Product Description
The psychiatric profession in Germany changed radically from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginning of World War I. In a book that demonstrates his extensive archival knowledge and an impressive command of the primary literature, Eric J. Engstrom investigates the history of university psychiatric clinics in Imperial Germany from 1867 to 1914, emphasizing the clinical practices and professional debates surrounding the development of these institutions and their impact on the course of German psychiatry.

The rise of university psychiatric clinics reflects, Engstrom tells us, a shift not only in asylum culture, but also in the ways in which social, political, and economic issues deeply influenced the practice of psychiatry. Equally convincing is Engstrom’s argument that psychiatrists were responding to and workingto shape the rapidly changing perceptions ofmadness in Imperial Germany.

In a series of case studies, the book focuses on a number of important clinical spaces such as the laboratory, the ward,the lecture hall, and the polyclinic. Engstrom argues that within these spaces clinics developed their own disciplinary economies and that their emergence was inseparablyintertwined with jurisdictional contests between competing scientific, administrative, didactic, and socio-political agendas. ... Read more

Product Description
This book studies the connections between the political reform of the Holy Roman Empire and the German lands around 1500 and the sixteenth-century religious reformations, both Protestant and Catholic. It argues that the character of the political changes (dispersed sovereignty, local autonomy) prevented both a general reformation of the Church before 1520 and a national reformation thereafter. The resulting settlement maintained the public peace through politically structured religious communities (confessions), thereby avoiding further religious strife and fixing the confessions into the Empire's constitution. The Germans' emergence into the modern era as a people having two national religions was the reformation's principal legacy to modern Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The world needs more books like this.
Brady's book is the single most coherent account of a period of history that defies easy comprehension. If you have any interest in German history, the history of the Reformation(s), the transition from Medieval to Modern, or European history in general: buy this book.

This book will be especially useful for students of Medieval and Early Modern history who have a limited grasp of the German lands. This is not to say that experts will not find fresh interpretations and the distillation of a large body of early and recent historiography. ... Read more

Product Description
The Nazi Germany Sourcebook is an exciting new collection of documents on the origins, rise, course and consequences of National Socialism, the Third Reich, the Second World War, and the Holocaust. Packed full of both official and private papers from the perspectives of perpetrators and victims, these sources offer a revealing insight into why Nazism came into being, its extraordinary popularity in the 1930s, how it affected the lives of people, and what it means to us today.
This carefully edited series of 148 documents, drawn from 1850 to 2000, covers the pre-history and aftermath of Nazism. Sources include legislative and diplomatic records, minutes of meetings, speeches and manifestoes, personal diaries and eyewitness accounts. Each document is preceded by a brief critical analysis that also provides the historical context in which it was written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

WWII From a New Perspective
Stackelberg and Winkle do a magnificent job of accumulating important primary sources into one, easily accessible sourcebook.Whether you are writing a dissertation on a topic of Nazi Germany, or are just looking for extra reading material, this book is not only useful, but also intriguing.Over 150 primary sources are included within the text, each including an introductory paragraph or two, which means you are getting your moneys worth.

I initially bought this book for my Nazi Germany class, but found myself reading through it for fun.I had never been into the historical topic of Germany during the WWI and WWII period until I opened this book, but now its one of my favorite subjects.Many people think they know, at least in a moderate sense, about the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, but questions about what influenced Hitler's radical anti-Semitism and how he was able to seize and use the emotions of one of the most intelligent nations in the world are answered.I recommend this book to anyone even vaguely interested in Nazi Germany or how one of the world's most devastating genocidal wars came about.

Absolutely essential for serious students of Nazi Germany
This book is long overdue for students of Nazi Germany that have not yet mastered the German language. Included in this book are chapter after chapter of important primary documents from the late 19th century and World War I to the Historians Debate concerning Nazism in the late 20th century.
Stackelberg includes a very readable introduction to each chapter that puts the documents in that chapter in their historical perspective. Most documents are ordered chronologically, however a few are thematically ordered because they're best viewed in that context.
This isn't a book of just dry Nazi government documents either, it includes works from others that were influential in the development of the Nazi ideology, such as Wagner.
In contrast to other books, such as the series by Nokes and Pridham, this book also includes an index, which prevents scholars from having to search through the entire book to find a document on a particular subject.
This book should be read by anyone that has a serious interest in Nazi Germany. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a stimulating overview of twentieth-century German art, focusing on some of the period's key works by Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Hannah Höch, Willi Baumeister, Arno Breker, Joseph Beuys, and Gerhard Richter. In Peter Chametzky's innovative approach, these works become representatives rather than representations of twentieth-century history. That is, the art here does not simply illustrate an argument, the art is the argument. Chametzky draws on both scholarly and popular sources to demonstrate how the works (and in some cases, the artists themselves) interacted with, and even enacted, historical events, processes, and ideas. He asserts the continued historical role of material art works in an era when less material forms--photography, film, television, video, digital images--have assumed the function of visually depicting contemporary history. ... Read more

Product Description

Combining meticulous research with striking descriptions, Jörg Friedrich renders in acute detail the Allies' air campaign of systematic destruction of civilian life, cultural treasures, and industrial capacities in Germany's city landscape. He includes personal stories and firsthand testimony of German civilians, creating a portrait of unimaginable suffering, horror, and grief. He also draws on official military documents to unravel the reasoning behind the Allies' strikes.

