Modern warfare Books

Book SynopsisBased on interviews and correspondence with those closely associated with, and actually involved in, the Dambusters Raid.

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Book SynopsisThe story of how the nations of Europe spied on Hitler's Third Reich in the tense years of appeasement leading up to the Second World War.Trade Reviewincisive * Colin Shindler *RT Howard does an admirable job * NS, History of War *remarkably thorough and well-researched * Zareer Masani, Literary Review *R.T. Howard has done an admirable job, given [the] limitations. Spying on the Reich is substantial and engaging. * John Foster , The Battleground *extraordinarily fertile and captivating book * Richard Lofthouse, QUAD *fascinating * Francis P. Sempa, New York Journal of Books *Profitable reading for students of spycraft and the early stirrings of the war in Europe. * Kirkus Reviews *a well-researched and revealing account...Packed with a colorful cast of characters and offering pinpoint analysis of where the Allies went wrong, this will delight espionage buffs. * , Publishers Weekly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Germany Reawakens 2: Foreign Spies Keep Watch 3: The Rise of Hitler 4: The New Mood in Berlin 5: The Anglo-French Spy Networks Inside Germany 6: 'The Reliable Source' 7: The French and Czechs Watch the Reich 8: 'The Dark Continent' 9: The International Spy Effort 10: Searching for New Sources of Information 11: Spying on the German Navy 12: Colonel Z and Other Agents 13: The French Step Up Their Operations 14: The British and the Czechs Watch the Reich 15: The 'Spies' Who Never Were 16: Watching Anschluss 17: Intelligence and the Sudeten Crises 18: Predicting Hitler's Next Move 19: Intelligence and the Anglo-French Alliance 20: The 'Spies' Who Caused Panic 21: Signals from the Reich 22: The Nazi-Soviet Pact 23: The Countdown to War Conclusion: In Retrospect

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Book Synopsis"A riveting tale told through personal accounts and sketches along the way - ultimately, a story of success against great odds. I enjoyed it enormously." - Tom Brokaw The Ghost Army of World War II is the first book to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives - now updated with new material. In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs - including such future luminaries such as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey - landed in France to conduct a secret mission. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Every move they made was top secret and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. Hundreds of color and black-and-white photographs illuminate how their creations supported the war tactics that helped open the way for the final drive to Germany. The stunning art created between missions offers a glimpse of life behind the lines during World War II. Collectors of World War II books will find The Ghost Army of World War II an essential addition to their library.

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Book SynopsisIt can seem as though the Cold War division of Europe was inevitable. But Stalin was more open to a settlement on the continent than is assumed. In this powerful reassessment of the postwar order, Norman Naimark returns to the four years after WWII to illuminate European leaders’ efforts to secure national sovereignty amid dominating powers.Trade ReviewNaimark selects seven case studies to illustrate the complexity of Stalin’s aims in Europe, as he brings his superlative knowledge of the Soviet leader to bear on present-day realities…Naimark has few peers as a scholar of Stalinism, the Soviet Union and 20th-century Europe, and his latest work Stalin and the Fate of Europe is one of his most original and interesting. * Financial Times *Details the negotiations, the intrigues, and the showdowns that dominated the febrile politics of the postwar years…Those endeavoring to defend the independence of their territories and governments today would do well to look to the pragmatism, dexterity and resourcefulness of the politicians of the late 1940s. The book is a timely and instructive account not merely of our own history but also of our fractious, unsettling present. -- Daniel Beer * The Guardian *[Naimark’s] archival research and reading of the scholarly literature here adds shades of nuance and intricacy to ‘the well-honed dark images and paradigms of traditional Cold War history.’ -- Joshua Rubenstein * Wall Street Journal *The narrative of the early years of the Cold War has long since grown stale through repeated retellings of US–Soviet confrontations. Naimark, citing sources in six different languages, Europeanizes the story…Stalin and the Fate of Europe exemplifies the best qualities of Cold War history-writing. It is also, I think, a book for our time. -- Lewis H. Siegelbaum * Times Literary Supplement *Norman Naimark adds an abundance of fresh knowledge to a time and place that we think we know, clarifying the contours of Soviet–American conflict by skillfully enriching the history of postwar Europe. -- Timothy Snyder, author of On TyrannyThrough case studies ranging from Denmark to Italy and Finland to Albania, Naimark shows us just how open and contested European politics was in the immediate postwar years—and how European leaders pushed back for sovereignty even against Stalin. An important contribution to both Cold War and European history. -- Timothy Garton Ash, author of In Europe’s NameThis original, provocative, and revisionist work on the origins of the Cold War demonstrates the dynamic tension between Stalin’s surprisingly flexible view of Soviet aims and the complex internal politics of several European countries striving to maintain their sovereignty in an international context not yet divided into two camps. -- Alfred J. Rieber, author of Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in EurasiaAre the United States and China fated to clash? For an answer look to Norman Naimark’s wonderfully surprising Stalin and the Fate of Europe, which reexamines the onset of the original Cold War. Naimark’s splendidly judicious book restores the partial open-endedness of 1945 to 1949, and demonstrates that statesmanship or the lack thereof was decisive in shaping the world that emerged. The achievement of a lifetime. -- Stephen Kotkin, author of StalinExcavates the hidden histories of Stalin’s shifting policies in postwar Europe, undermining conventional understandings of Soviet ambitions and showing Stalin to have been more cautious and pragmatic in his foreign policy than earlier accounts proposed. Naimark is a probing analyst, balanced in his judgments, as well as a masterful storyteller. -- Ronald Grigor Suny, author of The Soviet ExperimentA masterful account of Stalin’s European policies in the first postwar years; by far the best study of this central issue for understanding the Cold War in Europe. -- Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold WarNorman Naimark is one of the foremost authorities on Soviet history and the reign of Joseph Stalin…The book is the culmination of many years of research and is destined to become a point of reference for many years to come. -- Silvio Pons * Inference *

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Book SynopsisExplains the demise of the Abwehr in the final two years of the Second World War.

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Book SynopsisGraphic memoir of a Russian soldier who fought for the tsar, against the Communist revolution in Russia, and enlisted in the Francoist army and Hitler's Blue Division.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive overview of the work of the Military Vehicles Research and Development Establishment on Chobham Common, which provided armoured vehicles for the British Army from 1945 to its close in 2004.Through much of World War II British tanks and armoured vehicles were outmatched by the German tanks they encountered and this led to the British Army placing much emphasis on ensuring that the same situation would not arise again if the Cold War turned hot. The task of developing the Main Battle Tanks and supporting armoured vehicles to out-range and quickly destroy the Soviet threat fell to the scientists and engineers at the Fighting Vehicle Research and Development Establishment on Chobham Common near to Chertsey. It was the design authority for all British Military vehicles for most of the period.Military vehicle and equipment expert William Suttie draws extensively on official MOD reports to tell the story of the development of the British Cold War armoTrade ReviewBy its nature, the book is fairly technical, but explained clearly and with fine supporting photos and diagrams. Of particular interest to wargamers will be the tables giving ‘hit’ and ‘kill’ probabilities for NATO and Soviet anti-tank weaponry against main battle tanks, based on official systems that reflected target size, armour, ranges, etc, with some comparisons that may surprise you. A quality publication. -- Chris Jarvis * Miniature Wargames *The author has spent around 45 years working in the field of military vehicle/equipment research and development and that experience shines through in this book. -- Robin Buckland * Military Model Scene *An excellant resource for those interested in Cold War British Armour -- Duncan Evans * The Armourer Magazine *As one would expect the book is lavishly illustrated, with photographs of those vehicles that were actually constructed and plans for most of those that weren’t. Well written and lavishly illustrated, this is an excellent guide to the mainly successful military vehicles designed at Chobham. -- John Rickard * Historyofwar.org *Table of Contents(Subject to confirmation) Part 1. Main Battle Tank Development Centurion FV215 Conqueror Countering the Soviet Tank Threat FV4201 Chieftain Chieftain Variants Novel Concept Studies UK/German Future Main Battle Tank MBT80 and the 4030 Programme Challenger 1 Challenger 1 Variants Challenger 2 Future Concept Studies Part 2. Medium and Light Tracked AFV Development Light Tanks and Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked 93 Carriers and Armoured Personal Carriers Warrior AFV of the 80s Stage 1 Other Light and Medium Tracks Concept Studies Part 3. Wheeled AFV Concepts and Development Saladin and Saracen Ferret and Fox Part 4. Other Vehicles Associated with Chertsey 1 Ton Armoured 4x4 Humber FV180 Combat Engineer Tractor SP70: 155mm Self Propelled Howitzer Annex A: List of FV Numbers Annex B: Centurion Data Annex C. Chieftain Data Annex D: Challenger 1 Data Annex E: CVR(T) Data Annex F: FV430 Series Data Annex G: Warrior Data Annex H: Saladin Data Annex J: Saracen Data Annex J: Ferret Data Annex K: FV721 Fox Data Index

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Book SynopsisThe first detailed explanation of development for this vital night-fighter equipmentThe author has much professional experience in radar developmentNight-fighter squadrons are now valued as an important factor in the Allied defeat of the Luftwaffe in WWIINight-fighters are popular with aviation and WWII enthusiasts/historians

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Book SynopsisThey are two of twentieth-century history's most significant figures, yet today they are largely forgotten - Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, Germany's First World War leaders. Although defeat in 1918 brought an end to their 'silent dictatorship', both generals played a key role in the turbulent politics of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis. Alexander Clifford, in this perceptive reassessment of their political careers, questions the popular image of these generals in the English-speaking world as honourable 'Good Germans'. For they were intensely political men, whose ideas and actions shaped the new Germany and ultimately led to Hitler's dictatorship. Their poisonous wartime legacy was the infamous stab-in-the-back myth. According to the generals, the true cause of the disastrous defeat in the First World War was the betrayal of the army by politicians, leftists and Jews on the home front. This toxic conspiracy theory polluted Weimar politics and has been labelled the beginning of 'the twisted road to Auschwitz'. Hindenburg and Ludendorff's political fortunes after the war were markedly different. Ludendorff inhabited the far-right fringes and engaged in plots, assassinations and conspiracies, playing a leading role in failed uprisings such as Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Meanwhile Hindenburg was a vastly more successful politician, winning two presidential elections and serving as head of state for nine years. Arguably he bore even more responsibility for the destruction of democracy, for he and the nationalist right he led sought, through Hitler, to remould the Weimar system towards authoritarianism.

