Before writing Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris the first volume of his substantial biography of Adolf Hitler, Ian Kershaw focused on the popular appeal of the Nazi dictator in The Hitler Myth. Arguing that "the sources of Hitler's appeal must be sought...in those who adored him, rather than in the leader himself," Kershaw shows how Hitler's public image welded together antagonistic forces within the Nazi state, mobilised the nation for war, and contributed to the ethos that animated systematic and genocidal violence.

Responding to historians who maintain that Hitler's personality or ideological fixations accounted for his broad acceptance, Kershaw argues that, in the early 1930s a sizeable plurality of Germans hungered for an omnipotent Führer to stand above the political disharmonies of the Weimar state. Later, foriegn policy and military victories attracted many more to the Hitler legend. However, victories were the price for popularity; and Hitler became more and more bloodthirsty as both his image and regime foundered under the blows of the Allied powers. The Hitler myth, then--a cultural phenomenon the Reich Minister Joeseph Goebbels claimed as his greatest propaganda triumph--became a fundamental cause for the collapse of the Nazi State.

Kershaw's authoritative history of political culture in Hitler's Germany forcefully demonstrates that the Führer's popularity rested less on "bizarre and arcane precepts of Nazi ideology, than on social and political values...recognisable in many societies other than the Third Reich." In our present political environment, which repeatedly features outcries for "leadership" from pundits and public servants alike, the disturbing lessons of The Hitler Myth are an urgent warning. --James Highfill

Image and Reality, 16 Apr 2008
A remarkable book , you will never view Hitler's Germany in the same light again.

A revelatory read, 29 Apr 2005
This fascinating study gives a whole new slant to what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Germans, angry and hurt after the defeat of the Great War, bothered by unemployment, dissatisfied with party politics, fearful of Bolshevism and seeking a strong leader who would be above politics and who would restore Germany's rightful greatness, found him in the apparently unlikely person of an embittered, Jew- and Communist-hating, Austrian ex-corporal incapable of normal human warmth. The creation of the mythical Hitler to fulfil expectations, often standing the facts of Hitler's actual person on their head, was a masterpiece of Goebbels's propaganda (Goebbels personally regarded the creation of the Fuehrer Myth as his greatest achievement). As a result, Hitler's personal popularity was almost universal, even among sections of the population who detested Nazism itself. He was given the benefit of the doubt every time. "If only the Fuehrer knew," people would say, after the latest bout of Nazi excesses.

However, the Hitler Myth carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. For one thing, Hitler came to believe it himself, and as a result became ever more divorced from ever more uncomfortable reality. Moreover, its prolongation required a continual stream of triumphs and successes, and when they faltered in the early 1940s (beginning with the Stalingrad catastrophe), so did it. However, it maintained a considerable hold right to the very end, even in the face of impending disaster. Professor Kershaw teases out the details of a complex story in a scholarly yet highly readable and informative way, and ends with an excellent concluding review chapter. The book was written in 1987, before the fall of the Wall, the subsequent reunification of Germany and the upsurge of extremist right-wing sentiment as a result of high unemployment, poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with the current government - now, where have we heard this before? It would be hard to improve on Professor Kershaw's masterly final paragraph as a commentary on modern-day affairs - and not only those of Germany:

"Old myths are however replaced by new as the combination of modern technology and advanced marketing techniques produce ever more elaborate and sophisticated examples of political image building around minority personality cults, even in western democracies, aimed at obfuscating reality among the ignorant and gullible. The price for abdicating democratic responsibilities and placing uncritical trust in the 'firm leadership' of seemingly well-intentioned political authority was paid dearly by Germans between 1933 and 1945. Even if a collapse into new forms of fascism is inherently unlikely in any western democracy, the massive extension of the power of the modern State over its citizens is in itself more than sufficient cause to develop the highest level possible of educated cynicism and critical awareness as the only protection against the marketed images of present-day and future claimants to political 'leadership'".

Shattering Third Reich and Nazi Apologists' Myths, 22 Jan 2003
The "myth" which Prof Kershaw exposes as a naked, squirming lie is the belief that hitler was above political intrigue and corruption, and was an innocent duped by self-serving, greedy, conniving underlings. This myth was very popular in Nazi Germany, where there was a general desire for a strong, single leader to clear away the messy, bickering mess that Weimar democracy had proved to be. The naive faith in the führer can still be seen on the faces of his former devotees in TV documentaries such as "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

The book is a detailed, broad examination of the social values and motives of the vast majority of Germans and austrians in those years, from the early thirties right up to the final collapse and Soviet invasion of 1945. It reveals the self-delusion that otherwise intelligent, rational people will employ to deny that they are supporters - whether active or passive - of a criminal state bent on mass murder and the enslavement of nations in their name.

Although the title might be misunderstood as an apologia for Hitler, perhaps seeming to be a defence of Hitler against anti-nazi, anti-aryan propaganda lies, this is to be welcomed. If even one confused potential nazi-supporter reads this and has their opinions overturned by Ian Kershaw's overwhelming evidence and arguments, the world will be a better, safer place.

A great book.

Another Kershaw masterpiece!, 06 Sep 2000
Kershaw is the best and he reminds us of this again as he takes us through the propaganda machine that was so important in Hitlers rise to power and the face of the Third Reich.

Image and Reality, 16 Apr 2008
A remarkable book , you will never view Hitler's Germany in the same light again.

A revelatory read, 29 Apr 2005
This fascinating study gives a whole new slant to what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Germans, angry and hurt after the defeat of the Great War, bothered by unemployment, dissatisfied with party politics, fearful of Bolshevism and seeking a strong leader who would be above politics and who would restore Germany's rightful greatness, found him in the apparently unlikely person of an embittered, Jew- and Communist-hating, Austrian ex-corporal incapable of normal human warmth. The creation of the mythical Hitler to fulfil expectations, often standing the facts of Hitler's actual person on their head, was a masterpiece of Goebbels's propaganda (Goebbels personally regarded the creation of the Fuehrer Myth as his greatest achievement). As a result, Hitler's personal popularity was almost universal, even among sections of the population who detested Nazism itself. He was given the benefit of the doubt every time. "If only the Fuehrer knew," people would say, after the latest bout of Nazi excesses.

However, the Hitler Myth carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. For one thing, Hitler came to believe it himself, and as a result became ever more divorced from ever more uncomfortable reality. Moreover, its prolongation required a continual stream of triumphs and successes, and when they faltered in the early 1940s (beginning with the Stalingrad catastrophe), so did it. However, it maintained a considerable hold right to the very end, even in the face of impending disaster. Professor Kershaw teases out the details of a complex story in a scholarly yet highly readable and informative way, and ends with an excellent concluding review chapter. The book was written in 1987, before the fall of the Wall, the subsequent reunification of Germany and the upsurge of extremist right-wing sentiment as a result of high unemployment, poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with the current government - now, where have we heard this before? It would be hard to improve on Professor Kershaw's masterly final paragraph as a commentary on modern-day affairs - and not only those of Germany:

"Old myths are however replaced by new as the combination of modern technology and advanced marketing techniques produce ever more elaborate and sophisticated examples of political image building around minority personality cults, even in western democracies, aimed at obfuscating reality among the ignorant and gullible. The price for abdicating democratic responsibilities and placing uncritical trust in the 'firm leadership' of seemingly well-intentioned political authority was paid dearly by Germans between 1933 and 1945. Even if a collapse into new forms of fascism is inherently unlikely in any western democracy, the massive extension of the power of the modern State over its citizens is in itself more than sufficient cause to develop the highest level possible of educated cynicism and critical awareness as the only protection against the marketed images of present-day and future claimants to political 'leadership'".

Shattering Third Reich and Nazi Apologists' Myths, 22 Jan 2003
The "myth" which Prof Kershaw exposes as a naked, squirming lie is the belief that hitler was above political intrigue and corruption, and was an innocent duped by self-serving, greedy, conniving underlings. This myth was very popular in Nazi Germany, where there was a general desire for a strong, single leader to clear away the messy, bickering mess that Weimar democracy had proved to be. The naive faith in the führer can still be seen on the faces of his former devotees in TV documentaries such as "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

The book is a detailed, broad examination of the social values and motives of the vast majority of Germans and austrians in those years, from the early thirties right up to the final collapse and Soviet invasion of 1945. It reveals the self-delusion that otherwise intelligent, rational people will employ to deny that they are supporters - whether active or passive - of a criminal state bent on mass murder and the enslavement of nations in their name.