Customer Reviews (32)

Great Hopes Denied
I had great hopes for this book, but at the end of the day I was sadly disappointed.
The beginning of the book appears to give equal voice to both side in the conflict. This approach wilts in the ensuing chapters.

Clearly the bombing of German cities in 1945 was a crime and one which produced few reults other than dead bodies.

Of course the same could be said about all of Bomber Commands attacks.

The Americans cannot be let off the hook with their "precision bombing" as that was nonsense.
All purely civilian targets were justified as "marshalling yard" targets.

Having said that, there are a number of contectual flaws in the book, the most egregious being the lack of maps. In addition, the author fails to provide citations for what I consider to be key assertions and or eyewitness accounts.

The book becomes something of a snore as the reader is pummelled with the number of dead and homeless in various small towns.

The author also alludes to Operation Clarion and its successful conclusion.
"Clarion" was something very different from what had gone before.

It targeted all rail, road and communication points in Germany. That meant the blowing up of small villages, which to date had been untouched by the war and had not contributed anything of value to the defence of Germany.

Clarion was short lived and accomplished as much as had been in the past. Which was very little.

Finally,there are two things which distress me most. One is the unnecessary cost in human life and the second is the destruction of the architecture which defines the history of Europe.

Fire Bombing, Strategic Air Campaign
The concept of winning a war by bombing the enemy was advanced by Giulio Douhet in the 1920's. The Germans bombed cities during the Spanish Civil war and in early WW2. The US Air Force, the British developed heavy bombers that took this theory to new levels.

The British, having survived the London Blitz made no secrets about bombing German cities & terror bombing. The perfection of the techniques was deliberate, scientific and very, very deadly. While the US tried to say they were aiming at factories and war industry only, US Leadership and the bombing crews knew different. I am not at all second guessing or criticizing what happened.

This book covers in very precise detail that history. If you ever wanted to know first hand what it was like to be on the receiving end of a fire raid, this book will show you. It can be very graphic and disturbing. There are times when it is dry, technical and yes, as a German author, he does not pull punches about the results of the bombing raids onGermany in WW2. However, he fully admits the reasons - the Germans did start it, it was the only way to bring the war to the Germans and in the end, it worked.

I found this to be extremely interesting and important reading. You cannot wage war without "collateral damage". The object of war is to crush enemy resistance and make them surrender. This book shows you the consequences of total war on the victors and victims. I highly recommended for any historians of WW2, the Strategic Air Campaign on Germany.

Keep things in perspective
As this book is history, and that of a little known chapter of history, it is a welcome book, and I do not dispute the facts.I however suggest readers also google Tanya Savicheva's Diary, and the sad fate of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, read Harrison Salisbury's "900 Days Siege of Leningrad", or Alexander Worth's "Russia at War" and watch the film "Come and See" to understand why "the fire" was necessary and place it in its' proper historical context.The innocents who perished in the fire bombings of Germany are those very people who democratically elected Hitler because he appealed to their vanities, and illustrate the importance of casting one's vote wisely and considering the full ramifications of one's supposedly innocuous decisions, even in today's era, where centripetal nationalistic tendancies are making their ugly reappearance.

First history of WW 2 published in the US and its a translation
To people familiar with histories in general and German history in particular, this book is a return to the gold standard of historiography:Tell it as it really was.Most so-called histories are
non-scientific, prejudiced this way or that and a waste of good paper.The Fire is actual history, not bearing the relationship to reality that
"HOUSE" (TV Doctor drama) plays to real medicine, but akin to a medical text to the physical condition.The true horror of the war, children burned alive in cribs by the thousands, protested by a single US Army General; bombing the same town or city many hundreds of times.Killing as genocide, as the US and UK Air Forces bombing fleeing women with babies trying to escape the horrors Stalin planned for the German population.This book is about the greatest disaster to befall Western Civilization, inflicting sickness unto death.People who react to this book with negativity may take a look at the issues talked about in Congress concerning saving the automobile industry and see moralistic positions and one-upsmanship and ignore the lives shattered.The first adult book about WW2 in English.

