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The Burning Shore: How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America
By Ed Offley. 2014
Ministers at War: Winston Churchill and His War Cabinet
By Jonathan Schneer. 2014
In May 1940, with France on the verge of defeat, Britain alone stood in the path of the Nazi military…
juggernaut. Survival seemed to hinge on the leadership of Winston Churchill, whom the King reluctantly appointed Prime Minister as Germany invaded France. Churchill’s reputation as one of the great twentieth-century leaders would be forged during the coming months and years, as he worked tirelessly first to rally his country and then to defeat Hitler. But Churchill--regarded as the savior of his nation, and of the entire continent--could not have done it alone. As prize-winning historian Jonathan Schneer reveals inMinisters at War, Churchill depended on a team of powerful ministers to manage the war effort as he rallied a beleaguered nation. Selecting men from across the political spectrum--from fellow Conservative Anthony Eden to leader of the opposing socialist Labor Party Clement Attlee--Churchill assembled a War Cabinet that balanced competing interests and bolstered support for his national coalition government. The group possessed a potent blend of talent, ambition, and egotism. Led and encouraged by Churchill, the ministers largely set aside their differences, at least at first. As the war progressed, discord began to grow. It reached a peak in 1945: with victory seemingly assured, Churchill was forced by his Minsters at War to dissolve the Government and call a General Election, which, in a shocking upset, he lost to his rival Attlee. Authoritatively recasting our understanding of British high politics during World War II, Schneer shows that Churchill managed the war effort by managing his team of supremely able yet contentious cabinet members. The outcome of the war lay not only in Churchill’s individual brilliance but also in his skill as an executive, and in the collective ability of men who muted their personal interests to save the world from barbarism.The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941
By Roger Moorhouse. 2014
History remembers the Soviets and the Nazis as bitter enemies and ideological rivals, the two mammoth and opposing totalitarian regimes…
of World War II whose conflict would be the defining and deciding clash of the war. Yet for nearly a third of the conflict’s entire timespan, Hitler and Stalin stood side by side as allies. In The Devils’ Alliance, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse explores the causes and implications of the tenuous Nazi-Soviet pact, an unholy covenant whose creation and dissolution were crucial turning points in World War II. Indeed, this riveting chapter of World War II is the key to understanding why the conflict evolved--and ended--the way it did. Nazism and Bolshevism made unlikely bedfellows, but the brutally efficient joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 illustrated the powerful incentives that existed for both sides to set aside their differences. Forged by vain and pompous German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Russian counterpart, the inscrutable and stubborn Vyacheslav Molotov, the Nazi-Soviet pact in August of 1939 briefly unified the two powers. Together, the Germans and Soviets quickly conquered and divvied up central and eastern Europe-- Poland, the Baltic States, Finland, and Bessarabia--aiding one another through exchanges of information, blueprints, and prisoners. The human cost was staggering: in Poland alone, the Soviets deported 1. 5 million people in 1940, 400,000 of whom would never return. Tens of thousands were also deported from the Baltic States, including almost all of the members of the Estonian parliament. Of the 100,000 civilians deported to Siberia from Bessarabia, barely a third survived. Nazi and Soviet leaders hoped that a similar quid-pro-quo agreement would also characterize their economic relationship. The Soviet Union would export much-needed raw materials to Germany, while the Germans would provide weapons and technological innovations to their communist counterparts. In reality, however, economic negotiations were fraught from the start, not least because the Soviets, mindful that the Germans were in dire need of raw materials to offset a British blockade, made impossible demands of their ally. Although German-Soviet trade still grew impressively through 1940, it was not enough to convince Hitler that he could rely on the partnership with Moscow, which on the whole was increasingly turbulent and unpredictable. Fortunately for the Allies, the pact--which seemed to negate any chances of an Allied victory in Europe--was short-lived. Delving into the motivations and forces at work, Moorhouse explores how the partnership soured, ultimately