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Customer Reviews (3)

An ecellent boook
This is an excellent history of modern Germany.The information is well organized and easy to follow. Hajo Holborn explains the balance of power in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the economic state of Germany during various periods, and includes maps to show how far the Empire extended during various periods. As a graduate student of German literature, I was looking for background knowledge in German history from an English source, and this book provided that.I will certainly purchase more books from the series.

Excellent Series on Modern German History
Professor Holborn's masterful trilogy of Germany history begins with the Reformation and ends with Hitler's defeat in 1945. There are no footnotes, endnotes, or even a bibliography as Holborn writes in the style of a nineteenth century historian drawing upon his "life time of learning". Holborn covers every major event in modern Germany history from the Reformation to German unification.

Holborn also gives interesting and detailed descriptions of major political and military figures. The sections on Bismarck, Gustav Stresemann, and General von Schlieffen are particularly fascinating. Holborn's commentary on who caused World War I and the effects of the German railroad system on the national character are excellent as well. Purchasing the series is highly recommended as Holborn makes reference to prior books of the series. If you are looking for a one-volume history of Germany from 1866-1945 Gordon A. Craig's "Germany, 1866-1945" is highly recommended.

The Most Comprehensive German History Trilogy
I saw Mr. Holborn's books on the shelf in a bookstore almost two years ago and I purchased Part III (1840-1945).After I completed that, I immediately went back for the other two, working my way backward.Thisseries has a great deal of valuable information on German social, cultural,economic, political and military history from Roman times through theReformation, the Thirty Years War, Austro-Prussian rivalry from 1704-1866for German hegemony, the Napoleonic era and the wars of the FrenchRevolution, the Holy Alliance and the failure of the Frankfurt Assembly,the policies of Bismarck and the forging of the Second Reich in 1871 aftervictories in wars against Denmark, Austria and France and the constitutionof the German Empire.Holborn also delves deeply into the period between1871 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, placing blamesquarely on German shoulders where applicable.The postwar era and theNazi rise to power in 1933 are studied deeply and critically, as is WorldWar II and its immediate outcome.If you only buy one German historyseries, this is the one to get. ... Read more

Product Description
Between 1933 and 1945 the Nazi regime in Germany tried to restructure a "class" society along racial lines. This book deals with the ideas and institutions that underpinned this mission, and shows how Nazi policy affected various groups of people, both victims and beneficiaries. The book begins with a serious discussion of the origins of Nazi racial ideology, and then demonstrates the way in which this was translated into official policy.It deals with the systematic persecution not only of the Jews, but also with the fate of lesser-known groups such as Sinti and Roma, the mentally handicapped, the "asocial," and homosexuals. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Useful, enlightening text
This insightful text takes several perspectives in analysing the radical social engineering project known as National Socialism. Although not all of the Nazis' victims were racial 'undesirables,' all came under the boot in one way or another as a way of advancing that racial project. Wippermann and Burleigh have done an impressive job in exploring this theme, approaching it from Nazi policy to broad implementation, as well as looking at the refashioning of society by segments along Nazi lines.

The concept of the untranslatable _Volksgemeinschaft_ can be somewhat difficult to convey to students in our atomised and pluralised culture. Not only does this text provide "thick description" of this social construct, but it also supplies a useful framework for comparative analysis without resorting to useless relativising and hierarchising of suffering. Highly recommended as a classroom text for undergraduate level and above.

Only in Germany?
This is an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone interested in the institutionalization of National Socialist racialism. However, I must disagree that Germany was unique in this.One has only to look around to see that the United States is pursuing similar social policies under the guise of "fairness" or "tolerance" as are all the Western democracies--which should tell you something about democracy.

Excellent book to help one understand how this happened.
Many Americans can't understand how Germany developed a racial state in the midst of modernism. This book gives vivid insight into the mechanisms & development of fascism. The National Socialist Party didn't justhappen. The machinery of the state developed under the right conditionswith the help of many non-military individuals, including both professors& doctors.

Not only is this book interesting for its historicalinformation, reading it enlightens the reader to more recent fascistdevelopment. After reading this book, you will never say it can't happenhere.

Extremely Informative and Interesting
Techinically I was forced to read this book for a history cause I'm taking.However, instead of reading all the other source too, I read the whole thing instead of just the assignments for this book.If you have anyinterest in the Holocaust, this book is a must.The integration ofdocuments and survivor's account gives the information alot of differentperspective that really helps to better understand a situation that is sounimanigable. ... Read more

Product Description
This important contribution to the successful textbook series New Approaches to European History explores the comprehensive impact of the First World War on Imperial Germany. It examines military aspects of the conflict, as well as the diplomacy, government, politics, and industrial mobilization of wartime Germany. Unlike other existing surveys, however, Roger Chickering also offers a rich portrait of life on the home front: the pervasive effects of 'total war' on wealthy and poor, men and women, young and old, farmers and city-dwellers, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. This excellent, well-illustrated study of the military, political and socio-economic effects of the First World War is essential reading for all students of German and European history, as well as for those interested in the history of war and society. Now appearing in a second edition, this accessible book reflects important new scholarship in the field and boasts an expanded and revised bibliography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Imperial Germany and the Great War
I bought this book on the strength of a review in History Today, in order to prepare a unit of work for a course I hadn't taught for 20 years. The book has got three advantages: it gives a very useful bibliographical appendix (good for those who are 20 years behind); it is full of interesting information (the bits about agriculture, the Hamsterfahrten and the 1915 Schweinmord stick in the mind); and - coming from the previous point, it is just a bloody good read. This is great, comprehensive, open-minded history. Three months ago I had grave doubts about embarking on German history again; now I'm all for it.

Social and economic history--not military history
Admittedly, I purchased this book not realizing that it doesn't focus much on military matters, but on economic and social elements of the German home front during WWI.Military developments are covered only broadly.And there is no dramatic narrative here: it reads more like a textbook, containing charts, graphs and statistics showing different characteristics of Imperial German society during WWI.

But Chickering's book is not without value to the reader whose primary interest is military history.There are decent maps that give overviews of the major operations of the war, and there is a very useful section in the back under "Military Affairs" in "suggestions for further reading."

Also, congrats to the author for sidestepping the issue of what he calls
"the place of Imperial Germany in the incubation of National Socialism," and instead focusing throughout upon "the death of Imperial Germany at war."He successfully sticks to this theme and gives us a close up look at the deterioration of Imperial German society and the descent into constitutional crisis culminating in the abdication of the Hohenzollerns.

Very good book
This book combines a look at the WW I battlefield with events on the German homefront very well. Chickering focuses on the homefront and details very well the reaction to mobilization and the events of the war, as well as the defeat. One of the best chapters of the book is on the myth of the stab in the back. This book really is a necessary read if one also wants to understand the "other half" of the European Civil War, WW II.