Although the title might be misunderstood as an apologia for Hitler, perhaps seeming to be a defence of Hitler against anti-nazi, anti-aryan propaganda lies, this is to be welcomed. If even one confused potential nazi-supporter reads this and has their opinions overturned by Ian Kershaw's overwhelming evidence and arguments, the world will be a better, safer place.

A great book.

Another Kershaw masterpiece!, 06 Sep 2000
Kershaw is the best and he reminds us of this again as he takes us through the propaganda machine that was so important in Hitlers rise to power and the face of the Third Reich.

Trading Rumors, Secrets, Access, Influence, and Loyalties, 11 Oct 2008

During World War II, Britain dispatched many presentable young men to argue its case to America, to pick up insights, to grab secrets that could be used, and to influence American decisions. Where several books have emphasized the spymaster behind these efforts, Canadian William Stephenson, this book looks at the young men exercising their influence in Washington, D.C. Roald Dahl (author of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) was one of the most effective, but his peers also included Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) and David Ogilvy (of advertising fame . . . thinking Hathaway shirts).

Ms. Conant writes about these young men and those they seduced (men into sharing secrets and women often into their boudoirs) in a way that seems like today's gossip, foibles and all. What makes those details interesting is that they often involve prominent Americans like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, up-and-comer Lyndon Johnson, and influential reporters and columnists. You will probably be especially interested to learn about Charles Edward Marsh, newspaper magnate, trophy wife hunter, and sponsor for promising young men (including Dahl and Johnson).

The book's main weakness is that it seems puffed up a bit to include more gossipy tidbits than are necessary for the story, but which might titillate readers. On the other hand, Ms. Conant resists falling in love with her subjects and writes candidly about their weaknesses, pains, failings, and disappointments.

To me the most interesting parts of the book came where it became transparent that President Roosevelt was using the British spies to help achieve his goals while keeping his own counsel.

The reality is that the British were acting more like today's lobbyists than they were spies . . . except that they didn't make large campaign contributions.

If you don't like books about who seduced who and how it all happened, you should avoid this book. It tells you more than you want to know in those areas.

Image and Reality, 16 Apr 2008
A remarkable book , you will never view Hitler's Germany in the same light again.

A revelatory read, 29 Apr 2005
This fascinating study gives a whole new slant to what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Germans, angry and hurt after the defeat of the Great War, bothered by unemployment, dissatisfied with party politics, fearful of Bolshevism and seeking a strong leader who would be above politics and who would restore Germany's rightful greatness, found him in the apparently unlikely person of an embittered, Jew- and Communist-hating, Austrian ex-corporal incapable of normal human warmth. The creation of the mythical Hitler to fulfil expectations, often standing the facts of Hitler's actual person on their head, was a masterpiece of Goebbels's propaganda (Goebbels personally regarded the creation of the Fuehrer Myth as his greatest achievement). As a result, Hitler's personal popularity was almost universal, even among sections of the population who detested Nazism itself. He was given the benefit of the doubt every time. "If only the Fuehrer knew," people would say, after the latest bout of Nazi excesses.

However, the Hitler Myth carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. For one thing, Hitler came to believe it himself, and as a result became ever more divorced from ever more uncomfortable reality. Moreover, its prolongation required a continual stream of triumphs and successes, and when they faltered in the early 1940s (beginning with the Stalingrad catastrophe), so did it. However, it maintained a considerable hold right to the very end, even in the face of impending disaster. Professor Kershaw teases out the details of a complex story in a scholarly yet highly readable and informative way, and ends with an excellent concluding review chapter. The book was written in 1987, before the fall of the Wall, the subsequent reunification of Germany and the upsurge of extremist right-wing sentiment as a result of high unemployment, poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with the current government - now, where have we heard this before? It would be hard to improve on Professor Kershaw's masterly final paragraph as a commentary on modern-day affairs - and not only those of Germany:

"Old myths are however replaced by new as the combination of modern technology and advanced marketing techniques produce ever more elaborate and sophisticated examples of political image building around minority personality cults, even in western democracies, aimed at obfuscating reality among the ignorant and gullible. The price for abdicating democratic responsibilities and placing uncritical trust in the 'firm leadership' of seemingly well-intentioned political authority was paid dearly by Germans between 1933 and 1945. Even if a collapse into new forms of fascism is inherently unlikely in any western democracy, the massive extension of the power of the modern State over its citizens is in itself more than sufficient cause to develop the highest level possible of educated cynicism and critical awareness as the only protection against the marketed images of present-day and future claimants to political 'leadership'".

Shattering Third Reich and Nazi Apologists' Myths, 22 Jan 2003
The "myth" which Prof Kershaw exposes as a naked, squirming lie is the belief that hitler was above political intrigue and corruption, and was an innocent duped by self-serving, greedy, conniving underlings. This myth was very popular in Nazi Germany, where there was a general desire for a strong, single leader to clear away the messy, bickering mess that Weimar democracy had proved to be. The naive faith in the führer can still be seen on the faces of his former devotees in TV documentaries such as "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

The book is a detailed, broad examination of the social values and motives of the vast majority of Germans and austrians in those years, from the early thirties right up to the final collapse and Soviet invasion of 1945. It reveals the self-delusion that otherwise intelligent, rational people will employ to deny that they are supporters - whether active or passive - of a criminal state bent on mass murder and the enslavement of nations in their name.

Although the title might be misunderstood as an apologia for Hitler, perhaps seeming to be a defence of Hitler against anti-nazi, anti-aryan propaganda lies, this is to be welcomed. If even one confused potential nazi-supporter reads this and has their opinions overturned by Ian Kershaw's overwhelming evidence and arguments, the world will be a better, safer place.

A great book.

Another Kershaw masterpiece!, 06 Sep 2000
Kershaw is the best and he reminds us of this again as he takes us through the propaganda machine that was so important in Hitlers rise to power and the face of the Third Reich.

Trading Rumors, Secrets, Access, Influence, and Loyalties, 11 Oct 2008

During World War II, Britain dispatched many presentable young men to argue its case to America, to pick up insights, to grab secrets that could be used, and to influence American decisions. Where several books have emphasized the spymaster behind these efforts, Canadian William Stephenson, this book looks at the young men exercising their influence in Washington, D.C. Roald Dahl (author of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) was one of the most effective, but his peers also included Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) and David Ogilvy (of advertising fame . . . thinking Hathaway shirts).

Ms. Conant writes about these young men and those they seduced (men into sharing secrets and women often into their boudoirs) in a way that seems like today's gossip, foibles and all. What makes those details interesting is that they often involve prominent Americans like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, up-and-comer Lyndon Johnson, and influential reporters and columnists. You will probably be especially interested to learn about Charles Edward Marsh, newspaper magnate, trophy wife hunter, and sponsor for promising young men (including Dahl and Johnson).

The book's main weakness is that it seems puffed up a bit to include more gossipy tidbits than are necessary for the story, but which might titillate readers. On the other hand, Ms. Conant resists falling in love with her subjects and writes candidly about their weaknesses, pains, failings, and disappointments.

To me the most interesting parts of the book came where it became transparent that President Roosevelt was using the British spies to help achieve his goals while keeping his own counsel.

The reality is that the British were acting more like today's lobbyists than they were spies . . . except that they didn't make large campaign contributions.

If you don't like books about who seduced who and how it all happened, you should avoid this book. It tells you more than you want to know in those areas.

An Excellent Biography of An Interesting and Tragic Character, 11 Mar 2008
This very readable biography of William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw of wartime radio fame, is most interesting. The complete life of Joyce is covered from his childhood and youth in Ireland, to his time in the British Union of Fascists as virtually second in command to Mosley and then on to Germany. His links with MI5 are also made clear. The section describing his five years or so in Berlin is gripping and using recently available material Farndale manages to conjure a very clear idea of daily life for Joyce and his wife Margaret and their later experience of shortages and Allied bombing. Finally his arrest and trial are covered and the machinations of the legal establishment well reviewed. Again the text is lucid and illuminates the condition of Joyce very well. A beautifully written biography of a most interesting, intelligent, and tragic character, well worth a read.