resulting in the surprise June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union. With the final dissolution of the pact, the Soviets sided with the Western democracies, a development that changed the course of the war--and which, upon Germany’s defeat, allowed the Soviets to solidify the inroads they had made into Eastern Europe during their ill-starred alliance. Reviled by contemporaries, the Nazi-Soviet Pact would have a similarly baleful afterlife. Though it was torn up by the Nazis and denied or excused as a strategic necessity by the Soviets, its effects and political ramifications proved remarkably persistent. The boundaries of modern eastern and central Europe adhere closely to the hasty divisions made by Ribbentrop and Molotov. Even more importantly, the pact laid the groundwork for Soviet control of Eastern Europe, a power grab that would define the post-war order. Drawing on memoirs, diaries, and official records from newly opened Soviet archives, The Devils’ Alliance is the authoritative work on one of the seminal episodes of World War II. In his characteristically rich and detailed prose, Moorhouse paints a vivid picture of the pact’s origins and its enduring influence as a crucial turning point, in both the war and in modern history.Brazil: The Fortunes of War
By Neill Lochery. 2014
In 1939, Brazil seemed a world away from the chaos overtaking Europe. Yet despite its bucolic reputation as a distant…
land of palm trees and pristine beaches, Brazil's natural resources and proximity to the United States made it strategically invaluable to both the Allies and the Axis alike. As acclaimed historian Neill Lochery reveals in The Fortunes of War, Brazil's wily dictator Getúlio Dornelles Vargas keenly understood his country's importance, and played both sides of the escalating global conflict off against each other, gaining trade concessions, weapons shipments, and immense political power in the process. Vargas ultimately sided with the Allies and sent troops to the European theater, but not before his dexterous geopolitical machinations had transformed Rio de Janeiro into one of South America's most powerful cities and solidified Brazil's place as a major regional superpower.A fast-paced tale of diplomatic intrigue, The Fortunes of War reveals how World War II transformed Brazil from a tropical backwater into a modern, global power.How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust
By Dan Mcmillan. 2014
The Holocaust is the defining event of the twentieth century - and perhaps all of modern history. Yet for too…
long, we have ignored the vital question of how and why such a monstrous event could have happened at all. Now, in How Could This Happen, historian Dan McMillan distills the existing Holocaust research into a cogent explanation of the genocide’s causes, revealing how a once progressive society like Germany could commit murder on such a massive scale. Countless barriers stand between stable societies and genocide, McMillan explains, but in Germany these buffers began to topple well before World War II. From Hitler’s meteoric rise to deep-rooted European anti-Semitism to the dehumanizing effects of World War I, McMillan uncovers the many factors that made the Holocaust possible. Persuasive and compelling, How Could This Happen illustrates how a perfect storm of bleak circumstances, malevolent ideas, and societal upheaval unleashed history’s most terrifying atrocity.The United States experienced its most harrowing military disaster of World War II not in 1941 at Pearl Harbor but…
in the period from 1942 to 1943, in Atlantic coastal waters from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. Sinking merchant ships with impunity, German U-boats threatened the lifeline between the United States and Britain, very nearly denying the Allies their springboard onto the European Continent--a loss that would have effectively cost the Allies the war.In Turning the Tide, author Ed Offley tells the gripping story of how, during a twelve-week period in the spring of 1943, a handful of battle-hardened American, British, and Canadian sailors turned the tide in the Atlantic. Using extensive archival research and interviews with key survivors, Offley places the reader at the heart of the most decisive maritime battle of World War II.A Very Principled Boy: The Life of Duncan Lee, Red Spy and Cold Warrior
By Mark A. Bradley. 2014
Duncan Chaplain Lee was an unlikely traitor. A Rhodes Scholar, patriot, and descendent of one of America’s most distinguished families,…