Central Powers
As a self taught historian of The Great War, I think this book is excellent.

A Model of Its Kind
Imperial Germany and the Great War is a masterful combination of the political, social, and cultural history of the war with the relevant military events. Iknow of no single book that covers so much territory in so little space. Anyone interested in the what was going on behind the lines will find the answers here! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (15)

The untold story !
I had just finished reading two books The Germans in Normandy, and the Bitter Road to Freedom, a new history of the Liberation of Europe. I thought After the Reich would be a good follow up to find out the rest of the story. The book did not disappoint me. I took the book with me during a recent vacation and thought that I might be better served reading a historical fiction or more contemporary novel. The book exceeded my expectations ! At times, it was a bit academic and presumed a previous knowledge of history, geography, art, literature, etc which only sharpened my desire to learn more. I found the antecedote comments of the author and the quotes and comments of persons who had real life experiences during the period to be enlightening. The author skillfully tied the events and circumstances to the people that lived them. I felt as if I was reading a first person history of people who had witnessed the times and events. There were so many facts that were presented which were outside of the information normally contained in history books that I was shocked and unaware of what had occurred during the period of occupation. I was assigned to an Army Military, counter intelligence unit, in Germany in 1963 as a young draftee and was surprised that there were still DP's in Germany at that time. This book helped portray how significant the Displaced Person issue was after the war and what a colossal task the Allies had ahead of them to sort out the damage to persons and property. I believe the author was honest and straighforward, without sugar coating, the roles of the various participants responsible for the occupation of Germany. I wondered, as I read the book, how I would have personally dealt with the events if I had been a US soldier as part of the occupation. It certainly was a moral and ethical gut check ! I highly recommend the book. The next time that I visit Germany, I will have a better appreciation and different perspective of the history that has occurred over the past years.

Interesting subject, sloppy (and bad) book
I read this whole book in two days, not because it was interesting but because I wanted to finish it as quickly as possible.

Where to begin? This is arguably the worst history book I've read since Pat Buchanan's idiotic Hitler apologia. You have a really interesting subject - Allied atrocities in post-WWII Germany and Austria - that isn't often talked about in this part of the world, and it's impossible to argue parts of it aren't disquieting and perversely fascinating. You also have an author who, in fairness, doesn't use such atrocities to excuse Nazism or cast aspersions on the Allied war effort, which is nice in a world of Pat Buchanans and David Irvings. So what went wrong?

Basically, Giles MacDonogh can't write worth a damn.

This has to be the worst-organized book I've ever read. For 546 interminable pages, MacDonogh heaps on atrocity story after atrocity story in an endless litany of suffering, the Martin Gilbert approach without his skill, modulation or drive. There are no meaningful connections between chapters: aside from political and military bigwigs few characters carry over from one page to the next, let alone chapters or sections, and most are dispensed with soon as the tale of their rape or imprisonment is duly noted. Grisly things just happen and we're expected to care. I can't think of a word that properly conveys its sloppiness and incoherence.

The additional problem with the "litany of horrors" approach is that it's counterproductive. First, it desensitizes the reader through sheer volume of crimes: after reading 200 accounts of mass rape, murder and theft you don't really care about the next 9,000. Secondly, it gives equal weight to events that are, on no conceivable moral scale, equivalent. A French guard stealing a POW's fountain pen, and an American GI exchanging cross words with a German boy, are given as much space as mass rapes or the massacre of Dachau guards. Please.

Even worse, chronology is an alien concept to this book. To begin, MacDonogh dumps us in the middle of Vienna during its liberation, giving us a litany of rapes and looting incidents perpetrated by the Soviets. Then we jump around different parts of the Reich, going back and forth in time willy-nilly, with breathtaking, unaccountable randomness. One has to have a detailed knowledge of German and Eastern European geography just to follow along and it's little help when the dates are constantly shifting. Even worse, there's no order whatsoever to the way information's presented; even the geographical organization gives out after awhile and it's just random crimes and atrocities committed at different times by different people in different places, without any coherence or sequence.

And then after finally getting through the endless accounts of German suffering, the first year or two of occupation and the Nuremburg Trials... we then return to Potsdam and the start of the Cold War, with an account of the winter of '46 and the attendant suffering... Excuse me?

If a book was ever in need of an editor, it's this one. Even shuffling some of the chapters around, or slightly editing certain sections would improve it a good deal.

It's hard to argue with a lot of what MacDonogh says. In fairness, I praise him for presenting some disturbing facts that are little-known to American and British readers. Most people know about the occasional revenge killings of prison camp guards, but few know that many of the camps continued operating under Allied auspices (with German POWs in the role of the Jews) after the war. The accounts of ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe are a high-point of the book: McDonogh does here provide a context for these actions without condoning them. He also makes a surprisingly-convincing case that the Nuremburg Trials were illegal and nothing more than winner's justice. There is a lot of interesting and thought-provoking material in this book, that a better author could have brought out a lot more clearly and forcefully.

But in other cases, McDonogh fails to sell his argument. For the most obvious example: he argues in a lengthy chapter that the Allies deliberately starved Germany as a whole after the war. Not only does he fail to make a convincing argument for this claim, he cuts out the context completely. When Britain, France, Russia and even the US were themselves rationing food, supplies and raw materials during the war, how could one expect them to adequately supply the Germans? This isn't a question McDonogh even tries to address, and the complete lack of context undermines his entire argument and wastes my time.

And no, Mr. MacDonogh, occasional non-sequitir jokes about Colonel Sanders and the Jolly Green Giant (seriously) do not make up for the deficiencies in the structure, analysis or competence of your book.

There's also a lot of clunky prose and juvenile sentence structure but I don't feel like beating a dead horse.

Did I adequately convey how much I hate this book? Mr. McDonogh should stick to writing about wine and leave history to the professionals.

Very interesting book! Too bad Mr. MacDonough couldn't afford an editor!
The book itself tells the tale of what happened in Europe after the end of the war. But, it does so poorly.
There are many badly written passages, and it does not seem as though anyone proof read it. Ideas hinted at but not followed up upon, wildly out of place colons, people and concepts discussed before they're introduced (and then introduced as though we're meeting them for the first time), no attempt to identify who/what is the subject of sentences and paragraphs, contradictory statements made one after another without any clarifying follow-up. Also, an often painful amount of detail is given about the doings of players in German politics and arts without context of why they are important, or why person X standing in for person Y so many times is relevant or meaningful. We are introduced early to the 'economist' Eugen Margaretha, but only learn 250 pages later that he will later become president of the National Bank. It gets ridiculous.
The worst failure to follow-up on a thought occurred in the chapter relating to how the German populations were treated in Czechoslovakia. He begins the chapter with a quote about how brutal the Czechs were to the Germans despite the fact that while theyoccupied by them the Czechs never offered any resistance. One would assume he would return to this concept as it is a provocative quote, and appears to be leading to a compelling and interesting profile in national psychology. As it turns out, the opening quote is just a tease; what follows is simply a litany of horrors meted out to the German/German speaking populations without any attempt at all to fill in the hows, the whys or what-fors. He could have done better.