Disappointing
Sebald's essay on German literature about WW2 in the volume Campo Santo reminded me of this book, which I read a few months ago. It was a huge success in Germany, and, unfortunately, one suspects at least partly for the wrong reason. The subject, or rather the message, has been a taboo in Germany for rather long.
The history of the allied bombing raids against Germany needs to be written. Friedrich's book is not it. I doubt that it is of much use to anybody, unless the main purpose is the creation of a spirit of self pity.
The book is not historiography, it is a rather impressionist collection of events and isolated facts and harrowing tales. The writer had mountains of material, but he fails to give any structure to his narrative. The list of contents suggests that he arranged material according to subjects, rather than according to chronology, but that is misleading. The chapter titles seem to bear little relation to the chapter contents.
In short, it is a mess.
Why do I give it 2 stars? Only because Friedrich manages to make the single events come alife. The book contains, in that sense, quite a few short tales which would have been better placed in a collection of 'true' war stories.
In a way, the failure of the book is very unfortunate, because it clouds an important issue. I don't want to enter a debate about whether the bombings were 'justified' on a moral level. However I do have the impression that those who say that they were unnecessary have a point. The bombings of cities like Dresden served no military purpose. The stated objective of demoralization was not attained. The war was won by the invading armies from the SU and the US with some help from some others. In other words, very likely the bombing raids had more of a negative impact rather than a positive one for the war effort of the allies.
Sebald in Campo Santo points to the parallell with Vietnam: there, the bombings were useless, the war was lost anyway. In Germany, the bombings were possibly also useless, because the war was won without contribution from them. ... Read more

Product Description
During the Middle Ages, southwest Germany was one of the most prosperous areas of central Europe, but the Thirty Years' War brought devastating social and economic dislocation to the region. Focusing on the town of Schw„bisch Hall, Terence McIntosh explores the causes and consequences of the sluggish recovery of the region's urban communities in the century after the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. He argues that changing relations between town and countryside contributed significantly to the weakening of urban craft production and, therefore, to the region's urban stagnation.

In his economic and structural analysis of Schw„bisch Hall, McIntosh explores the significance and changes over time of wealth inequalities, marriage and migration patterns, and class formation. He demonstrates that the rapid proliferation of the rural craft industry within the region eroded the ability of small-scale urban artisans to keep pace. This process in turn profoundly affected the structure of urban society and economy. McIntosh's analysis constitutes a significant reinterpretation of the process of urban class formation and economic transformation in early modern Germany. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Spectacular Accomplishment
This is one of the most spectacular academic books that I have ever read. McIntosh clearly has a superb knowledge of this topic and he conveys his ideas in a clear, concise prose that is easy to read. As a student of history, I couldn't put this book down until I had read it from cover to cover. This is one of the best works on the urban decline in Early Modern Germany that has yet to be produced and is a must have for any student of European history. This book is a spectacular accomplishment in that the author is able to effectively combine his research with that of others and produce viable historical theories. This is a great read and you won't be sorry for making this purchase!

Not a Good Read
This book was by far the most horrid attempt at historical academic work I've ever read.Not to mention the fact that the author is one of the coldest, most mean-hearted men alive, historical ignorance and remedialwriting ability permeate this mind-numbing tome.Definitely not a goodread! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

BEWARE!!!
Beware of who you order from....I received my book and the entire book is upside down and the pages ad from right to left....beware!!!!

Japanvisitor.com Review
The premise of this book is that "schools and textbooks are important vehicles through which contemporary societies transmit ideas of citizenship and both the idealized past and the promised future". The 10 chapters look at how World War II and the Vietnam War are represented in school history textbooks in the 3 countries. Almost 50 years after the end of the war, controversy over Japanese text books continues to rage, and this book is useful to put that into some sort of perspective. Of the 10 chapters, 6 deal with Japan, including a chapter with all the details of Saburo Ienaga's famous textbook lawsuits against the Japanese government, and a couple of chapters on joint history projects between Japan and Korea, and Japan and the U.S. The common conception is that Japan has not yet faced up to its wartime past, and while I agree, after reading this book my view has been somewhat softened. Compared with the U.S.A., Japan has done more to teach its young about the negative side of its wars. If you enjoyed reading Ian Buruma's Wages of Guilt, then you will enjoy this book.

Should be required for High School/College Hist teachers
This is the best collection of essays on the "uses" of history and construction of national "memories" that I have read. This should be required reading in every high school social studies/history teacher certification program, and should be read by all who want to enter the debate on standardized testing and prescriptive curriculum content. I have used selections of it in my college level Japanese history course, my college level world history courses, and recommend it to my colleagues and also to the many high school teachers with whom I work. It shares valuable lessons on the manipulation of history for nationalistic and/or militaristic purposes.It should also be read by educational, defense, and foreign policy-makers as well as journalists who often seem too quick to pass on widely held myths as truths. Alas, I am afraid that many in these positions are more comfortable with the myths.