Well researched and well written, 06 Feb 2008
I have encountered the character of William Joyce on a few occasions, in a number of different books over the past few years yet none have brought his character to life in as much detail as this book. Certainly the very central position and character of his wife was never included in any of the works, even in passing reference.
Farndale tells a very good story, filling the plot with many interesting and infamous characters and finally also questions (quite rightly) the legitimacy of Joyce's execution and Margaret's culpability yet eventual freedom due to Matters of State.
A cracking read and well worth five stars.

Jairmany calling , 22 Aug 2007
William Joyce was one of the most controversial figures to come out of the Second World War. He might not be known by that name, but as Lord Haw Haw he was hated, ridiculed and feared by millions across the English speaking world and beyond. He became the voice of English speaking radio, an a key weapon in Goebbels' propaganda arsenal. With a recognisably faux upper class accent, his broadcasts for Germany Calling (brayingly pronounced as Jairmany Calling) would grip the nation. Nigel Farndale's biography paints a fascinating and controversially sympathetic view of Joyce and his wife.

Farndale is well suited to the biographer's trade, and manages to create a rich and detailed impression of the two key characters. There is a real sense that the intelligence, wit, capriciousness, self importance and petulance of the man is captured, whilst Margaret's whimsy, vindictiveness and desire for the high life is equally vivid. Given that the story of Joyce is intricately linked to Britain in the time of appeasement and then Nazi Germany at war there is scope for these two fascinating times to be documented. It would be a book of impossible scope to do justice to all of these themes, but Haw Haw does manage to convey the thankfully futile build up of the British fascists and the hysteria of the German capital at war. The book builds to the firestorms and pounding of Berlin's Führerdammerung, and here Farndale excels in depicting the desperate zeal of the Nazis, the relentless terrifying propaganda and the looming spectre of the Russian invasion.

The book is a gripping narrative biography, as forthright and capable in its command of English as the subject was. It is often the fate of biographers to become so drawn by their subject as to present hagiographic profiles. Haw Haw does not go this far, but Farndale does at best present a balanced view, and the impression one leaves with is of a sympathetic reading of complex individual eventually wronged by victor's justice. I would probably agree that the death sentence for supposed treachery of some one not even born in England was a particularly vindictive form justice, more in line with the public mood than jurisprudence. But one should also not forget that Joyce was responsible for casting a shadow of fear in the darkest days of the Battle for Britain, and for being in league with one of the most heinous regimes and political ideologies in history.

Compelling and surprising, 01 Dec 2005
I grew up listening to Haw-Haw on the radio, so I was pleased to find an account that is so accessible to the non-academic reader. Farndale's style is engaging and difficult to put down: it drew me along and I felt he developed a kinship with his subject matter that I had not found with the other books on Joyce, which are often indigestible and, in at least one case, riddled with errors.

I'm very glad to see that the elegance of Farndale's style and care in research has been recognised by the Whitbread prize committee: if you buy this book you won't be disappointed: it reveals much about the motivations and thoughts of those behind propaganda, but is more importantly a genuine biographical account of a couple who have been sidelined and misrepresented by time.

Elegant and accessible, 01 Dec 2005
I bought this biography because it has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and, I have to say, it lives up to expectations. The story of William and Margaret Joyce is a strange and sometimes disturbing one and Nigel Farndale tells it with great deftness and humanity. The account of Lord Haw-Haw’s controversial treason trial in 1945 is particularly haunting. A brilliantly crafted and unforgettable book.

Image and Reality, 16 Apr 2008
A remarkable book , you will never view Hitler's Germany in the same light again.

A revelatory read, 29 Apr 2005
This fascinating study gives a whole new slant to what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Germans, angry and hurt after the defeat of the Great War, bothered by unemployment, dissatisfied with party politics, fearful of Bolshevism and seeking a strong leader who would be above politics and who would restore Germany's rightful greatness, found him in the apparently unlikely person of an embittered, Jew- and Communist-hating, Austrian ex-corporal incapable of normal human warmth. The creation of the mythical Hitler to fulfil expectations, often standing the facts of Hitler's actual person on their head, was a masterpiece of Goebbels's propaganda (Goebbels personally regarded the creation of the Fuehrer Myth as his greatest achievement). As a result, Hitler's personal popularity was almost universal, even among sections of the population who detested Nazism itself. He was given the benefit of the doubt every time. "If only the Fuehrer knew," people would say, after the latest bout of Nazi excesses.

However, the Hitler Myth carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. For one thing, Hitler came to believe it himself, and as a result became ever more divorced from ever more uncomfortable reality. Moreover, its prolongation required a continual stream of triumphs and successes, and when they faltered in the early 1940s (beginning with the Stalingrad catastrophe), so did it. However, it maintained a considerable hold right to the very end, even in the face of impending disaster. Professor Kershaw teases out the details of a complex story in a scholarly yet highly readable and informative way, and ends with an excellent concluding review chapter. The book was written in 1987, before the fall of the Wall, the subsequent reunification of Germany and the upsurge of extremist right-wing sentiment as a result of high unemployment, poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with the current government - now, where have we heard this before? It would be hard to improve on Professor Kershaw's masterly final paragraph as a commentary on modern-day affairs - and not only those of Germany:

"Old myths are however replaced by new as the combination of modern technology and advanced marketing techniques produce ever more elaborate and sophisticated examples of political image building around minority personality cults, even in western democracies, aimed at obfuscating reality among the ignorant and gullible. The price for abdicating democratic responsibilities and placing uncritical trust in the 'firm leadership' of seemingly well-intentioned political authority was paid dearly by Germans between 1933 and 1945. Even if a collapse into new forms of fascism is inherently unlikely in any western democracy, the massive extension of the power of the modern State over its citizens is in itself more than sufficient cause to develop the highest level possible of educated cynicism and critical awareness as the only protection against the marketed images of present-day and future claimants to political 'leadership'".

Shattering Third Reich and Nazi Apologists' Myths, 22 Jan 2003
The "myth" which Prof Kershaw exposes as a naked, squirming lie is the belief that hitler was above political intrigue and corruption, and was an innocent duped by self-serving, greedy, conniving underlings. This myth was very popular in Nazi Germany, where there was a general desire for a strong, single leader to clear away the messy, bickering mess that Weimar democracy had proved to be. The naive faith in the führer can still be seen on the faces of his former devotees in TV documentaries such as "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

The book is a detailed, broad examination of the social values and motives of the vast majority of Germans and austrians in those years, from the early thirties right up to the final collapse and Soviet invasion of 1945. It reveals the self-delusion that otherwise intelligent, rational people will employ to deny that they are supporters - whether active or passive - of a criminal state bent on mass murder and the enslavement of nations in their name.

Although the title might be misunderstood as an apologia for Hitler, perhaps seeming to be a defence of Hitler against anti-nazi, anti-aryan propaganda lies, this is to be welcomed. If even one confused potential nazi-supporter reads this and has their opinions overturned by Ian Kershaw's overwhelming evidence and arguments, the world will be a better, safer place.

A great book.

Another Kershaw masterpiece!, 06 Sep 2000
Kershaw is the best and he reminds us of this again as he takes us through the propaganda machine that was so important in Hitlers rise to power and the face of the Third Reich.

Trading Rumors, Secrets, Access, Influence, and Loyalties, 11 Oct 2008

During World War II, Britain dispatched many presentable young men to argue its case to America, to pick up insights, to grab secrets that could be used, and to influence American decisions. Where several books have emphasized the spymaster behind these efforts, Canadian William Stephenson, this book looks at the young men exercising their influence in Washington, D.C. Roald Dahl (author of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) was one of the most effective, but his peers also included Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) and David Ogilvy (of advertising fame . . . thinking Hathaway shirts).

Ms. Conant writes about these young men and those they seduced (men into sharing secrets and women often into their boudoirs) in a way that seems like today's gossip, foibles and all. What makes those details interesting is that they often involve prominent Americans like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, up-and-comer Lyndon Johnson, and influential reporters and columnists. You will probably be especially interested to learn about Charles Edward Marsh, newspaper magnate, trophy wife hunter, and sponsor for promising young men (including Dahl and Johnson).

The book's main weakness is that it seems puffed up a bit to include more gossipy tidbits than are necessary for the story, but which might titillate readers. On the other hand, Ms. Conant resists falling in love with her subjects and writes candidly about their weaknesses, pains, failings, and disappointments.

To me the most interesting parts of the book came where it became transparent that President Roosevelt was using the British spies to help achieve his goals while keeping his own counsel.

