Book Description
Russian playwright and historian Radzinsky mines sources never before available to create a fascinating portrait of the monarch, and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days. Updated For The Paperback Edition.
Customer Reviews:
Magnificent biography!.......2007-08-22
I absolutely loved this book. Once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. This was the first biography about Tsar Nicholas II that I had ever read. It gives excellent background information about the country, its history and the politics, so even if you're not at all familiar with Russian history/politics, you can still follow. Excellent purchase!!
It's OK.......2007-01-10
The history is all there in detail. Very interesting, particuarly if you are into tzar history like I am. However, the book is really hard to read. It usually takes me no longer than a week to read a book, but this one actually took me almost 2 months.
"It's the way he turns a phrase".......2006-07-28
With Radzinsky the art comes before the history and that's why this is my favourite addition to the "Romanov canon". This is not to overlook how thrilling in terms of new material "The Last Tsar" was when it was first translated and published (the "Yurovsky Note" comes to mind), and all those lovely until then unknown archive sources. These opened up new avenues of thought and allowed Radzinsky to theorise in a way I found compelling. Except, how much of it could be trusted?
This is the problem with this subject in total. It's an epoch in recent history in the process of being re-constructed, after 70 years of communism in effect shut Russian imperial history down. A detailed picture of imperial Russia at the end of empire is in the process of being written. But in Radzinsky's account I caught the flavour of the times and that's more important to me than measuring his facts, weighing his sources. Most serious readers on this subject know enough in 2006 to discount the more imaginative flights in this book, and for everyone else it's a glorious, rackety, heart-rending read.
An excellent book.......2006-05-27
This was a great book written during the time that the Romanov bones had been uncovered. It gives an interesting portrayl of Nicholas and Alexandra. Most interesting of all is the love story between Nicholas and his former mistress, Mathilde Kschessinka, who years later would meet a woman claiming to be the daughter of the Tsar (Anna Anderson) and she would recognize her as his daughter because of the 'Emperor's look'.
It is somewhat dated however. Since this book has been published, Russian and American scientists have argued passionately amonst themselves as to whether the remains of Grand Duchess Marie or Anastasia are missing. Then the bones were tested for DNA and proved a match and then they were compared with the tissue of Anna Anderson 'proving' she was not a Romanov. However, these tests are not as valid today as they were then. For more on that, visit my website: http://www.geocities.com/anastasiagrandduchess/
In 1998, the bones were interred in the Cathedral of Saint Paul, although the Russian Orthodox Church rejected the authenticity of the remains.
Barely.......2006-04-12
"In the morning drank hot chocolate, dressed in my Life Guard reserves uniform. ...Took a walk in the garden with papa [Tsar Alexander III]. We chopped & sawed wood and made a great bonfire." Thus begins the diary that Nicholas Romanov would keep for 36 years without interruption; beginning January 1882. Upon the assassination of his grandfather (Alexander II) his father succeeded to the throne March 1, 1881; putting 13 year-old Nicky next in line. The bulk of this book by Edvard Radzinsky, actually, (along with excerpts of letters) consists of such diary entries; by Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, as well as several others. (One chapter---pages 132-166---is little more than letter excepts of the royal couple's correspondence with each other.) Mind you, such excepts are not without merit, but they don't really get much more interesting than the above. Nicholas referring to Alexandra: "Am inexpressibly happy with Alix. It is a shame my duties take up so much time..." (17 Nov 1894). Alix to Nicholas, during the war: "we were occupied all morning---during an operation a soldier died...the girls were brave---they...had never seen a death." (Nov 25, 1914). However, they did 3 years earlier see---according to the author---the minister Peter Stolypin get "shot before Nicholas's very own eyes." "Thus his children witnessed murder for the first time," Radzinsky states. But Stolypin didn't die right then & moreover, compare what Nicholas later wrote to his mother (a letter not included in this