Germany and the Second World War Volume IX/II

German Wartime Society 1939-1945: Exploitation, Interpretations, Exclusion

Jörg Echternkamp editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:20th Mar '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Germany and the Second World War Volume IX/II cover

The Second World War affected the lives and shaped the experience of millions of individuals in Germany - soldiers at the front, women, children, and the elderly sheltering in cellars, slave labourers toiling in factories, and concentration-camp prisoners and POWs clearing rubble in the Reich's devastated cities. Taking a 'history from below' approach, the volume examines how the minds and behaviour of individuals were moulded by the Party as the Reich took the road to Total War. The ever-increasing numbers of German workers conscripted into the Wehrmacht were replaced with forced foreign workers, slave labourers, and concentration camp prisoners. The interaction in everyday life between German civilian society and these coerced groups is explored, as is that society's relationship to the Holocaust. From early 1943, the war on the home front was increasingly dominated by attack from the air. The role of the Party, administration, police, and courts in providing for the vast numbers of those rendered homeless, in bolstering civilian morale with 'miracle revenge weapons' propaganda, and in maintaining order in a society in disintegration is reviewed in detail. For society in uniform, the war in the east was one of ideology and annihilation, with intensified indoctrination of the troops after Stalingrad. The social profile of this army is analysed through study of a typical infantry division. The volume concludes with an account of the various forms of resistance to Hitler's regime, in society and the military, culminating in the failed attempt on his life in July 1944.

This book maintains the extremely high standards set by previous volumes in the series. Each essay provides both an excellent summing up of the literature (at least until 2005) and some fresh insights based on archival research ... [it] remains an essential starting point for German society during the war. * Jeff Rutherford, German History *
this book is worth having and using. * Paul Bookbinder, European History Quarterly *
Review from previous edition REVIEW OF OTHER VOLUMES IN SERIES
A meticulous, scholarly perspective on the conflict from Germany's side * Max Hastings, Evening Standard *
Brilliant analysis of how Germany fought its war * Max Hastings, Evening Standard *
authoritative and lavishly produced set of studies, co-authored in the present case by a half-dozen of the Federal Republic's leading military historians...Klink's over two-hundred-page summary of the actual conduct of operations...is a model of its kind. The translation reads flawlessly.' * International History Review *
monumental study of Germany and the Second World War * Victor Rothwell, History *
It is a monumental work that provides extensive, copiously annotated, and cartographically illustrated coverage of the background, planning, and execution of the German attack and the Soviet response...a volume that almost certainly is the closest thing there ever will be to a definitively authoritative history of the opening phase of the German campaign that represented a turning point in the history of the war and of the world in the twentieth century. * World War Two Studies Association *
An indispensable new dimension is added to our understanding of the conflict...describes events in ruthless detail from the view point of the Third Reich * The Evening Standard *
I assure you all that it is worth every penny! This one volume seems to be destined to become THE definitive study on the German planning and invasion of the Societ Union for decades to come. The wealth of detail and information included in this work is simply staggering...I wholeheartedly recommend this book.' * Axis Europa *
Should leave no doubt that the world's most distinguished company of military historians is to be found in the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt. * American Historical Review *
the latest volume of Germany and the Second World War slices open the German war effort and examines the inner workings of war administration, economy, and manpower resources...every page is packed with a dense compilation of information and analysis...a rigorous, academic analysis packed with information impossible to find elsewhere in English, and it also forms an integral part of an exceedingly important series of books about Germany's role in the world conflict. We can't recommend it to the casual reader, but it certainly belongs on the shelf of every serious historian of World War II as part of the ultimate autopsy of the German war effort. * Stone & Stone *
By bringing out an English translation, OUP have put all scholars of the war in their debt. If any volume can lay claim to being definitive, this is surely it. The authors have read almost unbelievably widely in the primary and secondary sources...it will endure...an indispensable guide to the latest research on most key aspects of the war...the range and intellectual energy...will make it an invaluable work of reference for undergraduate and researchers...as valuable a commemoration of the war as any. * Mark Mazower, History Today *
[Part of] a succession of mighty volumes ... The portrait of German wartime society presented by this book is somber, meticulously documented, cool, reasoned. * The New York Review of Books *

ISBN: 9780199542963

Dimensions: 239mm x 164mm x 61mm

Weight: 1636g

1160 pages