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Book Synopsis‘Catapults you into the heart of the most epic experiences of ejection, escape and survival’ Andy McNab ‘I thought the ejection seat was a rather dangerous, somewhat curious contraption. But that I would never need it . . .’ When Jo Lancaster, the first British pilot to eject in an emergency, triggered his ejection seat in 1949, it took thirty seconds before he was safely away from the aircraft and under his parachute. Since those first post-Second World War ejections, many tens of thousands of lives have been saved by increasingly sophisticated escape systems. When John Nichol’s Tornado was blasted out of the sky during the 1991 Gulf War, a mere 2.5 seconds elapsed between pulling the ejection handle and his parachute opening. Today, the newest seats can automatically initiate ejection if the system decides the pilot faces mortal danger and cannot react quickly enough. Now, Nichol tells the incredibleTrade ReviewA fascinating history. Given his extraordinary personal experience, skills & knowledge, Eject! Eject! is clearly a book that Nichol and Nichol alone was destined to write. Five stars * Daily Telegraph *'An absolutely brilliant, brilliant read. Fascinating history and enthralling stories. An absolute corker' -- Jeremy Vine‘Catapults you into the heart of the most epic experiences of ejection, escape and survival’ -- Andy McNab'The story of the ejection seat’s birth and development revealed by John Nichol, is one of genius, bravery and baffling eccentricity, containing thrilling, gripping and dramatic stories of survival' * Daily Express *'Some of the stories are incredible, making for an action packed book' * The Armourer *

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Book SynopsisThe Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in a frustrating stalemate, the echoes of which reverberate to this day. It was the only conflict of the Cold War in which forces of major nations of the two opposing systems - capitalism and communism - confronted each other on the battlefield. And yet, in the sixty years since it was fought it has...

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Book SynopsisIn the much-anticipated conclusion to his masterful trilogy chronicling the wartime career of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, renowned military and political biographer Nigel Hamilton aligns triumph with tragedy to show how FDR was the architect of a victorious peace that he would not live to witness. Providing the definitive account of the events in Normandy on 6 June 1944, Hamilton also reveals the fraught nature of the relationship between the greatest wartime leaders of the Allied forces. Using hitherto unpublished documents and interviews to counter the famous narrative of World War II strategy given by Winston Churchill in his memoirs, Hamilton highlights the true significance of FDR’s leadership. Seventy-five years after the D-Day landings, we finally see, close up and in dramatic detail, who was responsible for rescuing – and insisting upon – the great American-led invasion of France in June 1944, and exactly why that invasion was orchestrated by Eisenhower. War and Peace is the rousing final installment in one of the most important historical biographies of the twenty-first century, which demonstrates how FDR’s failing health only spurred him on in his efforts to build a US-backed post-war world order. In this stirring account of the life of one of the most celebrated political leaders of our time, Hamilton hails the President as the sole person capable of anticipating the requirements of peace in order to bring an end to the war.

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Book SynopsisHitler was one of the few politicians who understood that persuasion was everything, deployed to anchor an entire regime in the confections of imagery, rhetoric and dramaturgy. The Nazis pursued propaganda not just as a tool, an instrument of government, but also as the totality, the raison d'etre, the medium through which power itself was exercised. Moreover, Nicholas O'Shaughnessy argues, Hitler, not Goebbels, was the prime mover in the propaganda regime of the Third Reich - its editor and first author. Under the Reich everything was a propaganda medium, a building-block of public consciousness, from typography to communiques, to architecture, to weapons design. There were groups to initiate rumours and groups to spread graffiti. Everything could be interrogated for its propaganda potential, every surface inscribed with polemical meaning, whether an enemy city's name, an historical epic or the poster on a neighbourhood wall. But Hitler was in no sense an innovator - his ideas were always second- hand.Rather his expertise was as a packager, fashioning from the accumulated mass of icons and ideas, the historic debris, the labyrinths and byways of the German mind, a modern and brilliant political show articulated through deftly managed symbols and rituals. The Reich would have been unthinkable without propaganda - it would not have been the Reich.Trade Review'A fascinating work on how the Nazis "sold" Hitler to the German people and vice-versa, almost like a modern commercial brand.' * Evening Standard (Best Books of 2016) *'Illuminatingly treats the Third Reich's deployment of myths, symbols, and rhetoric with the eye and ear of a theorist keenly tuned to the subtle plays of power and desire within the manufacture of the "spiritual-religious idea" that is Nazism ... A fresh take on an area of scholarship dominated by historians, Selling Hitler teems with insight.' * Los Angeles Review of Books *'[A] fresh, surprising and important look at a neglected aspect of the history of Nazi Germany. […] O'Shaughnessy boldly deconstructs the Nazi propaganda machine and its vast output.' * Jewish Journal *

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Book SynopsisIncoherent, obsessive and violent, Hitler's ideas nonetheless found an audience of millions and led to one of the most horrific and devastating conflicts of the 20th century. Taking two of Hitler's texts as his starting point, Neil Gregor discusses 'this second-rate mind of great power' and helps the reader to understand the nature and popular reception of Hitler's crude but hugely influential writings.

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Book SynopsisMany stories abound of the daring exploits of the RAF's young fighter pilots defying the might of Hitler's Luftwaffe, and of the dogged courage of the men of Bomber Command flying night after night over Germany in the face of flak and Focke-Wulfs, yet little has been written about the pilots who provided the key evidence that guided the RAF planners - the aerial photographers.Ken Johnson joined No.1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit as an eighteen-year-old and soon found himself at the controls of a Spitfire high above enemy territory. The PRU aircraft were stripped of all non-essential equipment to increase their performance, because speed and height was their only protection as the aircraft's guns were among those items that were removed.In this light-hearted reminiscence, Ken Johnson relives his training and transfer to an operational unit, but not the one he had expected. He had asked if he could fly Spitfires. He was granted that request, only to find himself joining a rare band of flyers who took to the skies alone, and who flew in broad daylight to photograph enemy installations with no radios and no armament. Unlike the fighter pilots who sought out enemy aircraft, the pilots of the PRU endeavoured to avoid all contact; returning safely with their vital photographs was their sole objective.As well as flying in northern Europe, Ken Johnson was sent to North Africa, where his squadron became part of the United States Army Air Force North West African Photographic Wing (NAPRW). In this role, he flew across southern Europe, photographing targets in France and Italy."The Spy in the Sky" fills a much-needed gap in the history of the RAF and, uniquely, the USAAF during the latter stages of the Second World War. AUTHOR: Kenneth Johnson was born in Leicester on 5 December 1922. He led an unremarkable childhood, except that he had a penchant for building and repairing bicycles and motorcycles, and learning how to operate them. By the age of 17 he had saved enough money to buy a second-hand car and went to work in a furniture store in Coventry. The Second World War then intervened in his future! 16 b/w illustrations

