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The Liberation of Paris: How Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and von Choltitz Saved the City of Light
Par Jean Edward Smith. 2019
Prize-winning and bestselling historian Jean Edward Smith tells the &“rousing&” (Jay Winik, author of 1944) story of the liberation of…
Paris during World War II—a triumph achieved only through the remarkable efforts of Americans, French, and Germans, racing to save the city from destruction.Following their breakout from Normandy in late June 1944, the Allies swept across northern France in pursuit of the German army. The Allies intended to bypass Paris and cross the Rhine into Germany, ending the war before winter set in. But as they advanced, local forces in Paris began their own liberation, defying the occupying German troops.Charles de Gaulle, the leading figure of the Free French government, urged General Dwight Eisenhower to divert forces to liberate Paris. Eisenhower&’s advisers recommended otherwise, but Ike wanted to help position de Gaulle to lead France after the war. And both men were concerned about partisan conflict in Paris that could leave the communists in control of the city and the national government. Neither man knew that the German commandant, Dietrich von Choltitz, convinced that the war was lost, schemed to surrender the city to the Allies intact, defying Hitler&’s orders to leave it a burning ruin.In The Liberation of Paris, Jean Edward Smith puts &“one of the most moving moments in the history of the Second World War&” (Michael Korda) in context, showing how the decision to free the city came at a heavy price: it slowed the Allied momentum and allowed the Germans to regroup. After the war German generals argued that Eisenhower&’s decision to enter Paris prolonged the war for another six months. Was Paris worth this price? Smith answers this question in a &“brisk new recounting&” that is &“terse, authoritative, [and] unsentimental&” (The Washington Post).The War Below: The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan
Par James Scott. 2013
“Beautifully researched and masterfully told” (Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of Escape from the Deep), this is the…
riveting story of the heroic and tragic US submarine force that helped win World War II in the Pacific.Focusing on the unique stories of three of the war’s top submarines—Silversides, Drum, and Tang—The War Below vividly re-creates the camaraderie, exhilaration, and fear of the brave volunteers who took the fight to the enemy’s coastline in World War II. Award-winning journalist James Scott recounts incredible feats of courage—from an emergency appendectomy performed with kitchen utensils to sailors’ desperate struggle to escape from a flooded submarine—as well as moments of unimaginable tragedy, including an attack on an unmarked enemy freighter carrying 1,800 American prisoners of war.The casualty rate among submariners topped that of all other military branches. The war claimed almost one out of every five submarines, and a submarine crewman was six times more likely to die than a sailor onboard a surface ship. But this valorous service accomplished its mission; Silversides, Drum, and Tang sank a combined sixty-two freighters, tankers, and transports. The Japanese were so ravaged from the loss of precious supplies that by the war’s end, pilots resorted to suicidal kamikaze missions and hungry civilians ate sawdust while warships had to drop anchor due to lack of fuel. In retaliation, the Japanese often beat, tortured, and starved captured submariners in the atrocious prisoner of war camps.Based on more than 100 interviews with submarine veterans and thousands of pages of previously unpublished letters and diaries, The War Below lets readers experience the battle for the Pacific as never before.The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World
Par Kati Marton. 2006
The “intensely gripping story” of John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, Arthur Koestler, and six other world-renowned Hungarian Jews who fled…
the Nazis (The Washington Post Book World).In this book, New York Times–bestselling author Kati Marton tells the stunning tale of nine men who grew up in Budapest’s brief Golden Age, then, driven from Hungary by anti-Semitism, fled to the West, especially to the United States, and changed the world. These nine men, each celebrated for individual achievements, were part of a unique group who grew up in a time and place that will never come again. Four helped usher in the nuclear age and the computer, two were major movie myth-makers, two were immortal photographers, and one was a seminal writer. From a Peabody Award–winning journalist and finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, The Great Escape is a groundbreaking, poignant American story and an important untold chapter of the tumultuous last century.“Describes the crossroads where art and politics meet, the perils of dictatorship and the horrors of war, all of it punctuated by the frantic struggle to create the atomic bomb. . . . Deserves a special place on bookshelves alongside Budapest 1900.” —The New York Times Book Review“By looking at these nine lives—salvaged, and crucial—Marton provides a moving measure of how much was lost.” —The New Yorker“[Marton has] a keen understanding of what it means to leave one’s country behind.” —The Seattle Times“A haunting tale of the wartime Hungarian diaspora. . . . Marton writes beautifully.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Filled with a number of wonderful anecdotes.” —Chicago Sun-Times“An engrossing book.” —Library JournalHouse of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family
