Hitler's Third Reich was on the brink of total ruin in mid-April 1945, and the Red Army was poised less than 60 miles to the east and ready to seize the German capital. Peter Antill describes the events in this engaging history, examining the Soviets' march towards Berlin and the Germans' final resistance. This book, supplemented with a host of maps and illustrations, provides a vivid portrayal of the death throes of the Third Reich and the end of World War II (1939-1945) in Europe, exploring the strategy of both sides and the tactics of impromptu urban warfare.

Covering nearly 200 countries, this yearbook is filled with background notes reports from the U.S. Department of State. Entries typically cover geography, history, government and political conditions, economy, and state of relations with the United States. Also highlights detailed travel notes, including passport applications, visa requirements, regulations and duties, medical information, and national holidays, as well as international adoption regulations and annually updated comprehensive terrorism reports.

World War II, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history, is widely considered the pivotal event of the modern age. From the rise of fascist Europe to the atomic bombings of Japan, "Encyclopedia of World War II" presents the complete story of this great conflict. International in scope, this two-volume A-to-Z reference covers the military, historical, political, diplomatic, and biographical aspects of the war.

This book grew out of a conference organized by the German Historical Institute (GHI) on May 23-5, 1996, iii Berlin. For three days, thirty-five scholars from n\ne countries became acht-und-sechziger (sixty-eighters), not on the streets and barricades but in lively debate over the events and significance of the momentous year 1968. This book consists of revised versions of many of the original papers as well as entirely new essays that complement our overall theme. I thank all of the authors and also those who participated in the conference but whose work could not be included here. I am grateful to Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (Free University Berlin), Luisa Passerini (European University Institute, Florence), Keith A. Reader (University of Newcastle), and Dieter Rucht (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin) for chairing the various sessions and for guiding us through spirited discussions. In Berlin, the Wissenschaftszentrum afforded a comfortable setting for three days of intensive debate. I thank Friedheim Neidhardt, the center'sdirector, and his dedicated staff - Birgit Hahn, Britta Heinrich, Ilse Kischlat, Dietmar Kremser, and Burckhard Wiebe - for hosting the conference and helping with its organization. Dieter Senoner of the mayor's office kindly welcomed us to Berlin at a reception at the Rotes Rathaus. Anneke de Rudder, who took us on a "1968 Walking Tour" through the German capital, gave us the opportunity to visit the key sites of that historic year.At the GHI, I thank Barbel Bernhardt, Christa Brown, Dieter Schneider, and Barbel Thomas - all of whom were involved in the organization before, during, and after the conference. Pamela Abraham tracked down the copyrights for the illustrations and assisted in assembling the manuscript. Daniel S. Mattern, the series editor at the Institute, deserves a special note of appreciation for guiding us through the difficult process of publishing this collection and for preparing a readable, clear, and concise manuscript. Frank Smith, the executive editor for social sciences at Cambridge University Press, took great interest in this project from the begin-IX X Preface ning and helped bring about its final shape. Further, I thank the two anonymous readers for their very useful critical evaluations of the manuscript. Finally, I thank my two coeditors. Carole Fink provided the original plan, which she presented to me at another GHI conference, in Berkeley, California, in May 1994. In subsequent discussions, we discovered that "1968" is a particularly well-suited topic for understanding the intellectual challenges that increasing global interdependence poses to historians of the twentieth century. We were later joined by Philipp Gassert, who worked with us to organize the conference and edit the book. I shall miss these last three and a half years of spirited collaboration among three very engaged historians. The topic of this book dovetails nicely with the efforts of the GHI in Washington to promote comparative research. In fact, most of the four to five international conferences the Institute rganizes annually are based on this perspective, comparing events, ideas, and structures in the United States and Europe. At times we have even taken a global perspective, with 1968: The World Traniformed being a case in point. In this age of globalization, historians should also become global players - at least mentally.

Vol. 2. - 458 p.

NATIONAL SOCIALISM as an intellectual movement emanated in the years 1926–28 from the brains of a few—chiefly north—German thinkers. As a political force it sprang from the mass-membership of the great Fatherland Party and the Pan-German Association. In a word—it was born of the annexationist militarism of 1917. In 1919 it became an independent political movement. Out of its raw material the Reichswehr in Munich forged a political weapon. This weapon was given shape in 1921 by Captain Ernst Röhm, and by a man of outstanding intellect but unstable character—Adolf Hitler. The movement derived its title from Hitler’s native Austria. It was adopted against the wishes of the present leaders and does not represent their political ideas. Those members of the National Socialist Workers Party who subsequently sought to give a literal interpretation to its title found themselves compelled by force of logic to leave its ranks.