book): "We had just left our box [in the theater] during the second intermission...suddenly we heard two noises...and ran back into the box. To the right...opposite me...stood Stolypin...blood on his hand & tunic.... Olga and Tatiana entered the box after me..." Radzinsky is not at all clear at times like this and, in addition, engages in such pure speculative comments as this (referring to the Bolsheviks transporting Nicholas & family into Ekaterinburg): "They were put in automobiles." Behind them in a truck were the Red Guards. Nicholas, I think, appreciated this ironic smile of fate." The author also states that the murder of the tsar & his family in Ekaterinburg "had been decided upon from the very start" (ie., upon arrival there); and that some Bolsheviks attempted to manufacture an incident that would justify their elimination. The author thus posits that a secret note conveyed to the tsar with his food from a local monastery was a set-up. Why Nicholas would refer to this in his diary who knows, but Radzinsky suggests (with no evidence) that some spy "carefully put the diary back in its place so that the tsar would not notice anything..." after reading what the tsar wrote. But, "of course he [the tsar] realized this was a trap." And "by leaving that entry in his diary he knew he was sentencing himself to death"; thereby perhaps saving his family, in the author's view. But then Radzinsky states that it must have occured to Lenin that if Nicholas was killed the tsar's family could not be allowed to remain a "living banner." So this thought, apparently, would be obvious for Lenin only. Such pure speculation as this runs throughout this book. In addition we get "treated" to the reminiscences of "Vera Leonidovna Yureneva---a star of the stage from the turn of the century," a person whom the author was acquainted with in his academic youth. She is quoted at length (on 2 dozen pages). But akin to the author's dubious impressions of the tsar's thinking we are also supposed to accept at face value this woman's impressions of this era as well. Oddly too, the only details of Rasputin's end herein are what this woman remembers them to have been. To boot, this (generally competent, but often sloppy) 1992 book still has not been updated to include the story of the last tsar's remains ultimate DNA identification and burial in St. Petersburg. Thanks for reading my view. (06Apr) Cheers!
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Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne
Manufacturer: Trafalgar Square Publishing
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The Exploits of Baron de Marbot
ASIN: 0094772304 |
Book Description
A rare and revealing soldier's view of one of history's most famous campaigns and the only surviving eyewitness account of Napoleon's capture of and disastrous retreat from Moscow during the freezing winter of 1812. 356 pp 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
Customer Reviews:
Astounding.......2002-09-11
This books is unforgettable. Sergeant Bourgogne was one of the very few French soldiers to survive the retreat from Moscow. The gruesome hardships he and his fellow soldiers endure is rendered even more horrible by the matter-of-fact style in which he relates them--as for instance when he describes in detail how they are forced to burn a bridge as their retreating comrades are still marching across it. Bourgogne's perspective is ground level: no tactics, no strategy, no grand designs. All you feel is the stripped-down horror of war. And although Bourgogne remains altogether stoic and patriotic throughout his ordeal, as an urgent cry for peace, his diary ranks right up there with "The Red Badge of Courage", "All Quiet on the Western Front", and "Johnny Got His Gun". But Bourgogne's account is not fiction, and considering how few men were left to tell the tale, it is a miracle we have it at all. It should be read and remembered.
Fantastic.......2000-01-18
I have always been fascinated with military history and most of the books I have read concern the German Wehrmacht in World War 2. I make it a point of collecting personal diaries of ordinary soldiers experiences. Burgogne's book is one of the best war diaries I have ever read. He recounts his experiences during the capture of, and more importantly, the retreat from Moscow in vivid detail. This is an important work because he is able to articulate these experiences in his book so the reader feels as if he were there. The similarities of this work and Guy Sajer's Forgotten Soldier (World War 2)are amazing and well worth the purchase for any military enthusiast. Other good accounts of the Russina campaign are by Philippe-Paul De Segur and Armand De Caulaincourt.