Also, Mr. MacDonough's attempts to appear equitable and even-handed when talking about the crimes of Russian and Western soldiers is laughable. Yes, rapes happened in territories held by the British, French and Americans. Yes, the occupied people were treated with less dignity than they would have liked, and things did get stolen. But, putting these facts forward after endless passages on how the Russian's raped, pillaged, starved and executed their way through their conquered territories as if to show that all the armies were alike struck me as pathetically PC. Trying to make the wholesale gang-rape of entire village populations between the ages of 8 and 80 to the point that many died in the process parallel to 'some rapes were reported' is simply asinine.(And speaking in my own pathetically PC voice, a reader could be excused for believing that all slips in discipline by the French were attributable solely to the African contingents in that army. Mr. MacDonough also seems to have something of a fetish for black American soldiers, as references to them are thrown in nilly-willy).

Regardless, worth a read if you're keen on learning more about a critically important yet oft ignored era. If you appreciate good writing prepared to be frustrated, annoyed and occasionally angry. If you're only looking for a list of bad things that happened along with some tut-tutting about mistakes that were made by the allies, then this is the book for you.

THE OTHER SIDE HEARD
TO A HISTORY BUFF, THIS BOOK IS INFORMATIVE IN THAT THE GERMANS (WOMEN AND CHILDREN) ALSO SUFFERED HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCES AT THE END OF THE WAR.WOE TO THE VANQUISHED.IN WAR THERE ARE NEITHER VICTORS NOR VANQUISHED, ONLY VICTEMS.

Important Historical Book Badly Written by a Terrible Author!
Where do I start? I read all the reviews but still purchased the book as it promised fresh information on what I think is an important subject.It took a lot but I persevered with the book, finishing reading page 473 out of the 546 pages total. If a qualified author such as Anthony Beevor used the information in this book to write on the subject it would be a best seller.As it is the writing drifts from highly detailed (boring) minutiae to some interesting facts. The actual information in the book could have been covered in half the amount of pages but the author insisted in dragging it out. Also if the author wishes to use any reference to a language other than English in this book he should ensure the meaning of the word follows it. An example as follows: 'Many of these senior officers were demontageniki - keener on using their lorries and railway trucks to ship out.....'. I really don't need to be googling every few pages on what a word means. And as an example when I did google that word the only reference was this book! From a historical perspective the information is important for all historians interested in the Third Reich, but this is not the way to savor such information. As much as I treasure books, when this review is finished I will be throwing my copy of the book in the trash. No one should have to punish themselves as I did in reading this poor excuse for a history lesson. ... Read more

Product Description
The history of National Socialism as a movement and a regime remains one of the most compelling and intensively studied aspects of twentieth-century history, one whose significance extends far beyond Germany or even Europe. Featuring ten chapters by leading international experts, this volume presents an up-to-date and authoritative introduction to the history of Nazi Germany.
Opening with an introduction delineating the challenges this period of history has posed to historians since 1945, Nazi Germany continues on with chapters that explain how Nazism emerged as an ideology and a political movement; how Hitler and his party took power and remade the German state; and how the Nazi "national community" was organized around a radical and eventually lethal distinction between the "included" and the "excluded." Later chapters discuss the complex relationship between Nazism and Germany's religious faiths; the perverse economic rationality of the regime; the path to war laid down by Hitler's foreign policy; and the intricate and intimate intertwining of war and genocide. The volume concludes with a final chapter on the aftermath of National Socialism in postwar German history and memory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Effective introduction and survey of a complex period

Highly effective anthology, collects a lot of great specific insights and methodological approaches. There are two pieces that wander a bit and are weaker with credibility of their main arguments, but out of ten that leaves a strong ratio. Very effective as an intro to studying different facets of Nazi Germany, or as a primer on some of the more effective recent scholarship. Also contains a nice bibliography and references for further reading. One of the best intros I've seen for students of Nazi Germany, capturing the different facets and major historiographical debates well. Also not a bad choice for a specialist that wants to keep appraised of some potent recent articles in their field.

Similar to and better than: When Biology Became Destiny, ed. Renate Bridenthal
Similar to and worse than: Germany's Colonial Pasts, ed. Eric Ame ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Typical British arrogance
This book is a collection of typical British stereotypes of Germany and Germans.The author writes about topics that he doesn't understand, and then derides the historical events that he finds ridiculous. He is skilled at inventing rationales for how Nazi themes were natural results of German character flaws. The book is humorous if you never get tired of old jokes about sausages and oompah bands.

Wandering Through German History
This is not a straight line recitation of history. Rather, the author takes freqent digressions and turns but for the most part they add to the interest of the book. I doubt it will ever be cited in serious history books but it is an interesting read.

A Labor of Love, but Falls Far Short
This is my review published in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Germania
In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History
By Simon Winder
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 454 pages; $25)

At first glance one assumes that Simon Winder has in mind with "Germania" something like an updating of the late great Gordon Craig of Stanford's "The Germans," a classic study by the onetime dean of American historians of Germany. Actually, not at all.

Winder, who "works in publishing" in Britain, may in one sense have set off, as the subtitle says, "In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History," but not in any sense you'd think. For example, as he mentions several times, self-floggingly, he does not actually speak German.

That is, even after many dozens of trips to Germany over the years, he seems to have no ability to carry on any kind of conversation. To call this bizarre would be an understatement. And it's not as if Winder tries to make up for this lack by treading softly. He mocks Germans regularly, puckishly and pedantically. I laughed hardest when he referred to "horror at German food," as if the Brits could possibly cop an attitude in this area. Is the man insane? Compare a banger (blah!) with a Nurnberger bratwurst (excellent!).

It was only as I made it several hundred pages into Winder's alternately intriguing and wearying descriptions of many centuries of German history, as revealed through trips to small-town museums and schlosses, that I finally understood: Winder has been a Germany obsessive for years and makes the offensive put-downs in proactive self-defense, given the vitriolic anti-German sentiment that to this day maintains a robust following in Britain.

So maybe only then can Winder offer such arresting thoughts as his suggestion that the world would have been better off if his country had never gotten involved in the First World War.

"If Britain had been neutral in 1914 it is hard to see how Germany could not have won the war in a fairly conventional way in a couple of years, thereby sparing the unlimited disasters that followed," he writes. "After all, in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War almost everyone just got on with their lives, buying stuff and having families - and a Europe dominated by the Germany of 1914 would have been infinitely preferable to a Europe dominated by the Germany of 1939."

