korea…Although South Korea has exorcised Park’s military legacy, this biography uncovers strands of modern identity that continue to bedevil the country. -- Robert S. Boynton * Bookforum *Eckert meticulously examines how Japan’s military occupation of Korea (1910–45) and Manchuria (1931–45) shaped the future contours of Korean politics and society to the detriment of individual rights and democracy…Eckert has delivered a robust analysis of the consequences of continuous conflict on the Korean peninsula and the resulting permeation of military values into various echelons of society. By interpreting the history of twentieth-century South Korea as a product of long-term geopolitical factors in both East Asia and the wider world, Park Chung Hee and Modern Korea represents a salient paradigmatic shift in the study of the region and thus richly deserves the highest plaudits from the scholarly community. -- Jeff Roquen * LSE Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisEarly in World War II, thousands of refugees traveled from France to Vichy-controlled Martinique, en route to safer shores in North, Central, and South America. While awaiting transfer, the exiles formed influential ties with one another and with local black dissidents. As Eric T. Jennings shows, what began as expulsion became a kind of rescue.Trade ReviewA riveting, heart-wrenching story of exile, intellectual cross-fertilization, and political awakening among refugees from Hitler’s Europe who escaped together to Martinique. Jennings has written a brilliant new chapter in the transatlantic history of negritude, anti-colonialism, and anti-racism. -- Alice L. Conklin, The Ohio State UniversityAn excellent book. Using a wide array of sources, Jennings vividly describes a short-lived but important episode in the refugee experience during World War II—the desperate attempts of those who went to Marseille in order to emigrate to the French Caribbean. He examines the cultural creativity that emerged as a result of the encounter between the refugees, many of whom were Surrealists, and native black artists and intellectuals on Martinique, especially Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, the founders of the ‘negritude’ movement. -- Vicki Caron, Cornell UniversityJennings tells the little-known story of the escape route that took some thousands of Jews, Spanish republicans, and others menaced by Nazi Germany from Marseille to France’s Caribbean colony of Martinique. Many of those saved in this way from the clutches of Nazism were prominent artists and intellectuals, some of whom—Claude Levi-Strauss, André Breton, Wilfredo Lam—enjoyed, or would enjoy, international renown. We learn about Martinique’s complex relations with the United States, which feared that many of the refugees destined for the island were potential fifth columnists eager to attack Americans from within. And it is fascinating to see how the connection between negritude and surrealism played out in Martinique. -- Edward Berenson, New York University[An] eye-opening history of the Martinique ‘refuge’ during World War II. Escape from Vichy provides a rich social history of one of the understudied escape routes of World War II, one fraught with internment camps and Pétainist antisemites, yet one that allowed some five thousand refugees to flee Nazi-ridden Europe. -- Nancy L. Green * Journal of Modern History *

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Book SynopsisTo boost soldiers’ morale and remind them of the stakes of victory, the American military formalized a recreation program that sent respectable young women, along with famous entertainers, overseas. This history of the women who talked and listened, danced and sang, adds an intimate chapter to the story of war and its ties to life in peacetime.Trade Review[A] fascinating history. -- Lawrence D. Freedman * Foreign Affairs *[Vuic] expertly illustrates contradictions inherent in the military’s reliance, since WWI, on U.S. women to provide respectable recreational programs and at the same time alluring entertainment for soldiers. * Choice *Besides illuminating women’s significance in military life, [Vuic] chronicles changes in assumptions about gender, sexuality, and race in American culture for the last 100 years…A fresh contribution to women’s history. * Kirkus Reviews *This well-researched and well-written work delves into an aspect of women’s service in wartime that is not often portrayed. * Library Journal *An important and timely book by a first-rate historian who is also a superb storyteller. Vuic richly captures the often contradictory demands made on women who volunteered for overseas troop support programs: to embody home-front domesticity but provide sensual entertainment; to be attractive but not too beautiful; to be friendly but not too close. Yet her book also underscores the women’s deep belief in the work as a genuine contribution to the war effort. -- James Wright, President Emeritus, Dartmouth College, and author of Enduring VietnamWomen were recruited to entertain, distract, and support male soldiers overseas during America’s twentieth-century wars, but their time in the spotlight was fleeting. Vuic returns them to center stage and reveals how utilizing feminine charms to advance military goals inadvertently gave these women opportunities to shape military culture and alter the trajectories of their own lives. A pleasure to read, bold and provocative, The Girls Next Door is a brilliant reinterpretation of the American experience of war. -- Jennifer D. Keene, author of Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of AmericaThe fascinating story of the women who, accompanying soldiers to war, volunteered for a different sort of service to the nation. YMCA Girls, Salvation Army Lassies, Red Cross Donut Dollies, and USO performers were meant to serve as symbols of home, entertaining ‘our boys,’ boosting morale, and channeling men’s sexuality. Vuic’s insightful analysis of military entertainment is also a tale of the changing shape of the U.S. military over course of the twentieth century. -- Beth Bailey, author of America’s ArmyThe Girls Next Door represents a major advancement in our understanding of gender and war. In fluid, vivid prose, Vuic shows the many complex ways in which home fronts and fighting fronts were interconnected through a complicated web of gendered interactions. A must read for anyone interested in war and society. -- Michael Neiberg, author of The Path to WarFilled with real people and real emotion, The Girls Next Door traces the provision of entertainment for American troops from WWI to the 1990s, showing that despite dramatic changes in context, a durable sexualization of women followed them into war zones across the twentieth century. The research, knowledge, and storytelling on display here are all outstanding. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. -- Andrew Huebner, author of Love and Death in the Great WarVuic also examines the changing perceptions about gender roles in America’s social and military institutions, making this a useful read for anyone with an interest in American society over the past century. * NYMAS Review *An outstanding example of the intersections of gender history, the history of sexuality, and military history as well the connections between the home front and the battlefront. Its lucid and engaging style, careful analysis, and thorough documentation will appeal to scholars and lay readers alike. -- Susan M. Hartmann * Home Front Studies *A wonderful example of how scholars of war and society can interrogate the intersections of gender history, the history of sexuality, and military history…[Vuic’s] premise and treatment of the evolution of women military entertainers over time provides invaluable consideration and methodological approaches that can be employed by all scholars of the First World War. -- Nathan K. Finney * First World War Studies *

