Europe Books - Page 9

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion

Douglas Brinkley

Amazon Price: $11.86 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Reagan, Ronald
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Great Communicator 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book because I love Ronald Reagan and wanted to know more about these great speeches. This book provides all of the insights, including both of his D-Day speeches in the appendix section. It's interesting to hear how Peggy Noonan put the Pointe du Hoc speech together and the back and forth editing that goes on with presidential speeches. I was most impressed by how the story of Peter Zannata got into the speech. I always wondered how this happened and this book provides the information. It's not a history book about D-Day but focuses on how Ronald Reagan helped to create new interest in today's younger generation in the greatest generation--our WWII heroes. It's very easy to read, too. A very good book.

Editorial Review:

The 100-foot promontory known as Pointe du Hoc -- where six big German guns were ensconced -- was the number one target of the heavy U.S. and British warships poised in the English Channel on D-Day morning. Facing arguably the toughest task to befall U.S. forces during the war, the brave men of the Army 2nd Ranger Battalion boldly took control of the fortified cliff and set in motion the liberation of Europe.

Based upon recently released documents, here is the first in-depth, anecdotal remembrance of these fearless Army Rangers. Acclaimed author and historian Douglas Brinkley deftly moves between events four decades apart to tell two riveting stories: the making of Ronald Reagan's historic 1984 speeches about the storming of the Normandy coast and the actual heroic event that inspired them and helped to end the Second World War.

Anzio: Italy and the Battle for Rome - 1944

Lloyd Clark

List Price: $25.00 By: Atlantic Monthly Press Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $4.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Italy -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Italy -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Military -> World War II -> Europe

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Allied attack of Normandy beach has been immortalized in film and literature, but it was the Allied campaign on the beaches of Western Italy, at Anzio, that reigns as the bloodiest battle in the Second World War’s western theater. One of the world’s leading military historians, Lloyd Clark, delivers a gripping narrative and fresh interpretation of this remarkable but overshadowed battle. About six months before D-Day, in January 1944, a united force of 36,000 soldiers launched one of the first attacks on continental Europe at Anzio, a small coastal city thirty miles south of Rome. But the advance stalled, and the Allies were unable to exploit initial German weakness that could have led to a decisive strike to liberate the undefended Italian capital. As the Germans gained strength, their force growing to 120,000 men, Anzio beach became a death trap. With winter beating down, the Allies held on, pushing more men, guns, and armor into the stalemate, though their men were still sorely outnumbered. After five months of fighting, and monumental casualties on both sides, the Allies were able to successfully crack the German line, capturing Rome on June 4, just two days before D-Day.

Spymistress: The Life of Vera Atkins, The Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II

William Stevenson

Amazon Price: $12.23 List Price: $17.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Arcade Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $9.81

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Publishing farce 1 out of 5 stars.
31 of 34 people found this review helpful.

The author of Spymistress states that Vera Atkins had "lustrous black hair" whereas in fact she was a blue-eyed blonde, as anyone who ever met her could have told him.
If the author cannot get the colour of his subject's hair right it is hardly surprising that much of the rest of the book turns out to be nonsense too. The fantasies woven here have no interest. The author trivialises a great woman's life story. He does so in the knowledge that the dead cannot answer back.
The true story of Vera Atkins's life is far more compelling than anything in this book. I know this because I spent five years researching her extraordinary story across the world. I interviewed her at length before she died and I had sole access to her archive.
I am writing this review not to promote my own book but to defend Vera's integrity. This false "biography" desecrates the memory of a remarkable woman, misses the real story entirely, and brings the American publishing industry into disrepute. In short, it is a publishing farce.

Editorial Review:

Recruited at age 23 by legendary spymaster William StephensonÑknown as ÒIntrepidÓÑVera Atkins undertook countless perilous missions on her own in the 1930s. Her fierce intellect, personal courage, and facility with languages quickly propelled her to the leadership echelon of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by Winston Churchill. During World War II, she became Great BritainÕs spymistress. Her agents penetrated deep behind enemy lines, aided resistance fighters, destroyed vital targets, helped Allied pilots evade capture, and radioed information back to London. They were prepared to die to liberate Europe from the Nazis. Vera Atkins was demobilized in 1947. Author William Stevenson was the only person she trusted to record her lifeÑas he had done for her one-time recruiter, IntrepidÑwith one condition: He would not publish her story until after her death.

My Rise And Fall

Benito Mussolini

Amazon Price: $19.24 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $10.40

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Here, for the first time in one volume, are two rare autobiographical works by Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), founder of Fascism and Italian dictator for twenty-one years. The first volume (published in English in 1928 as My Autobiography) describes Mussolini's youth, years as an agitator and journalist, experiences in World War I, the formation and revolutionary struggles of the Fascist Party, the March on Rome, and his early years in power. The second volume (published in English in 1948 as The Fall of Mussolini) was written during the brief period between his rescue by the Germans in September 1943 and his execution by Italian partisans in April 1945. Here the Duce recounts his last year in power and the coup d'état that deposed him. My Rise and Fall allows readers to view the dictator from two unique vantage points: Il Duce, eyes on the horizon, chin thrust forward, as he nears his political zenith; and Mussolini at his nadir, a desperate, powerless, sawdust Caesar, soon to be shot and hanged, head down, for all to scorn.

