Giles MacDonogh Book order

A rich and refreshing exploration of Germany, Germans and Germanness.

The history of the world is largely the history of warfare. The first recorded wars were fought in ancient Sumeria over 5,000 years ago and various conflicts continue to rage in the world we live in today. The Great Battles is a lavish and comprehensive introduction to those clashes that have altered the course of history. -- Front fly leaf.

Explores the moment when Hitler gambled everything. Until 1938, Hitler could be dismissed as a ruthless but efficient dictator, a problem to Germany alone; after 1938 he was clearly a threat to the entire world. This book offers a revealing account of Hitler's opening moves to war.

Until 1938, Hitler might have been simply a ruthless dictator whose 'reforms' included purging Germany of communists and socialists and removing Jews from public life. In this masterly new work, acclaimed historian Giles MacDonogh explores the moment when Hitler gambled everything. Until 1938, Hitler could be dismissed as a ruthless but efficient dictator, a problem to Germany alone; after 1938 he was clearly a threat to the entire world

Focusing on the life of the father of gastronomy, this biography delves into Brillat's diverse pursuits while painting a vivid portrait of provincial France during the ancien regime and the tumultuous aftermath of its collapse. It elegantly intertwines the realms of revolutionaries and culinary enthusiasts, showcasing a rich historical context through meticulous scholarship.

In 1945 Germany was a nation in tatters. Swathes of its population were despairing, homeless, bombed-out and on the move. Refugees streamed towards the West and soldiers made their way home, often scarring the villages they passed through with parting shots of savagery. Politically the country was neutered, carved into zones of occupation. While Britain and America were loathe to repeat the crippling reparations demands of the First World War, Russia bayed for blood, stripping their own zone of everything from rail tracks to lavatory bowls. After the Reich is the first history to give the full picture of Germany's bitter journey to reconstruction. Giles Macdonogh expertly charts the varied experiences of all who found themselves in the German melting pot. His people-focused narrative unveils shocking truths about how people continued to treat each other, even outside the confines of war. It is a crucial lesson for our times.

Alice Herz-Sommer was born in 1903 in Prague—the Prague of the Hapsburgs and of Franz Kafka, a family friend. Musically very gifted, by her mid-teens Alice was one of the best-known pianists in Prague. But as the Nazis swept across Europe her comfortable, bourgeois world began to crumble around her, as anti-Jewish feeling not only intensified but was legitimized. In 1942, Alice's mother was deported. Desperately unhappy, she resolved to learn Chopin's 24 Etudes—the most technically demanding piano pieces she knew—and the complex but beautiful music saved her sanity. A year later, she, too—together with her husband and their six-year-old son—was deported to a concentration camp. But even in Theresienstadt, music was her salvation and in the course of more than 100 concerts she gave her fellow prisoners hope in a world of pain and death. This is her remarkable story, but it is also the story of a mother's struggle to create a happy childhood for her beloved only son in the midst of atrocity and barbarism. Of 15,000 children sent to the camp, Raphael was one of the 130 who survived. Today, Alice Herz-Sommer lives in London and she still plays the piano every day.

On breaking open the Berlin Bunker on 2 May 1945, Soviet troops captured two of Adolf Hitler's closest associates: his personal valet, Heinz Linge, and his SS adjutant, Otto Guensche. The two men had just disposed of the bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun. On Stalin's orders they were questioned for two years, to produce this astonishing fly-on-the wall account of all they saw in Hitler's headquarters, where they had worked since 1933. It has been held in top-level Russian archives since 1949. The book contains remarkable insight into Hitler's daily life before and during the Second World War. Chilling, revealing and compellingly readable, it is one of the most authentic sources of information in existence on the history of the Third Reich, unique in the circumstances of its compilation and its closeness in time to the events described.

"Prussia's last King and Germany's last Kaiser was born in Potsdam on 27 January 1859, the son of Prince Frederick of Prussia and Princess Vicky, Queen Victoria's eldest child. William was born with a withered arm and suffered from cerebral palsy; many historians have sought in this a clue to his behaviour in later life." "William became Kaiser aged 29. Two years later he drove Bismarck out after the latter had blocked his liberal social policy. He destabilized the Iron Chancellor's foreign policy by failing to renew the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia, a decision which opened the way for Russia's alliance with France in 1894. He went on to build a powerful fleet." "Historically he has been blamed for World War I, although he made real efforts to prevent it. He has been branded an anti-semite, but ironically the Nazis wrote him off as a 'Jew-lover'. In this fascinating, authoritative new life, MacDonogh, widely praised for his biography of Frederick the Great, takes a fresh look at this complex and contradictory statesman and the charges against him to find that many of these can no longer be upheld."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Frederick the Great (1712-1786) was one of the most successful and controversial European monarchs. He became King of Prussia at the age of 29, which he went on to weld into one of the most formidable powers of Europe. He created a Royal Court that was the envy of Europe, surrounding himself with intellectuals, musicians, artists, philosophers, and in many ways he was the embodiment of the enlightened monarch of the 18th century. He abolished physical punishment, he was the architect of his houses and several public buildings in Potsdam, he dabbled in musical composition, and was a brave and much-feared soldier. Admired and idolized during the years after German unification, he suffered a downturn in his reputation with the cataclysmic defeat of the Germans in 1918.Giles MacDonogh's biography gives us the most modern and fully-rounded portrait yet of a much misunderstood king.