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Book SynopsisAt the end of World War II, the Soviet Union captured 600,000 Japanese prisoners of war and interned them in Siberian labor camps. Sherzod Muminov details the soldiers’ varied experiences of imprisonment, including their indoctrination in Soviet dogma and the shock and alienation of repatriation to a homeland transformed under US occupation.Trade ReviewUncovering and lightening the stories of individual internees is only one part of the history, exploring the reality of why they were buried in the first place is the greater contribution. Muminov here enlightens the personal histories of individuals who existed in some cases for over a decade without a state, against the backdrop of a human-natural geography of labor and transformation in Russia’s Far East. -- Tristan Kenderdine * Global Asia *Thorough and well-researched. -- Martin Laflamme * Japan Times *Indispensable…I would recommend this book not simply to historians of Japan, of the Cold War, or of Russian forced labor but to anyone who is interested in how our past has built our present, from eastern Europe to Japan. -- Katalin Ferber * H-Net Reviews *An excellent account that enables the reader not only to understand the details of the Siberian internment but to reflect on its significance to the Cold War and the development of postwar Japan…Well-researched and articulately written. -- James D. J. Brown * Monumenta Nipponica *The Siberian Internment is one of the forgotten episodes of the Second World War. In this fascinating account, Muminov exploits Japanese memoirs and Russian archives to tell a complex history, attentive both to individual lived experiences and to structural change, including the waning of the Japanese empire and the emergence of the Cold War. A stimulating challenge to the traditional boundaries of Japanese history! -- Sebastian Conrad, author of What Is Global History?This magnificent work is the first transnational and comprehensive treatment of more than 600,000 Japanese POWs captured in Northeast Asia who were transported to forced labor camps in the Soviet Union, where they languished for many years before a fraught repatriation to Japan. Muminov depicts the POWs with sympathy and compassion, yet examines the history with detachment and objectivity. Eleven Winters of Discontent offers impeccable scholarship, forceful argument, and a gripping narrative. -- Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, author of Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of JapanA fresh, new history of the Siberian Internment that goes beyond hackneyed narratives of victimhood. Using a contextually broader and chronologically longer framework, Muminov moves the internment history beyond a national Japanese experience to a larger transnational story shared by various foreign POWs. At the same time, he reminds us how postwar Japan carefully erased the imperial past by remembering a particular set of hardship narratives while averting its eyes from anything that recalled the empire. An outstanding contribution to our reconsideration of the early postwar and Cold War world. -- Masuda Hajimu, author of Cold War Crucible: The Korean Conflict and the Postwar WorldMuminov renders much-needed complexity and diversity to existing nation-centric narratives of the Siberian internment of over 600,000 Japanese. Giving agency to both Russians and Japanese on the ground, he offers transnational perspectives long called for but rarely achieved. This is a nuanced yet comprehensive treatment of the internment and its sociopolitical life in postwar Japan as well as a riveting read for anyone interested in the global history of war and the making of a postwar nation state. -- Sho Konishi, author of Anarchist Modernity: Cooperatism and Japanese–Russian Intellectual Relations in Modern JapanAn extraordinary achievement that connects the communist world with that of wartime East Asia as well as the Cold War, making contributions to the history of World War II, the Soviet gulags, and the postwar politics of life-writing. Muminov deprovincializes both Japanese and Russian modern history, showing they are incomprehensible without knowing the wartime connections that bound them together. In fields that continue to be dominated by narrow national histories, this kind of multilingual, multi-archival approach is extremely rare, and at the cutting edge of historical research. -- Aaron William Moore, author of Writing War: Soldiers Record the Japanese Empire

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Outstanding Achievement in History""Winner of the James B. Palais Book Prize, Association for Asian Studies""Winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize for Best First Book, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations""Winner of the Distinguished Book Award in U.S. History, Society for Military History""Shortlisted for the Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History, Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies""Compelling. . . . A specific, targeted, and nuanced exploration of how the Korean War and Cold War-era battlefield moved inside and became a new ‘struggle of political legitimacy waged within human psyches, souls, and desires.’" * Kirkus *"Breaks interesting new ground."---Julian Ryall, South China Morning Post"Kim’s book opens the door on private battles that make war an intimate encounter."---Sandra Fahy, European Journal of Korean Studies

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Book SynopsisMany American women were held captive during Japan's military offensive in the South Pacific. This book chronicles their harrowing experiences, with the author focusing on the internment camps to show how the women coped and how the experience changed them.

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Book SynopsisBy failing to develop effective programs weapon development, Japan increased the probability that it could not triumph over its more advanced enemies. Walter Grunden underscores the dramatic scientific and technological disparities that left Japan vulnerable and ultimately led to its defeat in World War II..Trade Review“Provides a detailed account of Japanese science-based weapons research and development (R&D) programs in World War II. . . . Grunden writes clearly and presents his evidence well. For someone like me, who is not a specialist on Japan, this is a most useful contribution to the literature on science and technology in World War II, especially because the Japanese experience is examined in comparative perspective.”—Pacific Historical Review“A superb study of how Japan mobilized science and technology to develop advanced weapons during World War II.”—Technology and Culture

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Book SynopsisReconstructs an imposing mosaic that reveals the immense scope and ambitious intent of the first Iasi-Kishinev offensive. This book shows that Stalin was not as preoccupied with a direct route to Berlin as he was with a ""broad front"" strategy designed to gain territory and find vulnerable points in Germany's extended lines of defense.

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Book SynopsisProvides a history of the Soviet partisan movement, a people's army of irregulars fighting behind enemy lines. This work describes it as a social phenomenon and reveals how its members were both transformed by the crucible of war. It shows that people who suddenly had the autonomy to act on their own came to rethink the Stalinist regime.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewDavid Glantz is the world’s top scholar of the Soviet-German War. This book is accessible to the general reader and indispensable to the specialist." —Journal of Military History"David Glantz is indisputably the West’s foremost expert on the subject." —The Atlantic"An important addition to the author’s other works on the Eastern Front in the Second World War." —H-Net Reviews"This book represents the most thorough and intensive examination of the state of the Red Army in 1941 yet to appear. It investigates every aspect of the Soviet military establishment, command, deployment, mobilization, reserves, the Soviet soldier himself, and above all, combat readiness, using Soviet and German archives. Glantz’s evidence is unchallengeable, his sources unimpeachable, his conclusion incontestable." —John Erickson, author of The Road to Stalingrad"Effectively refutes the charge—recently rehabilitated by Viktor Suvorov in Icebreaker—that Stalin was secretly planning an offensive war against Hitler during 1941. With his previous book When Titans Clashed and this latest contribution, David Glantz has established firmly his reputation as the preeminent historian of the Soviet Army." —Mark von Hagen, author of Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship"An outstanding contribution and a must for any student of the history of the Red Army and the Soviet Union’s role in the Second World War." —Malcolm Mackintosh, author of Juggernaut: A History of Soviet Armed Forces