He has a point. No botched peace, no Third Reich. Still, it takes an original - and brave - thinker to write that kind of thing down. (He says early on that he's happy "not to be a professional historian.") Given the continuing glee with which the British press often resorts to hate-mongering against Germans, even at a time when, according to Gallup, Germans are Americans' favorite non-English-speaking foreigners, it's a nice change of pace to get a whiff of Winder's highly unusual honesty.

"The Germans saw themselves in the Great War as sitting at the heart of European heritage, fighting against a bunch of vulgar materialists (the British), pants-down revanchists (the French) and drunken savages (the Russians)," he writes. "Until 1914 most British intellectuals would have denied being vulgar materialists, but would have been happy to agree with the descriptions of their new allies and have conceded Germany's central place in European culture.

"In 1914 this was knocked on the head with an immediate campaign across British universities to expunge 'German' thinking and block out any sense at all of Germany as a major culture, except perhaps in the far-distant past. It became, for obvious reasons, suspect to have any interest in Germany at all."

The book spans many centuries, but wisely chooses to break off as Hitler seizes power in 1933. Winder can be too long-winded and vapid, as when he adopts a gee-whiz tone in remarking that in many European countries, the south is warmer than in the north, with the corresponding differences you'd expect. But Winder has real passion for his subject and a nutty flair for the original, and, best of all, he finds marzipan absolutely revolting.

Steve Kettmann, a former Chronicle reporter, lives in Berlin and writes a weekly column on politics for the Berliner Zeitung. E-mail him at books@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page F - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[...]

A History Written in Marzipan
Germania is not a conventional history book narrating the story of Germany. Instead, it relates the impressions the surviving physical traces of Germany's pre-twentieth century history--castles, cathedrals, market squares, monuments to the Napoleonic Wars, miniature portraits of rulers carved in apricot pits--make upon a non-German. Thus, that Simon Winder is not German is not somehow a problem of his book Germania. Instead, it is rather the point of it.

It is Winder's own outsider status that makes his interpretations of German history so interesting to those of us who approach that history as something other than our own. I have read quite informative histories of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire--I heartily recommend for instance Holborn's three volume History of Modern Germany--that do not present as vivid a portrait of the place, the people, and their culture as does Winder's Germania, precisely because Winder sets out explicitly to explain this rich, complex, and sometimes tragic nation to the rest of us using his own experiences.

Thus Germania is an excellent book for those people like me who have read the history but still do not think they have grasped the essence of this fascinating place. Or for people who want to learn history without bothering with the pretensions of contemporary academic historians. Or for people who are curious about finding out about German history apart from its role in the World Wars and the Holocaust. Or for people who want to understand how this earlier history contributed to that unfortunate role. Or for people who simply delight in well-written travel narratives filled with sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching, but always informative anecdotes.

Germania will make you think, and it will make you laugh out loud. But most of all, it will make you want to book those tickets to Frankfurt.

Wayward
Simon Winder possesses a storehouse of knowledge on the castles, landscape, music, art, museums, nobility, and military history of the landmass taken up by present day Austria and Germany--and uses a shotgun approach in scattering this idiosyncratic knowledge across pages of this text. Mr. Winder's highly personal observations are sometimes useful, many times obscure, funny at times, but when taken as a whole, confusing rather than edifying.

Unfortunately, the complex and lengthy history of Germany and its people does not lend itself to a sustained comical treatment, especially that of an Englishman (who does not speak German) apparently attempting to write nearly every paragraph in a pale imitation of the style favored by the American humorist P. J. O'Rourke. By the middle of this over-the-top book, I was struggling to finish. (I am sure a German would be struggling not to load his Luger and go author hunting.)

As an aside, I have been to Berlin, where I thought the Berlin Cathedral was not, as claimed by Mr. Winder, a "truly awful historicist stoneyard." And, in Vienna, I was once in the area around St. Stephen's, not viewing it then as the author does as "one of those terrible tourist zones."
... Read more

Product Description
This balanced history offers a concise, readable introduction to Nazi Germany. Combining compelling narrative storytelling with analysis, Joseph Bendersky presents an authoritative survey of the major political, economic, and social factors that powered the rise and fall of the Third Reich. His classic treatment provides an invaluable overview of a subject that retains its historical significance and contemporary importance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Concise History of Nazi Germany is a brief fact-filled short history of the Nazi era by
A Concise History of Nazi History by Dr. Joseph W. Bendersky of Virginia Commonwealth University is now in its third edition. The book is a densely paginated 212 page history of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. The book would best serve as a textbook or supplementary reading for a course in Nazi or European history in the 1933-1945
time period.
The book is divided into several parts exploring aspects of the Nazi rule of Germany:
Part One-The author examines the rise and fall of Weimer Germany in the economically and politcally volatile period following German defeat in World War I. Nazism arose out of a philosophy based on social Darwinism, eugenics and hatred of Soviet Communism. Hiter was a German soldier who was fanatical in his hatred of Jews, Communists, intellectuals and big business. Through political acumen Hitler seied power in January 1933 by becoming German Chancellor under the aged President Paul von Hindenburg. Under Article 48 of the Weimer Republic's Constitution he assumed dictatorial power destroying his enemies through concentration camps, murder and propaganda attacks. Nazi Germany was a police state. Millions supported the Nazis and protest was brutally suppressed by the Hitlerites.
Part Two is a good examination of the mechanics of Hitler's seizure of power in 1929-1934. He arose as a political messiah in a Germany suffering through the Great Depression.
Part Three looks at the organization of the Nazi political state and the reign of repression, terror and antisemitism which were hallmarks of the odious Nazi regime.
Part Four looks at the victories of the German armies at the beginning of World War II and the final total defeat at the hands of the Allied powers. The Germans lost over 6.5 people in the war seeing there country devasted.
German citizens had made the horrible mistake of following an evil man Hitler into the jaws of hell. The Nazis murdered over six million of Europe's eleven million Jews wreaking destruction and death across the European continent.
Following each section of the book Professor Bendersky includes a helpful bibliography for those readers who wish to explore in depth a particular aspect of Nazi Germany.
For someone who has read little aboutNazi Germanythis little gem of a book is a mine of information presented in a succinctly readable and understandable style. Recommended! ... Read more

Product Description

This unique contribution to social and urban history describes the struggle of prosperous German bourgeois leaders to bring order to their rapidly growing cities during the tumultuous age of industrial expansion in the decades before World War I. Brian Ladd sets the emerging theory and practice of city planning in the context of debates about the nature of the modern city and the possibility of improving society by regulating its physical environment. In so doing, he reveals the extent to which modern city planning is a product of the aspirations, prejudices, and frustrations of the German burghers who created it.