The reality is that the British were acting more like today's lobbyists than they were spies . . . except that they didn't make large campaign contributions.

If you don't like books about who seduced who and how it all happened, you should avoid this book. It tells you more than you want to know in those areas.

An Excellent Biography of An Interesting and Tragic Character, 11 Mar 2008
This very readable biography of William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw of wartime radio fame, is most interesting. The complete life of Joyce is covered from his childhood and youth in Ireland, to his time in the British Union of Fascists as virtually second in command to Mosley and then on to Germany. His links with MI5 are also made clear. The section describing his five years or so in Berlin is gripping and using recently available material Farndale manages to conjure a very clear idea of daily life for Joyce and his wife Margaret and their later experience of shortages and Allied bombing. Finally his arrest and trial are covered and the machinations of the legal establishment well reviewed. Again the text is lucid and illuminates the condition of Joyce very well. A beautifully written biography of a most interesting, intelligent, and tragic character, well worth a read.

Well researched and well written, 06 Feb 2008
I have encountered the character of William Joyce on a few occasions, in a number of different books over the past few years yet none have brought his character to life in as much detail as this book. Certainly the very central position and character of his wife was never included in any of the works, even in passing reference.
Farndale tells a very good story, filling the plot with many interesting and infamous characters and finally also questions (quite rightly) the legitimacy of Joyce's execution and Margaret's culpability yet eventual freedom due to Matters of State.
A cracking read and well worth five stars.

Jairmany calling , 22 Aug 2007
William Joyce was one of the most controversial figures to come out of the Second World War. He might not be known by that name, but as Lord Haw Haw he was hated, ridiculed and feared by millions across the English speaking world and beyond. He became the voice of English speaking radio, an a key weapon in Goebbels' propaganda arsenal. With a recognisably faux upper class accent, his broadcasts for Germany Calling (brayingly pronounced as Jairmany Calling) would grip the nation. Nigel Farndale's biography paints a fascinating and controversially sympathetic view of Joyce and his wife.

Farndale is well suited to the biographer's trade, and manages to create a rich and detailed impression of the two key characters. There is a real sense that the intelligence, wit, capriciousness, self importance and petulance of the man is captured, whilst Margaret's whimsy, vindictiveness and desire for the high life is equally vivid. Given that the story of Joyce is intricately linked to Britain in the time of appeasement and then Nazi Germany at war there is scope for these two fascinating times to be documented. It would be a book of impossible scope to do justice to all of these themes, but Haw Haw does manage to convey the thankfully futile build up of the British fascists and the hysteria of the German capital at war. The book builds to the firestorms and pounding of Berlin's Führerdammerung, and here Farndale excels in depicting the desperate zeal of the Nazis, the relentless terrifying propaganda and the looming spectre of the Russian invasion.

The book is a gripping narrative biography, as forthright and capable in its command of English as the subject was. It is often the fate of biographers to become so drawn by their subject as to present hagiographic profiles. Haw Haw does not go this far, but Farndale does at best present a balanced view, and the impression one leaves with is of a sympathetic reading of complex individual eventually wronged by victor's justice. I would probably agree that the death sentence for supposed treachery of some one not even born in England was a particularly vindictive form justice, more in line with the public mood than jurisprudence. But one should also not forget that Joyce was responsible for casting a shadow of fear in the darkest days of the Battle for Britain, and for being in league with one of the most heinous regimes and political ideologies in history.

Compelling and surprising, 01 Dec 2005
I grew up listening to Haw-Haw on the radio, so I was pleased to find an account that is so accessible to the non-academic reader. Farndale's style is engaging and difficult to put down: it drew me along and I felt he developed a kinship with his subject matter that I had not found with the other books on Joyce, which are often indigestible and, in at least one case, riddled with errors.

I'm very glad to see that the elegance of Farndale's style and care in research has been recognised by the Whitbread prize committee: if you buy this book you won't be disappointed: it reveals much about the motivations and thoughts of those behind propaganda, but is more importantly a genuine biographical account of a couple who have been sidelined and misrepresented by time.

Elegant and accessible, 01 Dec 2005
I bought this biography because it has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and, I have to say, it lives up to expectations. The story of William and Margaret Joyce is a strange and sometimes disturbing one and Nigel Farndale tells it with great deftness and humanity. The account of Lord Haw-Haw’s controversial treason trial in 1945 is particularly haunting. A brilliantly crafted and unforgettable book.

Indispensable, 17 Jun 2005
Up until the 1970's the view of the Wehrmacht as by and large honourable soldiers was rarely challenged in the west.

Only in the last couple of decades have scholars like Bartov chipped away at this myth by analysing the great mass of photographs, letters and diaries that show ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers enthusiastically participating in atrocities, while documentary evidence from higher up the command chain has illustrated the degree to which the army was intimately involved at every level in genocide.

Of particular value in this respect is the Federal Republic's official history Germany in the Second World which is still being published (although the extortionate price of these volumes means you'll never see them outside of a university library).

Bartov's distinctive contribution is to not just document the degree to which the Wehrmacht was indoctrinated and behaved as Hitler's Army but to ask how this impacted on its miltary effectiveness.

While modern military historians tend to see the maintenance of small unit cohesion as central to combat effectiveness (i.e. soldiers do what they do not primarily out of patriotism or hatred of the enemy but 'for their mates'), any analysis of German casualty rates in the eastern front indicates that personnel turnover was far too fast for small unit cohesion to be maintained.

However as the fighting qualities of the Wehrmacht remained extrordinarily high right up to the end some other explanation is required.

For Bartov the key is Nazi ideology - most Germans of military age in 1943 had spent a decade undergoing intensive indoctrination and had in many if not all cases thoroughly internalised the values of the Third Reich and behaved accordingly.

To back up the ideology a savage military discipline stepped in with thousands of German soldiers being shot for disciplinary offences that in the US or British armies would earn only a few days in the stockade.

However German soldiers while they could be executed for dozing off on guard or overstaying a leave were almost never punished for crimes against civilians in the occupied east and effectively encouraged to murder and plunder to their heart's content (rape though not unknown, was frowned upon for racial reasons).

This led even the best amongst them into a state of uneasy complicity with the worst - fully aware of their criminality and expecting to be treated similarly by the enemy, German soldiers had little choice but to fight to the bitter end.

The sort of people who collect books glorifying 'SS panzer aces' clearly find such evidence disquieting and would rather it was swept back under the carpet.

Not a good read for swastika fetishists, 27 Nov 2001
This book is one of the most important contributions to the destruction of the popular myth that the Wehrmacht was an "honorable" fighting force, entirely innocent of the crimes carried out against the "racial enemies" of the Reich. As such, it will hold little interest to readers of "camo-porn" who believe that soldiers have a morality higher than that of their nations' leaders. If your tastes run more to the "bang bang, you're dead" end of military history, this book will probably bore you. For readers interested in the causes of the Germans' mass murders and other horrifying atrocities, an important and illuminating book

Disappointing approach to prove a point, 26 May 1999
Mr. Bartov, to prove his points of the Nazification of the German Army in World War II, uses an excessive amount of quotes from various German soldiers' letters. A chapter of these is fine, but when Bartov resorts to using the selected information in these letters throughout the entire book, the reader soon grows tired and bored. Any good historian will tell you, letters and/or oral histories should be use selectively; usually they can lead to a distorted view of history. And a distorted view of history is, as Mr. Bartov should know, not good history!

Excellent study of the German army in Russia in WWII., 02 Mar 1999
Bartov does a fine job revealing how the average German soldier thought, how the savagery of the combat combined with their own racialist attitudes towards their opponent to allow them to commit or tolerate the commission of atrocities. Bartov also describes how the vaunted mechanized Panzer army quickly bogged down into WWI-style infantry combat, and that the high rate of casualties destroyed German unit integrity. Bartov's description of German soldiers' "war tourism," including photographing mass executions of Jews, dispels myths about the "good" Germans. They may not have all been Nazis, and they were not all war criminals, but by and large they did share Hitler's racial attitudes. This accounts for their grim fanatical resistance as well as the atrocities. Highly recommended.

an excellent study on the Nazi soldiers and Hitler's power., 04 Feb 1999
Mr. Bartov provides the reader, especially college history students, with an unique insight into the psyche of the common German soldier and Hitler's Nazi Party policies.