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAfter five months of Pentagon planning and six years of implementation in Iraq, Gary Vogler discovered the secret oil agenda that sent the United States to war in the Middle East. His revealing and compelling narrative will both surprise and anger many Americans about neoconservative greed, dishonesty, and treachery. Iraq and the Politics of Oil tells the truth—and the truth about this grave historical blunder is long overdue."" - Donald T. Phillips, author of Lincoln on Leadership for Today ""Mr. Vogler’s first hand account of his years working to rebuild the Iraqi oil sector is a must-read for students of post-conflict reconstruction. It demonstrates how even with advanced planning by top industry experts, this crucial sector still faced unanticipated bureaucratic infighting, political interference, Congressional budget constraints, and deteriorating security. Mr. Vogler describes in intimate detail how a remarkable group of dedicated Iraqis and Americans came together to try to overcome these challenges, providing valuable lessons for the future."" - Ambassador Robin Raphel, former Deputy Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.""Gary Vogler spent 72 months in Iraq after the invasion in 2003 working on oil infrastructure. I know no other person better qualified to write this story. And the management of oil in Iraq over this period is an important story."" - Gordon Rudd, author of Reconstructing Iraq: Regime Change, Jay Garner, and the ORHA Story

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewGlantz brings to life a crucial period on the Eastern Front often overshadowed by the more famous battles of Stalingrad and Kursk. . . . of tremendous value to historians of World War II.""- Armor Magazine

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Book SynopsisMidway through 1942, Japanese and Allied forces found themselves fighting on two fronts - in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. These concurrent campaigns proved a critical turning point in the war being waged in the Pacific. Key to this shift was the Allies seizing of the strategic initiative - a concept that Sean Judge examines in this book, particularly in the context of the Pacific War.Trade ReviewThe Turn of the Tide in the Pacific War is a valuable addition to the literature on strategy. The chapters on intelligence organizations in both the Japanese and US militaries are particularly useful in understanding Judge’s explication of the concept of strategic initiative. Judge argues that strategic initiative is a concept that needs more formal study, and his case study here highlights how such a process can be accomplished while at the same time providing a gripping campaign analysis."" - John T. Kuehn, professor of military history, Army Command and General Staff College""This insightful study shows how the tide really turned in the Japanese-American Pacific War. Reinforcing the role of contingency in shaping outcomes in the conflict that are too often seen as preordained, Judge reveals the combination of strategy and serendipity that allowed the Americans to finally seize the initiative that would lead to eventual victory."" - Conrad C. Crane, author of American Airpower Strategy in World War II: Bombs, Cities, Civilians, and Oil""Sean M. Judge’s The Turn of the Tide in the Pacific War sheds much-needed light on two important issues. He first provides analytical clarity concerning the much bandied-about concept of ‘strategic initiative.’ Then he puts it to good use by demonstrating how the campaigns for New Guinea and Guadalcanal were mutually supporting and turned the tide against the Japanese military. Judge’s work demands a wide readership."" - Kevin C. Holzimmer, author of General Walter Krueger: Unsung Hero of the Pacific War

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Book SynopsisWar breeds myths, especially those made up by the vanquished to explain their loss. Occasionally the myths of the defeated centre on prisoners of war (POWs) and those missing in action (MIAs). Traumatic Defeat takes a close, comparative look at two cases of this kind of mythmaking - in West Germany in the wake of World War II and in the US after the Vietnam War.Trade ReviewThis bold and exciting book gives us an entirely new view of the myth that Vietnam retained large numbers of American POWs after the war. By comparing this myth with a similar myth in Germany after World War II, Gallagher provides important insights into the significance of these postwar myths, which claim that many missing soldiers are still being held by an enemy nation in secret prison camps."" - H. Bruce Franklin, author of Vietnam and Other American Fantasies""This intriguing study examines the development of the public myth that thousands of German war prisoners were held by the Russian government in secret camps during World War II, a myth promoted by war fever, anticommunist ideology, and Germany's need to picture its missing prisoners as victims rather than war criminals. The Soviet-German model is compared with the more contemporary public myth of unreturned American POWs following America’s lengthy involvement in the Vietnam War, providing an important contribution to our understanding of postwar trauma and public grief."" - Arnold Krammer, author of Nazi Prisoners of War in America