Fascinating, challenging, highly informative essays
Censoring History: Citizenship And Memory In Japan, Germany, And The United States is a fascinating, challenging, well written and highly informative anthology of essays about how history is almost inevitably distorted and revised by subsequent generations to meet their social, political and cultural needs and myths --and how such unwarranted revisions must be countered with an coherent understanding of the politics of education, from the writing and publication of textbooks to curriculum development and classroom instruction practices. Censoring History is critically important reading for anyone seeking to understand how and why the needs of nationalism would and do distort the recording and transmission of history, and the peril future generations are put to as those who do not know their history are so often doomed to repeat it in an age where nuclear war could end civilization and even the human race. ... Read more

Product Description
good ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Detailed coverage of the massive concrete towers used as anti-aircraft bastions, some of which still stand today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

An Excellent Read
An excellent book with photos and line drawings of the Anti Aircraft Towers the Germans built in WWII. It is amazing how much energy and resources were put into these fortifications, some of which still stand today. Tearing them down was too much effort. I think the book is a perfect length on this subject. There are photos during, after contstruction, as well as photos of the interior after the war. I am glad I purchased this book and recommend it for anyone interested in the history of fortifications.

An excellent examination of a rather esoteric subject
During World War Two Germany made some of the most unique military structures in history - their Flak Towers.

These were heavily reinforced massive concrete and steel structures designed to provide both platforms for the flak guns to fire against Allied air attacks and also to provide bomb shelters for the civilians seeking protection from those air attacks.

Whereas most bomb shelters and military bunkers were built into or below ground, these Flak Towers had to be built above ground.Their size and structure made them very unique and thus a fascinating thing to learn more about.

Michael Foedrowitz does an excellent job of detailing Germany's Flak Towers.There are plenty of photographs of each and he recounts the history of their construction, use during the war, and their eventual demise - or continued use to this day.

This is a little covered historical subject and this book, slim as it is, does a good job of providing a great wealth of detail on these wartime creations.

The best book so far.
This is a very interesting book about a very specific subject; almost no one so far had created a publication about these mighty FLAK towers, forgotten to all but those who sheltered and fought in them. The pictures are generally good and almost never seen before, and the text is informative and pleasant. This is a very useful book about a little known subject, a must for all those who studied the bombing offensive over the III Reich.

Fair Explanation of the famous Flak Towers used by the Germans in WWII
This book provides a fair explanation of the background, use, and effectiveness of what came to be known as the Flak Towers used by the Germans in World War II.

The Flak Towers were massive structures up to 12 stories high built of reinforced concrete whose exterior walls and roofs were up to 10 feet thick.They were designed and built in response to the Allied bombing of Berlin in August 1940.Flak Towers were only built in or around three cities:Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna.A total of 16 Flak Towers were built.Three sets (6 total) in Berlin, three in Vienna, and two in Hamburg.

The Flak Towers always came in pairs.Although both towers in each pair usually contained a multitude of Flak guns from 20mm to 128mm, one tower (always the taller and larger of the two) was commonly known as the gun tower on which four 128mm Flak cannons were placed on the roof.The second tower of each pair was commonly known as the radio or command tower.The primary function of the command tower was to scout oncoming Allied planes and notify the gun tower of sightlines on the planes.Alhtough not clearly explained in this book, it appears the necessity of a separate radio tower was due to the massive shock waves created by the simultaneous firing of multitudinous 128mm Flak cannon in the gun tower which either interfered with the radio waves themselves used by the radio tower to locate enemy planes or with the ability of personnel to use the radio equipment.

Each pair of towers was also self-contained, with, e.g., their own power and water supply.The towers were used for a multitude of purposes other than defense.For example, each set of towers appears to have had its own hospital.In addition, several sets of towers had specific floors set aside for the storage and preservation of art treasures from German musuems in Berlin and Vienna.Most commonly, the towers served as a refuge for civilians during Allied bombing runs.(Estimates of civilians holed up in a single one of these structures at the end of the war run from 20,000 to 40,000 and it is generally accepted that 20,000 is not an unlikely number.)

The Flak Towers were considered to be both impregnable and indestructible and by and large lived up to their reputation as none of the towers was ever toppled or even heavily damaged during the war despite being repeatedly hit by bombs and heavy artillery.After the war, for reasons that are unexplained, most were destroyed (but only after repeated and extensive demolition) in one fashion or another by the Allied powers in control of that sector of Germany in which they remained and then turned into rubble, which for each tower was a monumental task in itself.

This book is the only one of its kind that I could find in English.For that reason it deserves special merit.Unfortunately, the book suffers in several respects.First, the book was originally written in German and the translation often suffers in clarity (although whether this is due to the original text or the translation is unclear).Second, the text of the book is too choppy as subjects do not appear to be treated comprehensively or in an organized fashion.Third, the book contains a few anecdotes about the Flak Towers (e.g., (1) Hitler's famous call, "Where is Wenck?", originated from the Zoo Flak Tower in Berlin, which contained the last working radio communcations control center in the city in April 1945; (2) although it was claimed dozens of "old master" works from Vienna museums were destroyed by fire in one of the Vienna Flak Towers at the end of the war, many of these works nonetheless appeared on the art market over the years; and (3) apparently German spectators at the site of one of the many attempts to demolish one of the Flak Towers after the war proudly cheered "German made!German made!" when the tower refused to fall) but does not contain any stories per se by Flak Tower survivors (i.e., those that worked, fought, or sought refuge in them).Fourth, much of the information provided is incomplete or contradictory so that the book only provides a very basic or general review of these structures.