Par Hadley Freeman. 2020
Writer Hadley Freeman investigates her family&’s secret history in this &“exceptional&” (The Washington Post) &“masterpiece&” (The Daily Telegraph) uncovering a…
story that spans a century, two World Wars, and three generations.Hadley Freeman knew her grandmother Sara lived in France just as Hitler started to gain power, but rarely did anyone in her family talk about it. Long after her grandmother&’s death, she found a shoebox tucked in the closet containing photographs of her grandmother with a mysterious stranger, a cryptic telegram from the Red Cross, and a drawing signed by Picasso.This discovery sent Freeman on a decade-long quest to uncover the significance of these keepsakes, taking her from Picasso&’s archives in Paris to a secret room in a farmhouse in Auvergne to Long Island to Auschwitz. Freeman pieces together the puzzle of her family&’s past, discovering more about the lives of her grandmother and her three brothers, Jacques, Henri, and Alex. Their stories sometimes typical, sometimes astonishing—reveal the broad range of experiences of Eastern European Jews during the Holocaust.This &“frightening, inspiring, and cautionary&” (Kirkus Reviews) family saga is filled with extraordinary twists, vivid characters, and famous cameos, illuminating the Jewish and immigrant experience in the World War II era. Reviewers have asked: &“is there a better book about being Jewish?&” (The Daily Telegraph) Addressing themes of assimilation, identity, and home, House of Glass is &“a triumph&” (The Bookseller) and a powerful story about the past that echoes issues that remain relevant today.Pegasus Bridge: D-Day -- The Daring British Airborne Raid
Par Stephen E. Ambrose. 1985
In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, a small detachment of British airborne troops stormed the German defense…
forces and paved the way for the Allied invasion of Europe. Pegasus Bridge was the first engagement of D-Day, the turning point of World War II.This gripping account of it by acclaimed author Stephen Ambrose brings to life a daring mission so crucial that, had it been unsuccessful, the entire Normandy invasion might have failed. Ambrose traces each step of the preparations over many months to the minute-by-minute excitement of the hand-to-hand confrontations on the bridge. This is a story of heroism and cowardice, kindness and brutality—the stuff of all great adventures.A History of Ancient Rome in 100 Lives
Par Philip Matyszak, Joanne Berry. 2008
One hundred vivid portraits of real-life characters bring to life the highs and lows of Rome’s dramatic history. A vibrant…
portrait of a lost world, A History of Ancient Rome in 100 Lives reveals the mightiest civilization of antiquity through the eyes of one hundred of its citizens. The book gives a voice not just to Rome’s most famous generals and rulers, such as Caesar and Caligula, but also to its builders, sculptors, poets, historians, gladiators, shepherds, enslaved people, and courtesans. The book begins with Faustulus, the fosterfather of Romulus and Remus, and closes with the final emperor, Romulus Augustulus. The stories of Roman women are given their due as well—from Servilia, Caesar’s lover; to Agrippina, the murderous wife of Claudius; Amazonia, the sword-swinging gladiator; and Hypatia, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. Exploring every level of society and using the latest archaeological evidence as well as ancient texts, the authors build up a picture of what it meant to live in Ancient Rome.The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II
Par Denise Kiernan. 2013
The New York Times bestseller, now available in paperback—an incredible true story of the top-secret World War II town of…
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.