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Book SynopsisExamining the information on enemy nations that was gathered, processed, and presented to leaders in the Nazi state, Robert Hutchinson's study reveals the consequences of the politicization of German intelligence during World War II - as well as the persistence of ingrained prejudices among the intelligence services' Cold War successors.Trade ReviewGerman Foreign Intelligence from Hitler's War to the Cold War is a very fine, deeply researched, nicely contextualized, and beautifully written piece of scholarship that evaluates the reporting of Nazi-era foreign intelligence agencies immediately before and during the early stages of World War II. Hutchinson shows how these reports—quite different from what intelligence practitioners claimed after the war—confirmed Hitler's political assessments and the Nazi Weltanschauung. He then carries the story into the postwar era and demonstrates how the continuity of people and ideas influenced West German and US intelligence efforts against the Soviet Union."" - Katrin Paehler, author of The Third Reich's Intelligence Services: The Career of Walter Schellenberg""German Foreign Intelligence from Hitler's War to the Cold War is extensively researched and well written. Robert Hutchinson demonstrates that Nazi ideology pervaded the German intelligence services and that their collective body of reports, rather than countering Hitler's beliefs in fact supported and perpetuated them. Moreover, this book connects the wartime work of these services with the extensive work that hundreds of these former Nazi personnel conducted for the United States, Britain, and West Germany in the decades after the war."" - Derek R. Mallett, author of Hitler's Generals in America: Nazi POWs and Allied Military Intelligence""German Foreign Intelligence from Hitler's War to the Cold War is a deeply researched and well-written investigation that illuminates a hitherto shadowy corner of intelligence history. It will be welcomed by students of World War II and the early Cold War."" - David Alvarez, coauthor of Spying through a Glass Darkly: American Espionage against the Soviet Union, 1945–1946""Hutchinson offers a well-researched, clearly written reassessment of German intelligence before, during, and after World War II. He depicts the rivalry and cross-currents covered in earlier studies but argues that many intelligence professionals suffered from ideological distortions that partly overlapped with Hitler's views. Rather than reject intelligence, Hitler picked out what he wanted or needed. Hutchinson adds a critical reassessment of Reinhard Gehlen and the Gehlen organization. This book should spark lively discussion."" - Richard Breitman, distinguished professor emeritus, American UniversityTable of Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: The German Foreign Intelligence Services 1. Misunderstanding Great Britian, 1939-1942 2. Underestimating the Soviet Union, 1939-1942 3. Counting Out the United States, 1939-1941 4. German Intelligence and the Race War in the east, 1941-1943 5. General Gehlen's Intelligence Service, 1945-1971 6. History as Intelligence: Wehrmacht Officers and the US Army Historical Division, 1945-1956 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first English-Language study of a non-Russian Soviet republic during World War II, this book explores how the war altered official policies toward the region's ethnic groups - and accelerated Central Asia's integration into Soviet institutions.Trade ReviewKazakhstan in World War II is a thoroughly researched and broadly conceptualized study that contributes significantly to our understanding of Kazakhstan and the USSR during World War II. By an examination of archival materials in Kazakhstan and Moscow, of memoirs, and of the periodical press, Carmack reveals the prejudice and suffering endured by Kazakhs and by other non-Russian nationalities among deportees, evacuees, and conscripts of the Labor Army. The author highlights exceptionally well a fluid and oft-contested relationship among local, republican, and national leaders exacerbated by shortages of human and material resources. Carmack makes a compelling case for a complex and uneven integration during the war and in the period immediately thereafter of Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy, economy, and people into the larger Soviet Union." - Larry E. Holmes, author of Stalin’s World War II Evacuations: Triumph and Troubles in Kirov"World War II was the moment when the diverse peoples of the Soviet Union were tested under fire and forged into a mobilized force that defeated fascism. With Roberto J. Carmack’s vivid study of Kazakhstan in wartime, we have a deep analysis of how this vast and multiethnic country was politically integrated into a relatively cohesive community. Although Russians enjoyed more privileges than Kazakhs, languishing at the bottom of the Soviet hierarchy of nationalities were the exiled peoples-Volga Germans and North Caucasians-who were considered treacherous and rebellious. Condescension and discrimination between Kazakhs and Slavs hindered an easy passage into “Friendship of the Peoples,” and yet over time many Kazakhs identified with the Soviet project and celebrated the victory over the invaders as a triumph they shared with other Soviet peoples. Persuasively argued, this book breaks new ground in our understanding of the complexities and contradictions of Soviet imperial history." - Ronald Grigor Suny, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan"This book illuminates the Soviet war effort in Central Asia, a critical but rarely examined aspect of the war. Carmack makes extensive use of Soviet-era archives to reveal Kazakhstan’s experience of World War II, its contributions to the Soviet war effort, and the ways in which the war transformed and ‘Sovietized’ the region and its people. Focusing on wartime mobilization, nationality policy, and the state's treatment of repressed and deported populations, Carmack’s study should be essential reading for anyone interested in the Soviet home front both at the regional and national levels." - Kenneth Slepyan, author of Stalin’s Guerrillas: Soviet Partisans in World War IITable of Contents Preface and Acknowledgments Glossary of Terms Note on Translation and Transliteration Introduction 1. All to the Front? Nationality and Military Mobilization in Wartime Kazakhstan 2. History and Hero Making: Kazakh Frontline Propaganda and Dynamics of Assimilation 3. The Labor Front: Work and Institutional Competition in Wartime Kazakhstan 4. The Ideological Front: Propaganda and Religion in Wartime Kazakhstan 5. The Dejected and the Exploited: Deportation, Labor Mobilization, and the Dynamics of Exclusion in Kazakhstan's Special-Settlements Conclusion: The Soviet National Hierarchy and the Fate of the Soviet Empire Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFocusing on 1972, Darrel Whitcomb combines stories of soldiers cut off from their units, advisors trapped with allied forces, and airmen downed in enemy territory, with the narratives of the US Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, contract pilots, and special operations teams ready to conduct rescues in Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam.Trade ReviewThis book does an outstanding job in addressing the search and rescue (SAR) efforts of the US Air Force and US Navy during the last year of the war in which US forces were still engaged in combat. This was a period that has not been covered extensively in other histories of the war, and the author puts the SAR story in the larger context of what was happening on the ground, particularly during the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive. Impressively documented, this book is strongly recommended." —James H. Willbanks, professor emeritus, US Army Command and General Staff College, Vietnam veteran, and author of Abandoning Vietnam"American combat pilots live with the possibility of being shot down over enemy territory, but this comes with the understanding that every possible attempt will be made to secure their rescue. In Moral Imperative: 1972, Combat Rescue, and the End of America's War in Vietnam, Darrel Whitcomb deftly demonstrates the ends to which rescue crews were willing to go to save a downed airman or aviator. Whitcomb shows the almost daily struggle of the men who flew the Sandys, Jolly Greens, Big Mothers, and a host of others who were willing to put it all on the line to bring their comrades out of harm's way. Whitcomb has written the definitive work on search and rescue during the Vietnam War. Moral Imperative is comprehensive and well researched but also an amazing tale of gallantry and sacrifice." —Brian Laslie, author of The Air Force Way of War: U.S. Tactics and Training after Vietnam"Only one who was there could ever have captured the epic story of rescue operations in Vietnam as Darrel Whitcomb has done. It is a story of technology and organization, but mostly a story of courage and unflinching commitment to duty. In presenting this comprehensive account of rescue operations at the height of Nixon's war, Whitcomb has added immensely to our understanding of the air war, both north and south, and of those who fought it." —Stephen P. Randolph, Rokke-Fox Chair, Center for Character and Leadership Development, US Air Force Academy"Combat rescue is combat! Darrel Whitcomb proves that in describing combat rescue during the final full year of the war in Southeast Asia, arguably the high-water mark of the one hundred years of combat rescue. If you ever wanted to know more about the exhilarations and heartbreaks of combat rescue, this is the read for you. None better." —Thomas Phillips, coauthor of Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Combat Search and Rescue"A meticulously researched and eye-opening account of brothers in arms. Whitcomb unearths fascinating stories of downed airmen and the men who went after them against steep odds. An inspiring read." —Stephan Talty, author of Saving Bravo: The Greatest Rescue Mission in Navy SEAL History

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Book SynopsisIn 1945, the Indian British XIV Army inflicted on the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma the worst defeat in its history. This volume offers a full account of this brilliant and original operational maneuver, utilizing a full range of materials, from personal accounts to archival holdings - including the bits the official historians left out.Trade ReviewA much-needed study of the Burma campaign in 1945 by the two foremost historians in the field. Not only do they chart the transformation of the Indian Army but also they relay the story of the forgotten African soldiers fighting in Burma. The authors demonstrate that it was largely due to the contribution of these troops that the Imperial Japanese Army was defeated by 1945. The book is extremely engaging and eloquent: an essential text for anyone studying the campaign. Its accessible prose makes it such a pleasure to read-it therefore deserves a much wider readership than just historians." - Alan Jeffreys, author of Approach to Battle: Training the Indian Army during the Second World War"There is a stage in every topic when it becomes possible to produce a study that will be 'the' book everyone interested in the matter should read. That time has come, and The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army is 'the' book. Callahan and Marston explain how and why the liberation of Burma in 1945 was the peak of military excellence for Allied combined-arms campaigns during the Second World War." - Brian P. Farrell, professor of history, National University of Singapore, and author of The Defence and Fall of Singapore

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Book SynopsisExplores the vital role that prisoners of war play in American warfare and reveals the cultural contexts of warfare, the shaping of military policies, the process of state-building, the impacts upon the economy and environment of the conflict zone, their special place in propaganda, and the importance of public history in shaping national memory.Trade ReviewThis book is a masterpiece of contemporary scholarship. It does what Daniel Krebs and Lorien Foote say it is intended to do: examine the less-traveled roads with new understandings/visions of the American POW experience. No one can ask for more than that. I recommend it for every collection of American POW history." - Robert C. Doyle, author of Voices from Captivity: Interpreting the American POW Narrative"Useful Captives, in clear and convincing fashion, demonstrates how prisoners of war have impacted the cultural, political, and tactical dimensions of American military conflicts. Ranging from the colonial era to the War on Terror, the contributors have produced one of the most important studies on war captives in decades." - Glenn Robins, author of The Longest Rescue: The Life and Legacy of Vietnam POW William A. Robinson

