Recommendations based on "Churchill (Life & Times)"

Sydney Taylor Award-winning novel Berlin Boxing Club is loosely inspired by the true story of boxer Max Schmeling's experiences following Kristallnacht. Publishers Weekly called it "a masterful historical novel" in a starred review.Karl Stern has never thought of himself as a Jew; after all, he's never even been in a synagogue. But the bullies at his school in Nazi-era Berlin don't care that Karl's family doesn't practice religion. Demoralized by their attacks against a heritage he doesn't accept as his own, Karl longs to prove his worth.Then Max Schmeling, champion boxer and German hero, makes a deal with Karl's father to give Karl boxing lessons. A skilled cartoonist, Karl has never had an interest in boxing, but now it seems like the perfect chance to reinvent himself.But when Nazi violence against Jews escalates, Karl must take on a new role: family protector. And as Max's fame forces him to associate with Nazi elites, Karl begins to wonder where his hero's sympathies truly lie. Can Karl balance his boxing dreams with his obligation to keep his family out of harm's way?Includes an author's note and sources page detailing the factual inspirations behind the novel.

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER ‘Elegantly written and powerfully argued ... it ranks among the best works on this terrible period’ Sunday Times A biographical study of Hitler's inner circle offers a new way to understand the horrors of the Nazi regime Why did so many Germans take part in the crimes of Nazi Germany? How did they come to support Hitler and follow him almost to the very end? For too long, the Nazis have been presented as little more than psychopaths or criminals. In his major new work, renowned historian Richard J. Evans makes use of a mass of recently unearthed new evidence to strip away the veneer of myth and legend from the faces of the Third Reich and present a more realistic view of Nazi perpetrators as human beings who were disturbingly like us. Evans offers rounded, fresh and often startling new portraits of the men and women who created and served Nazi Germany, beginning with Hitler himself and going on to encompass leading figures like Göring, Goebbels and Himmler, enforcers of Hitler’s orders such as Eichmann and Heydrich, propagandists like Leni Riefenstahl, low-level perpetrators such as the notorious Irma Grese and unknown sympathizers and fellow-travellers who helped the regime in myriad ways. Hitler’s People is a chilling, brilliantly written work which allows the reader to understand the texture and values of the Third Reich and just how far individuals will go when so many normal moral constraints have disappeared.

The Sensational International Bestseller On The Overwhelming Role Of Drug-taking In The Third Reich 'the Most Brilliant And Fascinating Book I Have Read In My Entire Life' Dan Snow 'extremely Interesting ... A Serious Piece Of Scholarship, Very Well Researched' Ian Kershaw The Nazis Presented Themselves As Warriors Against Moral Degeneracy. Yet, As Norman Ohler's Gripping Bestseller Reveals, The Entire Third Reich Was Permeated With Drugs: Cocaine, Heroin, Morphine And, Most Of All, Methamphetamines, Or Crystal Meth, Used By Everyone From Factory Workers To Housewives, And Crucial To Troops' Resilience - Even Partly Explaining German Victory In 1940. The Promiscuous Use Of Drugs At The Very Highest Levels Also Impaired And Confused Decision-making, With Hitler And His Entourage Taking Refuge In Potentially Lethal Cocktails Of Stimulants Administered By The Physician Dr Morell As The War Turned Against Germany. While Drugs Cannot On Their Own Explain The Events Of The Second World War Or Its Outcome, Ohler Shows, They Change Our Understanding Of It. Blitzed Forms A Crucial Missing Piece Of The Story.

This is Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the Second World War.

Within days of the D-Day lanings, the 'Das Reich' 2nd SS Panzer Division marched north through France to reinforce the front-line defenders of Hitler's Fortress Europe. Veterans of the bloodiest fighting of the Russion Front, 15,000 men with their tanks and artillery, they were hounded for every mile of their march by saboteurs of the Resistance and agents of the Allied Special Forces. Along their route they took reporisals so savage they will live for ever in the chronicles of the most appalling atrocities of war. Max Hasting's powerful account of their progress is a true military classic.