“The best kind of nonfiction: marvelously reported, fluidly written, and a remarkable story...As meticulous and brilliant as it is compulsively readable.” —Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second CityAt the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, and consumed more electricity than New York City, yet it was shrouded in such secrecy that it did not appear on any map. Thousands of civilians, many of them young women from small towns across the U.S., were recruited to this secret city, enticed by the promise of solid wages and war-ending work. What were they actually doing there? Very few knew. The purpose of this mysterious government project was kept a secret from the outside world and from the majority of the residents themselves. Some wondered why, despite the constant work and round-the-clock activity in this makeshift town, did no tangible product of any kind ever seem to leave its guarded gates? The women who kept this town running would find out at the end of the war, when Oak Ridge’s secret was revealed and changed the world forever.Drawing from the voices and experiences of the women who lived and worked in Oak Ridge, The Girls of Atomic City rescues a remarkable, forgotten chapter of World War II from obscurity. Denise Kiernan captures the spirit of the times through these women: their pluck, their desire to contribute, and their enduring courage. “A phenomenal story,” and Publishers Weekly called it an “intimate and revealing glimpse into one of the most important scientific developments in history.”“Kiernan has amassed a deep reservoir of intimate details of what life was like for women living in the secret city...Rosie, it turns out, did much more than drive rivets.” —The Washington PostA Companion to Aristophanes (Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World)
Par Matthew C. Farmer, Jeremy B. Lefkowitz. 2024
Provides a comprehensive and systematic treatment of the life and work of Aristophanes A Companion to Aristophanes provides an invaluable…
set of foundational resources for undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars alike. More than a basic reference text, this innovative volume situates each of Aristophanes' surviving plays within discussion of key themes relevant to the study of the Aristophanic corpus. Throughout the Companion, an international panel of contributors incorporates material culture and performance context, offers methodological and theoretical insights into the study of Aristophanes, demonstrates the relevance of Aristophanes to modern life, and more. Each chapter focused on a particular play is paired with a theme that is exemplified by that play, such as gender, sexuality, religion, ritual, and satire. With an emphasis on understanding Greek comedy and its ancient Athenian context, the text includes approaches to Aristophanes through criticism, performance, translation, and teaching to encourage and inform future work on Greek comedy. Illustrating the vitality of contemporary engagement with one of the world's great literary figures, this comprehensive volume: Helps new readers and teachers of Aristophanes appreciate the broader importance of each play within the study of antiquity Offers sophisticated analyses of the Aristophanic corpus and its place in literary and cultural history Includes chapters focused on teaching Aristophanes, including one emphasizing performance Provides detailed syllabi and lesson plans for integrating the material into high school and college curricula A Companion to Aristophanes is an essential resource for advanced students and instructors in Classics, Ancient Literature, Comparative Literature, and Ancient Drama and Theater. It is also a must-have reference for academic scholars, university libraries, non-specialist Classicists and other literary critics researching ancient drama, and sophisticated general readers interested in Aristophanes, Greek drama, classical Athens, or the ancient Mediterranean world.Diocletian and the Roman Recovery (Roman Imperial Biographies)
Par Stephen Williams. 1985
Stephen Williams's book is the first biography of Diocletian to appear in English. It combines the historical narrative of his…
remarkable reign and those of his fellow-emperors, with a chapter-by-chapter study of each of the great problems he faced, the interlocking solutions he evolved to meet them, and the longer term results. It is both a portrait of one of Rome's greatest and most original rulers, and a political study in the emergence of Absolutism. Also includes four maps.Beverly Hills Spy: The Double-Agent War Hero Who Helped Japan Attack Pearl Harbor
Par Ronald Drabkin. 1936
"A beguiling tale of espionage and double-dealing in the years leading up to World War II. ... Strap in for…
a narrative that demands a suspension of disbelief—and richly rewards it." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review); Best Books of February SelectionThe untold story of the World War I hero who became a fixture of high society in Golden Age Hollywood—all while acting as a double agent for the Japanese Empire as it prepared to attack Pearl HarborFrederick Rutland’s story is a rags-to-riches coup for the ages—a lower-class boy from England bootstraps his way up the ranks of the British military, becoming a World War I pilot, father of the modern aircraft carrier, cosmopolitan businessman, and Hollywood A-list insider. He oversaw this small empire from his mansion on the fabled Bird Streets of Beverly Hills. Snubbed for promotion in the Royal Air Force due to little more than jealousy and class politics, Rutland—to all appearances—continued to spin gold from straw, living an enviably lavish lifestyle that included butlers, wild parties, private clubs, and newsworthy living . . .. . . and it was all funded by the Japanese Empire.Beverly Hills Spy reveals the story of Rutland’s life of espionage on