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Book SynopsisHighlights the striking similarities between the US Civil War and the Great War by analysing how the Civil War affected the American reaction to and experience in the Great War while attending to enlisted men, military officers, and political leaders.Trade Review"Finally! We needed a book just like this, and now we have it. The fascinating essays in this collection make a compelling case for some striking similarities between the American Civil War and the Great War. The two conflicts no longer seem distant from one another, but instead part of the same era. No matter your historical interests, you will learn something new from the juxtapositions made in this unique book."—Lorien Foote, Patricia and Bookman Peters Professor of History, Texas A&M University, and author of Rites of Retaliation: Civilization, Soldiers, and Campaigns in the American Civil War "Silbey and Wongsrichanalai provide readers with an important juxtaposition of the Civil War and the Great War—both essential for understanding America’s past and present. Besides their own splendid reflections, the editors also gathered a cadre of scholars who draw fascinating parallels between the two wars, anchored by Steven Trout’s thoughtful afterword."—Edward A. GutiÉrrez, director of Center for Military History and Grand Strategy, Hillsdale College, and author of Doughboys on the Great War: How American Soldiers Viewed Their Military ExperienceTable of Contents Foreword, Jennifer D. Keene Acknowledgments Introduction: Remembrance of Wars Past: The American Civil War and the Great War at Their Sesquicentennial and Centennial Anniversaries, David J. Silbey and Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai 1. “On Each Side There Emerged a Supreme Commander”: Ulysses S. Grant and John J. Pershing (and Douglas Haig), 1861-1918, David J. Silbey 2. Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Dying for One’s Country, Brian Dirck 3. African American Soldiers: The Struggle for Equality through Service in the Civil War and Great War, Debra Sheffer 4. “By Word or Act Oppose the Cause of the United States”: Loyalty in the Civil War-Era and Great War-Era America, Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai 5. War and the Shaping of American Medicine: The American Civil War and the Great War, Dale Smith and Shauna Devine 6. Healing the Unseen Wounds of War: Treating Mental Trauma in the Civil War and the Great War, Kathleen Logothetis Thompson 7. Blood and Soil: Americans and Environment in the Trenches of Petersburg and the Western Front, Brian Allen Drake 8. “We Owe Everything to Their Valor and Sacrifice”: Ulysses S. Grant’s and John J. Pershing’s Narratives of Command, Steven Trout List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisA history of the Second World War as fought 'from below' by anti-fascist militias, who worked both with and against the allied powers.Trade Review'Rigorously structuring his analysis around the two central themes of popular resistance and inter-imperialist rivalry, Gluckstein makes an indispensable contribution to understanding the reality of the conflict in all its complexity' -- Neil Davidson, Senior Research Fellow, University of Strathclyde and author of Discovering the Scottish Revolution'Combines an impressive grasp of the war's shifting complexities with the brilliance of a sweeping and penetrating political analysis' -- Andy Durgan, author of The Spanish Civil War (Palgrave 2007)'The Second World War is so thoroughly surrounded by myth that it is hard to grasp its real character. Gluckstein offers a new interpretation, portraying 1939-45 as two parallel wars: one waged by the Great Powers among themselves, the other by the peoples against fascism' -- Alex CallinicosTable of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction 2. Spanish Prelude PART 1: Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland and Latvia – Between the Blocs 3. Yugoslavia: Balancing Powers 4. Greece: Allies at War with the Resistance 5. Poland’s Warsaw Uprising 6. Latvia: Standing History on its Head PART 2: France, Britain and the USA– Divisions Within the Allies 7. France: Imperial Glory Versus Resistance Ideology 8. Britain: The Myth of Unity 9. USA: Racism in the Arsenal of Democracy PART 3: Germany, Austria and Italy – Under the Axis 10. Germany: Conservatives and Antifa 11. Austria: Resistance and Ruling Class Capitulation 12. Italy: The Working Class and the Two Wars PART 4: India, Indonesia and Vietnam - Different Enemies 13. India: From Famine to Independence 14. Indonesia: Axis and Allies United Against the People 15. Vietnam: Anti-Imperialist Breakthrough 16. Conclusion 17. Chronology Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA history of the Second World War as fought 'from below' by anti-fascist militias, who worked both with and against the allied powers.Trade Review'Rigorously structuring his analysis around the two central themes of popular resistance and inter-imperialist rivalry, Gluckstein makes an indispensable contribution to understanding the reality of the conflict in all its complexity' -- Neil Davidson, Senior Research Fellow, University of Strathclyde and author of Discovering the Scottish Revolution'Combines an impressive grasp of the war's shifting complexities with the brilliance of a sweeping and penetrating political analysis' -- Andy Durgan, author of The Spanish Civil War (Palgrave 2007)'The Second World War is so thoroughly surrounded by myth that it is hard to grasp its real character. Gluckstein offers a new interpretation, portraying 1939-45 as two parallel wars: one waged by the Great Powers among themselves, the other by the peoples against fascism' -- Alex CallinicosTable of ContentsPreface 1. Introduction 2. Spanish Prelude PART 1: Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland and Latvia – Between the Blocs 3. Yugoslavia: Balancing Powers 4. Greece: Allies at War with the Resistance 5. Poland’s Warsaw Uprising 6. Latvia: Standing History on its Head PART 2: France, Britain and the USA– Divisions Within the Allies 7. France: Imperial Glory Versus Resistance Ideology 8. Britain: The Myth of Unity 9. USA: Racism in the Arsenal of Democracy PART 3: Germany, Austria and Italy – Under the Axis 10. Germany: Conservatives and Antifa 11. Austria: Resistance and Ruling Class Capitulation 12. Italy: The Working Class and the Two Wars PART 4: India, Indonesia and Vietnam - Different Enemies 13. India: From Famine to Independence 14. Indonesia: Axis and Allies United Against the People 15. Vietnam: Anti-Imperialist Breakthrough 16. Conclusion 17. Chronology Notes Index