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of Masters and Commanders, Andrew Roberts'' The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic conflict. The Second World War lasted for 2,174 days and claimed the lives of over 50 million people. Why did it take the course that it did? Why did the Axis lose? And could they, with a different strategy, have won? Ranging from the Western front to North Africa, from the Baltic to the Far East, he brings the story of the war - and those who fought it - into focus as never before. ''One of the greatest historians of our time ... His masterpiece''   Oliver Marre, Observer ''An undoubted triumph. This, simply, is the best one-volume history of the Second World War currently available''  Laurence Rees ''Magnificent ... Stylish penmanship, gritty research and lucid reasoning, coupled with poignant and hTrade ReviewRoberts's populist approach makes for a rollicking good read and never comes at the expense of accuracy. His mastery of the huge variety of subjects is truly impressive and his ability to marshal these subjects into a single compelling narrative stunning -- Keith Lowe * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWhat pushed Blunt, Burgess, Cairncross, Maclean and Philby into Soviet hands?With access to recently released papers and other neglected documents, this sharp analysis of the intelligence world examines how and why these men and others betrayed their country and what this cost Britain and its allies.Enemies Within is a new history of the influence of Moscow on Britain told through the stories of those who chose to spy for the Soviet Union. It also challenges entrenched assumptions about abused trust, corruption and Establishment cover-ups that began with the Cambridge Five and the disappearance of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean on the night boat to Saint-Malo in 1951.In a book that is as intellectually thrilling as it is entertaining and illuminating, Richard Davenport-Hines traces the bonds between individuals, networks and organisations over generations to offer a study of character, both individual and institutional. At its core lie the operative traits of boarding schools, the univTrade Review‘Richard Davenport-Hines, in his fascinating and compendious new book … challenges prevailing interpretations and provides answers to all the major questions about spies… As a result, this book manages to be both nostalgic and politically progressive when it seeks to remind us, passionately and eloquently, of the value of trust’ Guardian ‘Davenport-Hines writes persuasively … Enemies Within provides a comprehensive demolition of many widely accepted myths surrounding communist subterfuge during the Cold War … it is encouraging to come across such an erudite and unapologetically ‘elitist’ counterblast’ Spectator ‘A supremely accomplished historian … he writes with mordant wit and a merciless eye for distortions … the great virtues of this book lie in the detail Davenport-Hines amasses and his sense of context’ Sunday Times ‘He is strong on retelling the spy stories … but the chief virtue of the book is the almost revisionist judgments he feels able to make based on his research … in this rich, detailed and entertainingly irascible book’ Book of the Week, The Times ‘The product of one of our greatest modern masters of non-fiction Richard Davenport-Hines, Enemies Within is an exhaustive … chronicle of spies in Britain … a mosaic of such vivid detail’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday ‘There could not be a more experienced interrogator of a subject so festooned with myths of sleaze, power and treachery … Enemies Within is a peculiar and fascinating hybrid’ Observer ‘Richard Davenport-Hines dissects and destroys … conventional wisdom in his masterly retelling of Britain’s most notorious intelligence disaster … makes his case with splenetic zeal, backed by a formidable array of sources … fascinating’ Economist ‘The history of the five Cambridge spies recounted in this book with Richard Davenport-Hines’s usual vim and brio … a vivid panorama … [he] bases his case on wide research and illustrates it with a wealth of piquant anecdote’ Literary Review

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Book SynopsisTold for the first time in English, Paul Preston's new book tells the story of a preventable tragedy that cost many thousands of lives and ruined tens of thousands more at the end of the Spanish Civil War.This is the story of an avoidable humanitarian tragedy that cost many thousands of lives and ruined tens of thousands more.On 5 March 1939, the eternally malcontent Colonel Segismundo Casado launched a military coup against the government of Juan Negrín. To fulfil his ambition to go down in history as the man who ended the Spanish Civil War, he claimed that Negrín was the puppet of Moscow and that a coup was imminent to establish a Communist dictatorship. Instead his action ensured the Republic ended in catastrophe and shame.Paul Preston, the leading historian of twentieth-century Spain, tells this shocking story for the first time in English. It is a harrowing tale of how the flawed decisions of politicans can lead to tragedy.Trade ReviewA Daily Telegraph Book of the Year ‘Preston's mission in life is to bring clarity to the confusing tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. This is his twelfth book on the war and its legacy … [it] is written with the same sober lucidity that distinguishes the previous eleven’ The Times ‘Compelling and convincingly argued ….the story of the final, tragic days of the Spanish Republic has never been told so clearly before. With a keen eye for historical detail and a painful sense of the human lives at stake, Preston paints a vivid portrait of those involved’ Spectator ‘Masterly and intensely moving … in Preston, author of several award-winning books on the conflict, the reader could not hope for a more sure-footed guide … Britons today know far less than they should about the Spanish Civil War … our knowledge would be poorer still but for Preston's indefatigable scholarship, elegant prose and impeccable judgement’ Sunday Telegraph ‘Scholarly and authoritative’ Literary Review

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Book SynopsisThe last great, untold story of WWII highly compelling' Daily MailFleeing Nazi persecution for America in the 1930s, the young German-born Jews who would come to be known as The Ritchie Boys were labelled enemy aliens' when war broke out. Although of the age to be inducted into the U.S. military, their German accents made them distrusted. Until one day in 1942, when the Pentagon woke up to the incredible asset they had in their ranks, and sent these young recruits to a secret military intelligence training centre at Camp Ritchie, Maryland.These men knew the language, culture and psychology of the enemy better than anyone, and had the greatest motivation to fight Hitler's anti-Semitic regime. And so they were trained and sent back into the belly of the beast, Jews returning to the frontlines of battlefields across Nazi-occupied Europe to defeat the enemy that persecuted them and their families. In an epic story of heroism, courage, and patriotism, bestselling author Bruce Henderson drawTrade Review‘The last great, untold story of WWII… highly compelling’ Daily Mail ‘Gripping. … A story of courage and determination, revenge and redemption. … Opens a window into a much-ignored aspect of the war. … A magnificent story, one crying out to be told, and one that is told very well’ Boston Globe ‘[A] highly readable, often thrilling narrative… A gripping addition to the literature of the period and an overdue tribute to these unique Americans’ Kirkus (Starred Review) ‘An inspiring story’ Library Journal ‘Henderson is a wonderful storyteller who has written a never-before-told chapter of the Second World War. The Ritchie Boys is a must-read’ Jewish Book Council ‘The Ritchie Boys tells the remarkable story of how 2,000 German-born Jews were able to get the crucial intelligence that saved American lives and helped win World War II. … The message of their courage and patriotism should not be lost in today’s war on terrorism’ Leon Panetta, Former Director of the CIA and Former Secretary of Defense

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Book SynopsisA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKEsther Safran Foer has written of her family in a way that is both uniquely and heartbreakingly her story and a deeply important testament for Ashkenazi Jews. Her memories are our important history.' Robert Peston, ITV Political EditorA moving and powerful inter-generational memoir about story and memory.Mine is a family of readers and writers. Our house is filled with books. There are contemporary design books on the coffee table in the living room, legal books in my husband's home office, and piles of children's books for when my grandchildren visit. However, the side table next to my bed is piled with books about the Holocaust. Framed maps of shtetls line my office walls and pictures of relatives killed in the Holocaust are displayed on our family gallery walls.Sometimes I feel like I exist across two polarized realities, experiencing great fulfillment from family, friends, and a meaningful career, and, at the same time, finding the joy of my life tempeTrade Review‘[In this book] Esther Safran Foer has written of her family in a way that is both uniquely and heartbreakingly her story and a deeply important testament for Ashkenazi Jews. Her memories are our important history.’ Robert Peston ‘A vivid testimony to the power of memory.’ Kirkus ‘A powerful memoir about the Holocaust’ Radio Times ‘a moving and well researched memoir’ The Observer ‘superb memoir … a hymn to life’. TELEGRAPH ‘you will applaud the defiance of the title as her story makes you weep’. SAGA ‘This moving memoir documents Esther Safran Foer’s tireless search for traces of her murdered family. Her success is a testament to the power of memory to rescue the dead from oblivion.’ Diane Armstrong, author of THE COLLABORATOR ‘Stirring and inspiring, this remarkable book is a labour of love and hope. Esther Foer goes on a brave journey abroad in search of unsettling family secrets buried in the darkness created by Nazism. Her odyssey is harrowing and heroic. When she returns, she can never see things in the same way, and neither can we. This book is a little triumph over fascism.’ Congressman Jamie Raskin ‘Foer documents her quest to gather information about her family’s life during the Holocaust in this skilfully written debut. Foer’s engrossing, well-researched family history will resonate with those curious about their own roots. Publisher’s Weekly ‘In effect this book is a search for the tiniest of things among the large mess of history: a name. It’s a noble search, and makes for a moving book. Much of the narrative is sad. Death, silence, emptiness haunt the work. There are things that may never be known. But the telling is unique and interesting. The book succeeds in putting names (or more precisely, stories) to things that exist only as artefacts, and inversely putting physicality to things that exist only as story.’ Irish Times

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Book SynopsisThe Imperial War Museum holds a vast archive of interviews with soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians of most nationalities who saw action during WW2.Trade ReviewThese stories are so harrowing, their witness so precise and devastating * The Times *With the rawness and immediacy that only this kind of oral history can provide * Sunday Times *An extraordinary and immensely moving book -- Stephen FryA unique collection of personal testimonies ... a timely reminder of the sacrifices and horrors of war * Sunday Express *The sound of real human voices: bewildered, sad, often angry, sometimes bitter, but for the most part remarkable ... a shattered relay-race of narrative gives the book a ghostly, choric poetry * Telegraph *

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Book Synopsis6 June 1944: the day Allied forces crossed the Channel and began fighting their way into Nazi-occupied Northwest Europe. Initiated by airborne units and covered by air and naval bombardment, the Normandy landings were the most ambitious combined airborne and amphibious assault ever attempted. Their success marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.Drawing on thousands of hours of eyewitness testimony recorded by the Imperial War Museum, Forgotten Voices of D-Day tells the compelling story of this turning point in World War 2. Hearing from paratroopers and commandos, glider pilots and landing craft crewmen, airmen and naval personnel, we learn first-hand what it was like as men waited to go in, as they neared the beaches and drop zones, and as they landed and met the enemy. Accounts range from memories of the daring capture of ''Pegasus'' bridge by British glider-bourn troops to recollections of brutal fighting as the assault forces stormed the beaches. <Trade ReviewThe most recent of Ebury's admirable series ... a wonderful selection of first-hand accounts of D-Day by British servicemen -- Richard Holmes * Evening Standard *Incomparable. The voices speak with utter immediacy of fear, determination, bewilderment, indifference, and unmistakable courage * Spectator *Excellent ... An exciting read * Family History Monthly *