That being said (and the author does acknowledge that information on the Flak Towers is woefully incomplete), the book is a fascinating look at this aspect of German defenses in World War II, particularly as it relates to the last days of WWII in Berlin when the Zoo Flak Tower was such a focal point for civilians and soldiers alike but is not likely to be of much interest to anyone other than serious students of the history of German defenses during World War II.(The book includes pictures of actual scale models used in designing the Flak Towers as well as photos of the towers during construction, in use, and after the war, including demolitions.)

A brief pictorial tour of a seldom-seen facet of WW2
You will find numerous pictures of Nazi flak towers during the period mentioned in the book's title, but I felt that wartime anecdotes from TurmFlak crews, as well as more technical data, would have enhanced thiswork.Still, it is a good presentation of defensive works that often gooverlooked in World War 2 history. ... Read more

Product Description
Real war stories told by real soldiers for readers who want to know what it was like to be in the thick of battle. These are riveting combat narratives about the weapons and warriors of some of history's bloodiest conflicts. Each book is a gritty, action-oriented account of life and death in the heat of battle. Original titles as well as long out-of-print gems will explore conflicts ranging from the blood-soaked fields of the Civil War to the current war on terror and everything in between. The books are published as high-quality and affordable trade paperbacks, making them terrific editions for all who are interested in military history.

The Waffen SS were considered the elite of the German armed forces in the Second World War and were involved in almost continuous combat. From the sweeping tank battle of Kursk on the Russian front to the bitter fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy and the last great offensive in the Ardennes, forever immortalized in history as the Battle of the Bulge, these men and their tanks made history.

Illustrations: 32 b/w photos; 15 drawings; 4 maps ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Armor Battles of the Waffen SS
I have purchsed several of this series, and all have been in perfect condition. I have been interested in militaty history since a teenager (1963) and am 60 now. These are informative books.

Tanks a lot!
Kinda disappointed with the book. Disjointed presentation that did not really hold my interest that much. Of course, it was written by tankers of the Third Reich, so I should have expected the presentation as it was.

good insight from the point of view of Waffen-SS tank commanders
I would agree generally with the other reviews, that this is a collection of battle reports, possibly oral histories.I would have liked to see reference and/or foot notes and a bibliography so that other sources could be researched.I doubt this would serve as a primary source for any historical thesis, but I did find it interesting.

Uneven effort, but some gems
A prosepctive reader should know up front that Willi Fey's "Armor Battles Of The Waffen SS" is as much an apologia for his SS- service, and an attempt at rehabilitation of the Waffen-SS, as much as it is a history. Fey inexcuxably glosses over well-established atrocities by the Waffen-SS (according to Fey there was no Malmedy massacre, and Peiper was framed). He attempts to paint Germany's invasion of Russia and the resulting brutal war as an honorable struggle against barbarism and cruel bolshevism which Germany nobly undertook on behalf of all Western Civilization (and for which the West should even today be grateful). He is even resentful of how generously the US supplied the Soviet Union, and is at pains to point out how many Soviet tanks were American-built. One has to wonder whether the post-war "de-nazification" programs completely overlooked Fey.

But even with such failings there are still gems of history to be found. Fey's book is not itself truly a history, with smoothly-flowing chronology and a narrative which weaves the parts into a whole. Rather, Fey has stitched together a quilt-like creation, consisting variously of official after-action reports of battalions or regiments, individual reports by tank commanders or crewmen of single actions within a larger battle, and portions of diaries or memoirs. Structurally it makes for a confusing hash. But there is defintiely meat here.

As mentioned in other reviews, much of the writing is a dry recitation of battles and a summing up of victories and losses; just so much bean-counting. However, the excerpts of diaries and memoirs are for the most part riveting, even jaw-dropping. Such is the remembrance of a tank commander of the weeks-long struggle to escape from the Halbe Pocket in April of 1945. The immense suffering of both the fallen and the survivors as they struggled around the clock, day after day, in countless savage battles for their lives is brought to life. Even those readers who are familiar with other memoirs of war on the Eastern Front will be struck by how vividly the ferocity of the fighting, as well as the growing feeling of panic among the SS troops, is portrayed.

I was stunned as well by Fey's accounts of the final days of fighting in Berlin, and how the very last armored vehicles controlled by the Reich were brought into action. I had neverread anywhere of German armor being used in the last couple of days in Berlin, and this account I found to be a revelation. Simply breathtaking.