Book Description
MEMOIRS OWN OF SERGEANT BOURGOGNE 1812-1813 Authorized Translation from the Trench Original with an Introduction by the Hon. SIR JOHN FORTESCUE and Illustrations from the drawings of FABER DU FAUR 1929 NEW YORK ROBERT M. McBRIDE COMPANY PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN I K s I INTRODUCTION THE conscientious historian will always use the older volumes of military reminiscences by British non-com missioned officers and privates with considerable caution. The memories of the most accurate of us become treacherous with advancing years, and, unless we have a contemporary diary or contemporary letters to check us, are apt, in all good faith, to lapse into romance over past experiences. This is especially true of the experiences of war, and in particular of battle, when a man can see little himself, but, after repeated discussion with his com rades, is liable to confound a multitude of their visions with his own. If by chance a man be possessed by the demon which is called the literary instinct, he is the more likely to be misled, not necessarily through deliberate ill-faith, to record occurrences as within his actual know ledge, though, as a matter of fact, he is aware of them only through hearsay. Some little touch, which will heighten the effect of a sentence or a paragraph, suddenly strikes him, and down it goes. The private soldier is not as a rule endowed with the literary gift but he may have friends in the lower ranks of the literary profession who flatter themselves that they enjoy it and they pick his brains, as the phrase goes, and make copy of the result. This is the true origin of most of the books concerning the Peninsular War which purport to have come from the ranks. They are mainly the work of hack-writers, who give their information at second-hand, having INTRODUCTION gathered It, very likely in a public-house, from some old soldier, who probably was not above hoaxing them if sober, and was very voluble of reminiscence if drunk. The military memories of officers are rather more trustworthy, as a rule but they too need to be carefully checked. Some of them seem to lose their hold upon facts directly they take a pen into their hand others cannot refrain from picturesque touches because they are effective. One such writer, for instance, makes great capital out of the supposed coincidence that Badajoz was stormed upon Easter Sunday whereas study of the almanac shows that it certainly was not. Even such a writer as Napier sometimes, for the sake of literary effect, gravely prints a scrap of the merest camp-gossip. But on the other hand there are reminiscences which, however startling, bear upon them the unmistakable mark of truth, and among these must be ranked those of Sergeant Bourgogne and though they are those not of a British but of a French soldier, of the great days of Napoleon, they are well worth study by all British readers who would understand military human nature. Bourgogne, the son of a cloth-merchant, with some private means and a superior education, joined the Light Infantry of the Imperial Guard in 1805, went through the Polish campaign of 1806-7, was wounded at Essling in 1809, d was then moved to the Peninsula whence, after having to do with the British army under Wellington, his regiment was withdrawn in March, 1812, for the Russian campaign. Of his experiences in Spain and Portugal he tells us nothing. There is not so much as a reference to them, from which we may infer that he was not among those who made the disastrous retreat, under Massena, from Torres Vedras. He mentions that from Paris the regiment travelled in vi INTRODUCTION waggons, day and night, to the Rhine, but he does not report what would have been most interesting to know the condition of the men, their arms and equipment at the end of the journey. Thence they marched eastward to the Niemen, crossed it on June 25th and entered on the road to Moscow...
Product Description
Authorized translation from the French original, with an introduction by the Hon. Sir John Fortescue; and illustrations from the drawings of Faber du Faur. Translation of Mémoires du sergent Bourgogne, 1812-1813. xvi, 356 pages, 12 plates, red cloth.
Book Description
This is a remarkable historical and psychological examination of the enigma of Adolf Hitler-who he was, how he wielded power, and why he was destined to fail.
Beginning with Hitler's early life, Haffner probes the historical, political, and emotional forces that molded his character. In examining the inhumanity of a man for whom politics became a substitute for life, he discusses Hitler's bizarre relationships with women, his arrested psychological development, his ideological misconceptions, his growing obsession with racial extermination, and the murderous rages of his distorted mind. Finally, Haffner confronts the most disturbing question of all: Could another Hitler rise to power in modern German?