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Book SynopsisArgues that the Second World War was about a division of the world between the great powers, as well as a rising of ordinary people against fascism.Trade Review'Superb' -- John Newsinger, Review 31'A much-needed, accessible work portraying the political and military intricacies of the Second World War from a Marxist perspective. A major achievement' -- George Clode, Deputy Editor, Military History Monthly'One of the single best popular histories of the war's origins and consequences that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I highly recommend it' -- Alex Anievas, Anna Biegun Warburg Junior Research Fellow, Oxford University'A comprehensive and detailed alternative history of the origins, cause and aftermath of World War II from a Marxist standpoint. His claim that it was in no way a war for democracy and against fascism will provoke wide-ranging debate' -- Ian Birchall, historian and author of 'Tony Cliff: A Marxist for His Time'Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Competing Empires at a Time of Economic Crisis 2. The Allied Powers 3. The Axis Powers 4. The Countdown to War 5. The Early War 6. Russia: The Crucible of Victory 7. The End of the Third Reich 8. Resistance in Europe 9. Asia and the Pacific 10. The East is Red 11. The Post-War World Conclusion Timeline Notes Index

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Book SynopsisUnder the blazing Iraqi sun in the summer of 2007, Shannon Meehan, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, ordered a strike that would take the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was protecting his men.Trade Review"An articulate and devastating memoir." Military Writers Society of America "The book resonates because Meehan speaks not for sympathy but for understanding, and because - sadly - his personal story is one the other service members know well."Army Times "Highly recommended ... This work serves as a reminder of some of the costs of war in modern times and leaves readers 'dazed and confused' over how to respond and what to think about the situation in Iraq."Central European Journal of International and Security Studies "An exceptional book. It takes the reader to Iraq, to feel all sides of a deployed soldiers life, from the boredom, the bullshit to the battles and the searing heat inside the tank. This is a book that every American should read in order to get a full accounting of what it means to send men and women off to war. You may finish, but you won't forget Beyond Duty. I can't recommend this one highly enough." Pundit Review "A straightforward, succint and insightful report of one man's experience at war ... The book resonates because Meehan speaks not for sympathy, but for understanding, and because - sadly - his personal story is one that other service members know well."Air Force Times "Beyond Duty is a powerful and heartbreaking account of Lieutenant Shannon Meehan's tour of duty in Iraq, and of his decision in 2007 to call in a missile strike that claimed the lives of innocent civilians. Remorse, shame, self-doubt, depression - these were among the war's emotional aftershocks for Lieutenant Meehan. This honest and painfully intense narrative is a reminder of the terrible costs of warfare, not just as measured by blood or treasure, but also in terms of damage to the human psyche. I will return to this book often." Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried and winner of the National Book Award "This memoir is a descent into war's difficult terrain, a landscape which continues on within the veteran as he or she returns home. The archetype of the classic hero is nearly completely destroyed through the personal narrative which chronicles a series of harrowing events in order to reveal a deeper sense of the heroic. Meehan's voice reminds us that the bleeding continues on after the guns have gone silent, even if we don't realize it." Brian Turner, award-winning author of Here, Bullet, and veteran of the Iraq War "Meehan explores the complicated anxieties of battle and command with precision and intelligence. He treats colossally horrific situations with admirable emotional restraint, and his strong, taut narrative has a visceral impact. This is a book that ranks among the very best writing that is being done today about events on the frontline in Iraq." James Hutchisson, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina "For better or for worse, this memoir documents what the war in Iraq has been: young soldiers doing their heartbreaking best to do the right thing amid confusion, chaos and collateral damage." Mary Russell, award-winning author of A Thread of Grace and The SparrowTable of ContentsAcknowledgements. Prologue. Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve. Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Fourteen. Chapter Fifteen. Chapter Sixteen. Chapter Seventeen. Chapter Eighteen. Chapter Nineteen. Chapter Twenty. Chapter Twenty-One. Chapter Twenty-Two. Chapter Twenty-Three. Chapter Twenty-Four. Chapter Twenty-Five. Chapter Twenty-Six. Chapter Twenty-Seven. Epilogue.

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Book SynopsisUnder the blazing Iraqi sun in the summer of 2007, Shannon Meehan, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, ordered a strike that would take the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians. He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he was protecting his men.Trade Review"An articulate and devastating memoir." Military Writers Society of America "The book resonates because Meehan speaks not for sympathy but for understanding, and because - sadly - his personal story is one the other service members know well."Army Times "Highly recommended ... This work serves as a reminder of some of the costs of war in modern times and leaves readers 'dazed and confused' over how to respond and what to think about the situation in Iraq."Central European Journal of International and Security Studies "An exceptional book. It takes the reader to Iraq, to feel all sides of a deployed soldiers life, from the boredom, the bullshit to the battles and the searing heat inside the tank. This is a book that every American should read in order to get a full accounting of what it means to send men and women off to war. You may finish, but you won't forget Beyond Duty. I can't recommend this one highly enough." Pundit Review "A straightforward, succint and insightful report of one man's experience at war ... The book resonates because Meehan speaks not for sympathy, but for understanding, and because - sadly - his personal story is one that other service members know well."Air Force Times "Beyond Duty is a powerful and heartbreaking account of Lieutenant Shannon Meehan's tour of duty in Iraq, and of his decision in 2007 to call in a missile strike that claimed the lives of innocent civilians. Remorse, shame, self-doubt, depression - these were among the war's emotional aftershocks for Lieutenant Meehan. This honest and painfully intense narrative is a reminder of the terrible costs of warfare, not just as measured by blood or treasure, but also in terms of damage to the human psyche. I will return to this book often." Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried and winner of the National Book Award "This memoir is a descent into war's difficult terrain, a landscape which continues on within the veteran as he or she returns home. The archetype of the classic hero is nearly completely destroyed through the personal narrative which chronicles a series of harrowing events in order to reveal a deeper sense of the heroic. Meehan's voice reminds us that the bleeding continues on after the guns have gone silent, even if we don't realize it." Brian Turner, award-winning author of Here, Bullet, and veteran of the Iraq War "Meehan explores the complicated anxieties of battle and command with precision and intelligence. He treats colossally horrific situations with admirable emotional restraint, and his strong, taut narrative has a visceral impact. This is a book that ranks among the very best writing that is being done today about events on the frontline in Iraq." James Hutchisson, The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina "For better or for worse, this memoir documents what the war in Iraq has been: young soldiers doing their heartbreaking best to do the right thing amid confusion, chaos and collateral damage." Mary Russell, award-winning author of A Thread of Grace and The SparrowTable of ContentsAcknowledgements. Prologue. Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six. Chapter Seven. Chapter Eight. Chapter Nine. Chapter Ten. Chapter Eleven. Chapter Twelve. Chapter Thirteen. Chapter Fourteen. Chapter Fifteen. Chapter Sixteen. Chapter Seventeen. Chapter Eighteen. Chapter Nineteen. Chapter Twenty. Chapter Twenty-One. Chapter Twenty-Two. Chapter Twenty-Three. Chapter Twenty-Four. Chapter Twenty-Five. Chapter Twenty-Six. Chapter Twenty-Seven. Epilogue.