He sifts through the often contradictory motives underlying public health works (including waterworks, sewers, baths, and parks); plans for streets and squares, especially in new developments; working-class housing, zoning, public transit, and aesthetic concerns. He examines planning as civic boosterism and as social reform, identifying the reformers and describing their role in urban politics and society. His analysis focuses on Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Frankfurt-am-Main, but also pays considerable attention to Berlin and other cities.

This broad-gauged view of an increasingly popular subject will enlighten historians of Germany and of modern Europe, urban historians, city planners, and architectural historians.

Product Description

This concise study of Bismarck's role in the unification and consolidation of modern Germany has been fully updated and expanded in the light of recent research.

Customer Reviews (6)

easier for me to comprehend
my mother-in-laws parents came from Scheslweig-Holstein
she alsway said if it hadn't been for Bismark they wuld have been Danish.
this book and the other one makes it easier for me to finally understand what was going on back then

Good introduction to Imperial German history
Newcomers to the exciting story of Germany's war-driven unification process will find this book extremely useful. It assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader, but gives enough detail to be considered a decent summary of recent historical research. Older hands will admire the sound judgements and the choice of primary sources. This is one of the best in the excellent Seminar Studies series.

Good book about complex subject.
The book is well written and organized. It helps to understand the complexity of German policy of the 2nd part of 19th century with maximal simplicity. But it should not be your first book if you know nothing about Bismark or divided Germany

An interesting study of Bismark's policies
Williamson does a brilliant job of simplifying the complex German policies before World War I.An interesting read for anyone who enjoys history.

Great book
The book gives great examples of bismarks rise to power and how it it effected worl politics. ... Read more

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The definitive work on the subject. It explains the early history of the Nazi Party and how it came into power,how it maintained it's power and how it finally fell. All of this is done from a historian's point of view with neither blame nor apology. Mr. Shirer has no agenda to follow but simply lays out the facts, albeit in a highly readble and interesting way. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich
I purchased this very used 1960 edition, library book marked property of "Most Holy Trinity High School Faculty Library" and also marked "Marianist Library" - such books are usually sold for about 10 Cents at their yard sales - I paid $10.54 including shipping & handling - while Amazon offered to refund the purchase upon receipt of the book I feel that the provider of the book "Good Guy on Long Island" should have provided both a better price and better disclosure.

So, I will continue to purchase from Amazon with caution and NEVER again purchase from the "Good Guy?".

Have not gotten beyond knowing I've been fleeced to pick up the book to read it!

Great History
I have owned this volume since it was originlly published.It has a place of honor in my personal library.My recent purchase was a Christmas gift for an adult son who requested it.This volume, at over 1200 pages, is not for the person with a casual interest in American and World history.For thehistory buff, it is a fascinating tale of how a relatively small group of thugs hijacked a country and, in a few short years, 1933 to 1945, brought that country to ruin.It stands as an important cautionary tale for the United States today as it has to deal with thugocracys around the world.William Shirer was not an academic who researched ancient writings of other authors to produce his book.He was a reporter who lived in Germany after World War I and watched the events unfold from inside the country.The writing is authentic.The tale told is gripping.For the serious history buff, I can only say that it is worth the time to read every page.After you have read it, you will want to pick it up again, from time to time, to remind yourself how important it is to pay attention to what YOUR politicians are doing and to RAISE HELL when they are not truly representing the people.

Frightening Prophecies
I haven't completed this book, yet.However, it is a frightening prophecy of what could happen again and again.Our civilization is still capable of the evil that was perpetrated by the Nazi demons.We have not yet risen above the callousness, cold-heartedness, and demoniacal attitudes that were the hallmark of the Nazi party.Every day, evil men murder hundreds and thousands of innocent people, merely because of race and/or religious convictions.When will we learn from history?

The Perfect History Book
If you want one incredibly well written book that will tell you everything you need to know about Nazi Germany than this is the book for you. I've read several others on this subject and nothing comes close. Don't let the large size fool you because it's so well written the chapters just fly by. This is the definative book on the Third Reich.

Great Read
This is a very imformative book, a hard read because it's so detailed, but very informative. I'm enjoying it, anyone that's a history fan should get this book. ... Read more

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Learn about East Germany with iMinds insightful knowledge series.

In East Germany, it was not uncommon to hear of secret police patrolling the streets dressed as civilians. It was not unusual to find hidden cameras lying in garbage cans. Artistic expression often led to a prison sentence, while learning about the outside world came only through censored films. Though East Germany was also known for its music and athletes, police brutality and economic depression dominated the international news. Fear and scarcity were daily realities for the people of the East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic; and this despite the great cultural achievements of the country and the immense Soviet power behind it.

iMinds brings targeted knowledge to your eReading device with short information segmentsto whet your mental appetite and broaden your mind. ... Read more

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"A well-written, stimulating...piece of scholarship." --German Studies Review.In a major re-evaluation of the cultural, political, and sociological assumptions about the "peculiar" course of modern German history, the authors challenge the widely-held belief that Germany did not have a Western-style bourgeois revolution. Contending that it did indeed experience one, but that this had little to do with the mythical rising of the middle class, the authors provide a new context for viewing the tensions and instability of 19th-and early 20th-century Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Important book...badly written
This book is a very important counter argument to the Sonderweg thesis and should be read by anyone wishing to understand why Germany ended up with a leader like Hitler.
However, while this book is incredibly important it's just unreadable. The authors use evidence and other information from the English and French revolutions to back up their point and sometimes its difficult for the reader to grasp if this book is about Germany or France and England. This book should be classified as one of the "really bad books" that despite being absolutely a wretched read is important for a historian to have on their shelf.

Good Luck
This book was terrible. The writing was simply dreadful and is not conducive to understanding the author's thesis. Good luck to anyone who has to read this for class, you are going to need it. ... Read more

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The German Empire was founded in January 1871 not only on the basis of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's "blood and iron" policy but also with the support of liberal nationalists. Under Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany became the dynamo of Europe. Its economic and military power were pre-eminent; its science and technology, education, and municipal administration were the envy of the world; and its avant-garde artists reflected the ferment in European culture. But Germany also played a decisive role in tipping Europe's fragile balance of power over the brink and into the cataclysm of the First World War, eventually leading to the empire's collapse in military defeat and revolution in November 1918.