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Book SynopsisFrom the end of 1941 to 1945 a pivotal but often overlooked conflict was being fought in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War 2 - the Burma Campaign.In 1941 the Allies fought in a disastrous retreat across Burma against the Japanese - an enemy more prepared, better organised and more powerful than anyone had imagined. Yet in 1944, following key battles at Kohima and Imphal, and daring operations behind enemy lines by the Chindits, the Commonwealth army were back, retaking lost ground one bloody battle at a time.Fighting in dense jungle and open paddy field, this brutal campaign was the longest fought by the British Commonwealth in the Second World War. But the troops taking part were a forgotten army, and the story of their remarkable feats and their courage remains largely untold to this day.The Fourteenth Army in Burma became one of the largest and most diverse armies of the Second World War. British, West African, Ghurkha and Indian regiments fought aTrade ReviewGripping reading and a valuable history ... Excellent * Pennant *

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Book Synopsis''Being a JTAC is the closest a soldier on the ground in the midst of battle can get to feeling like one of the gods - unleashing pure hellfire, death and destruction'' - Duncan FalconerMeet Sergeant ''Bommer'' Grahame, one of the deadliest soldiers on the battlefield. He''s an elite army JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller- pronounced ''jay-tack'') - a specially trained warrior responsible for directing Allied air power with high-tech precision. Commanding Apache gunships, A10 tank-busters, F15s and Harrier jets, he brings down devastating fire strikes against the attacking Taliban, often danger close to his own side. Due to his specialist role, Sergeant Grahame usually operates in the thick of the action, where it''s at its most fearsome and deadly. Conjuring the seemingly impossible from apparently hopeless situations, soldiers in battle rely on the skill and bravery of their JTAC to enable them to win through in the heat of the danger zone. Fire Strike 7/9 tells the story of Bommer Grahame and his five-man Fire Support Team on their tour of Afghanistan. Patrolling deep into enemy territory, they were hunted and targeted by the Taliban, shot at, blown-up, mortared and hit by rockets on numerous occasions. Under these conditions Sergeant Grahame notched up 203 confirmed enemy kills, making him the difference between life and death both for his own troops and the Taliban.Trade ReviewJTACs carry out the most extraordinary of missions where the battle is fiercest. Many a soldier owes their life to their skill and bravery, as this book so eloquently shows -- Colonel Tim Collins OBEOne of the many unsung heroes from the battles of the Upper Gereshk Valley, Bommer Grahame was an outstanding JTAC, unflappable in a punch up, and it was a privilege to scrap alongside him and the lads from B Coy -- Colonel Richard Westley OBE MC

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Book SynopsisHarriet Salisbury has been a writer and editor for twenty years and has a special interest in the history of East London. She lives in Hackney. The War on Our Doorstep is her first book.The Museum of London oral history collection contains more than 5,000 hours of recorded life story interviews with a wide variety of people who have lived and worked in London and who talk about their lives and everyday experiences.Trade ReviewReveals in heart-rending detail what it truly means to be an East Ender * Daily Express *An excellent collection of recollections of Eastenders. ... What a place, what indomitable pride. Read all about it * Country Life *

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Book SynopsisYasmin Khan presents the overlooked history of India at war, and shows how mobilisation for the war unleashed seismic processes of economic, cultural and social change – decisively shaping the international war effort, the unravelling of the empire and India’s own political trajectory.Trade ReviewExceptional...balances analysis, history and human compassion in a narrative that leaves one shaken -- Juliet Nicolson, 5 stars * Daily Telegraph *Almost impossible to put down * New Statesman *The Second World War is one of the most written-about episodes in all world history: every month sees a dozen new titles published. Yet, astonishingly, The Raj at War breaks new ground on almost every page -- William Dalrymple * Spectator *A striking example of people’s history, packed with anecdotes, memories and information about a shared but largely unwritten global past * Guardian *Unprecedented in scope...rich both in detail and in its unique insights... Khan's history has paved the way for a more complex understanding of the Second World War as India's War -- Vinay Lal * Indian Express *A fascinating, vividly written history full of surprises, some of them shocking * The Times *Yasmin Khan...offers a richly researched social history of wartime India that is peppered with fascinating detail * The Economist *Remarkable Account… Compassionate, judicious and brilliantly readable, this is a compelling account of a dramatic, but little examined, aspect of history * Daily Mail *This fascinating book tells the story of World War Two's impact on India: the shattering of the ordered relations which underpinned the Raj making its end inevitable. It's also a much needed reminder of India's contribution to that war -- Mark TullyThis fascinating book tells the story of World War Two's impact on India: the shattering of the ordered relations which underpinned the Raj making its end inevitable. It's also a much needed reminder of India's contribution to that war -- Mark Tully

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Book SynopsisAlex Kershaw is the author of seven previous books, including the bestsellers The Bedford Boys and The Longest Winter. He has written for several British newspapers, including the Guardian, Independent and Sunday Times. Born in York, England, he now lives in America with his wife and son.Trade ReviewExceptional... A worthy addition to vibrant classics of small-unit history like Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers. * Wall Street Journal *Gripping… Kershaw has produced another gem, with vivid combat scenes and an admirable character in the leading role. * Express *A poignant war story that culminates in the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau… [A] fast-paced examination of a dedicated officer navigating – and somehow surviving – World War II. * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisIn its earliest days, the American-led war in Afghanistan appeared to be a triumph, a 'good war' in comparison to the debacle in Iraq. This book explores the intentions and hubris that caused the West's strategy in Afghanistan to flounder, refuting the long-held notion that the war could have been won with more troops and cash.Trade ReviewAn excellent account. The outline of Fairweather’s story is sadly familiar, but he writes with exceptional lucidity and punch… No British officer should be allowed to board a plane for our next war until he has read Fairweather’s account of how we messed up the last one. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *Jack Fairweather’s sweeping account, The Good War, is one of the first to look at the war as a whole… His richly narrated history roams from the corridors of the White House to the poppy palaces of the country’s opium warlords and the patrol bases of Sangin and Kandahar… As the West looks at the chaos of Iraq and Syria and once more considers how to intervene, the sobering warnings of this riveting book are more relevant than ever. -- Ben Farmer, 4 stars * Daily Telegraph *Powerful. -- James Meek * London Reviews of Books *Combines first-hand war reporting with shrewd analysis of the western conduct of the war, [readers] will quickly come to understand what went wrong. * Financial Times *The Good War is a tour de force – a riveting, clear-eyed account of the troubled US-led war in Afghanistan. Jack Fairweather has shown himself to be a narrative historian of the first order. For anyone seeking an honest appraisal of what went wrong and why, this book is a must-read. -- Jon Lee Anderson, author of 'The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan'

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Book SynopsisAt a villa on the shore of the Wannsee, a lake in suburban Berlin, on 20th January 1942 one of the most terrible meetings in human history convened. Chaired by Reinhard Heydrich and organised and minuted by Adolf Eichmann, it brought together representatives of all the principal Nazi agencies in eastern Europe. Pooling the expertise of those present, Heydrich created the plan that would let Europe ''be combed through from west to east'' for Jews and which would put the Final Solution on a rational and industrial footing.Table of Contents"Perhaps the most shameful document"; "Mein Kampf" to mass murder, 1919-41; mass murder to genocide; the villa, the lake, the meeting; a largely successful day. Appendix: the protocol.

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Book SynopsisChurchill''s description of the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, after Lt-Gen Percival''s surrender led to over 100,000 British, Australian and Indian troops falling into the hands of the Japanese, was no wartime exaggeration. The Japanese had promised that there would be no Dunkirk in Singapore, and its fall led to imprisonment, torture and death for thousands of allied men and women. With much new material from British, Australian, Indian and Japanese sources, Colin Smith has woven together the full and terrifying story of the fall of Singapore and its aftermath. Here, alongside cowardice and incompetence, are forgotten acts of enormous heroism; treachery yet heart-rending loyalty; Japanese compassion as well as brutality from the bravest and most capricious enemy the British ever had to face.

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Book SynopsisTo Lose a Battle: France 1940 is the final book of Alistair Horne''s trilogy, which includes The Fall of Paris and The Price of Glory and tells the story of the great crises of the rivalry between France and Germany. In 1940 Hitler sent his troops to execute the Fall of France. A six-week battle with lightning ''blitzkrieg'' warfare and combined operations techniques, the offensive ended the Phony War and sent the French forces reeling as their government fled from occupied Paris. For the Axis, it was a dramatic victory. But how was this spectacular result possible? In To Lose a Battle Alistair Horne tells the day-by-day, moment-by-moment story of the battle, sifted from the vast Nazi archives and the fragmentary records of the beaten Allies. Using eye-witness accounts of battle operations and personal memoirs of leading figures on both sides, this book steps far beyond the confines of military accounts to form a major contribution to our understanding of this important period in European history. ''Alistair Horne really brings home the pathos and human folly of war, and he writes brilliantly''The Times ''Horne follows his line unfalteringly. All the details are there: the small, fleeting triumphs, the greater disasters, the bravery, the cowardice, the stupidity and the intelligence ... that make war so fascinating and so terrible''Economist ''Horne completes his masterly trilogy ... the definitive account of one of the most efficient and astonishing campaigns of all time''The Times Literary Supplement One of Britain''s greatest historians, Sir Alistair Horne, CBE, is the author of a trilogy on the rivalry between France and Germany, The Price of Glory, The Fall of Paris and To Lose a Battle, as well as a two-volume life of Harold Macmillan.

