|
1938: Hitler's Gamble |  | Author: Giles MacDonogh
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $12.00
as of 3/10/2010 22:17 WIT details
You Save: $15.50 (56%)
New (25) Used (12) Collectible (1) from $9.34
Seller: derekzac
Rating:  5 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1St Edition
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0465009549
Dewey Decimal Number: 943.086
EAN: 9780465009541
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780465009541 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In this masterful narrative, acclaimed historian Giles MacDonogh chronicles Adolf Hitler’s consolidation of power over the course of one year. 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. It was in 1938 that Third Reich came of age. The Führer brought Germany into line with Nazi ideology and revealed his plans to take back those parts of Europe lost to “Greater Germany” after the First World War. From the purging of the army in January through the Anschluss in March, from the Munich Conference in September to the ravages of Kristallnacht in November, MacDonogh offers a gripping account of the year Adolf Hitler came into his own and set the world inexorably on track to a cataclysmic war.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 RISE OF NAZI GERMANY January 26, 2010
James L. Woolridge (Sunny Florida)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Giles Mac Donogh author of numerous books on Germany, like the award winning AFTER THE REICH, leads us through the rise to power of Hitler's regime. He shows us that 1938 was the pivotal year, the invasion of Austria and the Sudetenlands, the purges, rallies and propaganda machines within Germany and the reluctance of the west to move against Hitler when it could have, all lead to WWII. This is a great book to get an overview from a real authority about the menace that came from Germany. It is wonderfully written and easy to follow and understand. Recommended.
The momentous events of 1938 that will lead to war January 8, 2010
Dave Schranck (Anaheim Ca)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
The author sees 1938 as a cataclysmic and pivotal year whose events will foreshadow the coming of war the following year.
Hitler wasn't a long term master planner but he was smart enough to know that he and his Nazi party had to be in firm control of the government and country before he could successfully begin waging war and mayhem on Europe. With the help of Goring and a few other dedicated Nazis, Hitler escalated his efforts to remove non Nazis from office and the military command and replace them with dedicated or at least sympathetic people who would do Hitler's bidding. Besides regaining the Rhineland, Hitler also wanted Austria, Danzig, Sudetenland and eventually most of Czechoslovakia. It will be imperative to control the natural resources of Czechoslovakia if Hitler was going to wage war. The closing down of the governing body and raising himself to Dictator was necessary also. The confiscation of Jewish assets and the deporting of or the internment of Jews in camps was another high priority of the dictator.
The author, in a concise manner, will described the above events and many more that will take place in 1938 that will galvanize Hitler to close down the ruling government in Germany, terrorize and eliminate the freedom of its people and the freedom of many people in Austria, Czechoslovakia and much of Europe over the next two years. Mr MacDonogh will also discuss Hitler as not a master planner but a gambler who knows how to play the hands he's dealt as well as the players at the table. The way he played the Anschluss and the plebiscite and later in the year the vom Rath incident was clever. The way Hitler with the help of Mussolini, using the threat of war, intimidated Chamberlain and Daladier to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for the sake of peace was masterful. As Hitler's confidence that Britain and France would not intercede, his armament program became more bold and obvious.
The author clearly shows the monthly progression of success of achieving his early goals, caused Hitler to strive for even loftier goals. He also shows the politicians in Britain, France, Austria and Czechoslovakia as helpless as Hitler weaves his treachery.
I liked the book. It was concise yet informing but gave it four stars for the commanding works by Richard Evans or Ian Kershaw is more to my liking. Or if the year 1938 really interests you, you could also try "Munich 1938". It has less breadth of topics than this book but it has greater depth of characterization and would be a good complement. However if you're looking for a concise, easy to follow read that shows the environment of which spawn WWII, this book would be a good choice.
SHOULD BE ON OBAMAS READING LIST November 18, 2009
EAJ (Troy, MI)
18 out of 61 found this review helpful
LETS GET A COPY OF THIS TO OBAMA, GIVEN THAT IT DOCUMENTS THE WESTS LOST OPPORTUNITIES TO STOP HITLER. HOW RELEVENT IS THAT NOW WITH IRAN, NORTH KOREA, RUSSIA.
"MacDonogh's narrative of the events of 1938 makes compelling but painful reading. The month-by-month format he has adopted emphasizes the improvisation that was at the heart of Hitler's strategy, and highlights more cruelly the opportunities that were lost, even a year before the start of the war, to call his bluff and thrust events onto a different path. "What if?" remains the most tantalizing of historical questions, but this absorbing book obliges us to ask it."
 Readable, but not great January 27, 2010
LagunaDave (Laguna Beach, CA USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I was somewhat disappointed by this book. The author rushes through momentous international events like the departure of Anthony Eden from the British cabinet (a total of one sentence on the resignation that removed the last, powerful voice against appeasement from the British government), but spends dozens of pages recounting anecdotal stories of the plight of refugees from post-Anschluss Austria. While the impact of Nazi occupation and persecution is a story that deserves to be told, I wasn't expecting to find it here.
MacDonough's book is primarily focused on Germany's perspective, both the leadership and the victims of the Nazi regime. As such, important decisions and events in other countries seem to get short shrift. While it is a readable narrative, I find the strict chronological format gets in the way of the bigger picture.
Having recently also read David Faber's Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II, the gulf in the level of analysis is striking. Faber's takes the reader behind the scenes of the political and diplomatic manuevering in Germany, Britain, Italy, France and Czechoslovakia, and makes the reasons decisions were taken transparent. MacDonough, on the other hand, mainly just relates what happened without providing any real insights. Covering as they do essentially the same period, I would strongly recommend Faber's book over this one, at least for readers interested in the origins of the war.
A Missed Opportunity February 9, 2010
historybuff
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I expected a lot more when I sat down to read this book. 1938 was truly a momentous year. But this book does not even come close to telling a good story. A lot of the book is devoted to the plight of the Jews, especially those from Austria who came under Nazi domination after the Anschluss. Only in the end did I find out that the author's family were Austrian Jews. The story of the Austrian Jews should be told, but in a seperate book. This book should have been devoted to the political and diplomatic maneuvering that market this year as special. If this is a book about Hitler's gamble then that is what the book should have focused on. What does the mistreatment of the Austrian Jews or Kristallnacht have to do with Hitler's political and diplomatic machinations? In my opinion what Hitler did to the Jews in 1938 was so horrendous that the author should have written a book solely on that subject.
|
|
|
|
| |