With contributions from an international team of twelve experts in the field, this volume offers an ideal introduction to this crucial era, taking care to situate Imperial Germany in the larger sweep of modern German history, without suggesting that Nazism or the Holocaust were inevitable endpoints to the developments charted here. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Excellent Overview
This book was required reading for my class in Modern Germany, taught by Professor Judson at Swarthmore College. The text, a compilation of several essays written by established scholars of German history, is an excellent overview into the political, social, and intellectual history of Germany from its unification under Bismarck in 1871 to its defeat in the First World War in 1918. The authors of the text write in a clear and organized manner, and although the text is scholarly, it is reasonably comprehensible. The book is not meant to be a comprehensive history of German history--it is appropriate called a 'Short History,' and my professor incorporated many supplementary readings into the course readings. It's really sort of a sampling--each chapter covers a different aspect of German history, each written by a different scholar with his/her own point of view. Some chapters include very fascinating tidbits, like the outburst of clubs and associations founded near the end of the 19th century. The book also stresses certain themes of German history, including Germany's policies towards its neighbors, the problems of organizing people who came from so many different regions and lumping them all into 'Germany,' and the conflicts of Germany's political parties. For the undergraduate enrolled in a course on German history from 1871-1918, the text should be valuable. ... Read more

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In this innovative new study, Patrick Geary rejects traditional conceptions of European history to present the Merovingian period (ca. 400-750) as an integral part of Late Antiquity.Mapping the complex interactions of a volatile era, he formulates an original interpretation not only of Merovingian history but of the Romano-barbarian world, tracing the Romanization of barbarians and the barbarization of the Romans which ultimately made these populations indistinguishable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Great!
As a lay reader, I really enjoyed it. The arguments were nuanced and very well developed

history buff
I thoroughly enjoyed this little book. It has the best synopsis of the decline of the Roman Empre that I have ever read. The author helps us understand how so few Franks could take over such a large part of the Western Empire with so little trouble. The key thought, that the author presents admirably, is that they were essentially already there. They had been handling the Empire's security in the region for a long time. Apparently, some had already settled there, and the Gallo-Roman society had already evolved from the image we have of the Roman Empire. I hope it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that the Gallo-Roman aristocrats decided to pay the Franks directly for security, instead of first paying the Empire, who would then pay, or not pay, the Franks for the same job. One can also get an understanding of how the Merovingian society fragmented under the ambitions of the aristocrats and the Church to form smaller "duchies", and ultimately countries. I must say that my thinking has changed considerably since I first read Edward Gibbon and A.H.M Jones several years ago.

Rich and comprehensive introduction to the period
Text is a dense but engaging and intellectually rewarding survey of the Merovingian world.Concise at 230 pp., you will not be spoon fed sugary pop history, nor however does Geary abandon the reader or fail to anticipate the reader's broader questions.His writing is clear and energetically moves from the late Roman west to the eve of Charlemagne with a lot of gems for further study such as the sub-theme of political power and its employment of religious cult in the period.See in particular the reference to Saint Odilia on p. 177.

Heavy going for a "primer," but excellent work
The author makes the point that the Romans, being completely self-involved, tended to see all the non-Roman world in Roman terms. Thus, the "barbarians" were assumed to be organized in proper tribes and kingdoms. This was mostly okay with the Franks, though, because they wanted to make themselves over in the Roman model anyway. Roman culture (especially its grasp of business and economics) had penetrated deeply into the world outside the empire long before the migration period, and the effect was transformative. Again, this was particular true of the Franks. Geary keeps all this in mind as he explores the origins of the Frankish people, relates the establishment of a settled culture in Gaul beginning in the 6th century, and follows its development, rise, peak, and decline to obsolescence -- at which point the Merovingian descendants of Clovis were adroitly supplanted by what became the Carolingian dynasty. Since this is meant to be a primer on Merovingian history, the book is otherwise a synthesis from earlier sources and includes only a few footnotes and a brief bibliography. There's plenty of interpretative controversy in this field, however, and he picks and chooses elements of his predecessors' work with some care. The author's style is heavily academic and the "beginners" for whom he is writing may actually be graduate students, but he does a very good job of surveying his subject.

A dry account of the Merovingian Dynasty
I was very hopeful when I started reading this, hopeful that I would finally find a book that could shed some light on an area of history shrouded in shadows.I must say that it fulfilled my hopes only partially, leaving me still wanting more on the subject.

The plus is that Geary certainly knows his history and we get a thorough account of the Merovingian dynasty and, later, the onset of the Carolingian dynasty.His knowledge of the period and the ruling aristocracy and how they affected change and policy is very thorough.

The negatives.First is that his account of this important time in European history is very dry with hardly any narrative.Just a little narrative would have injected much needed life into this history book.Second is that at times it seems that Geary is simply listing off names of people and places, which is very hard to keep straight on who they are.Name after name is paraded by and the relevance of who they are is lost in the combination of the dry account and the recital of facts.And finally the book is not chronological.To that I should say that history books don't have to be chronological, and I have read many books that aren't and they were great books.This is not the case here.In one chapter we read about a king, and by the end of the chapter he dies.Then the next chapter and several chapters down the road, this king keeps reappearing not in reference but as the subject.Add this to the other negative points and everything is hard to keep track of.

In regards to the body of the book, the first chapter is a boring read as Geary talks about taxes and burial sites and so on, not adding much to the overall history except as filler.The middle sections of the book are full of facts and if you carefully dissect them you could seemingly form a coherent timeline of events that took place.Finally, the final two chapters are what saved the book as these are the two that were the most coherent and straightforward.They still recited facts but this time there is a narrative added to it that helps explain and illustrate.It is because of these final two chapters that I give this a four star.I would recommend for the amount of facts listed, but I would look elsewhere for a good narrative history of the time period, one that has a little life to it.

3.75 stars.
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The reign of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party was arguably the most horrific episode in world history. This volume examines the emergence of fascism and National Socialism in Germany as well as Hitler's use of propaganda and political maneuvering to seize power. (20020701) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Wow
I wouldn't read this book for enjoyment, but it is one of the most helpful books i ever found on the Nazis and Germany for essays, reports, and regular homework.

A Great Resource
This book is a great resource for students and general readers alike about Hitler and Nazi Germany. The review from Booklist above is correct in stating that the editor effectively "hooks" the reader and then delivers the goods. A must for high school and college courses on the subject. ... Read more

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Circles of Resistance: Jewish, Leftist, and Youth Dissidence in Nazi Germany analyzes resistance networks of young German Jews and other young dissidents during the Nazi dictatorship. Young German-Jewish radicals created an intellectually and politically vibrant subculture in Berlin, the geographical focus of this study. The youths analyzed here were reacting not only to Nazi oppression: they were also driven to develop new modes of action and politics by their estrangement not only from German society, but also from the traditional left parties and their post-1933 underground organizations, and even from large segments of Berlins Jewish community, where radical activism was often regarded as counter-productive and needlessly provocative. At the center of this study are the Herbert Baum groups, led by members of Germanys Communist Party (KPD). While the Baum groups were the largest, they were but one of several resistance operations that were situated partially within the milieu created by Communists, Socialists, Trotskyists, and radical Jewish youths. Based on archival research in Germany, Paris, Amsterdam, and Jerusalem, and interviews with veterans of the anti-Nazi resistance, Circles of Resistance analyzes the overlap of these diverse social and political dimensions among dissident circles and offers a reconsideration of traditional thinking on leftist and Jewish resistance and youth subcultures of the Third Reich. Circles of Resistance will be useful for undergraduate as well as graduate courses on Jewish history, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, as well as courses devoted to the history of European socialism. ... Read more

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The modern Middle East was forged in the crucible of the First World War, but few know the full story of how war actually came to the region. As Sean McMeekin reveals in this startling reinterpretation of the war, it was neither the British nor the French but rather a small clique of Germans and Turks who thrust the Islamic world into the conflict for their own political, economic, and military ends.