behalf of the Axis, selling secrets about fleet and aircraft design to the Japanese Imperial Navy that would be instrumental in its ability to attack Pearl Harbor, while collecting a salary ten times larger than the best-paid Japanese admirals. Based on recently declassified FBI files and until-now untranslated documents from Japanese intelligence, Ronald Drabkin brings the scope of this unforgettable tale into full focus for the first time. Rutland hides in plain sight, rubbing elbows with Amelia Earhart and hosting galas and fundraisers with superstars like Charlie Chaplin and Boris Karloff, while simultaneously passing information to Japan through spy networks across North and Central America. Countless opportunities to catch Rutland in the act are squandered by the FBI, British Intelligence, and US Naval Intelligence alike as he uses his cunning and charm to misdirect and cast shadows of doubt over his business dealings, allowing him to operate largely unfettered for years.In the end, whether he fully intends to or not, Rutland sets in motion world events that are so monumental, their consequences are still being felt today.Beverly Hills Spy is a masterpiece of research on spy craft, a shocking narrative about an unknown but pivotal figure in history, and brings new information to light that helps us understand how Pearl Harbor happened—and how it could have been prevented.The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II
Par Mark Obmascik. 2019
This &“engrossing&” (The Wall Street Journal) national bestseller and true &“heartbreaking tale of tragedy and redemption&” (Hampton Sides, bestselling author…
of Ghost Soldiers) reveals how a discovered diary—found during a brutal World War II battle—changed our war-torn society&’s perceptions of Japan.May 1943. The Battle of Attu—called &“The Forgotten Battle&” by World War II veterans—was raging on the Aleutian island with an Arctic cold, impenetrable fog, and rocketing winds that combined to create some of the worst weather on Earth. Both American and Japanese forces tirelessly fought in a yearlong campaign, with both sides suffering thousands of casualties. Included in this number was a Japanese medic whose war diary would lead a Silver Star–winning American soldier to find solace for his own tortured soul.The doctor&’s name was Paul Nobuo Tatsuguchi, a Hiroshima native who had graduated from college and medical school in California. He loved America, but was called to enlist in the Imperial Army of his native Japan. Heartsick, wary of war, yet devoted to Japan, Tatsuguchi performed his duties and kept a diary of events as they unfolded—never knowing that it would be found by an American soldier named Dick Laird.Laird, a hardy, resilient underground coal miner, enlisted in the US Army to escape the crushing poverty of his native Appalachia. In a devastating mountainside attack in Alaska, Laird was forced to make a fateful decision, one that saved him and his comrades, but haunted him for years.Tatsuguchi&’s diary was later translated and distributed among US soldiers. It showed the common humanity on both sides of the battle. But it also ignited fierce controversy that is still debated today. After forty years, Laird was determined to return it to the family and find peace with Tatsuguchi&’s daughter, Laura Tatsuguchi Davis.Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mark Obmascik &“writes with tremendous grace about a forgotten part of our history, telling the same story from two opposing points of view—perhaps the only way warfare can truly be understood&” (Helen Thorpe, author of Soldier Girls).Meditations
Par Marcus Aurelius. 2002
A powerful and accessible translation of Marcus Aurelius&’s timeless book on character, what it takes to be a good leader,…
and how to live a fulfilling life.Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire at its height, yet he remained untainted by the immense wealth and absolute power that had corrupted many of his predecessors. He knew the secret of how to live the good life amid trying and often catastrophic circumstances, of how to find happiness and peace when surrounded by misery and turmoil, and how to make the right choices—even if they are more difficult—without regard for self-interest. Offering a vivid and fresh translation of this important piece of ancient literature, Meditations brings Marcus&’s inspiring words to life and shows his wisdom to be as relevant today as it was in the second century. This book speaks to the soul of anyone who has ever faced adversity or believed in a better day.Agency and Locality in the London Blitz
Par Darren Bryant. 2024
This book takes a fresh approach to the London Blitz by viewing this time through individual local boroughs of the…