The text for this Atlas Of World War II, first published by Bison Books Ltd., of London in 1985, and compiled by Richard Natkiel, comes from Robin L. Sommer, a prolific writer whose other wildly divergent efforts include The Little Book Of Cats: Poems And Prose, On Fifth Avenue: Highlights Of Architectural And Cultural History, and Pablo Picasso, while the 4-page Introduction is contributed by S. L. Mayer, whose works include Signal- Hitler's Wartime Picture Magazine, The Biography Of General Of The Army Douglas MacArthur, and Weapons Of The Gulf War.

The opening of the former Soviet Union to the West over the past three years has made accessible, for the first time, much new material on the Red Army of the Great Patriotic War - the huge and varied forces which won some of the greatest battles of World War II against the German invasion. This book contains a range of rare, authentic uniforms modelled and photographed in Moscow: tank commanders and generals, assault infantry and women medics, pilots and NKVD security officers, artillerymen, camouflaged scouts, and many more. The photographs are backed-up by close-ups of insignia and personal equipment.

Is everyday life possible in a situation of total war, foreign occupation and subjection to a Nazi or Fascist political order? Europe, between 1939 and 1945, was in the grip of a war of ideology, extermination and genocide which resulted in as many casualties among civilians as among combatants. While combatants engaged in battles with immense fire-power from Stalingrad to Normandy, and over 3 million out of 5 million captured Russian soldiers died in German prisoner of war camps, civilians bore the brunt of bombing by Axis and Allied planes alike and the scorched-earth policy of both Soviets and Germans. Civilian populations were displaced in their millions, whether fleeing before invading armies, fearful of atrocities, evacuated from bombed cities, or moved by the Soviet authorities as unreliable ethnic minorities away from the front line. The economies and labour forces of occupied Europe were riveted to the needs of the German war machine, with over eight million people brought to work in Germany. In the absence of their menfolk, whether as soldiers or as deported workers, women were frequently the main breadwinners as well as heads of the family, and were liable to seduction or rape by invading or occupying forces. Occupying forces purged or exterminated target groups that were seen as a menace to their war effort, the Germans in occupied Poland getting rid first of intellectuals, then of Jews. In the heart of occupied Europe Nazi and fascist ideology was imposed by propaganda, schooling, youth movements and the persecution of churches. Food was generally in short supply, and famine stalked the land from Greece to Russia. Where civilians took up arms against the occupying forces as partisans or maquisards, regular armies having dwindled away, they found themselves fighting an unequal battle, sustaining heavy losses and subjected to torture to betray their comrades. Where resistance fighters struck, then the occupying forces resorted to collective reprisals against civilians suspected of harbouring them, from the execution of hostages to the torching of villages.

The War That Came Early: The Big Switch is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

In 1938, two men held history in their hands. One was Adolf Hitler. The other was British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who, determined to avoid war at any cost, came to be known as “the great appeaser.” But Harry Turtledove, the unrivaled master of alternate history, has launched a gripping saga that springboards from a different fateful act: What if Chamberlain had stood up to Hitler? What would the Nazis’ next move have been? And how would the war—which Hitler had always regretted waiting eleven months to start—have unfolded and changed our world? Here, Turtledove takes us across a panorama of conflict fueled by ideology and demagoguery. Nations are pitted against nations, alliances are forged between old enemies, ordinary men and women are hurled into extraordinary life-and-death situations. In Japanese-controlled Singapore, an American marine falls in love with a Russian dance hall hostess, while around him are heard the first explosions of Chinese guerilla resistance. On the frontlines of war-ravaged rural France, a weary soldier perfects the art of using an enormous anti-tank gun as a sniper’s tool—while from Germany a killer is sent to hunt him down. And in the icy North Atlantic, a U-boat bearing an experimental device wreaks havoc on British shipping, setting the stage for a Nazi ground invasion of Denmark.

Hitler's War (Published as The War That Came Early: Hitler's War in paperback, Del Rey, 2009) is an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first volume in The War That Came Early, an alternate history of World War II. The Point of Divergence has José Sanjurjo surviving a plane crash in 1936. Subsequently, during the Munich Conference in 1938, Konrad Henlein, a political leader of Sudetenland Germans is assassinated. Hitler uses this act as a pretext for war with Czechoslovakia, knowing that the Spanish Nationalists will side with him. Britain, France, and the Soviet Union declare war on Germany. Poland, despite previous ties with France, sides with Germany against the USSR. Further, Japan, which has been expanding into the Asian mainland, begins skirmishes with the USSR in Mongolia. The United States is on the sidelines, although it has troops in China, and volunteers participate in the Spanish Civil War. The novel was (evidentally) originally announced in early 2008 as Appeasement at amazon.co.uk, but Turtledove denied writing or contracting such a project at the time.