The Berlin-Baghdad Express tells the fascinating story of how Germany exploited Ottoman pan-Islamism in order to destroy the British Empire, then the largest Islamic power in the world. Meanwhile the Young Turks harnessed themselves to German military might to avenge Turkey’s hereditary enemy, Russia. Told from the perspective of the key decision-makers on the Turco-German side, many of the most consequential events of World War I—Turkey’s entry into the war, Gallipoli, the Armenian massacres, the Arab revolt, and the Russian Revolution—are illuminated as never before.

Drawing on a wealth of new sources, McMeekin forces us to re-examine Western interference in the Middle East and its lamentable results. It is an epic tragicomedy of unintended consequences, as Turkish nationalists give Russia the war it desperately wants, jihad begets an Islamic insurrection in Mecca, German sabotage plots upend the Tsar delivering Turkey from Russia’s yoke, and German Zionism midwifes the Balfour Declaration. All along, the story is interwoven with the drama surrounding German efforts to complete the Berlin to Baghdad railway, the weapon designed to win the war and assure German hegemony over the Middle East.

Customer Reviews (4)

Disappointing, Derivative and way too political
This was a very disappointing book. In most of its content, the book is derivative of Peter Hopkirk and rather shallow. It does nothing with the history of the conflict and the region that has not already been done better "Like Hidden Fire, Setting the East Ablaze". But the appalling thing about it are its rather blatant modern politics and hostility.

One example: p. 289-90. He lists friendship gestures by the entente countries including French talk of building a mosque to honor the Muslims from their colonies fighting in France, A ceremonial carpet delivered Mecca in honor of the Haj by the French&British and donations by the French to help their north African subjects during the stay in Mecca. He then describes these quite reasonable friendly gestures toward the massive Muslim populations ruled by and fighting for the French British in the following terms: "Not for the last time, Western Infidels singled out by Jihad fetvas as legitimate targets for sectarian murder by Muslims responded by rushing to demonstrate their fidelity to Islam". Its a cheap shot and full of ignorance. And its reflect of a generally hostile attitude by the author toward Islam.Simple gestures of friendship are taken as appeasement and the author doesn't distinguish between muslims fighting for Germany and those who were the subjects of the British/French empires. To him they all too often all the same thing....the enemy.

The author also makes his views rather when he tries to make the Israeli Fascist Vladimir Jabotinsky into a hero without the slightest hints of the views or the controversy surrounding that particular individual. On the same page he sings the praises of that jackbooted thug, he makes a wild accusation that the British were openly assisting the arab riots in Jerusalem in 1920. Sources are not properly presented. Strip-quotes are used to make a flimsy case.

An example of the author's attempts to bias the material is the following: "It was hard to argue with this conclusion, particularly after a military tribunal had acquitted most of the rioters, while sentencing Jabotinsky to fifteen years hard labor for the crime of trying to defend his people from a murderous mob." The author fails most importantly to tell the reader that Jabotinsky was released after a few months. The author also fails to explain that "trying to defend his people from a murderous mob" in fact meant that he was caught gun-running and stockpiling weapons.

The book also goes to great lengths to discredit and downplay the arab revolt. The book always seems to be wanting to break out of the time period its covering and make a political case as regards other events. The usual pattern is that the author presents historical facts following his personal opinions usually reinforced through selective quotations of individuals. Its a really cheap device.

The book's analysis of the Young Turk movement is ill-informed, overly simplistic and tends to make really strong statements with questionable support. He wants to make the Young Turk movement into an unsupported minority political movement whose views were rejected by the Islamic population of the country. To make his rather odd views of the Ottoman government work, he has to completely ignore what came after world war one. In particular the rise of Ataturk. His poor use of Ottoman/Turkish sources is rather unfortunate considering that it is supposed to be his field of study.

Even his presentation of the British perspective is superficial. All too often he makes broad statements based on single quotes of an individual. And he never really contrasts what individuals did against the quotes. A single sentence spoken becomes an explanation of an entire national policy which was the work of many.

As the book goes on, he begins to take the gloves off and make his political attitudes ("Limousine Liberals") extremely clear. But at the end the book he makes the breathtakingly stupid claim that the Kaiser and others "spent their civilization inheritance promoting an atavistic version of pan-Islam devoted to the destruction of that civilization and to the murder of Christians and Jews who had forged it."

And so we get to the real point of the book: A cartoon version of Islam derived from far-right political hysteria pretending to be a history. His use of the words "Nazi-Muslim connection" in the chapter title of the last part of the book says much about the politics behind the work. The author honestly buys into the nonsense that the origins of "radical Islam" of the 9/11 variety are to be found in Nazism.

The book somehow misses the explosion in the islamic world that immediately followed the war. The riots against the British in Egypt, the anti-British insurgency in Iraq, the rise of the Saud & their capture of Mecca. The India-Afghanistan war of 1919. The Turkish-Greek War. The Saudi occupation of Mecca and the implications of the Wahabbi gaining both power and authority within Islam.

In summary, this a derivative book with little new contribution to history and a book full of wild extremist modern political views. The book might have been salvaged with a proper editor to cull the opinions and the politics, but it is what is.I would suggest as an alternative: Setting the East Ablaze and Like Hidden Fire. They are much better books than this and are minus the poisonous modern politics.

Great Book
Although not much is made of the Western Front, much has already been written of it.This is an interesting portrait of an aspect of WWI that receives less popular attention.Also relevant to today's Middle East.

Leave The Trenches!
If your knowledge about World War I is "entrenched" in the Western Front, I recommend that you consider "going over the top" and reading this revelatory tale of Kaiser Wilhelm's bid for world power via an alliance with the Ottoman Sultan.

The title may mislead you. This is less about a railway and more about the failed attempts to accomplish the goals of a strategic alliance between Germany's Kaiser and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The Kaiser wanted to gain world power through: 1. the destruction of the British Empire and 2. the creation of German hegemony over the Middle East. The Ottoman Sultan desperately needed to solidify and expand his crumbling empire. The book shows how they attempted to accomplish these strategic goals and why they failed.