he was also a communist sympathizer who used his position as aid to intelligence chief #147;Wild Bill” Donovan to leak critical information to the Soviets during World War II. As intelligence expert Mark A. Bradley reveals, Lee was one of Stalin’s most valuable moles in U. S. intelligence, passing the KGB vital information on everything from the D-Day invasion to America’s plans for postwar Europe. Outwitting both J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy, he escaped detection again and again, dying a free man before authorities could prove his guilt. A fast-paced cat-and-mouse tale of misguided idealism and high treason, Perry's book draws on thousands of previously unreleased CIA and State Department records to reveal the riveting story of one of the greatest traitors of the twentieth century.Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II
By Madhusree Mukerjee. 2010
A dogged enemy of Hitler, resolute ally of the Americans, and inspiring leader through World War II, Winston Churchill is…
venerated as one of the truly great statesmen of the last century. But while he has been widely extolled for his achievements, parts of Churchill's record have gone woefully unexamined. As journalist Madhusree Mukerjee reveals, at the same time that Churchill brilliantly opposed the barbarism of the Nazis, he governed India with a fierce resolve to crush its freedom movement and a profound contempt for native lives. A series of Churchill's decisions between 1940 and 1944 directly and inevitably led to the deaths of some three million Indians. The streets of eastern Indian cities were lined with corpses, yet instead of sending emergency food shipments Churchill used the wheat and ships at his disposal to build stockpiles for feeding postwar Britain and Europe.Combining meticulous research with a vivid narrative, and riveting accounts of personality and policy clashes within and without the British War Cabinet, Churchill's Secret War places this oft-overlooked tragedy into the larger context of World War II, India's fight for freedom, and Churchill's enduring legacy. Winston Churchill may have found victory in Europe, but, as this groundbreaking historical investigation reveals, his mismanagement--facilitated by dubious advice from scientist and eugenicist Lord Cherwell--devastated India and set the stage for the massive bloodletting that accompanied independence.Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941
By Joe Maiolo. 2010
Did the arms race of the 1930s cause the Second World War? In Cry Havoc, historian Joseph Maiolo shows, in…
rich and fascinating detail, how the deadly game of the arms race was played out in the decade prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. In this exhaustively researched account, he explores how nations reacted to the moves of their rivals, revealing the thinking of those making the key decisions--Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, Stalin, Roosevelt--and the dilemmas of democratic leaders who seemed to be faced with a choice between defending their nations and preserving their democratic way of life. An unparalleled account of an era of extreme political tension, Cry Havoc shows how the interwar arms race shaped the outcome of World War II before the shooting even began.Last to Die: A Defeated Empire, a Forgotten Mission, and the Last American Killed in World War II
By Stephen Harding. 2015
On August 18, 1945, US Army sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death in the clear, bright sky above Tokyo.…
Marchione, a gunner in the US Air Forces, died like so many before him in World War II--quietly, cradled in the arms of a buddy. Though tragic, Marchione’s death would have been no more notable than any other had he not had the dubious distinction of being the last American killed in World War II combat. Based on official American and Japanese histories, personal memoirs, and the author’s exclusive interviews with many of the story’s key participants, Last to Die is a rousing tale of air combat, bravery, cowardice, hubris, and determination, all set during the turbulent and confusing final days of World War II.The Castaway's War: One Man's Battle against Imperial Japan
By Stephen Harding. 2016
In the early hours of July 5, 1943, the destroyer USS Strong was hit by a Japanese torpedo. The powerful…
weapon broke the destroyer's back, flooded her engine room, killed dozens of sailors, and sparked raging fires. While accompanying ships were able to rescue most of Strong's surviving crewmen, scores were submerged in the ocean as the shattered warship sank beneath the waves-and a young officer's harrowing story of survival began. Based on official American and Japanese histories, personal memoirs, and the author's exclusive interviews with key participants, The Castaway's War tells the entirely unique and very personal tale of Navy Lieutenant Hugh Barr Miller's fight for survival against both a hostile environment and an implacable human enemy.Dawn of Infamy: A Sunken Ship, a Vanished Crew, and the Final Mystery of Pearl Harbor
By Stephen Harding. 2016
As the Pearl Harbor attack began, a U.S. cargo ship a thousand miles away in the middle of the vast…