metropolis. The term ‘London Blitz’ means that culturally we have become accustomed to understanding that the actual blitz experience was the same wherever in the capital one happened to be, despite some areas being hit more than others. This book illustrates how there were many London blitzes, not one, influenced by a myriad of metropolitan localities, and giving rise to an agency of locality that helped to shape the lived blitz experience. By walking through the streets of London, this book conducts a local area analysis, witnessing the blitz through six London localities, representative of the assorted administrative, economic, and socio-political variables prevalent in wartime London. Covering air raids alongside topics like the provision of shelters, homelessness, and communal feeding, it shows how any history of the London Blitz must acknowledge that it was an experience reflective of a varied metropolis.Jewish Cattle Traders in the German Countryside, 1919–1939: Economic Trust and Antisemitic Violence
Par Stefanie Fischer. 2024
Jewish Cattle Traders in the German Countryside, 1919–1939, explores the social and economic networks in which this group operated and…
the informal but durable bonds between Jewish cattle traders and farmers that not even incessant Nazi attacks could break.Stefanie Fischer combines approaches from social history, economic history, and sociology to challenge the longstanding cliché of the shady Jewish cattle dealer. By focusing on trust and social connections rather than analyzing economic trends, Fischer exposes the myriad inconsistencies that riddled the process of expelling the Jews from Germany.Jewish Cattle Traders in the German Countryside, 1919–1939, examines the complexities of relations between Jews and non-Jews who were engaged in economic and social exchange. In the process, Fischer challenges previous understandings of everyday life under Nazi rule and discovers new ways in which Jewish agency acted as a critical force throughout the exclusionary processes that took place in Hitler's Germany.The Bitter Road to Freedom: The Human Cost of Allied Victory in World War II Europe
Par William I. Hitchcock. 2009
The Bitter Road to Freedom is a powerful, deeply moving account of an earth-shattering year in the history of the…
U.S. and Europe.Americans are justly proud of the role their country played in liberating Europe from Nazi tyranny. For many years, we have celebrated the courage of Allied soldiers, sailors, and aircrews who defeated Hitler's regime and restored freedom to the continent. But in recounting the heroism of the "greatest generation," Americans often overlook the wartime experiences of European people themselves—the very people for whom the war was fought. In this brilliant new book, historian William I. Hitchcock surveys the European continent from D-Day to the final battles of the war and the first few months of peace. Based on exhaustive research in five nations and dozens of archives, Hitchcock's groundbreaking account shows that the liberation of Europe was both a military triumph and a human tragedy of epic proportions.This strikingly original, multinational history of liberation brings to light the interactions of soldiers and civilians, the experiences of noncombatants, and the trauma of displacement and loss amid unprecedented destruction. This book recounts a surprising story, often jarring and uncomfortable, and one that has never been told with such richness and depth. Ranging from the ferocious battle for Normandy (where as many French civilians died on D-Day as U.S. servicemen) to the plains of Poland, from the icy ravines of the Ardennes to the shattered cities and refugee camps of occupied Germany, The Bitter Road to Freedom depicts in searing detail the shocking price that Europeans paid for their freedom.The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back
Par Shannon McKenna Schmidt. 2023
The first book to tell the full story of Eleanor Roosevelt's unprecedented and courageous trip to the Pacific Theater during…
World War II.On August 27, 1943, news broke in the United States that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was on the other side of the world. A closely guarded secret, she had left San Francisco aboard a military transport plane headed for the South Pacific to support and report the troops on WW2's front lines. Americans had believed she was secluded at home.As Allied forces battled the Japanese for control of the region, Eleanor was there on the frontlines, spending five weeks traveling, on a mission as First Lady of the United States to experience what our servicemen were experiencing... and report back home."The most remarkable journey any president's wife has ever made."—Washington Times-Herald, September 28, 1943"Mrs. Roosevelt's sudden appearance in New Zealand well deserves the attention it is receiving. This is the farthest and most unexpected junket of a First Lady whose love of getting about is legendary."—Detroit Free Press, August 28, 1943"By a happy chance for Australia, this famous lady's taste for getting about, her habit of seeing for herself what is going on in the world, and, most of all, her deep concern for the welfare of the fighting men of her beloved country, have brought her on the longest journey of them all—across the wide, war-clouded Pacific."—Sydney Morning Herald, September 4, 1943"No other U.S. mother had seen so much of the panorama of the war, had been closer to the sweat and boredom, the suffering."—Time, October 4, 1943Incidental Archaeologists: French Officers and the Rediscovery of Roman North Africa