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Book SynopsisA pacy, compelling and penetrating account - from the great Norman Stone''The best short primer on the war in twenty years'' Andrew RobertsNorman Stone''s gripping book tells the narrative of the Second World War in as brief a compass as possible, making a sometimes familiar story utterly fresh and arresting. As with his highly acclaimed World War One: A Short History, there is a compelling sense of a terrible story unfolding, of a sceptical and humorous intelligence at work, and a wish to convey to an audience who may well have no memory of the conflict just how high the stakes were.Trade ReviewProfessor Norman Stone has achieved the impossible; he has somehow written a comprehensive history of the Second World War in just under 200 pages, summarising the entire conflict while leaving out nothing of importance and bringing his lifetime of study of the subject to bear in a witty, incisive and immensely readable way ... Norman Stone has proved yet again that he is one of the most original, witty and powerful British historians writing today -- Andrew Roberts * Standpoint *The joy and strength of this compact history, besides its trenchancy and, in the publishers' words, the "sceptical and humorous intelligence at work", is its narrative clarity ... a book to clear the mind -- Allan Mallinson * The Times *Novices will receive a painless introduction, but educated readers should not pass up the highly opinionated prologue and epilogue and the author's trademark acerbic commentary throughout ... Readers of all stripes ... will find plenty to ponder * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book Synopsis''A gripping analysis of the final days of peace ... indispensable'' M. R. D. Foot, The TimesRichard Overy''s 1939: Countdown to War re-creates hour-by-hour the last desperate attempts to salvage peace before the outbreak of World War Two.24 August 1939: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. Hitler has ambitions to invade Poland and hopes Stalin will now help him. The West must try to stop him. Nothing was predictable or inevitable. The West hoped that Hitler would see sense if they stood firm. Hitler was convinced the West would back down. And both sides acted knowing that they risked being plunged into a war that might spell the end the end of European civilization.Trade ReviewOvery is one of the great historians of the second world war -- Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times This country's most distinguished historian of the Second World War ... Overy's book is easily the best account of Europe's descent into the death and destruction that were Hitler's element -- Michael Burleigh Evening Standard Nail-biting ... with rare narrative verve, he documents the ultimatums, emissaries, letters and increasingly desperate proposals that shuttled across Europe in the countdown to war -- Ian Thomson Independent Even those who think they know it all about how war broke out will learn something from Richard Overy's book -- Simon Heffer Literary Review One of the great historians of this conflict -- Simon Garfield Observer

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Book SynopsisAndre Hue was a daredevil. By the age of twenty the Anglo-Frenchman had survived shipwreck and years undercover in France, sabotaging German supply lines. Returning to Britain, he was recruited by SOE to parachute behind enemy lines on 5 June 1944, to unite resistance forces in Brittany and paralyse local German troops during the Allied invasion. Though Hue''s mission was fraught with difficulty - he missed his landing site, his secret base camp became the site of a pitch battle and a band of Cossacks tried to hunt him down - he knew that thousands of lives depended on his success or failure . . .

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Book SynopsisDuring the Second World War the Royal Navy was the most powerful of Britain''s armed forces. Its sailors fought across the globe in vast battleships and claustrophobic corvettes, makeshift minesweepers and silent submarines. They endured nerve-wracking convoys, fought epic gun battles, carried out deadly secret missions, rescued armies and landed the largest invasion force in history. Naval power was the foundation of Britain''s war effort, and sailors shaped the nation''s destiny. Drawing on hundreds of contemporary diaries and letters, Glyn Prysor''s original and gripping narrative evokes the triumph and tragedy, horror and humanity of the war at sea, bringing to life the sailor''s war as never before.Trade ReviewMarvellous...a fine addition to the literature on the Second World War * Sunday Telegraph *Prysor does for the sailors of the Royal Navy what Patrick Bishop did for the RAF in Fighter Boys...He reminds us of their extraordinary contribution to our survival. * Daily Express *A moving and evocative story of the war at sea -- Professor N.A.M. Rodger, author of 'The Command of the Ocean'This impressive human history of the Royal Navy begins the long overdue process of putting it back at the heart of the war effort -- Book of the Week * Independent *Full of terrific stories * Sunday Times *An absorbing read...a fine memorial * Literary Review *Excellent. Captures the soul of the men who were there...their humanity and, occassionally, inhumanity * Navy News *Skillfully weaves together a coherent 'people's history of the sailors' war'...Fresh and compelling * Times Literary Supplement *Breathtaking skill...freshness and force...Prysor makes the Navy of the Second World War intensely personal, vivid and vital * Military Times *Reads extremely well, with a gripping narrative that explains the unfolding of the war whilst weaving in moving and vivid personal accounts...This is a book that manages to fuse the strategic with the human and the social with consummate skill, and in so doing it delivers a multifaceted understanding of the war at sea as well as a poignant reminder of the way in which society has lost its 'sea vision' * Nautilus International Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Templer Medal and the Wolfson History PrizeSunday Times Top 10 BestsellerRichard Vinen''s National Service is a serious - if often very entertaining - attempt to get to grips with the reality of that extraordinary institution, which now seems as remote as the British Empire itself. With great sympathy and curiosity, Vinen unpicks the myths of the two ''gap years'', which all British men who came of age between 1945 and the early 1960s had to fill with National Service. This book is fascinating to those who endured or even enjoyed their time in uniform, but also to anyone wishing to understand the unique nature of post-war Britain.Trade ReviewVinen's clever and careful book is surely the definitive history. The era of national service now seems like ancient history, but from the routines of the parade ground to the horrors of Korea, Vinen restores it to life with a searching eye for detail and impressive human sympathy -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR *Written with compassion and insight, Vinen's book brilliantly recreates the atmosphere of postwar Britain -- Tony Barber * Financial Times BOOKS OF THE YEAR *National Service may prove to be the most original social history book of 2014. The book is bigger than its ostensible subject, embracing class, masculinity, sexuality, compliance, rebellion, combat atrocities, petty crime, notions of national identity, group solidarity, the fallibility of memory and what it means to be a man -- Richard Davenport-Hines * Guardian *Vinen has given us the kind of book that every professional historian surely wants to write: not only with a mastery of its voluminous original sources but also a sensitivity to the rich human detail, by turns authoritative, thoughtful, poignant - and funny -- Peter Clarke * Financial Times *I can't recall ever having read so unexpectedly fascinating a book...every single page has something of great interest on it -- Nicholas Lezard * The Guardian *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE LONGMAN-HISTORY TODAY BOOK PRIZE 2019 WINNER OF THE TEMPLER MEDAL BOOK PRIZE 2019 WINNER OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORY 2019LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2019 A SPECTATOR BOOK THE YEAR 2019''Brilliant. The best discussion of soldiers in combat, their motivation, behaviours and fears, that I have come across'' Robert Fox, Evening StandardOur Boys brings to life the human experiences of the paratroopers who fought in the Falklands War, and examines the long aftermath of that conflict. It is a first in many ways - a history of the Parachute Regiment, a group with an elite and aggressive reputation; a study of close-quarters combat on the Falkland Islands; and an exploration of the many legacies of this short and symbolic war.Told unflinchingly through the experiences of people who lived through it, Our Boys shows how the FTrade ReviewA work of astonishing power and originality ... a compelling study of the realities of war, centred on the death of the author's uncle in the Falklands. It is at once intensely moving, completely objective and beautifully written. -- Jonathan Sumption * The Spectator *An extraordinary book. -- Richard Vinen, author of National ServiceBeautifully written, intensely poignant book ... It will leave a real mark on the minds of those who read it. -- Peter HennessyPowerful and moving, Our Boys is a fascinating insight into the nature of combat and represents an important contribution to our understanding of the Falklands War, The Parachute Regiment and post-war Britain. -- Dan Jarvis MPA classic. Truly superb... something unique and original. It does great justice to the Paras, and is the most honest and honourable homage possible to the author's uncle Dave. -- Major Nigel Price, 7th Gurkha Rifles

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Book SynopsisImagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the most fascinating historical figures of all time. In this landmark book, a gifted Harvard historian puts you in the room with Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt as they meet at a climactic turning point in the war to hash out the terms of the peace. The ink wasn''t dry when the recriminations began. The conservatives who hated Roosevelt''s New Deal accused him of selling out. Was he too sick? Did he give too much in exchange for Stalin''s promise to join the war against Japan? Could he have done better in Eastern Europe? Both Left and Right would blame Yalta for beginning the Cold War. Plokhy''s conclusions, based on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against conventional wisdom-cemented during the Cold War- and argues that an ailing Roosevelt did better than we think. Much has been made of FDR''s handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Yalta is authoritatiTrade ReviewThe end of the Cold War has given scholars a chance to step back and take a more dispassionate look at those eight consequential days in February 1945. It is hard to imagine anyone doing so better than S.M. Plokhy in 'Yalta: The Price of Peace' ... colorful and gripping ... * The Wall Street Journal *Harvard historian S.M. Plokhy has produced a gripping narrative of the eight days in February 1945 when the Big Three - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin - convened the Yalta summit as World War II raged on. * The Boston Globe *