Pacific Ocean mysteriously vanished along with her crew. What happened, and why?On December 7, 1941, even as Japanese carrier-launched aircraft flew toward Pearl Harbor, a small American cargo ship chartered by the Army reported that it was under attack by a submarine halfway between Seattle and Honolulu. After that one cryptic message, the humble lumber carrier Cynthia Olson and her crew vanished without a trace, their disappearance all but forgotten as the mighty warships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet burned.The story of the Cynthia Olson's mid-ocean encounter with the Japanese submarine I-26 is both a classic high-seas drama and one of the most enduring mysteries of World War II. Did I-26's commander, Minoru Yokota, sink the freighter before the attack on Pearl Harbor began? Did the cargo ship's 35-man crew survive in lifeboats that drifted away into the vast Pacific, or were they machine-gunned to death? Was the Cynthia Olson the first American casualty of the Pacific War, and could her SOS have changed the course of history?Based on years of research, Dawn of Infamy explores both the military and human aspects of the Cynthia Olson story, bringing to life a complex tale of courage, tenacity, hubris, and arrogance in the opening hours of America's war in the Pacific.On the morning of April 16, 1945, the crewmen of the USS Laffey saw what seemed to be the entire…
Japanese air force assembled directly above. They were about to become the targets of the largest single-ship kamikaze attack of World War II. By the time the unprecedented assault was finished, thirty-two sailors were dead and more than seventy wounded. Although she lay shrouded in smoke and fire for hours, the Laffey somehow survived. The gutted American warship limped from Okinawa’s shore for home, where the ship and crew would be feted as heroes. Using personal interviews with survivors, the memoirs of crew members, and their wartime correspondence, John Wukovits breathes life into the story of this forgotten historic event.Shortly before Christmas in 1943, five Army aviators left Alaska’s Ladd Field on a test flight. Only one ever returned:…
Leon Crane, a city kid from Philadelphia with little more than a parachute on his back when he bailed from his B-24 Liberator before it crashed into the Arctic. Alone in subzero temperatures, Crane managed to stay alive in the dead of the Yukon winter for nearly twelve weeks and, amazingly, walked out of the ordeal intact. 81 Days Below Zero recounts, for the first time, the full story of Crane’s remarkable saga. In a drama of staggering resolve with moments of phenomenal luck, Crane learned to survive in the Yukon’s unforgiving landscape. His is a tale of the human capacity to endure extreme conditions and intense lonelinessand emerge stronger than before.Behind Nazi Lines
By Denise George, Andrew Hodges. 2015
In 1944 hundreds of Allied soldiers were trapped in POW camps in occupied France The odds of their…
survival were long The odds of escaping even longer But one-man had the courage to fight the odds An elite British S A S operative on an assassination mission gone wrong A Jewish New Yorker injured in a Nazi ambush An eighteen-year-old Gary Cooper lookalike from Mobile Alabama These men and hundreds of other soldiers found themselves in the prisoner-of-war camps off the Atlantic coast of occupied France fighting brutal conditions and unsympathetic captors But miraculously local villagers were able to smuggle out a message from the camp one that reached the Allies and sparked a remarkable quest by an unlikely--and truly inspiring--hero Andy Hodges had been excluded from military service due to a lingering shoulder injury from his college-football days Devastated but determined Andy refused to sit at home while his fellow Americans risked their lives so he joined the Red Cross volunteering for the toughest assignments on the most dangerous battlefields In the fall of 1944 Andy was tapped for what sounded like a suicide mission a desperate attempt to aid the Allied POWs in occupied France--alone and unarmed matching his wits against the Nazi war machine Despite the likelihood of failure Andy did far more than deliver much-needed supplies By the end of the year he had negotiated the release of an unprecedented 149 prisoners--leaving no one behind This is the true story of one man s selflessness ingenuity and victory in the face of impossible adversityThe Pacific
By Hugh Ambrose. 2010
Penguin delivers you to the front lines of The Pacific Theater with the real-life stories behind the HBO miniseries. Between…