Half a century after their deaths, the dictatorships of Stalin and Hitler still cast a long and terrible shadow over the modern world. They were the most destructive and lethal regimes in history, murdering millions. They fought the largest and costliest war in all history. Yet millions of Germans and Russians enthusiastically supported them and the values they stood for. In this first major study of the two dictatorships side-by-side Richard Overy sets out to answer the question: How was dictatorship possible? How did they function? What was the bond that tied dictator and people so powerfully together? He paints a remarkable and vivid account of the different ways in which Stalin and Hitler rose to power, and abused and dominated their people. It is a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of ambitious and unscrupulous men.

June 1815: The Duke of Wellington, the Prince of Orange, and Napoleon will meet on the battlefield--and decide the fate of EuropeWith the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels--in preparation for a grand society ball. It is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange, the inexperienced commander of Wellington's Dutch troops, to act before it is too late. But Sharpe's warning cannot stop the tide of battle, and the British suffer heavy losses on the road to Waterloo.Wellington has few reserves of men and ammunition; the Prussian army has not arrived; and the French advance wields tremendous firepower and determination. Victory seems impossible.

Fascism is a political ideology which has been identified with totalitarianism, state terror, fanaticism, orchestrated violence, and blind obedience. Fascism was directly associated with the Second World War, the most devastating annihilation of human lives in the history of mankind which left more than 40 million dead around the globe and introduced notions of inhumanity the extent of which was heretofore unknown. The mere term stirs up visions of atrocities and wanton cruelty even today, fifty years after the end of the Last European War Yet once again fascism is in the ascendant, suggesting that it is time for us to renew our understanding of its ideas, ideals, and iniquities. This anthology tries to show why fascism holds such strong appeal to many people. With a wide selection of texts written by fascist thinkers and propagandists as well as prominent anti-fascist criticism from both inside and outside Europe, before and after the Second World War, this collection offers a chilling portrait of the most feared political doctrine in modern history. Some of the topics covered in this volume include fascism in Germany and Italy, pre-1922 precursors of fascism, theories of fascism, the abortive fascist movements in the period 1922-1945, anti-fascist movements and reaction, Marxist criticism of fascist ideology, and post-war fascism. With contributions from writers as diverse as Benito Mussolini and Primo Levi, Joseph Goebbels and George Orwell, Martin Heidegger and Max Horkheimer, this insightful book evokes the pernicious effects of fascist ideology.

"The leading nonfiction best seller in Germany since its publication, with translations in preparation in seventeen countries, Mr. Fest's monumental work on the most fateful historical figure of our time stands out as a towering achievement. Absorbingly readable, it tells and interprets the extraordinarily dramatic story of a man's and nation's rise from impotence and insignificance to a brief period of absolute power, as Germany and Hitler, from shared premises, entered into their covenant. Convincingly, Fest exhibits the true source of Hitler's overwhelming dynamism, the basis of his stupendous initial success in peace and war, and finally the real effects of his policies to this day ... The Germany of the times comes vividly alive with its contrasts of misery and grandiosity, with its fierce strife and the varied company of both is good and evil figures. The preliminaries of World War II are unraveled with skillful lucidity, Hitler's purposeful actions contrasted with the hesitancy or hubris of his opponents. In the last analysis, however, Fest uncovers in Hitler a constantly destructive personality who aimed at and achieved destruction on an unprecedented scale, not least because an insecure world gave him opportunities. In a final irony, he changed the world irrevocably, thoughnow as he wished or foresaw, for all of us."--Jacket.

Winston Churchill's six-volume history of the cataclysm that swept the world remains the definitive history of the Second World War. Lucid, dramatic, remarkable both for its breadth and sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it is universally acknowledged as a magnificent reconstruction and is an enduring, compelling work that led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Their Finest Hour enthrallingly recounts key events and battles from May to December 1940 as Britain stood isolated while Nazi Germany pursued its seemingly unconquerable war path - the fall of France, Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, the horrors of the Blitz and Hitler's plans to invade and crush Russia, his sole ally in Europe.