Customer Reviews:
Very thought-provoking and explanatory.......2007-03-21
As one who has read more than my share on the 3rd Reich and WW II in general, I didn't expect to be too surprised or enlightened by this book. I was wrong; it shows well how Hitler came to the point of being a demigod to many Germans and thus was able to eventually lead them (and Europe) to a destruction beyond their worst nightmares.
The one thing in this book that struck me as an idea that was totally novel to me was the thought that with the near miss to capture Moscow in 1941 Hitler knew that the war could never be won in the manner which he wanted. Basically, Haffner contends Hitler now knew that World Domination could never be attained in his lifetime and he turned to his other goal (mass murder of Jews) as his leading motive in his decision-making process. It is a very interesting theory, especially how it helped lead to his mysterious decision to declare war on America. I wish I could read historians response to his conclusions, but I don't totally buy it (although it is a fascinating view). I think it gives Hitler too much credit.
It may explain some of his strategic inertia but if he truly was resigned to defeat and wanted to kill as many Jews as possible before the end there is no reason for him to commit so many obvious strategic blunders that mounted on top of each other more and more. I think Haffner underestimates the effect of Hitler's drug use, sleeping habits, and his unshaken belief (maybe more than any other German!!!) in the "Hitler Myth".
I hope someone else with more expertise can comment. Also, Hitler's decision to declare war on America had to be madness more than anyhting else.
Awesome.......2006-02-10
I know so many people have complimented this book, but I have too also. The insights that Haffner puts forth explain much of the confusion of Hitler's moves during World War II.
The book is powerful in its clear ascersions. It is also highly readable, though there are passages that must be read more than once to probe their depths.
Refreshing Perspective.......2005-12-22
Haffner offers a fresh perspective on Hitler, about whom most of us WWII buffs think we know a great deal. His major point--that Hitler was, in effect, a self-hating guy who turned his hatred in the end against the country he professed to love--is a very interesting viewpoint and one that can be argued and discussed forever. I'm encouraged to read more by this insightful writer!
Pretty brilliant.......2005-09-23
It's really odd how Haffner has managed to cram so many valuable and unique insights into such a small book. Others have done a good job of reviewing this book already, so I'll just mention that I was particularly impressed with how Haffner explained, without excusing anything, how *rationally* one could have come to support Hitler.
His treatment is devastating precisely because he is able to recognize what appeared to be the (early) Nazi successes, and is able to highlight just where National Socialist ideology really did seem to many Germans, even those who loathed anti-semitism, to connect with reality, and ultimately, become synonymous with reality. I find discussions like this a lot more plausible, and therefore enlightening, than those which portray the whole thing as a full-tilt collective freak-out from day one which never did many any sense whatsoever.
Another discussion I thought was particularly enlightening revolved around Haffner's suggestion that Hitler in effect declared war on Germany itself; that he came to regard it as unworthy of him and the ideals he claimed to embody, and thus was worthy only of death in the end. In other words, his decisions near the end of the war, so disastrous to Germany and the German people, weren't so much the result of incompetence as of deliberate intention. If Germany couldn't, or wouldn't, be what Hitler wanted it to be, then it itself had to be totally annihilated.
Anyway, this book has a lot of bang for the buck. (By the way, Haffner apparently was an early anti-Nazi dissident and was expelled from Germany [moving to England] some years after they came to power).
Good luck.