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Book SynopsisThe definitive history of American war reporting in the Pacific theater of World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.After almost two years slogging with infantrymen through North Africa, Italy, and France, Ernie Pyle immediately realized he was ill prepared for covering the Pacific War. As Pyle and other war correspondents discovered, the climate, the logistics, and the sheer scope of the Pacific theater had no parallel in the war America was fighting in Europe. From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The War Beat, Pacific provides the first comprehensive account of how a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America''s war against Japan, what they witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front''s perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American military history. In a dramatic and fast-paced narrative based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, Casey takes us from MacArthur''s doomed defense on the Philippines and the navy''s overly strict censorship policy at the time of Midway, through the bloody battles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, detailing the cooperation, as well as conflict, between the media and the military, as they grappled with the enduring problem of limiting a free press during a period of extreme crisis.The War Beat, Pacific shows how foreign correspondents ran up against practical challenges and risked their lives to get stories in a theater that was far more challenging than the war against Nazi Germany, while the US government blocked news of the war against Japan and tried to focus the home front on Hitler and his atrocities.Trade ReviewA nuanced and engaging narrative of the Pacific war in World War II....Steven Casey...untangles the complex challenges that reporters experienced from the moment they arrived on the vast front....The reporters were not sideline observers or members of a pool simply repurposing what they were told from official sources. They often put themselves at great risk and, along with the soldiers they accompanied, endured malnourishment, blistering heat and humidity, disease, endless insects, and enemy bullets and shells....With everything seemingly against them—a public distracted by the European war; military officials who viewed them with suspicion; or publishers who wanted something other than graphic or demoralizing coverage—the Pacific reporters did their jobs nonetheless....A timely reminder of what a democracy needs from an independent press in times of crisis. * Tracy Campbell, Journal of American History *[A] brilliant book on American reporters covering World War II in the Pacific....Casey's powerful and readable account offers an important addition to the historiography of the Pacific theater.... Casey concludes that despite the difficulties that reporters faced in the Pacific, they played an invaluable role in bridging the gap between what was occurring on the battlefield and what was understood on the home front. Reporters developed working relationships with different military commanders and public relations officers while overcoming harsh environmental conditions, dangerous and sometimes deadly combat situations, and unreliable transportation. * David L. Snead, Journal of Military History *Casey has produced a highly useful companion volume to his earlier book The War Beat, Europe (2017), deserving of a place in any collection focusing on WWII or journalism. * J.P. Sanson, CHOICE Connect, Vol. 59 No. 8 *Shrewd and comprehensive.... The War Beat, Pacific is an impressive achievement. Media-military relations in the Pacific were, it shows us, a world of paradoxes and conundrums reflecting the competing agendas and institutional frictions within the military and between it and the media. Casey composes a lucid narrative out of disparate archival materials and secondary sources. While he captures the terror, misery, and frustration reporters felt in the Pacific, his eyes are on the bigger picture, the forces in both media and military that determined what the American public knew of the war and what it did not. Now the definitive account of US war reporting in the Pacific, The War Beat, Pacific promises to have a long shelf life. * Richard Fine, Michigan War Studies Review *Reporters assigned to cover the Pacific theater of WW II faced obstacles that were difficult to overcome. The Pacific War covered thousands of square miles, and much of it was fought by the navy. Reporters might be on a ship dozens or even a hundred miles from major battles trying to make sense of the progress by listening to comments and reports from pilots without seeing one moment of action. Moreover, they struggled with wording dispatches to their home offices in order to make it past military censors....Pacific theater reporters also had to contend with the unique personalities of those who were in charge of operations....Casey...has produced a highly useful companion volume to his earlier book The War Beat, Europe (2017), deserving of a place in any collection focusing on WW II or journalism....Recommended. General readers, advanced undergraduates through faculty, and professionals. * Choice *Brimming with anecdotes, it sheds light on just what it takes to be a war correspondent. For those seeking new perspectives on America's war with Japan this is a thoroughly illuminating book. * History of War *In this masterful and often gripping work, Steven Casey narrates the history of World War II in the Pacific from the perspective of the reporters who covered it. News coverage of American fighting in the Pacific was hampered by censorship and by the difficulty of simply getting to the front, leading to a largely 'shrouded war,' undermining public engagement and understanding. Through exhaustive research, Casey reveals the way journalists risked their lives to keep Americans informed. * Mary L. Dudziak, author of War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences *Students of military-news media relations have long decried the lack of a wide-ranging history of the role of the press in World War II's Pacific theater. Steven Casey's thoroughly researched War Beat, Pacific, fills that gap. Balanced, concise, superbly written, it will be a must-read along with Casey's War Beat, Europe, for anyone hoping to comprehend World War II in all its breadth and complexity. * William M. Hammond, author of Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War *Steven Casey has made an important, original contribution to our knowledge of American war reporting, an eternally relevant topic, especially for a society that values both free speech and operational security. In Casey's exploration of war reporting in the Pacific theater, we see the struggles of reporters against military censorship, appalling conditions, an almost nonexistent communications infrastructure, and often their fellow correspondents in the endless competition for breaking stories. Casey weaves naturally from relating the experiences of individual reporters to larger context on the customs and practices of war reporting as a whole. * John C. McManus, author of Fire and Fortitude: The U.S. Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943 *Steven Casey has produced another superbly researched and beautifully written study of US media coverage of World War II, this time in the Pacific theater. It will serve as a worthy companion to his previous study of media coverage in the European theater. As with that previous volume, this one should lead to reconsideration of many standard beliefs regarding the relationship within and between the media, the armed forces, and the government during the conflict, as well as the numerous individuals whose reporting and photographs helped shape the public image of the war. * Mark A. Stoler, editor of the George C. Marshall Papers *Steven Casey offers a fresh and absorbing account of the Pacific War told through the harrowing experiences of battle-hardened reporters. Correspondents on 'the war beat' risked everything to tell its story, but the fog of that war was thick. Americans knew shockingly little about what actually transpired in such places as Bataan and Okinawa, Tokyo and Hiroshima. Casey's brilliant and fast-paced narrative opens up that world, providing a behind-the-scenes picture of the war unlike any other. * Kenneth Osgood, author of Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad *Steven Casey has written an exceptional book. * Stephen C. Murray, Journal of Pacific History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part One: The Shrouded War Chapter 1. The Paradox of Pearl Harbor Chapter 2. Fiasco in the Philippines Chapter 3. Censorship at Sea Chapter 4. The New Guinea Gang Chapter 5. The Shroud Slips: Guadalcanal Part Two: Lifting the Veil Chapter 6. Atrocities Chapter 7. Dress Rehearsal in New Guinea Chapter 8. Bloody Battles in the Central Pacific Chapter 9. The Burma Backwater Part Three: Vengeance Chapter 10. The Return Chapter 11. Death in the Pacific Chapter 12. Endgame Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Year of Our Lord 1943 tells the story of how five Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil - sought to provide a plan for the moral and spiritual renewal of the Western democracies in the post-World War II world.Trade ReviewThis book is a valuable contribution to the intellectual history of the mid--twentieth century. Jacobs deals adeptly with Christian humanism in the context of the crises of the 1930s and World War II. As such, the monograph will appeal to, among others, intellectual historians, political theorists, as well as scholars of human rights and religion. * Andrew L. Williams, Indiana University-Pursue University Indianapolis, Religious Studies Review *...the book offers an accessible introduction to the thought of five major twentieth--century intellectuals, each of whom has been the subject of a daunting amount of writing. It also succeeds in conveying some of the anxieties, preoccupations and experiences of British and French Christian intellectuals in wartime. * Matthew Grimley, University of Oxford, MODERN BELIEVING *Jacobs's fascinating and important book ... offers a rich resource for anyone who wishes to think seriously about the way in which Christians can engage their societies in the face of the current crises they encounter. * Maikki Aakko, Journal of the Oxford Graduate Theological Society *an excellent work revealing great erudition yet doing so with a writing style that could do credit to a New Yorker piece. * Justus D. Doenecke, Anglican and Episcopal History *Reading Alan Jacob's super little book is like prizing open the back of a watch to study the mechanism within: tiny cogs working in clever order, designed by a master craftsman. The cogs are several Christian thinkers whose lives and thoughts connected in 1943. * Tim Stanley, History Today *This elegant book examines his efforts along with those of W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Jacques Maritain and Simone Weil... There were substantial differences in how each responded to the challenges of their times. Jacob traces these while keeping what united them in view; a difficult task that he accomplishes with aplomb. * Frank Litton, Irish Catholic *This is an interesting book about Christian humanism in an age of crisis, specifically during the Second World War. * David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer *The Year of Our Lord 1943 is a fascinating and insightful reflection on intellectuals' reaction to perceived crisis. In their literary, philosophical, journalistic and private writings, Eliot, Weil, Maritain, Auden, and Lewis expressed their fear that humanity was approaching a destructive crisis of its own making. The book's elegant style and gripping prose linger with the reader, along with a persistent reflection on the desirable and possible intellectual reactions to contemporary man-made crises, and on the human moral values worth preserving as a guidance for the future. * Or Rosenboim, H-Diplo *Jacobs's biographical method is, in many ways, the star of the show. Letting his characters' voices weave themselves together, Jacobs aptly pulls them into common points of reflection. * Peter Boumgarden, The Christian Century *We end our reading of the book vastly better informed about the culture and thought of the 1940s, and amply equipped to see how those ideas would resonate over the next three or four decades. Alan Jacobs has written a fine and provocative book. * Phillip Jenkins, The Englewood Review of Books *a stunning account * Stuart Kelly, Books of the Year 2018, Scotland on Sunday *stimulating and well-written book * Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper *Alan Jacobs weaves a remarkable tale of five major Christian thinkers striving to make sense of a world in chaos and to speak wisdom to that world. This is a major achievement, wonderfully readable, the crowning work of our own era's most resourceful Christian intellectual. * Charles Marsh, Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Project on Lived Theology, University of Virginia *Alan Jacob's prose wears immense learning lightly, with great grace and to great effect. To think alongside these writers, under Jacobs's stage direction, to hear them across a gap of three-quarters of a century think with gravity and sincerity, pondering the nature of the human soul, palpably straining toward the ideal of the common good, feeling the pull of their religion's perennial pitfalls, in a situation and language different from and yet not wholly unlike our own, is riveting, challenging, and life-giving. * Lori Branch, author of Rituals of Spontaneity *Alan Jacobs has written an elegant and deeply learned book on Christian humanism in the critical years of the Second World War. He opens a window into some of the most luminous and profound thinking about the nature and possibilities of civilization during those troubled years. By doing so, has opened a window for thinking about our own troubled times. * James D. Hunter, author of To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World *Table of ContentsPreface A Note on Narrative Method Dramatis Personae: 1 September 1939 Chapter 1: "Prosper, O Lord, Our Righteous Cause" Chapter 2: The Humanist Inheritance Chapter 3: Learning in War-Time Chapter 4: Demons Chapter 5: Force Chapter 6: The Year of Our Lord 1943 Chapter 7: Approaching the End Afterword: Stunde Null Bibliography