For all the book's faults, and notwithstanding Fey's intellectual dishonesty and wilfull blindness about the SS, these two accounts alone, for me, make the book worthwhile. I would say that the general reader might do better elsewhere since there are so many well-written and honest memoirs available, even among former SS members. But this book is almost vital for the serious amateur interested in armor battles of the SS in World War II. There is a flavor of desperation about the final battles which I have found in no other work.

Brief mix of experiences
This book, reflects experiences of some of the battles where the Waffen SS were involved. Is not a detailed description of battles or unis involved, is more a collection of reports that provides colour to other books or other informations that reader may have, reflecting report writers involvement and anecdotes. ... Read more

Product Description
Over 20 years of research went into the creation of this history of the development, characteristics, and capabilities of the Panther. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Germany's Panther Tank - Superior book
This is an excellent book for all serious armor fans and historians. The text is extremely detailed, printed on high glossy paper, there are tons of crisp B&W photos, line drawings and each change/development of the Panther tank is outlined. The inside, exterior and photos of the tank in action are shown to good effect. There are also reports back from the tankers who used the Panther in action - what was good, what changes they wanted to make it better and what the US tankers thought of the Panther tank.

A replacement for the Panzer Mark III had been begun as early as 1938, but the real sense of urgency came after the encounters with the Russian T-34 and KV-1s. Tank for tank, the Panther is argueably the best of WW2. But is was complex, not easy to maintain and the Allies produced more tanks in a month than all of Germany's tank production in a year.

Four stars - why not five? For this price, I'd like to see a few pages of color plates showing the camouflage schemes used on the Panther. The majority of line drawings are in English, but some of the German documents were not translated, a disservice to many customers.

I bought this book in 1996, I'd buy it again. It's really a must have for WW2 armor students, those who want a definative account of the Panther tank. A great addition to the collection.

Panther Tank-The Quest for Combat Supremacy
Thomas Jentz and Hillary Doyle have done it again with this publication. A fine, quality publication that will be often used as reference by the serious modeling enthusiast. Outstanding and valuable vintage images of the exterior and interiors of the various versions of this famous combat vehicle. Images are clear and offer great details for the modeler.

Scale line drawing of the versions are supplemented by original engineering drawings that offer additional details.

The narrative offers insight into the design, construction and modifications required by combat experience.

Chapter nine covers the final version, the Ausf. F model, that never saw combat.Several fine images of this prototype model are included.

There is a chapter on planned versions that never made into production, along with production histories of the Ausf D, A and G versions, along with a chapter on operational characteristics, and the book is summarized Chapter 10, Operational History.

This book is a very worthwhile addition to the reference library of anyone interested in military history, or those who engage in the hobby of modeling historical vehicles.Buy it!You will not be sorry.This is a reference that will be used often.

Panther, a little dated
I found the panther book well researched but a little basic. Some areas including the more obscure late war options need more detail and the book itself would benefit from the latest research. The book is a good read and as such represents good value but leaves you wanting more. Perhaps the Trojca books or similar would be a better option.

Germany's Panther Tank
This book provides an excellent technical and developmental history of the Panther. The author has obviously done his research on this vehicle. The book is well worth the price.

Panther Tank in extreme detail
The ultimate guide to the Panther Tank, is full of detail acounting the progress from drawing board to final version of this extremly well designed battle tank of world war two. Excellent for detail for the modeller keen on fine detailing the Panther Tank in any of its versions. Great read and some fine drawinings of all the Panther Tank models built during the war.
Well worth the money. ... Read more

Product Description
Imperial Germany, 1871-1918 offers comprehensive coverage of the major issues of the Second Reich from its formation in 1871.Including discussion of Germany as the power center of Europe and detailing both domestic and foreign policy, Stephen Lee clearly explains and contextualizes the formation and structure of the Second Reich. With essential analysis of the economy, society, World War One and collapse, this book aids understanding of wider European history and Germany's role in the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great for essays or quick comprehension of the time period
This book contains significant information of the era popularly termed Wilhelmine.It is concise and provides different perspectives on topics concerning Imperial Germany.It is great for reference as well as ideal inaiding essay writing for students of history. ... Read more

Product Description
The first comprehensive history of the Chrysler Corporation, this book is intended for readers interested in the history of automobiles and of American business, and for fans and critics of Chrysler's products. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Not bad but...
Pretty good book, but has a couple of inaccuracies. Other than that it pretty much tells the story and makes me no longer wonder why Chrysler has always seemed to be a feast or famine car company.

A brilliant effort on a flawed company
Excellent analysis of the somewhat tortured history of Chrysler. From humble beginnings to corporate powerhouse, Professor Hyde brings to life a story on Chrysler seldom told with such rich detail. Inside you'll find facts and figures to back up Hyde's thesis.Chrysler is certainly a roller coaster, for customers, employees, and shareholders. Hyde's account is balanced and insightful and no automotive afficionado should be without this book.

a major contribution to business and technological history
In many ways the most interesting of the "Big Three" automobile manufacturers, the Chrysler Corporation has seen as many ups and downs as the evocative title of this volume suggests.Charles Hyde, a professor of history at Wayne State University, has produced a thorough, scholarly, yet highly readable book on a company that was the second largest producer of automobiles in North America at several points in its long history and was nearly out of business at others. The main thread of this fascinating story begins with the formation of a new automobile company by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925 and ends shortly after the merger of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz in 1998.However, Hyde has also given us detailed coverage of the developments that led up to the formation.