Image and Reality, 16 Apr 2008
A remarkable book , you will never view Hitler's Germany in the same light again.

A revelatory read, 29 Apr 2005
This fascinating study gives a whole new slant to what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Germans, angry and hurt after the defeat of the Great War, bothered by unemployment, dissatisfied with party politics, fearful of Bolshevism and seeking a strong leader who would be above politics and who would restore Germany's rightful greatness, found him in the apparently unlikely person of an embittered, Jew- and Communist-hating, Austrian ex-corporal incapable of normal human warmth. The creation of the mythical Hitler to fulfil expectations, often standing the facts of Hitler's actual person on their head, was a masterpiece of Goebbels's propaganda (Goebbels personally regarded the creation of the Fuehrer Myth as his greatest achievement). As a result, Hitler's personal popularity was almost universal, even among sections of the population who detested Nazism itself. He was given the benefit of the doubt every time. "If only the Fuehrer knew," people would say, after the latest bout of Nazi excesses.

However, the Hitler Myth carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. For one thing, Hitler came to believe it himself, and as a result became ever more divorced from ever more uncomfortable reality. Moreover, its prolongation required a continual stream of triumphs and successes, and when they faltered in the early 1940s (beginning with the Stalingrad catastrophe), so did it. However, it maintained a considerable hold right to the very end, even in the face of impending disaster. Professor Kershaw teases out the details of a complex story in a scholarly yet highly readable and informative way, and ends with an excellent concluding review chapter. The book was written in 1987, before the fall of the Wall, the subsequent reunification of Germany and the upsurge of extremist right-wing sentiment as a result of high unemployment, poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with the current government - now, where have we heard this before? It would be hard to improve on Professor Kershaw's masterly final paragraph as a commentary on modern-day affairs - and not only those of Germany:

"Old myths are however replaced by new as the combination of modern technology and advanced marketing techniques produce ever more elaborate and sophisticated examples of political image building around minority personality cults, even in western democracies, aimed at obfuscating reality among the ignorant and gullible. The price for abdicating democratic responsibilities and placing uncritical trust in the 'firm leadership' of seemingly well-intentioned political authority was paid dearly by Germans between 1933 and 1945. Even if a collapse into new forms of fascism is inherently unlikely in any western democracy, the massive extension of the power of the modern State over its citizens is in itself more than sufficient cause to develop the highest level possible of educated cynicism and critical awareness as the only protection against the marketed images of present-day and future claimants to political 'leadership'".

Shattering Third Reich and Nazi Apologists' Myths, 22 Jan 2003
The "myth" which Prof Kershaw exposes as a naked, squirming lie is the belief that hitler was above political intrigue and corruption, and was an innocent duped by self-serving, greedy, conniving underlings. This myth was very popular in Nazi Germany, where there was a general desire for a strong, single leader to clear away the messy, bickering mess that Weimar democracy had proved to be. The naive faith in the führer can still be seen on the faces of his former devotees in TV documentaries such as "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

The book is a detailed, broad examination of the social values and motives of the vast majority of Germans and austrians in those years, from the early thirties right up to the final collapse and Soviet invasion of 1945. It reveals the self-delusion that otherwise intelligent, rational people will employ to deny that they are supporters - whether active or passive - of a criminal state bent on mass murder and the enslavement of nations in their name.

Although the title might be misunderstood as an apologia for Hitler, perhaps seeming to be a defence of Hitler against anti-nazi, anti-aryan propaganda lies, this is to be welcomed. If even one confused potential nazi-supporter reads this and has their opinions overturned by Ian Kershaw's overwhelming evidence and arguments, the world will be a better, safer place.

A great book.

Another Kershaw masterpiece!, 06 Sep 2000
Kershaw is the best and he reminds us of this again as he takes us through the propaganda machine that was so important in Hitlers rise to power and the face of the Third Reich.

Trading Rumors, Secrets, Access, Influence, and Loyalties, 11 Oct 2008

During World War II, Britain dispatched many presentable young men to argue its case to America, to pick up insights, to grab secrets that could be used, and to influence American decisions. Where several books have emphasized the spymaster behind these efforts, Canadian William Stephenson, this book looks at the young men exercising their influence in Washington, D.C. Roald Dahl (author of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) was one of the most effective, but his peers also included Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) and David Ogilvy (of advertising fame . . . thinking Hathaway shirts).

Ms. Conant writes about these young men and those they seduced (men into sharing secrets and women often into their boudoirs) in a way that seems like today's gossip, foibles and all. What makes those details interesting is that they often involve prominent Americans like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, up-and-comer Lyndon Johnson, and influential reporters and columnists. You will probably be especially interested to learn about Charles Edward Marsh, newspaper magnate, trophy wife hunter, and sponsor for promising young men (including Dahl and Johnson).

The book's main weakness is that it seems puffed up a bit to include more gossipy tidbits than are necessary for the story, but which might titillate readers. On the other hand, Ms. Conant resists falling in love with her subjects and writes candidly about their weaknesses, pains, failings, and disappointments.

To me the most interesting parts of the book came where it became transparent that President Roosevelt was using the British spies to help achieve his goals while keeping his own counsel.

The reality is that the British were acting more like today's lobbyists than they were spies . . . except that they didn't make large campaign contributions.

If you don't like books about who seduced who and how it all happened, you should avoid this book. It tells you more than you want to know in those areas.

An Excellent Biography of An Interesting and Tragic Character, 11 Mar 2008
This very readable biography of William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw of wartime radio fame, is most interesting. The complete life of Joyce is covered from his childhood and youth in Ireland, to his time in the British Union of Fascists as virtually second in command to Mosley and then on to Germany. His links with MI5 are also made clear. The section describing his five years or so in Berlin is gripping and using recently available material Farndale manages to conjure a very clear idea of daily life for Joyce and his wife Margaret and their later experience of shortages and Allied bombing. Finally his arrest and trial are covered and the machinations of the legal establishment well reviewed. Again the text is lucid and illuminates the condition of Joyce very well. A beautifully written biography of a most interesting, intelligent, and tragic character, well worth a read.

Well researched and well written, 06 Feb 2008
I have encountered the character of William Joyce on a few occasions, in a number of different books over the past few years yet none have brought his character to life in as much detail as this book. Certainly the very central position and character of his wife was never included in any of the works, even in passing reference.
Farndale tells a very good story, filling the plot with many interesting and infamous characters and finally also questions (quite rightly) the legitimacy of Joyce's execution and Margaret's culpability yet eventual freedom due to Matters of State.
A cracking read and well worth five stars.

Jairmany calling , 22 Aug 2007
William Joyce was one of the most controversial figures to come out of the Second World War. He might not be known by that name, but as Lord Haw Haw he was hated, ridiculed and feared by millions across the English speaking world and beyond. He became the voice of English speaking radio, an a key weapon in Goebbels' propaganda arsenal. With a recognisably faux upper class accent, his broadcasts for Germany Calling (brayingly pronounced as Jairmany Calling) would grip the nation. Nigel Farndale's biography paints a fascinating and controversially sympathetic view of Joyce and his wife.

Farndale is well suited to the biographer's trade, and manages to create a rich and detailed impression of the two key characters. There is a real sense that the intelligence, wit, capriciousness, self importance and petulance of the man is captured, whilst Margaret's whimsy, vindictiveness and desire for the high life is equally vivid. Given that the story of Joyce is intricately linked to Britain in the time of appeasement and then Nazi Germany at war there is scope for these two fascinating times to be documented. It would be a book of impossible scope to do justice to all of these themes, but Haw Haw does manage to convey the thankfully futile build up of the British fascists and the hysteria of the German capital at war. The book builds to the firestorms and pounding of Berlin's Führerdammerung, and here Farndale excels in depicting the desperate zeal of the Nazis, the relentless terrifying propaganda and the looming spectre of the Russian invasion.

The book is a gripping narrative biography, as forthright and capable in its command of English as the subject was. It is often the fate of biographers to become so drawn by their subject as to present hagiographic profiles. Haw Haw does not go this far, but Farndale does at best present a balanced view, and the impression one leaves with is of a sympathetic reading of complex individual eventually wronged by victor's justice. I would probably agree that the death sentence for supposed treachery of some one not even born in England was a particularly vindictive form justice, more in line with the public mood than jurisprudence. But one should also not forget that Joyce was responsible for casting a shadow of fear in the darkest days of the Battle for Britain, and for being in league with one of the most heinous regimes and political ideologies in history.