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Book SynopsisFew countries can claim to have endured such a difficult and tortuous history as that of Iraq. Its varied peoples have had to contend with externally imposed state-building at the end of the First World War, through to the rise of authoritarian military regimes, to the all-encompassing power of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Artificiality, Identity, Dictatorship, and State-Building Chapter 1: Legacies of Civilizations and Empires Chapter 2: State Formation, Monarchy, and Mandate, 1918-1932 Chapter 3: Conceptualizing Iraqi Society Chapter 4: From Authoritarian to Totalitarian State, 1933-1979 Chapter 5: Iraq at War, 1979-1989 Chapter 6: The Pariah State, 1989-2003 Chapter 7: Regime Change, 2003- Chapter 8: From the Brink, to the Brink Chapter 9: The Disintegration of Iraq Chapter 10: The Rise of the Islamic State Conclusion

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Book SynopsisKatyn the Soviet massacre of over 21,000 Polish prisoners in 1940 has come to be remembered as Stalin s emblematic mass murder, an event obscured by one of the most extensive cover-ups in history. Yet paradoxically, a majority of its victims perished far from the forest in western Russia that gives the tragedy its name.Trade Review"An informative survey of the debates occaasioned by the crimes of early 1940." Times Literary Supplement "A fine example of international research collaboration." Russian Review "An important corrective to most recent studies of imperialism, which rarely transcend the national optic." Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research "This book, a rare example of collective scholarship, is more than path-breaking. It manages to move around the furniture in an entire field, that of memory studies, one that is shared by literary scholars, linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, historians and others. This exploration of memory events is essential reading for all students in the social sciences and the humanities." Jay Winter, Yale University "In an exemplary way, this multi-disciplinary in depth case study reconstructs the symbolic legacy of Katyn as a transnational trauma. The book is a unique collective achievement with genuine potential to integrate this key event into European memory." Aleida Assmann, University of Konstanz "The crime of Katyn has bedeviled European memory for decades, and only an ambitious pan-European effort such as this one can reveal every angle of the problem – and some of the solutions." Timothy Snyder, Yale University'This book, a rare example of collective scholarship, is more than path-breaking. It manages to move around the furniture in an entire field, that of memory studies, one that is shared by literary scholars, linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, historians and others. This exploration of memory events is essential reading for all students in the social sciences and the humanities.'Jay Winter, Yale University 'In an exemplary way, this multi-disciplinary in depth case study reconstructs the symbolic legacy of Katyn as a transnational trauma. The book is a unique collective achievement with genuine potential to integrate this key event into European memory.'Aleida Assmann, University of Konstanz 'The crime of Katyn has bedeviled European memory for decades, and only an ambitious pan-European effort such as this one can reveal every angle of the problem – and some of the solutions.'Timothy Snyder, Yale UniversityTable of ContentsContents List of Contributors Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations List of Figures A Note on Translation and Transliteration Map Timeline Introduction: Remembering Katyn Chapter One: Katyn in Poland Chapter Two: Katyn in Katyn Chapter Three: Katyn in Ukraine Chapter Four: Katyn in Belarus Chapter Five: Katyn in the Baltic States Chapter Six: Katyn in Russia Chapter Seven: Katyn in Katyn Coda: ‘Katyn-2' Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThere were eighty of them. They were young, clever and cultivated; they were barely in their thirties when Adolf Hitler came to power. Their university studies in law, economics, linguistics, philosophy and history marked them out for brilliant careers. They chose to join the repressive bodies of the Third Reich, especially the Security Service (SD) and the Nazi Party's elite protection unit, the SS. They theorized and planned the extermination of twenty million individuals of allegedly inferior' races. Most of them became members of the paramilitary death squads known as Einsatzgruppen and participated in the slaughter of over a million people. Based on extensive archival research, Christian Ingrao tells the gripping story of these children of the Great War, focusing on the networks of fellow activists, academics and friends in which they moved, studying the way in which they envisaged war and the world of enemies' which, in their view, threatened them. The mechanisms ofTrade Review"a thoughtful, well researched, and well written addition to the field of perpetrator studies—a work that illustrates convincingly the role of Germany’s “best and brightest” in the prosecution of genocide." Holocaust and Genocide Studies "A chilling collective portrait of a generation blinded by the fervor of their ideology and oblivious to the suffering of others." Wall Street Journal "Packed with useful information on this important Nazi cadre." Standpoint "Presents gripping accounts of particular spectacles of violence and their role in imposing order." Los Angeles Review of Books "With this quest for understanding in mind, Ingrao has undertaken what is clearly a mammoth historical task, and ultimately written an astonishingly profound and in-depth book on a subject that ought never be forgotten." David Marx Book Reviews "This is an important and original study of ideology and experience rather than yet another catalogue of crime, and it therefore offers a different and powerful explanation for how educated men became perpetrators of mass murder." Richard Evans, University of Cambridge "How did highly educated German intellectuals of a certain generation make themselves into believing Nazis, career-minded ideologues, and practitioners of terror? In compelling detail and in a manner consistent with the best accomplishments of recent scholarship, Christian Ingrao guides us astutely and assuredly through this shockingly normalized interior world." Geoffrey Eley, University of MichiganTable of ContentsForeword Acknowledgments Glossary PART ONE: The young men of Germany Chapter 1: A 'world of enemies' (I) The outbreak of war The silence of the Akademiker The 'time of troubles': an experience of war? Chapter 2: Constructing networks Places to study Places of association Networks of solidarity Chapter 3: Activist intellectuals The construction of academic knowledge Knowledge and activism (1919-1933) 'Combative science' and SS intellectuals in the Third Reich The shadow of the Great War PART TWO: Joining the Nazis: a commitment Chapter 4: Being a Nazi The foundations of the doctrine The origins of Nazi fervour: planning a sociobiological re-establishment The appropriation of a system of beliefs Chapter 5: Entering the SD Whether to enter the Party or not? Towards the SD: Nazi careers Recruitment: a social mechanism of enlistenment Chapter 6: From struggle to control From the 'Security Department of the SS' (SD) to the 'Reich Security Main Office' (RSHA) A 'world of enemies' (II) Control PART THREE : Nazism and violence: the culmination 1939-1945 Chapter 7: Thinking the east, between utopia and anxiety The curse of Germanic isolation The Nazi project for a sociobiological re-establishment Redevelop and settle: forms of Nazi fervour Chapter 8: Arguing for war: Nazi rhetoric From the reparative war to the 'Great Racial War' From the discourse of security to the discourse of genocide Expressing violence: defensive rhetorics, utopian rhetorics Chapter 9: Violence in action The experience of violence Demonstrative violence, violence of eradication A transgressive violence Violence as rite of initiation Chapter 10: SS intellectuals confronting defeat Defeat rendered unreal Finis Germaniae. The return of the old anxiety The denouement Chapter 11: SS intellectuals on trial Strategies of negation Strategies of evasion Strategies of justification: the Ohlendorf case Conclusion: Memory of war, activism and genocide Notes Sources and bibliography A piece of research and its context A specific conceptual framework List of archival collections consulted Printed sources Bibliography