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Book SynopsisWhile armies have seized enemy records and rare texts as booty throughout history, it was only during World War II that an unlikely band of librarians, archivists, and scholars traveled abroad to collect books and documents to aid the military cause. Galvanized by the events of war into acquiring and preserving the written word, as well as providing critical information for intelligence purposes, these American civilians set off on missions to gather foreign publications and information across Europe. They journeyed to neutral cities in search of enemy texts, followed a step behind advancing armies to capture records, and seized Nazi works from bookstores and schools. When the war ended, they found looted collections hidden in cellars and caves. Their mission was to document, exploit, preserve, and restitute these works, and even, in the case of Nazi literature, to destroy them. In this fascinating account, cultural historian Kathy Peiss reveals how book and document collecting became part of the new apparatus of intelligence and national security, military planning, and postwar reconstruction. Focusing on the ordinary Americans who carried out these missions, she shows how they made decisions on the ground to acquire sources that would be useful in the war zone as well as on the home front. These collecting missions also boosted the postwar ambitions of American research libraries, offering a chance for them to become great international repositories of scientific reports, literature, and historical sources. Not only did their wartime work have lasting implications for academic institutions, foreign-policy making, and national security, it also led to the development of today''s essential information science tools. Illuminating the growing global power of the United States in the realms of intelligence and cultural heritage, Peiss tells the story of the men and women who went to Europe to collect and protect books and information and in doing so enriches the debates over the use of data in times of both war and peace.Trade ReviewIn Information Hunters Kathy Peiss documents how information gathering was central to the U.S. victory in Europe—and how 'collecting' also came to mean, after the conflict ended, keeping information away from certain populations....Information hunting changed the course of the war, Peiss convincingly argues, and 'made an imprint on the postwar world of books and information.'...In a time when we suffer from an overload of dematerialized information, Peiss's book is a valuable reminder of how different the world was when that information was scarce and existed only in vulnerable, physical form. * Greg Barnhisel, Journal of American History *In her fascinating new book on information gathering and intelligence during WW II, Peiss spotlights the contributions of the American scholarly community. Her study—impressively researched and engagingly written—explores the ways in which librarians, archivists, and academics traveled throughout Europe to collect information relevant to the war effort....Peiss's narrative traces the work of these scholars from the procurement of open source materials at the beginning of the war through the collection of enemy documents in its closing stages to the thorny questions surrounding mass acquisitions in postwar Germany....In illuminating the link between information science and intelligence gathering, as well as the importance of foreign holdings in libraries as a symbol of American power, Peiss demonstrates that the academic community and military enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. * CHOICE *The book is carefully researched, written with care and skill, and provides an additional warning about the horrors of wartime. * Bob Lane, Metapsychology *Excellent and engaging....[Peiss's] analysis is smart, insightful, and compelling....Thanks to Peiss's informative and original book, we now know...why and how so many war-era German books and documents ended up in American research libraries....The information hunters...contributed to the development of information science,...helped tighten the relations between government, the military, and research university and libraries...and shaped the postwar intelligence activities and tactics of the National Security Agency and the CIA. * Matthew Avery Sutton, Reviews in American History *In astonishing detail, Peiss's study chronicles the multi-pronged efforts of American librarians, archivists, scholars, and military and intelligence personnel who activated a mass acquisitions programme that resulted in some two million foreign books and periodicals, thousands of microfilm reels, and 160,000 volumes looted from European Jewry by the Nazis and their collaborators, which found their way to repositories in the United States. * Christine Schmidt, Library & Information History *A marvelous new book about spy craft and the book world....I beg the creatives out there to read...and write a dramatic miniseries about bookish spies during the Second World War. * Elyse Graham, Public Books *Illuminating the growing global power of the United States in the realms of intelligence and cultural heritage, Peiss tells the story of the men and women who went to Europe to collect and protect books and information and in doing so enriches the debates over the use of data in times of both war and peace. * Tom Gilson, Against the Grain *This well-written and astutely researched book makes the wartime work of librarians engaging and engrossing. Those fascinated by intelligence missions or keen on the history of library science will appreciate this excellent read. * Library Journal (starred review) *Information Hunters is Kathy Peiss's wonderfully surprising history of a little-known, World War II intelligence effort to gather newspapers, magazines, books, and every other kind of printed information about business, science, and ordinary life in Germany and occupied Europe. Working mainly through cities in neutral countries — Lisbon, Stockholm, Bern, and the like — agents quietly arranged to gather bundles, then truckloads, finally ship- and train-loads of books and paper for analysts to study. It's a beautiful piece of scholarship that reveals the war in a new light - as a struggle for knowledge and truth. * Thomas Powers, author of Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb *This fascinating book tells the story of the American librarians who set out on vast collecting missions amidst the destruction of World War II Europe. Cultural historian Kathy Peiss deftly reconstructs their work here, showing how librarians shaped the war and, in turn, how the war re-shaped libraries and librarianship. Beautifully told, this surprising story provides a valuable new perspective on the historical connection between war and the production of knowledge. * Lisa Moses Leff, American University *Kathy Peiss uncovers fascinating episodes in the history of information: the World War II entanglement of bibliography and spycraft as well as the postwar dilemmas of denazifying German culture while also dealing with cultural heritage collections that the Nazis left orphaned in their double project of confiscation and genocide. With its lucid attention to 'open source' intelligence gathering, incipient 'archive-consciousness,' and the anxieties of American influence on the world, this is history that is at once powerful and timely. * Lisa Gitelman, New York University *Kathy Peiss's Information Hunters tells the fascinating and important story of the American archivists and librarians who, during World War II, helped rescue, preserve, and repatriate huge numbers of books, newspapers, and manuscripts looted by the Nazis or otherwise hidden from sight. Their principal objectives were to confiscate and, in many cases, destroy Nazi materials and to locate and return or redistribute looted Jewish books. Many books wound up in American libraries and archives, greatly boosting their size and prestige, and helping to develop the field of information science. * John B. Hench, author of Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets in the Era of World War II *Through savvy research Kathy Peiss has uncovered the enormous historical, ethical, and personal stakes of Americans' overseas efforts to collect-or destroy-the printed word during World War II. Her vivid account follows teams of scholars who scoured Europe's bookstores, battered cities, castles, and caves in search of material that bore witness to the continent's cultural heritage as well as its lies, secrets, and crimes. Pulling a book off the shelf of an American research library will never be the same after reading Information Hunters. * Brooke L. Blower, author of Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the World Wars *Table of ContentsPrologue Introduction Ch. 1 The Country of the Mind Must Also Attack Ch. 2 Librarians and Collectors Go to War Ch. 3 The Wild Scramble for Documents Ch. 4 Acquisitions Grand Scale Ch. 5 Fugitive Records of War Ch. 6 Book Burning-American Style Ch. 7 Not a Library, but a Large Depot of Loot Conclusion Epilogue Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThis is a compact but comprehensive and absorbing history of the Second World War. It examines the causes of the war, how it was won and lost, and its far-reaching consequences for humanity.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Based on a matchless knowledge of the documents, he provides an authoritative treatment of military, diplomatic, and economic aspects, written with great force and insight. As a one-volume survey, it is unlikely to be surpassed... a magnificent achievement, a tour de force. * Kenneth O. Morgan, New Statesman and Society *a miracle of compression compared with the rest of the horde of general histories. * Guardian *Parker alights unerringly on the salient campaigns and issues, and considers them with consistent style and insight. * Times Educational Supplement *The most balanced view of the causes and courses of the Second World War. * Field Marshal Lord Carver, Times Literary Supplement *written in clear and elegant English ... a masterful account of the Second World War in all its different spheres. It is scrupulously fair, illuminated by an engaging sense of humour ... and gives an entirely balanced view of the varying contributions of the different powers engaged. * Richard Cobb, The Spectator *Faced with volume after volume of books about the Second World War, R.A.C. Parker's Short History comes as a breath of fresh air ... it is refreshing to read such a modest-sized yet absorbing history of the years between 1939 and 1945 and what happened before and afer. A Short History is both concise and absorbing - an "introduction" to anyone wanting to know more about the war and an example of how a taut history book can be captivating. * Madeleine Burton, Herts Adverstiser (St Albans Edition) *Table of ContentsPreface ; Contents ; List of Plates ; List of Maps ; 1. Hitler, Germany, and the origins of the European war ; 2. German conquest of Poland, Norway, the Low Countries, and France ; 3. Britain alone ; 4. Operation BARBAROSSA: the German attack on the Soviet Union ; 5. The United States enters the war: the origins of the Japanese attack ; 6. Japanese victories and disappointments: December 1941 to August 1942 ; 7. The end of German expansion: the Atlantic, North Africa, and Russia, 1942-1943 ; 8. Anglo-American strategies for victory ; 9. Economies at war ; 10. Strategic bombing ; 11. Morale ; 12. Driving back the Germans: North Africa, Italy, and Russia ; 13. D-Day and victory in Europe ; 14. The defeat of Japan and the atom bomb ; 15. From war to peace: Anglo-American relations ; 16. From alliance to Cold War: the Soviet Union and the West ; 17. The impact of war: the murder of the European Jews ; 18. The impact of war: casualties, crisis, and change ; Note on quotations ; Book list ; Index