BIG SHOW: The Greatest Pilot's Story of World War II (Cassell Military Paperbacks)

Pierre Clostermann

Amazon Price: $11.42 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cassell Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $7.05

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Military & Spies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The finest fighter pilot narrative of World War Two 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

What a pleasure to have a new edition of this marvelously evocative book available! This is the first time that it has been presented in its entirety and the additions only increase the book's value as a window into the world of the combat aviator.

The book was originally written shortly after the war and as a result there is an immediacy about it that is, at times, electrifying. It was an international best seller and deservedly so, highlighting the career of a fighter pilot who started flying combat on Spitfires and ended up in Tempests. For many years it was the only book that dealt with combat action in the Tempest, a beautiful and powerful warplane introduced late in the war to combat the V1 and the new German jets. The original edition has some minor errors in it, but the descriptions of the missions were just outstanding! The swirl of the dogfights, the dives into flak, dealing with zero visibility weather, the victories recounted in detail, the losses of friends recalled with a warrior's stoicism, this fine book set a standard that has only been approached by other works.

As V. M. Yeates WINGED VICTORY was the finest First World War fighter pilot book, THE BIG SHOW is the second war's. Yeates told his story as a novel based on his experiences as a Sopwith Camel pilot on the Western Front, but the latter book, while reading like a novel, has the extra advantage of being true.

Pierre Clostermann wrote two other books, but his first book was his finest and cannot be recommended highly enough. To read it is to find in its pages what it was like for young men to fly and fight in the hostile skies of Europe in what has come to be known as "the good war."

Editorial Review:

This is absolutely the best fighter pilot memoir of World War II. Pierre Closterman was a Free French fighter ace and his account of the air war over Britain and France has justly become famous. It contains everything one could wish for: wonderfully observed descriptions of wartime Britain, frighteningly evocative stories of in-the-cockpit action, an amazing cast of characters, and all the drama and bravery of a man fighting a desperate war thousands of feet above the ground. An undeniable classic and a true page-turner.

Jagdflieger: Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot 1939-45 (Warrior)

Robert Stedman

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Osprey Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $10.69

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Military & Spies

Editorial Review:

Fighter pilots have always been held in the highest regard and the Luftwaffe Fighter pilots or Experten were undoubtedly the best pilots in the world, often racking up huge scores when compared to Allied fighters. It is for this skill, the sheer number of kills they obtained and their glamour that they are remembered even today. But what of the men themselves? It took a certain type of man to brave the skies in 1939-45, which were often more dangerous than the battlefields below and where a lone fighter pilot was often reliant on an aircraft that was frighteningly basic and fragile.

Over the years much has been written about these Luftwaffe aces, but this book seeks to examine the lives of the ordinary men who took to the skies. These men all shared the same "aggressive spirit, joy of action and the passion of a hunter." Rich with fascinating first-hand accounts exploring every step of the fighter pilot's career from his enlistment, intensive training to his exploits in the Battle of Britain and on the Eastern Front, this book is an invaluable insight into the life of a Luftwaffe fighter pilot.

The Amber Room: The Fate of the World's Greatest Lost Treasure

Catherine Scott-Clark, Adrian Levy

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Trade Amazon Marketplace: 88 new & used starting at $0.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Regional -> European
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

What Do You Already Know 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The question titling this review is the one a potential reader needs to ask prior to choosing this book. The story of this astonishing work of art, gifted by Frederick I to Peter the Great, has been the basis for many books both scholarly and purely fictional. While this book is non-fiction it is not one I would recommend to anyone that is unfamiliar with this topic. The room that is the title of this book can be viewed online as it has been reconstructed, and once seen the viewer has a right to expect a written history of this fantastic creation that both approaches the unique beauty of the art itself and the incredible journey the room may have taken.

The mystery/history of the real Amber Room has all the makings of the most remarkable of fictional thrillers, and while the authors present a sturdy, competent narrative, the book never gets very interesting. The prose is dull and does as much of a disservice to the true tale that black and white photographs do to the real Amber Room.

The book also suffers from a constant handicap of; wishing for something just does not make it so, every attempt at breathless suspense reads as labored, contrived and often very predictable. If you have never read about this topic search elsewhere as the subject is fascinating, if you are already a reader of books on this tale again you should look further before adding this to your reading list.

Editorial Review:

One of mankind's greatest treasures, the Amber Room stood as a symbol of Russian glory for over two hundred years. But after the Nazi invasion, it was never seen again.