Compelling and surprising, 01 Dec 2005
I grew up listening to Haw-Haw on the radio, so I was pleased to find an account that is so accessible to the non-academic reader. Farndale's style is engaging and difficult to put down: it drew me along and I felt he developed a kinship with his subject matter that I had not found with the other books on Joyce, which are often indigestible and, in at least one case, riddled with errors.

I'm very glad to see that the elegance of Farndale's style and care in research has been recognised by the Whitbread prize committee: if you buy this book you won't be disappointed: it reveals much about the motivations and thoughts of those behind propaganda, but is more importantly a genuine biographical account of a couple who have been sidelined and misrepresented by time.

Elegant and accessible, 01 Dec 2005
I bought this biography because it has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and, I have to say, it lives up to expectations. The story of William and Margaret Joyce is a strange and sometimes disturbing one and Nigel Farndale tells it with great deftness and humanity. The account of Lord Haw-Haw’s controversial treason trial in 1945 is particularly haunting. A brilliantly crafted and unforgettable book.

Indispensable, 17 Jun 2005
Up until the 1970's the view of the Wehrmacht as by and large honourable soldiers was rarely challenged in the west.

Only in the last couple of decades have scholars like Bartov chipped away at this myth by analysing the great mass of photographs, letters and diaries that show ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers enthusiastically participating in atrocities, while documentary evidence from higher up the command chain has illustrated the degree to which the army was intimately involved at every level in genocide.

Of particular value in this respect is the Federal Republic's official history Germany in the Second World which is still being published (although the extortionate price of these volumes means you'll never see them outside of a university library).

Bartov's distinctive contribution is to not just document the degree to which the Wehrmacht was indoctrinated and behaved as Hitler's Army but to ask how this impacted on its miltary effectiveness.

While modern military historians tend to see the maintenance of small unit cohesion as central to combat effectiveness (i.e. soldiers do what they do not primarily out of patriotism or hatred of the enemy but 'for their mates'), any analysis of German casualty rates in the eastern front indicates that personnel turnover was far too fast for small unit cohesion to be maintained.

However as the fighting qualities of the Wehrmacht remained extrordinarily high right up to the end some other explanation is required.

For Bartov the key is Nazi ideology - most Germans of military age in 1943 had spent a decade undergoing intensive indoctrination and had in many if not all cases thoroughly internalised the values of the Third Reich and behaved accordingly.

To back up the ideology a savage military discipline stepped in with thousands of German soldiers being shot for disciplinary offences that in the US or British armies would earn only a few days in the stockade.

However German soldiers while they could be executed for dozing off on guard or overstaying a leave were almost never punished for crimes against civilians in the occupied east and effectively encouraged to murder and plunder to their heart's content (rape though not unknown, was frowned upon for racial reasons).

This led even the best amongst them into a state of uneasy complicity with the worst - fully aware of their criminality and expecting to be treated similarly by the enemy, German soldiers had little choice but to fight to the bitter end.

The sort of people who collect books glorifying 'SS panzer aces' clearly find such evidence disquieting and would rather it was swept back under the carpet.

Not a good read for swastika fetishists, 27 Nov 2001
This book is one of the most important contributions to the destruction of the popular myth that the Wehrmacht was an "honorable" fighting force, entirely innocent of the crimes carried out against the "racial enemies" of the Reich. As such, it will hold little interest to readers of "camo-porn" who believe that soldiers have a morality higher than that of their nations' leaders. If your tastes run more to the "bang bang, you're dead" end of military history, this book will probably bore you. For readers interested in the causes of the Germans' mass murders and other horrifying atrocities, an important and illuminating book

Disappointing approach to prove a point, 26 May 1999
Mr. Bartov, to prove his points of the Nazification of the German Army in World War II, uses an excessive amount of quotes from various German soldiers' letters. A chapter of these is fine, but when Bartov resorts to using the selected information in these letters throughout the entire book, the reader soon grows tired and bored. Any good historian will tell you, letters and/or oral histories should be use selectively; usually they can lead to a distorted view of history. And a distorted view of history is, as Mr. Bartov should know, not good history!

Excellent study of the German army in Russia in WWII., 02 Mar 1999
Bartov does a fine job revealing how the average German soldier thought, how the savagery of the combat combined with their own racialist attitudes towards their opponent to allow them to commit or tolerate the commission of atrocities. Bartov also describes how the vaunted mechanized Panzer army quickly bogged down into WWI-style infantry combat, and that the high rate of casualties destroyed German unit integrity. Bartov's description of German soldiers' "war tourism," including photographing mass executions of Jews, dispels myths about the "good" Germans. They may not have all been Nazis, and they were not all war criminals, but by and large they did share Hitler's racial attitudes. This accounts for their grim fanatical resistance as well as the atrocities. Highly recommended.

an excellent study on the Nazi soldiers and Hitler's power., 04 Feb 1999
Mr. Bartov provides the reader, especially college history students, with an unique insight into the psyche of the common German soldier and Hitler's Nazi Party policies.

Edna received this as a birthday prezzie..., 12 Apr 2007
... and very nice it is too, thank you. The text is perfectly adequate and has some great little bits of goss. HOWEVER, dear readers, the piccies are the real GOLD here. Adolf, Eva, Blondi and all their chums enjoying the Good Life as they receive the acclamation of the loyal crowd. Check it out.

Very Well Presented, 09 Mar 2007
A well written book based on the contemporary postcard collection of the author. The book contains many black and white views of important Nazi buildings in Munich, the town of Berchtesgaden and interior and exterior views of Hitler's country house at Berchtesgaden and the complex that was established on the Obersalzberg around him. The houses of Borman and Goering are also covered together with the Eagle's Nest. The accompanying text points out salient details and gives comments on the current state of the sites shown. Most interesting and very well presented.

Image and Reality, 16 Apr 2008
A remarkable book , you will never view Hitler's Germany in the same light again.

A revelatory read, 29 Apr 2005
This fascinating study gives a whole new slant to what happened in Germany between 1933 and 1945. The Germans, angry and hurt after the defeat of the Great War, bothered by unemployment, dissatisfied with party politics, fearful of Bolshevism and seeking a strong leader who would be above politics and who would restore Germany's rightful greatness, found him in the apparently unlikely person of an embittered, Jew- and Communist-hating, Austrian ex-corporal incapable of normal human warmth. The creation of the mythical Hitler to fulfil expectations, often standing the facts of Hitler's actual person on their head, was a masterpiece of Goebbels's propaganda (Goebbels personally regarded the creation of the Fuehrer Myth as his greatest achievement). As a result, Hitler's personal popularity was almost universal, even among sections of the population who detested Nazism itself. He was given the benefit of the doubt every time. "If only the Fuehrer knew," people would say, after the latest bout of Nazi excesses.

However, the Hitler Myth carried within it the seeds of its own destruction. For one thing, Hitler came to believe it himself, and as a result became ever more divorced from ever more uncomfortable reality. Moreover, its prolongation required a continual stream of triumphs and successes, and when they faltered in the early 1940s (beginning with the Stalingrad catastrophe), so did it. However, it maintained a considerable hold right to the very end, even in the face of impending disaster. Professor Kershaw teases out the details of a complex story in a scholarly yet highly readable and informative way, and ends with an excellent concluding review chapter. The book was written in 1987, before the fall of the Wall, the subsequent reunification of Germany and the upsurge of extremist right-wing sentiment as a result of high unemployment, poor economic performance and dissatisfaction with the current government - now, where have we heard this before? It would be hard to improve on Professor Kershaw's masterly final paragraph as a commentary on modern-day affairs - and not only those of Germany:

"Old myths are however replaced by new as the combination of modern technology and advanced marketing techniques produce ever more elaborate and sophisticated examples of political image building around minority personality cults, even in western democracies, aimed at obfuscating reality among the ignorant and gullible. The price for abdicating democratic responsibilities and placing uncritical trust in the 'firm leadership' of seemingly well-intentioned political authority was paid dearly by Germans between 1933 and 1945. Even if a collapse into new forms of fascism is inherently unlikely in any western democracy, the massive extension of the power of the modern State over its citizens is in itself more than sufficient cause to develop the highest level possible of educated cynicism and critical awareness as the only protection against the marketed images of present-day and future claimants to political 'leadership'".