America's retreat from China in late November 1941 and the moment General MacArthur's airplane touched down on the Japanese mainland in August of 1945, five men connected by happenstance fought the key battles of the war against Japan. From the debacle in Bataan, to the miracle at Midway and the relentless vortex of Guadalcanal, their solemn oaths to their country later led one to the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot and the others to the coral strongholds of Peleliu, the black terraces of Iwo Jima and the killing fields of Okinawa, until at last the survivors enjoyed a triumphant, yet uneasy, return home. In The Pacific, Hugh Ambrose focuses on the real-life stories of the five men who put their lives on the line for our country. To deepen the story revealed in the miniseries and go beyond it, the book dares to chart a great ocean of enmity known as The Pacific and the brave men who fought. Some considered war a profession, others enlisted as citizen soldiers. Each man served in a different part of the war, but their respective duties required every ounce of their courage and their strength to defeat an enemy who preferred suicide to surrender. The medals for valor which were pinned on three of them came at a shocking price-a price paid in full by all. View the HBO trailer Watch a Video View a video with Hugh Ambrose Watch a Video .Battleground Atlantic
By Richard N. Billings. 2006
On June 24, 1944, U. S. Navy warplanes patrolling the Atlantic attacked and sank a Japanese submarine, the I-52. It…
was an event of enormous strategic importance. The I-52's mission was to return to Japan with the ingredients of a radiological bomb. Purchased from the Germans, this doomsday weapon-classified secret by the U. S. government for years after the war-could have contaminated vast areas of America for decades, killing millions slowly and painfully. Japan had intended to use it in an attack on the California coast until the mission was detected in an Allied intelligence coup equal to the breaking of the Enigma code. The I-52's resting place was discovered in 1995 by ship salvager Paul R. Tidwell. Author Richard N. Billings has worked with Tidwell-whose attempts to salvage the I-52's precious gold cargo continue-in bringing her secret mission to light. Finally, this is the story of how the I-52 mission may have influenced President Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.The Mascot
By Mark Kurzem. 2007
Part thriller, part psychological drama, part moral puzzle, The Mascot tells the remarkable true story of Mark Kurzem's father, Alex.…
At five years old, in 1941, Alex escaped a German execution squad in Latvia, ran into some nearby woods and, the next morning, watched his Jewish mother and siblings being shot. He survived alone amongst the trees for nearly nine months before falling into the hands of an SS unit, the soldiers of which treated him kindly and adopted him as their mascot. With his custom-made SS uniform, peaked cap and full belly, Alex went with them everywhere as they shot and raped Jews wherever they could find them. He was even used in Nazi propaganda films. . . Ultimately, after the War, he made a new life in Australia, and kept silent about his childhood secrets, not even telling his wife and sons. Was he a collaborator, or just a little boy? Nearly 60 years later he flew across the world to visit his academic son Mark at Oxford University and, from then on, tiny details, long buried in his memory, began to surface. Mark was astonished, and began to help him rediscover and unravel his past. This included a return to his original village in Latvia to search for his mother's grave, and being tailed by Mossad agents and members of the Simon Weisenthal Centre. Eventually Mark made a film called The Mascot which won Best Documentary at the Sydney Film Festival and has also written this gripping account of what he and his father have been through in order to tell the truth at last.Yalta: The Price of Peace
By S. M. Plokhy. 2011
A major new history of the eight days in February 1945 when FDR, Churchill, and Stalin decided the fate of…
the world Imagine you could eavesdrop on a dinner party with three of the most fascinating historical figures of all time. In this landmark book, a gifted Harvard historian puts you in the room with Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt as they meet at a climactic turning point in the war to hash out the terms of the peace. The ink wasn't dry when the recriminations began. The conservatives who hated Roosevelt's New Deal accused him of selling out. Was he too sick? Did he give too much in exchange for Stalin's promise to join the war against Japan? Could he have done better in Eastern Europe? Both Left and Right would blame Yalta for beginning the Cold War. Plokhy's conclusions, based on unprecedented archival research, are surprising. He goes against conventional wisdom-cemented during the Cold War- and argues that an ailing Roosevelt did better than we think. Much has been made of FDR's handling of the Depression; here we see him as wartime chief. Yalta is authoritative, original, vividly- written narrative history, and is sure to appeal to fans of Margaret MacMillan's bestseller Paris 1919.