Now, in a masterpiece of detection, investigative journalists Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy have at last unraveled the jumble of evidence surrounding the Amber Room's fate. Journeying through the former Soviet bloc, and exploring archives in St. Petersburg and Berlin, they reveal what happened to the most valuable lost treasure in the world-and why the truth has been withheld for so long. Their revelations have broken a conspiracy of lies by the Russians who, for decades, have blamed the Amber Room's disappearance on the widespread looting of Nazi Germany, rather than face the shocking truth.

Onward We Charge: The Heroic Story of Darby's Rangers in World War II

H. Paul Jeffers

Amazon Price: $19.96 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: NAL Hardcover Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $0.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Leaders & Notable People -> Military -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Military & Spies

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The forgotten story of Darby's Rangers! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

With all the nostalgia around WWII in the last ten years, it's hard to believe that it has taken this long for someone to tell the story of the famous Darby's Rangers. We take for granted now the incredible fighting skills and endurance of the Army Rangers, but once upon a time they were a brand new outfit, in a very uncertain war. Bill Darby was their heroic first leader, and fellow founder, and made them into what they became--the cream of the combat crop. This is an excellent telling of the Darby story, from the man's rise in the military, through his incredible leadership during the war (including combat scenes that will absolutely blow you away). I can highly recommend this compelling take on Col. Darby and the First Ranger Batallion in World War II.

Editorial Review:

Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart, and posthumously promoted to Brigadier General by President Truman, Colonel William Darby was an indisputable hero. His elite battalion of Army Rangers paved the way for Ranger success in subsequent wars-and left an unforgettable legacy in its wake.

Onward We Charge takes readers from the beachheads of North Africa to the bloody campaigns of southern Italy, and to Darby's tragic death by German shrapnel just eight days before V-E Day. This is the true story of a man who held his own beside the greatest military figures in history

The Origins of the Second World War in Europe (Origins of Modern War Series)

P.M.H. Bell

List Price: $25.95 By: Longman Pub Group Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $0.05

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Military -> World War II -> Europe

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Lucid Analysis 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

This concise and very well written book is thoughtful distillation of the enormous literature related to the onset of WWII in Europe. The simple question, who started WWII, has a simple answer. It was Adolf Hitler. The simple answer obscures a whole series of considerably more difficult questions. How did a marginal figure and 4th-rate ideologue like Hitler come to rule the most powerful state in Europe? Why wasn't there more initial resistance to Hitler? What was the role of the Great Depression? To what extent did the post-WWI settlement lead to WWII? What was the role of the Soviet Union and Stalin? Many other questions arise. Bell deals with many of these issues in a series of well crafted chapters. The book opens by framing the issues, including a short but worthwhile discussion of historiographic issues, follows by discussing underlying factors such as ideology, economics, the role of the depression, the roles of the military postures adopted by the major actors, and then concludes with a nice narrative of the outbreak of war. Bell very intelligently extends his narrative beyond 1939 to the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, pointing out that it is these later events that allow assessment of the role of key ideological factors in the coming of WWII. This book is worth reading just for the chapters dealing with the consequences of the Great Depression. A theme throughout the book is the limited options possessed by the leaders of France and Britain. Given their internal political situations, some form of appeasement was inevitable, though consistently unpalatable. I have a couple of minor complaints. I don't think Bell deals with the uncertain nature of politics in the Weimar Republic. Hitler's accession to power was not inevitable. While some form of reactionary German government bent on reversing the settlement of WWI was probably inevitable, it could have been one dominated by more traditional conservatives. This type of leadership would have been amenable to the type of accomodation and diplomacy attempted by Chamberlain and the French leadership. It is clear also, in retrospect, that few in Europe really understood the depth of the Nazi racial preoccupations and their bizarre model of history, a tragic though understandable mistake.

Editorial Review:

PMH Bell's famous book is a comprehensive study of the period and debates surrounding the European origins of the Second World War. He approaches the subject from three different angles: describing the various explanations that have been offered for the war and the historiographical debates that have arisen from them, analysing the ideological, economic and strategic forces at work in Europe during the 1930s, and tracing the course of events from peace in 1932, via the initial outbreak of hostilities in 1939, through to the climactic German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 which marked the descent into general conflict. Written in a lucid, accessible style, this is an indispensable guide to the complex origins of the Second World War.

Their Finest Hour: v. 2: The Second World War (Second World War 2)

Sir Winston S. Churchill

List Price: $22.70 By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $17.20

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> Ireland -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Finest of the Series 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

After reading this book, you truly begin to see how narrow minded the average American perception of World War II really is. Not to discount the magnificant American battles such as the landing at Normandy or the Battle for Midway, but the Battle for Britain was absolutely the finest display of honor and courage throughout the entire war. This tiny island and it's courageous people stood alone and stood tall against not only the behemoth Nazi-German menace, but at the same time fought the Mussolini in northern Africa and awaited the Japanese onslaught in their Australasian colonies. It's an absolutely inspiring work, and it's an absolute sin that American schools don't teach the story of how the British people shined so brightly during their darkest hour.

Editorial Review:

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.