Besides broadly covering the key battles (the Suez Canal, Gallipoli) the author focuses most of his effort on the attempt to implement a pan-Islamic "jihad" across the Middle East. If the latter wasn't such a serious and deadly initiative, McMeekin's story could easily be nominated as a comical example of western buffoonery, naivety, and stupidity.

Also playing an essential element of the strategy was the building of a railway which would connect Berlin to Baghdad. Upon completion, it would have brought vast amounts of sorely needed supplies and ammunition to the Middle East as well as have provide Germany with access to the Persian Gulf via a connection to Basra, thereby bypassing the British-controlled Suez Canal. Although sound in concept, the author notes that its execution was challenging to say the least. In the end, it was bobbled. If it has been finished in 1915 or 1916, instead of August 1918, the author notes that a "decisive blow might well have been struck at the Suez Canal, severing the lifeline of the British Empire and forcing London to sue for a compromise peace-which would surely have seen Germany emerge as the leading power in the Near East."

Also covered in this fascinating read is the stories of the birth of German Zionism, the catastrophe of Gallipoli, the rebellion of the Young Turks, and the "massacre" of Armenians by the Turks. The author closes with a short but insightful epilogue which focuses on post-war events, primarily those involving Israel and the rise of the Nazis.

McMeekin does a good job of providing colorful and insightful illuminations of the German, Ottoman and Arab cast of characters. They include Kaiser Wilhelm II, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Abdullah bin al-Hussein of Mecca, Max von Oppenheim, Curt Prufer, Enver Pasha, Ahmed Riza, Heinrich Meissner, Frederich Kress von Kresserstein, Leo Frobenius, Abdul Hamid, Liman von Sanders, Mustafa Kemal, to mention just a few.

This is a good read, albeit it is also disconcerting given what we now know about the world wars and the current state of affairs in the Middle East.

My recommendation:

You should read this history if you wish to expand your knowledge of this lesser known theater of World War I. It may also be useful to you if you want to improve your appreciation of how conceptually sound goals can be thwarted by faulty execution and the shenanigans of naive, foolish, treacherous and sometimes evil people. As a by-product, it may also improve your understanding of the current state of affairs in this troublesome region.

A railwayto nowhere
One of the most bizzare episodes in modern history was the building of the Berlin-Baghdad railway,whose purpose was to fight and undermine British interests in Asia. This project was completed only in 1940,but its history is full of intrigue and from its inception this project was doomed and has eventually become a farce.
The main protagonists were: Kaiser Wilhelm the Second,who got infatuated with the Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire,and,as a result,supported this project after telling his friends that "if we are to be bled, at least the British shall lose India"; Baron Max von Oppenheim,who hated almost everyone including himself because of his Jewish origins. He was the grandson of a founder of the Oppenheim bank in Germany and shared the Kaiser's dream of dealing a fatal blow to the British Empire. To while away his boring hours,he made sure to possess a harem of Arab women in Egypt.
The third protagonist was Abdul Hamid,the Ottoman paranoid Sultan who dreaded the Young Turks.These three hoped that a jihad would materialize-a jihad that would include tens of millions of Muslims who "would bring the British Empire to its knees"(p.82)In the words of Oppenheim,"let us do all we can to ensure hat this blow wil be a lethal one!"
The first third of the book describes in a very panoramic way the main characters mentioned above,giving the reader much information about their background, motivations and their modi operandi.
The next third discusses the historical context of this project and McMeekin does not spare words in order to put the blame for the failure of it on the West,especially on the British, because they did not offer any substantial support to the Young Turks movement.
The railway was supposed to carry tens of thousands of German troops to Basra in Iraq. Due to the harsh geographical conditions,the project was started only in 1903. In the Taurus range alone,"the mountains could be crossed at a serviceable rail grade through extensive blasting and the excavation of thousands of tons of rock. In the end,some three dozen tunnels were needed,many of them several kilometers in length".(p.44)
Kurds,Bedouin tribes scattered along the Otttoman Empire and the endless conflicts between the Turks and Armenians further hampered this fantasy. Many Germans were recruited in an attempt to launch Islamic risings everywhere. Leo Frobenius was one of them. He was an ethnologist who made up his mind to hurt British interests in the Suez Canal area, which "would sever the shortest supply line to British India for troop ships and merchant convoys,while seriously damaging English prestige in the Orient".(p.144)Despite the massive ammunition and other means supplied to Frobenius and his allies (Arabs and Bedouins),he failed and his ambitions to stir up revolts in the Sudan and Abyssinia were dashed.
Another German agent,Oskar von Niederemayer,an ex-Prussian army officer,got the mission to convince the leader of Afghanistan to lead an attack on British India. Niedermayer was once caught in Romania while posing as a German clown in a circus which was full of spies working for his country and was expelled to his motherland. He,too,failed eventually in his attempts,albeit he managed to recruit the Afghanistan leader to some sort of actionagainst the British by using extensive bribery.
So did many other German agents who were mainly archaeologists working in those parts of the worlds.
McMeekin makes it clear that the project designers failed to see that the hatred and disunity among the various Arabs would not deliver the merchadise. He adds:"Who could have imagined that the Kaiser's pan-Islamic gambit would bring Muslim Central Asia and the Caucasus under the thumbs of the world's first explicitly atheist regime in Moscow,which would prove to be a bitter enemy of Muslims? The German Drang nach Osten proved to be a farce and a tragedy".(pp.338-339)
The last part of the book deals with the Nazi-Muslim connections. Oppenheim, the eccentric German, was given a medal for his services "in the name of the Fuehrerand Reichskanzler in 1937", and he continued to play an essential part in recruiting the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,al-Husseini,in organizing the anti-Semitic pogrom of Jews in Baghdad in 1941,as well as helping him become the spitting image of Aryan brothers.The Muslim voluntary SS battalions in the Balkans were regarded, in Himmler's words,as "among the most honourable and true followers of the Fuerher Adolf Hitler due to their hatred of the common Jewish-English-Bolshevik enemy".(p.362)Many of those Muslim SS men started believing that Hitler was like the Messiah.
The results of this foolish scheme are still felt nowadays in the Middle East,according to the author.
This is a very stimulating and fast-moving book ,with many interesting insights-many of them extremely original. Still,one might ask:why did I not award it five points? Here is the answer:the editing of the book was done in a superficial and perfunctory way, and the adjectives included in each phrase and sentence are repetitive and can exhaust the reader. The word "jihad" seems to be a super favourite and it becomes redundant. This,however,does not diminish from the book's importance and originality of research and the reader will gain new and fresh perspectives about the currentconflict between the Islamic and Western ideologies.
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