This is primarily a business history with a focus on corporate management and the marketing of automobiles.It is also a study of Chrysler products and the technology that created them. Hyde is both an economic historian and an industrial archaeologist.His understanding of assembly line production and the architecture of automobile plants is second to none.He says in his preface that "The origins of this book go back to late 1980, when I took on the monumental task of documenting the sprawling Dodge Main factory complex in Hamtramck, Michigan, before its demolition."

Hyde has filled an important need by writing the definitive history of the Chrysler Corporation.This is much more than a synthesis of existing scholarship. Most of his
interpretation is based on original archival research. Among the many significant historical contributions is his coverage of Dodge Brothers, which became a key part of Chrysler in 1928. Also very impressive is Hyde's discussion of the Chrysler Airflow (1934-1937), a major advance in engineering but a failure in style and sales.He even devotes an entire chapter to Chrysler's amazingly effective shift to military production for World War II.

The fascinating characters in this book give it a vitality lacking in most business histories.Hyde provides a new look at Walter P. Chrysler, one that sometimes differs from the image that this dynamic captain of industry tried to project in his autobiography.Those who need another fix of Lee Iacocca stories will not be disappointed.We also learn a great deal about such important but often overlooked figures as Carl Breer and Virgil Exner, who had so much to do
with the form and function of Chrysler products.

Riding the Roller Coaster should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the automobile industry. Serious scholars will welcome the new information and insights that Hyde delivers in every chapter. Those who simply love cars or want to understand the business strategies that produce them will also be pleased by this fine book.

Entire Chrysler story: Dodge/Plymouth/Exner/NASCAR/Up/Down..
I really like old Chrysler and especially old Dodge cars and trucks and until I read this book I hadn't read the entire company story in one book before. There are other books about Walter Chrysler and the Dodge Bros. and Lee Iacocca and their cars but not everything told together in one big story before. This book starts at the very beginning of Walter Chrysler's career when he worked sweeping the floors at the Chicago & Great Western Railroad and how he was one of the early pioneers that saw the potential of the automobile. Eventually he went to work for Buick and learned the business so well he bought his own car company.

This book also tells the curious history of the Dodge Bros. and how they worked with Henry Ford but then decided to build their own Dodge Bros. cars which Chrysler later bought out. The book covers the Great Depression and how the company managed to get through it when so many other companies failed. The author also tells how Chrysler contributed to WWII by building military equipment. I especially liked the chapters on the '50's and 60's which tells about how Chrysler needed to build dealerships in the suburbs and sun belt states to survive--I hadn't ever read that before--and how they got Virgil Exner to design their cars. I really liked the parts on Carl Kiekhaefer and NASCAR in the mid-'50s.

I kind of get tired of reading about Lee Iacocca so I mostly skipped over that part and I'm not much interested in the later Chryslers except the Viper but I thought this was a really good book about the company. It's got some statistical tables and lots of illustrations. I met the author at my library where he spoke about his book and he was very friendly and signed my book.

Nothing new
This book is fine for someone who has no previous knowledge of the subject.However, for anyone who has read other materials on this topic, this book had nothing new to say, even though there was much that could be said, particularly of the post-Iacocca and post-DC merger eras.

For my money, Moritz' and Seaman's "Going For Broke" remains the best book on the history of the old Chrysler Corp., even though that book is now 23 years old. ... Read more

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Within days of the publication of the first edition of this two-volume work the Berlin Wall was being dismantled, and within one year almost to the day Germany once more became one country and the Federal Republic of West Germany ceased to exist. The fully revised second edition describes the dramatic events of late 1989 and 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic collapsed and Germany was united by a combination of popular protest and urgent negotiation. It also contains full and detailed revisions throughout both volumes, and may now be said to be, in every sense of the word, definitive. The work is richly illustrated with photographs, maps and tables, fully referenced and indexed. Each volume has been arranged so that it may be read and used independently of the other. ... Read more

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Fatherlands explores the nature of identity in nineteenth-century Germany, and has crucial implications for our understanding of nationalism, German unification and the German state in the modern era. It approaches these questions from a new and important angle, that of the non national territorial state, exploring the state-building process in non-Prussian Germany. The issues covered range from railway construction and German industrialization, to the modernization of German monarchy, the emergence of a free press, the development of a modern educational system, and the role of monuments, museums and public festivities. ... Read more

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Illustrated. Formatted for the Kindle. Linked Contents.