Remarkable........2005-09-17
This is the best book on Hitler I've read. Clearly written and articulated, and certainly not the sort of lumbering mess one comes to expect from a Hitler book, Haffner's volume is something that can be finished in an afternoon, but of course, will be thought about for much longer. Haffner is surprisingly even-handed to Hitler, he grants that the man managed a few surprises and triumphs; in fact, he had more-or-less an entire decade in which he went from success to success. Yet, Hitler was unambiguously a failure, and, as Haffner points out, no other major world leader has ever failed as totally as Hitler. Hitler's "miraculous" economic miracles were largely vaporous, his "brilliant" military victories came against much weaker opponents. Never once was Hitler able to leverage his military victories into diplomatic ones: indeed, Hitler saw war not as something that serves a peace, but rather, an eternal action, in which the strong subjugate and destroy the weak. Hitler's only real strength was in his uncanny ability to sense weakness in a system or an opponent, and push them over at the right time. The only thing that drove him was his ridiculous sense of his own indespensibility (Haffner ably demolishes the old idea that Hitler was the greatest statesman of the century before unleashing war onto the world--Hitler had no plans on a permanent state, or even a permanent ideology of Hitlerism, rather, the Greater German Reich existed through Hitler, not beyond him) and his raging, raving anti-semitism. When word leaked out of the crimes of the Nazi regime, a dignified peace was out of the question for Germany. Hitler, in his final days, decided, like the spoilt little brat he was, that his toy-Germany-had failed him, and he made sure that the entire nation would pay for that failure. Hitler essentially delivered the death blow to Western Civilization; he was the worst thing imaginable for Germany and Europe, and yet some people still idolize the man. They should all read this book, and give thanks that someone like Haffner existed to write it.
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Heil Hitler: On the Meaning of a Gesture
Tilman Allert
Manufacturer: Metropolitan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 080508178X
Release Date: 2008-04-01 |
Book Description
A strikingly original investigation of the origins and dissemination of the world's most infamous greeting Sometimes the smallest detail reveals the most about a culture. In Heil Hitler: The History of a Gesture, sociologist Tilman Allert uses the Nazi transformation of the most mundane human interaction-the greeting-to show how National Socialism brought about the submission and conformity of a whole society.Made compulsory in 1933, the Hitler salute developed into a daily reflex in a matter of mere months, and quickly became the norm in schools, at work, among friends, and even at home. Adults denounced neighbors who refused to raise their arms, and children were given tiny Hitler dolls with movable right arms so they could practice the pernicious salute. The constantly reiterated declaration of loyalty at once controlled public transactions and fractured personal relationships. And always, the greeting sacralized Hitler, investing him and his regime with a divine aura.The first examination of a phenomenon whose significance has long been underestimated, Heil Hitler offers new insight into how the Third Reich's rituals of consent paved the way for the wholesale erosion of social morality.
Book Description
An Address By Black, Leader Of The New York Society For Ethical Culture.
Amazon.com
In her lifetime, Rachel Carson published only four books. She was a careful writer and meticulous researcher, for one thing, and she worked as a government scientist until the success of books like Silent Spring and The Sea Around Us enabled her to turn to her own writing full-time. She also published several magazine pieces, many of which biographer Linda Lear gathers here, along with letters and journal entries. In one piece that is characteristic both of her modesty and of her wit, Carson remarks on her then-unusual status of being an "average-sized woman" and a scientist, one who had just become "a biographer of the sea." In another, Carson writes of the necessity of protecting shorelines from economic development that would hasten their erosion and subsequent destruction. Carson's many fans will take much pleasure in this anthology of her work. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
When Rachel Carson died of cancer in 1964, her four books, including the environmental classic Silent Spring, had made her one of the most famous people in America. This trove of previously uncollected writings is a priceless addition to our knowledge of Rachel Carson, her affinity with the natural world, and her life.
Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful Book.......2000-06-14
The book is a collection of Rachel Carson's discovered writing, but it isn't a simple collection of her essays. Thanks to the excellent editor, Linda Lear, all of the 31 essays are well organized in four parts, and each one begins with an editor's preamble that explains background, Carson's motivation, and other useful information for the specific essay. With those preambles and essays, I had a feeling as if I were reading Rachel Carson's biography as well. With her unique combination, a biologist with literary talent, Rachel Carson turned her deep love for nature to the marvelous essays that would be very valuable for human being as a part of nature. The same editor, Linda Lear, wrote Carson's biography (Rachel Carson : Witness for Nature), which I read a couple of months ago and found excellent. It also became one of my highly recommending books.
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Nicholas and Alexandra