Shattering Third Reich and Nazi Apologists' Myths, 22 Jan 2003
The "myth" which Prof Kershaw exposes as a naked, squirming lie is the belief that hitler was above political intrigue and corruption, and was an innocent duped by self-serving, greedy, conniving underlings. This myth was very popular in Nazi Germany, where there was a general desire for a strong, single leader to clear away the messy, bickering mess that Weimar democracy had proved to be. The naive faith in the führer can still be seen on the faces of his former devotees in TV documentaries such as "The Nazis - A Warning From History".

The book is a detailed, broad examination of the social values and motives of the vast majority of Germans and austrians in those years, from the early thirties right up to the final collapse and Soviet invasion of 1945. It reveals the self-delusion that otherwise intelligent, rational people will employ to deny that they are supporters - whether active or passive - of a criminal state bent on mass murder and the enslavement of nations in their name.

Although the title might be misunderstood as an apologia for Hitler, perhaps seeming to be a defence of Hitler against anti-nazi, anti-aryan propaganda lies, this is to be welcomed. If even one confused potential nazi-supporter reads this and has their opinions overturned by Ian Kershaw's overwhelming evidence and arguments, the world will be a better, safer place.

A great book.

Another Kershaw masterpiece!, 06 Sep 2000
Kershaw is the best and he reminds us of this again as he takes us through the propaganda machine that was so important in Hitlers rise to power and the face of the Third Reich.

Trading Rumors, Secrets, Access, Influence, and Loyalties, 11 Oct 2008

During World War II, Britain dispatched many presentable young men to argue its case to America, to pick up insights, to grab secrets that could be used, and to influence American decisions. Where several books have emphasized the spymaster behind these efforts, Canadian William Stephenson, this book looks at the young men exercising their influence in Washington, D.C. Roald Dahl (author of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) was one of the most effective, but his peers also included Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond books) and David Ogilvy (of advertising fame . . . thinking Hathaway shirts).

Ms. Conant writes about these young men and those they seduced (men into sharing secrets and women often into their boudoirs) in a way that seems like today's gossip, foibles and all. What makes those details interesting is that they often involve prominent Americans like President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, up-and-comer Lyndon Johnson, and influential reporters and columnists. You will probably be especially interested to learn about Charles Edward Marsh, newspaper magnate, trophy wife hunter, and sponsor for promising young men (including Dahl and Johnson).

The book's main weakness is that it seems puffed up a bit to include more gossipy tidbits than are necessary for the story, but which might titillate readers. On the other hand, Ms. Conant resists falling in love with her subjects and writes candidly about their weaknesses, pains, failings, and disappointments.

To me the most interesting parts of the book came where it became transparent that President Roosevelt was using the British spies to help achieve his goals while keeping his own counsel.

The reality is that the British were acting more like today's lobbyists than they were spies . . . except that they didn't make large campaign contributions.

If you don't like books about who seduced who and how it all happened, you should avoid this book. It tells you more than you want to know in those areas.

An Excellent Biography of An Interesting and Tragic Character, 11 Mar 2008
This very readable biography of William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw of wartime radio fame, is most interesting. The complete life of Joyce is covered from his childhood and youth in Ireland, to his time in the British Union of Fascists as virtually second in command to Mosley and then on to Germany. His links with MI5 are also made clear. The section describing his five years or so in Berlin is gripping and using recently available material Farndale manages to conjure a very clear idea of daily life for Joyce and his wife Margaret and their later experience of shortages and Allied bombing. Finally his arrest and trial are covered and the machinations of the legal establishment well reviewed. Again the text is lucid and illuminates the condition of Joyce very well. A beautifully written biography of a most interesting, intelligent, and tragic character, well worth a read.

Well researched and well written, 06 Feb 2008
I have encountered the character of William Joyce on a few occasions, in a number of different books over the past few years yet none have brought his character to life in as much detail as this book. Certainly the very central position and character of his wife was never included in any of the works, even in passing reference.
Farndale tells a very good story, filling the plot with many interesting and infamous characters and finally also questions (quite rightly) the legitimacy of Joyce's execution and Margaret's culpability yet eventual freedom due to Matters of State.
A cracking read and well worth five stars.

Jairmany calling , 22 Aug 2007
William Joyce was one of the most controversial figures to come out of the Second World War. He might not be known by that name, but as Lord Haw Haw he was hated, ridiculed and feared by millions across the English speaking world and beyond. He became the voice of English speaking radio, an a key weapon in Goebbels' propaganda arsenal. With a recognisably faux upper class accent, his broadcasts for Germany Calling (brayingly pronounced as Jairmany Calling) would grip the nation. Nigel Farndale's biography paints a fascinating and controversially sympathetic view of Joyce and his wife.

Farndale is well suited to the biographer's trade, and manages to create a rich and detailed impression of the two key characters. There is a real sense that the intelligence, wit, capriciousness, self importance and petulance of the man is captured, whilst Margaret's whimsy, vindictiveness and desire for the high life is equally vivid. Given that the story of Joyce is intricately linked to Britain in the time of appeasement and then Nazi Germany at war there is scope for these two fascinating times to be documented. It would be a book of impossible scope to do justice to all of these themes, but Haw Haw does manage to convey the thankfully futile build up of the British fascists and the hysteria of the German capital at war. The book builds to the firestorms and pounding of Berlin's Führerdammerung, and here Farndale excels in depicting the desperate zeal of the Nazis, the relentless terrifying propaganda and the looming spectre of the Russian invasion.

The book is a gripping narrative biography, as forthright and capable in its command of English as the subject was. It is often the fate of biographers to become so drawn by their subject as to present hagiographic profiles. Haw Haw does not go this far, but Farndale does at best present a balanced view, and the impression one leaves with is of a sympathetic reading of complex individual eventually wronged by victor's justice. I would probably agree that the death sentence for supposed treachery of some one not even born in England was a particularly vindictive form justice, more in line with the public mood than jurisprudence. But one should also not forget that Joyce was responsible for casting a shadow of fear in the darkest days of the Battle for Britain, and for being in league with one of the most heinous regimes and political ideologies in history.

Compelling and surprising, 01 Dec 2005
I grew up listening to Haw-Haw on the radio, so I was pleased to find an account that is so accessible to the non-academic reader. Farndale's style is engaging and difficult to put down: it drew me along and I felt he developed a kinship with his subject matter that I had not found with the other books on Joyce, which are often indigestible and, in at least one case, riddled with errors.

I'm very glad to see that the elegance of Farndale's style and care in research has been recognised by the Whitbread prize committee: if you buy this book you won't be disappointed: it reveals much about the motivations and thoughts of those behind propaganda, but is more importantly a genuine biographical account of a couple who have been sidelined and misrepresented by time.

Elegant and accessible, 01 Dec 2005
I bought this biography because it has been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and, I have to say, it lives up to expectations. The story of William and Margaret Joyce is a strange and sometimes disturbing one and Nigel Farndale tells it with great deftness and humanity. The account of Lord Haw-Haw’s controversial treason trial in 1945 is particularly haunting. A brilliantly crafted and unforgettable book.

Indispensable, 17 Jun 2005
Up until the 1970's the view of the Wehrmacht as by and large honourable soldiers was rarely challenged in the west.

Only in the last couple of decades have scholars like Bartov chipped away at this myth by analysing the great mass of photographs, letters and diaries that show ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers enthusiastically participating in atrocities, while documentary evidence from higher up the command chain has illustrated the degree to which the army was intimately involved at every level in genocide.

Of particular value in this respect is the Federal Republic's official history Germany in the Second World which is still being published (although the extortionate price of these volumes means you'll never see them outside of a university library).

Bartov's distinctive contribution is to not just document the degree to which the Wehrmacht was indoctrinated and behaved as Hitler's Army but to ask how this impacted on its miltary effectiveness.

While modern military historians tend to see the maintenance of small unit cohesion as central to combat effectiveness (i.e. soldiers do what they do not primarily out of patriotism or hatred of the enemy but 'for their mates'), any analysis of German casualty rates in the eastern front indicates that personnel turnover was far too fast for small unit cohesion to be maintained.

However as the fighting qualities of the Wehrmacht remained extrordinarily high right up to the end some other explanation is required.

For Bartov the key is Nazi ideology - most Germans of military age in 1943 had spent a decade undergoing intensive indoctrination and had in many if not all cases thoroughly internalised the values of the Third Reich and behaved accordingly.