CONTENTS

BOOK I.
Introduction. — General effects of the Reformation. — Revolt of Matthias.— The Emperor cedes Austria and Hungary to him. — Matthias acknowledged King of Bohemia. — The Elector of Cologne abjures the Catholic Religion.— Consequences. — The Elector Palatine. — Dispute respecting the
Succession of Juliers. — Designs of Henry IV. of France. — Formation of the Union. — The League. — Death of the Emperor Rodolph. — Matthias succeeds him. — Troubles in Bohemia. — Civil War. — Ferdinand extirpates
the Protestant Religion from Styria. — The Elector Palatine, Frederick V., is chosen King by the Bohemians. — He accepts the Crown of Bohemia. — Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, invades Austria. — The Duke of
Bavaria and the Princes of the League embrace the cause of Ferdinand. — The Union arm for Frederick. — The Battle of Prague and total subjection of Bohemia.

BOOK II.
State of the Empire. — Of Europe. — Mansfeld. — Christian, Duke of Brunswick. — Wallenstein raises an Imperial Army at his own expense. — The King of Denmark defeated. — Death of Mansfeld. — Edict of Restitution in 1628. — Diet at Ratisbon. — Negociations. — Wallenstein deprived of the Command. — Gustavus Adolphus. — Swedish Army. — Gustavus
Adolphus takes his leave of the States at Stockholm. — Invasion by the Swedes. — Their progress in Germany. — Count Tilly takes the Command of the Imperial Troops. — Treaty with France. — Congress at Leipzig. — Siege
and cruel fate of Magdeburg. — Firmness of the Landgrave of Cassel. — Junction of the Saxons with the Swedes. — Battle of Leipzig. — Consequences of that Victory.

BOOK III.
Situation of Gustavus Adolphus after the Battle of Leipzig. — Progress of Gustavus Adolphus. — The French invade Lorraine. — Frankfort taken. — Capitulation of Mentz. — Tilly ordered by Maximilian to protect Bavaria. — Gustavus Adolphus passes the Lech. — Defeat and Death of Tilly. — Gustavus takes Munich. — The Saxon Army invades Bohemia, and takes
Prague. — Distress of the Emperor. — Secret Triumph of Wallenstein. — He offers to Join Gustavus Adolphus. — Wallenstein re-assumes the Command. — Junction of Wallenstein with the Bavarians. — Gustavus Adolphus
defends Nuremberg. — Attacks Wallenstein's Intrenchments. — Enters Saxony. — Goes to the succour of the Elector of Saxony. — Marches against Wallenstein. — Battle of Lutzen. — Death of Gustavus Adolphus. — Situation of Germany after the Battle of Lutzen.

BOOK IV.
Closer Alliance between France and Sweden. — Oxenstiern takes the Direction of Affairs. — Death of the Elector Palatine. — Revolt of the Swedish Officers. — Duke Bernhard takes Ratisbon. — Wallenstein enters Silesia. — Forms Treasonable Designs. — Forsaken by the Army. — Retires to Egra. —
His associates put to death. — Wallenstein's death. — His Character.

BOOK V.
Battle of Nordlingen. — France enters into an Alliance against Austria. — Treaty of Prague. — Saxony joins the Emperor. — Battle of Wistock gained by the Swedes. — Battle of Rheinfeld gained by Bernhard, Duke of Weimar.
— He takes Brisach. — His death. — Death of Ferdinand II. — Ferdinand III. succeeds him. — Celebrated Retreat of Banner in Pomerania. — His Successes. — Death. — Torstensohn takes the Command. — Death of Richelieu and Louis XIII. ... ... Read more

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Society, Culture, and the State in Germany, 1870-1930 draws together important new work on the Kaiserreich--the period between Bismarck's unification of Germany and the First World War.
Work on the Kaiserreich built up impressive momentum during the 1970s and 1980s, when a series of inspiring but divisive controversies called into question the ways in which German historical development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was mainly understood. These discussions focused on issues of continuity between Bismarck and Hitler and the peculiar strength of authoritarianism in German political culture, raising important questions about the deep origins of Nazism and about Germany's alleged differences from the West.
The collection purposefully brings certain issues and approaches into the foreground. These include the value of taking gender seriously as a priority of historical work; the emergence of social policy and welfare during the early twentieth century; religious belief and affiliation as a neglected dimension in modern German history; the tremendous importance of the First World War as a climacteric; and the exciting potentials of cultural studies and the new cultural history.
A varied group, the contributors embrace different kinds of history and certainly do not subscribe to a common line. Some essays suggest alternative periodizations and focus on the early twentieth century decades rather than the integral unity of the Kaiserreich as such. Together, they take stock of the field, critically synthesizing existing knowledge and laying down agendas for the future.
Geoff Eley is Professor of History, University of Michigan.
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By studying the dissemination and acceptance of ideas of birth control James Woycke attempts to show that attitudes quite similar to those found in liberal circles today were widespread among ordinary men and women in Germany from the turn of the century. ... Read more