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Book SynopsisHistories you can trust.World War Two was the most devastating conflict in recorded human history. It was both global in extent and total in character. It has understandably left a long and dark shadow across the decades. Yet it is three generations since hostilities formally ended in 1945 and the conflict is now a lived memory for only a few. And this growing distance in time has allowed historians to think differently about how to describe it, how to explain its course, and what subjects to focus on when considering the wartime experience.For instance, as World War Two recedes ever further into the past, even a question as apparently basic as when it began and ended becomes less certain. Was it 1939, when the war in Europe began? Or the summer of 1941, with the beginning of Hitler''s war against the Soviet Union? Or did it become truly global only when the Japanese brought the USA into the war at the end of 1941? And what of the long conflict in East Asia, beginning with the Japanese aggression in China in the early 1930s and only ending with the triumph of the Chinese Communists in 1949?In The Oxford History of World War Two a team of leading historians re-assesses the conflict for a new generation, exploring the course of the war not just in terms of the Allied response but also from the viewpoint of the Axis aggressor states. Under Richard Overy''s expert editorial guidance, the contributions take us from the genesis of war, through the action in the major theatres of conflict by land, sea, and air, to assessments of fighting power and military and technical innovation, the economics of total war, the culture and propaganda of war, and the experience of war (and genocide) for both combatants and civilians, concluding with an account of the transition from World War to Cold War in the late 1940s. Together, they provide a stimulating and thought-provoking new interpretation of one of the most terrible and fascinating episodes in world history.Trade Review... The Oxford History of World War Two is a thoughtful and thought-provoking volume, which succeeds very well in bringing at least a taste of the wealth of current Second World War scholarship to a wider audience. There is much here to admire; not least the erudition of the contributors ... an excellent, concise and enlightening volume. As such, it is a worth addition to the library of every student and every scholar of the conflict. * Roger Moorhouse, History Today *A stimulating and thought-provoking new interpretation of one of the most terrible episodes in world history. * Military History *The Oxford History of World War II is an exemplary book that... provides an insightful and in-depth analysis of the war from both sides, * Ireland's Eye *Compelling in its narrative, fascinating in its detail, magisterial in its analysis, global in its breadth, Richard Overy, one of our outstanding scholars of mid-20th Century history, here delivers a military, political and economic history of WW2, aided by a galaxy of distinguished scholars, that is essential, accessible reading for general readers as well as students. * Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar *Incisive essays by leading scholars..., make this an ideal introduction to the defining conflict of the twentieth century - from which our contemporary world still struggles to recover. * David Reynolds, University of Cambridge, and author of In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War *A welcome and most useful addition to the historical literature ... I recommend this book to anyone interested in the war. * Paul Kennedy, Yale University, and author of Engineers of Victory and The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers *combines a breadth and depth not seen in much military history writing. The skillful analysis of each chapter does not sacrifice narrative ability to address topics ranging from the German, Italian, and Japanese conduct of the land, sea, and air wars to the political intricacies of the Grand Alliance, scientific innovation, and the cultural history of the war ... Astounding. * M. A. Mengerink, CHOICE *Table of Contents1: Patricia Clavin: The Genesis of World War 2: Steven Lee: Japan's War in Asia 3: Nicola Labanca: The Italian Wars 4: Richard Overy: The German Wars 5: Eric Grove: The West and the War at Sea 6: Evan Mawdsley: The Allies from Defeat to Victory 7: David French: Fighting Power: World War and Military Innovation 8: Richard Overy: Economies in Total War 9: Michael Snape: Front Line I: Armed Forces at War 10: Richard Overy: Front Line II: Civilians at War 11: Richard Bessel: Unnatural Deaths 12: David Edgerton: War, Invention, and Experts 13: David Welch: The Culture of War: Propaganda, Arts and Ideas 14: Geoffrey Roberts: From World War to Cold War

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Book SynopsisHistories you can trust.At age thirty in 1919, Adolf Hitler had no accomplishments. He was a rootless loner, a corporal in a shattered army, without money or prospects. A little more than twenty years later, in autumn 1941, he directed his dynamic forces against the Soviet Union, and in December, the Germans were at the gates of Moscow and Leningrad. At that moment, Hitler appeared however briefly to be the most powerful ruler on the planet. Given this dramatic turn of events, it is little wonder that since 1945 generations of historians keep trying to explain how it all happened.This rich history provides a readable and fresh approach to the complex history of the Third Reich, from the coming to power of the Nazis in 1933 to the final collapse in 1945, distilling our ideas about the period and providing a balanced and accessible account of the whole era.Trade ReviewHaving assembled an impressive group of experts, the volume proceeds thematically to address almost every aspect of the Third Reich. All ten chapters are well informed by contemporary scholarship but accessible to a lay audience. Politics, culture, war, society, and economy all receive their due. * Robert Dassanowsky, Journal of Modern History *While focusing on various aspects of the Nazi years, all the writers effectively highlight the brutality of the regime toward its internal and external enemies. For a reader who wishes to choose one source to learn about the Third Reich this book is a good choice. * Paul Bookbinder, European History Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: Matthew Stibbe: The Weimar Republic and the Rise of National Socialism 2: Hermann Beck: The Nazi 'Seizure of Power' 3: Hedwig Richter and Ralph Jessen: Elections, Plebiscites, and Festivals 4: Jonathan Petropoulos: Architecture and the Arts 5: David F. Crew: Photography and Cinema 6: Peter Hayes: The Economy 7: Omer Bartov: The Holocaust 8: Dieter Pohl: War and Empire 9: Julia S. Torrie: The Home Front 10: Robert Gellately: Decline and Collapse Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisThe remarkable story of Mohammed Helmy, the Egyptian doctor who risked his life to save Jewish Berliners from the Nazis. One of the people he saved was a Jewish girl called Anna. This book tells their story.Trade ReviewThis meticulous account of the Arab doctor who sheltered a Jewish girl in 1930s Berlin is a remarkable story of subterfuge and courage. [...]Steinkes history sheds a light on what he argues is a deliberately forgotten world, the old Arabic Berlin of the Weimar period, which was open, progressive and far from antisemitic and which welcomed Jewish luminaries, including Albert Einstein and philosopher Martin Buber. * Tim Adams, Book of the Week, The Observer *Anna and Dr Helmy is the thrilling and, at times, heart-stopping account of a remarkable but largely unknown story of bravery and bluffing. * Robert Philpot, Times of Israel *Table of Contents1: Middle Eastern Berlin 2: The Home Visit 3: A Scent of Tea 4: 'Of Related Blood' 5: A Fool's License 6: A Step Too Far 7: Going Underground 8: A Daring Plan 9: Hidden in Plain Sight 10: In the Lion's Den 11: An Overnight Conversion 12: A Paper Marriage 13: The Gestapo Closes In 14: The Final Lie 15: Visit to Cairo Biographies Timeline Index

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