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Book Synopsis* This is a highly original study of everyday life in the Nazi concentration camps. * Suderland examines the ways in which prisoners coped with the degrading conditions of the camps, by looking closely at their daily activities and routines, as well as the social relationships and networks they created.Trade Review"Maja Suderland has written an innovative and tremendously exciting book. The meticulous examination of the complex reality of the concentration camps, the balanced analysis and careful reading which makes it possible to detect the finest nuances, and finally, the clear, precise and differentiated language make this an outstanding sociological work that sets new standards."Beate Krais, Technical University of Darmstadt "Maja Suderland's book is the first convincing sociological analysis of the Nazi concentration camps. She goes beyond specific historical cases and achieves an analytical depth which explains how the concentration camps functioned in terms of the social categories we are familiar with from 'normal' society."Claus Füllberg-Stolberg, Leibniz University, Hannover "This is clearly a unique study."(Choice)Table of ContentsForeword by Beate Krais Preface Translator’s note A. Introduction 1. Topic and research question 2. The ‘Third Reich’ and the Nazi concentration camps 2.1. The establishment of the Nazi concentration camps: Historical, social and legal background 2.2. Germany and its forcible detention camps 2.3. The organizational structure of the concentration camps 2.4. The concentration camp SS and guards 2.5. Summary: A complex interrelationship B. Sociological avenues of inquiry 3. Introductory comments on the disciplinary context and methods 3.1. Empirical material and methodological approach 3.2. The impossibility of representing reality and the special characteristics of Holocaust literature 3.3. The relationship between historical scholarship and sociology 4. Sociological orientations 4.1. Preliminary remarks: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and the use of other central theoretical ideas 4.2. The ‘basic concepts’ of society 4.2.1 Individuals and society: Views of a complex relationship 4.2.2 Classes and ways of life: Social differentiation 4.2.3 Gender: Physical characteristics and their symbolic significance for social differentiation 4.2.4 ‘Ethnic group’ and caste: The belief in genetic kinship and the notion of social inescapability 4.2.5. Summary: Habitus and society 4.3. Concentration camps 4.3.1. The significance of physical torture: Michel Foucault’s restoration of sovereignty through ‘the vengeance of the sovereign’ and the ‘dissymmetry of forces’ 4.3.2. ‘Total institutions’ and the possibility of surviving one: Erving Goffman’s ‘secondary adjustments’ 4.3.3. Suppressing the ‘odors’ of death: Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of culture 4.4. A theoretical perspective: The complex society of the ‘Third Reich’ and the social reality in the forcible detention camps C. The social world of the Nazi concentration camps 5. Camp life 5.1. Arrival and registration of the prisoners at the camp or: How the ‘practical logic’ of the camp gradually revealed itself to the prisoners 5.2. Prisoner life: Recurring processes 5.3. Three levels of sociality 5.4. Summary: A micro-sociological view of the intricacies of complex camp life or: How many realities were there? 6. Prisoner society 6.1. Fragmentation, dissociation, community-building: Social processes 6.2. Regular prisoners, armband wearers, camp aristocracy: The mass and the elite 6.3. Men, women, children or: What’s still normal here? 6.4. Summary: An examination of the structure of the prisoner society or: The significance of similarity and difference D. Social libido 7. The constitution of social identity in the concentration camps: The concepts of individuality and the importance of social structures in a ‘topsy-turvy world’ E. Notes to the text F. Bibliography

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Book Synopsis* This is a highly original study of everyday life in the Nazi concentration camps. * Suderland examines the ways in which prisoners coped with the degrading conditions of the camps, by looking closely at their daily activities and routines, as well as the social relationships and networks they created.Trade Review"Maja Suderland has written an innovative and tremendously exciting book. The meticulous examination of the complex reality of the concentration camps, the balanced analysis and careful reading which makes it possible to detect the finest nuances, and finally, the clear, precise and differentiated language make this an outstanding sociological work that sets new standards."Beate Krais, Technical University of Darmstadt "Maja Suderland's book is the first convincing sociological analysis of the Nazi concentration camps. She goes beyond specific historical cases and achieves an analytical depth which explains how the concentration camps functioned in terms of the social categories we are familiar with from 'normal' society."Claus Füllberg-Stolberg, Leibniz University, Hannover "This is clearly a unique study."(Choice)Table of ContentsForeword by Beate Krais Preface Translator’s note A. Introduction 1. Topic and research question 2. The ‘Third Reich’ and the Nazi concentration camps 2.1. The establishment of the Nazi concentration camps: Historical, social and legal background 2.2. Germany and its forcible detention camps 2.3. The organizational structure of the concentration camps 2.4. The concentration camp SS and guards 2.5. Summary: A complex interrelationship B. Sociological avenues of inquiry 3. Introductory comments on the disciplinary context and methods 3.1. Empirical material and methodological approach 3.2. The impossibility of representing reality and the special characteristics of Holocaust literature 3.3. The relationship between historical scholarship and sociology 4. Sociological orientations 4.1. Preliminary remarks: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and the use of other central theoretical ideas 4.2. The ‘basic concepts’ of society 4.2.1 Individuals and society: Views of a complex relationship 4.2.2 Classes and ways of life: Social differentiation 4.2.3 Gender: Physical characteristics and their symbolic significance for social differentiation 4.2.4 ‘Ethnic group’ and caste: The belief in genetic kinship and the notion of social inescapability 4.2.5. Summary: Habitus and society 4.3. Concentration camps 4.3.1. The significance of physical torture: Michel Foucault’s restoration of sovereignty through ‘the vengeance of the sovereign’ and the ‘dissymmetry of forces’ 4.3.2. ‘Total institutions’ and the possibility of surviving one: Erving Goffman’s ‘secondary adjustments’ 4.3.3. Suppressing the ‘odors’ of death: Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of culture 4.4. A theoretical perspective: The complex society of the ‘Third Reich’ and the social reality in the forcible detention camps C. The social world of the Nazi concentration camps 5. Camp life 5.1. Arrival and registration of the prisoners at the camp or: How the ‘practical logic’ of the camp gradually revealed itself to the prisoners 5.2. Prisoner life: Recurring processes 5.3. Three levels of sociality 5.4. Summary: A micro-sociological view of the intricacies of complex camp life or: How many realities were there? 6. Prisoner society 6.1. Fragmentation, dissociation, community-building: Social processes 6.2. Regular prisoners, armband wearers, camp aristocracy: The mass and the elite 6.3. Men, women, children or: What’s still normal here? 6.4. Summary: An examination of the structure of the prisoner society or: The significance of similarity and difference D. Social libido 7. The constitution of social identity in the concentration camps: The concepts of individuality and the importance of social structures in a ‘topsy-turvy world’ E. Notes to the text F. Bibliography

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