Par Bonnie Effros. 2018
In Incidental Archaeologists, Bonnie Effros examines the archaeological contributions of nineteenth-century French military officers, who, raised on classical accounts of…
warfare and often trained as cartographers, developed an interest in the Roman remains they encountered when commissioned in the colony of Algeria. By linking the study of the Roman past to French triumphant narratives of the conquest and occupation of the Maghreb, Effros demonstrates how Roman archaeology in the forty years following the conquest of the Ottoman Regencies of Algiers and Constantine in the 1830s helped lay the groundwork for the creation of a new identity for French military and civilian settlers.Effros uses France's violent colonial war, its efforts to document the ancient Roman past, and its brutal treatment of the region's Arab and Berber inhabitants to underline the close entanglement of knowledge production with European imperialism. Significantly, Incidental Archaeologists shows how the French experience in Algeria contributed to the professionalization of archaeology in metropolitan France.Effros demonstrates how the archaeological expeditions undertaken by the French in Algeria and the documentation they collected of ancient Roman military accomplishments reflected French confidence that they would learn from Rome's technological accomplishments and succeed, where the Romans had failed, in mastering the region.Unstoppable Us, Volume 2: Why the World Isn't Fair (Unstoppable Us #2)
Par Yuval Noah Harari. 2024
From world-renowned historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens, comes the second volume in the bestselling Unstoppable…
Us middle-grade series that traces human development from hunter-gatherer societies to cities and empires.Humans may have taken over the world, but what happened next? How did our hunter-gatherer ancestors become village farmers? Why were kingdoms and laws established? How did we go from being the rulers of Earth to the rulers of each other?And why isn&’t the world fair?The answer to all of that is one of the strangest tales you&’ll ever hear. And it&’s a true story.From cultivating land and sharing resources to building pyramids and paying taxes, prepare to discover how humans created civilization — and suffered the consequences for it.Acclaimed author Yuval Noah Harari is back with another expertly crafted story of how humans became "unstoppable," complete with maps, a timeline, and full-color illustrations that bring his dynamic unputdownable writing to life.A shocking personal memoir and a new perspective on World War II that follows the author’s journey in the footsteps…
of her father’s youth as one of Hitler’s child soldiers—bringing to light the untold story of the 300,000 German children who served in Hitler’s army When Helene Munson finally reads her father, Hans Dunker’s, wartime journal, she discovers secrets he kept buried for seven decades. This is no ordinary historical document but a personal account of devastating trauma. During World War II, the Nazis trained some three hundred thousand German children to fight—and die—for Hitler. Hans was just one of those boy soldiers. Sent to an elite school for the gifted at nine years old, he found himself in the grip of a system that substituted dummy grenades for Frisbees. By age seventeen, Hans had shot down Allied pilots with antiaircraft artillery. In the desperate, final stage of Hitler’s war, he was sent on a suicide mission to Závada on the Sudetenland front, where he witnessed the death of his schoolmates—and where Helene begins to retrace her father’s footsteps after his death. As Helene translates Hans’s journal and walks his path of suffering and redemption, she uncovers the lost history of an entire generation brainwashed by the Third Reich’s school system and funneled into the Hitler Youth. A startling new account of this dark era, Hitler’s Boy Soldiers grapples with inherited trauma, the burden of guilt, and the blurred line between “perpetrator” and “victim.” It is also a poignant tale of forgiveness, as Helene comes to see her late father as not just a soldier but as one child in a sea of three hundred thousand forced onto the wrong side of history—and left to answer for it.A highlight reel of the must-know moments across two millennia of world-changing history—from the Roman age to Charlemagne to von…
Bismarck to Merkel. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read. A country both admired and feared, Germany has been the epicenter of world events time and again: the Reformation, both World Wars, the fall of the Berlin Wall. It did not emerge as a modern nation until 1871—yet today, Germany is the world’s fourth-largest economy and a standard-bearer of liberal democracy. “There’s no point studying the past unless it sheds some light on the present,” writes James Hawes in this brilliantly concise history that has already captivated hundreds of thousands of readers. “It is time, now more than ever, for us all to understand the real history of Germany.”