To back up the ideology a savage military discipline stepped in with thousands of German soldiers being shot for disciplinary offences that in the US or British armies would earn only a few days in the stockade.

However German soldiers while they could be executed for dozing off on guard or overstaying a leave were almost never punished for crimes against civilians in the occupied east and effectively encouraged to murder and plunder to their heart's content (rape though not unknown, was frowned upon for racial reasons).

This led even the best amongst them into a state of uneasy complicity with the worst - fully aware of their criminality and expecting to be treated similarly by the enemy, German soldiers had little choice but to fight to the bitter end.

The sort of people who collect books glorifying 'SS panzer aces' clearly find such evidence disquieting and would rather it was swept back under the carpet.

Not a good read for swastika fetishists, 27 Nov 2001
This book is one of the most important contributions to the destruction of the popular myth that the Wehrmacht was an "honorable" fighting force, entirely innocent of the crimes carried out against the "racial enemies" of the Reich. As such, it will hold little interest to readers of "camo-porn" who believe that soldiers have a morality higher than that of their nations' leaders. If your tastes run more to the "bang bang, you're dead" end of military history, this book will probably bore you. For readers interested in the causes of the Germans' mass murders and other horrifying atrocities, an important and illuminating book

Disappointing approach to prove a point, 26 May 1999
Mr. Bartov, to prove his points of the Nazification of the German Army in World War II, uses an excessive amount of quotes from various German soldiers' letters. A chapter of these is fine, but when Bartov resorts to using the selected information in these letters throughout the entire book, the reader soon grows tired and bored. Any good historian will tell you, letters and/or oral histories should be use selectively; usually they can lead to a distorted view of history. And a distorted view of history is, as Mr. Bartov should know, not good history!

Excellent study of the German army in Russia in WWII., 02 Mar 1999
Bartov does a fine job revealing how the average German soldier thought, how the savagery of the combat combined with their own racialist attitudes towards their opponent to allow them to commit or tolerate the commission of atrocities. Bartov also describes how the vaunted mechanized Panzer army quickly bogged down into WWI-style infantry combat, and that the high rate of casualties destroyed German unit integrity. Bartov's description of German soldiers' "war tourism," including photographing mass executions of Jews, dispels myths about the "good" Germans. They may not have all been Nazis, and they were not all war criminals, but by and large they did share Hitler's racial attitudes. This accounts for their grim fanatical resistance as well as the atrocities. Highly recommended.

an excellent study on the Nazi soldiers and Hitler's power., 04 Feb 1999
Mr. Bartov provides the reader, especially college history students, with an unique insight into the psyche of the common German soldier and Hitler's Nazi Party policies.

Edna received this as a birthday prezzie..., 12 Apr 2007
... and very nice it is too, thank you. The text is perfectly adequate and has some great little bits of goss. HOWEVER, dear readers, the piccies are the real GOLD here. Adolf, Eva, Blondi and all their chums enjoying the Good Life as they receive the acclamation of the loyal crowd. Check it out.

Very Well Presented, 09 Mar 2007
A well written book based on the contemporary postcard collection of the author. The book contains many black and white views of important Nazi buildings in Munich, the town of Berchtesgaden and interior and exterior views of Hitler's country house at Berchtesgaden and the complex that was established on the Obersalzberg around him. The houses of Borman and Goering are also covered together with the Eagle's Nest. The accompanying text points out salient details and gives comments on the current state of the sites shown. Most interesting and very well presented.

Long overdue, 28 Feb 2008
"The Myth of the Eastern Front" is an interesting look at the evolution of the Western view when it came to the German Wehrmacht throughout WWII.

To begin with the book is broken down into eight chapters, discounting the introduction and conclusion. The first chapter aims to reveal how the Soviet Union was viewed throughout the war in the American Media. Many times the Russians, from the soldiers to the women working in industries and within the Red Army, were compared to their US counterparts with the idea that they were very alike and similar as a people and in their individual qualities. From Readers Digest to a variety of other publications like Time and Life readers would be able to catch a glimpse of the Soviet Union through journalists, reporters, and a variety of others. Yet, just as soon as some publications went from vilifying the Soviet Union before they were attacked by Hitler, they would go back to the same standard quite soon after the war was over. Helping to tarnish relations that so many worked had to sustain and cement in the hopes of a peaceful future.

The Second chapter tackles the Nuremberg trials and the numerous ways in which the German General Staff and Army Generals were shown to have been implicit in genocidal acts on the Eastern Front. Trials began to take place soon after the war in various cities throughout the Soviet Union where perpetrators were put on trial for their crimes, from collaborators to SS and regular army officers and soldiers. The Wehrmacht's guilt was made quite clear by a number of their own generals, and others, including Einsatzgruppen commanders who testified to the regular cooperation of the army with their troops. Some of the generals convicted of various war crimes through trials held after the Nuremberg IMT were Wilhelm List, Walter Kunze, Lothar Rendulic, Wilhelm Spiedel, Helmuth Felmy, Ernst von Leyser, Hubert Lanz, Ernst Dehner, Wilhelm von Leeb, Georg von Kuchler, Hermann Hoth, Hans Reinhardt, Hans von Salmuth, Karl Hollidt, Karl von Roques, Hermann Reinecke, Walter Warlimont, Otto Wohler, and Rudolf Lehmann. Walter H. Rapp, the prosecutor, stated that the one of the reasons for the trials was partly so that legends would be prevented from forming in the future about military generals, as had happened after WWI. It seems that the American occupation paved the way for the future view of the Germans and the Soviets. Those soldiers who had liberated the Concentration camps and had seen what the Third Reich was all about were soon replaced by new recruits who began to view the Germans in a different light. Fewer and fewer came to blame the German people for the war and even less could believe that they were responsible for concentration camps. But US soldiers were quick to apply their homegrown stereotypes to the Slavs and the Jews which the Germans eagerly encouraged and cultivated, especially after US soldiers were allowed to fraternize with the Germans. One must also take into consideration the fact that the Soviets, to a large degree, did not want to be friends with the Germans since they were so different culturally and the Germans did invade and unleash a genocidal war on their land. After this the reader can follow the various political machinations that eventually led to the majority of those convicted of war crimes, from the SS to the German Army, to be released for a variety of reasons cooked up as a result of the political situation in the US, the war in Korea, and the rearmament of West Germany. The last part of the chapter examines the "Halder Group" which was, for the most part, responsible for the Cold War view of the Eastern Front and the Soviets. A surprise to me was to learn that after France was conquered, in the beginning of July, it was Halder's staff which drafted the first major plan for a war against the USSR, "Operation Otto", which was created in part out of strategic considerations and as well to counter the demobilization which Hitler was contemplating.

The third chapter, aptly named "The German Generals Talk, Write and Network" begins with a description of how Halder was helped by the Americans in escaping a trial in Bavaria, which was a result of his diaries being found and incriminating Halder in a variety of war crimes. Halder's thoughts and ideas on how the German military should be perceived were tape recorded as he conferred with others. He continued with the "war against Bolshevism" theme and at the same time tried to "rescue the honor of the German officer corps" by removing the stigmatism that had developed in regards to Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust/atrocities of the war. A list of Generals who would help Halder write about the Eastern Front is given and, even more interesting, is a list of the titles that came out from the Strategic, Operational, and Tactical field which helped create the myths that have been sustained to this day in the west in regards to the war on Germany's Eastern Front. Halder would become a household name after his diaries were published in the 1960's. He'd be given various honors from the military and politicians; he'd give speeches throughout military schools in the US and receive numerous letters from the layman asking every kind of question about the German Military and WWII, etc. The Bundeswehr as an institution is described, interesting is the fact that 100% of its officers were part of the former Wehrmacht in 1955, when it was created.

The last part of the chapter deals with the similarities between the "lost cause" phenomenon of the US Civil War and the Eastern Front in WWII. A fascinating insight into how the American public has been, to a degree, duped into reveling in the failures of racists.

The fourth chapter deals with "Memoirs, Novels, and Popular Histories." The first tackled is Manstein's memoirs, going through Manstein's history on the Eastern Front I couldn't help but see the authors of this book mention that after the defeat at Kursk Germany went on the defensive and Manstein was advocating a fluid defense, after this the author mentions Manstein's victory when retaking Kharkov in March of 1943, why mention this AFTER Kursk when it happened before? Apparently, as so