Tag Archives: Germany

This week: yep, still at war

Posted on November 28, 2015 by smellincoffee

I don’t know how most people spend Thanksgiving, but after a day with family eating sweet potatoes and admiring chickens and a late-fall collard garden, I’ve been reading nonstop about World War 2.  I’m moving closer to the end of … Continue reading →

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The Devils’ Alliance

Posted on November 28, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact with Stalin, 1939 – 1941© 2014 Roger Moorhouse432 pages On August 23rd, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shocked the world by entering into a nonaggression pact.  They were not merely neighbors and rival … Continue reading →

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The Foxes of the Desert

Posted on November 18, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Foxes of the Desert© 1960 Paul Carell370 pages When Erwin Rommel was dispatched to Africa to rescue his nation’s ailing ally against the small-but-feisty English Eighth Army, he earned the lasting respect and dread of those commanders tasked with … Continue reading →

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Battles for Scandinavia

Posted on November 11, 2015 by smellincoffee

Battles for Scandinavia© 1981 John Elton203 pagesTime-Life History of WW2 In Battles for Scandinavia, John Elton takes readers into the three nations who had the distinct bad luck to lay between the warring powers of World War 2.  Norway, Sweden, … Continue reading →

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The Battle of the Atlantic

Posted on November 5, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Battle of Britain © 1977 Barrie Pitt, series editor William Goolrick 208 pages Time-Life History of WW2 Long before panzers roared through Paris and Stukas littered the fields of France with burned-out machines, the Phony War existed only in … Continue reading →

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The Lady from Zagreb

Posted on October 6, 2015 by smellincoffee

The Lady from Zagreb© 2015 Phillip Kerr432 pages             Bernie Gunther was an ordinary police detective in wild, wonderful Weimar until Germany’s economy collapsed and fringe parties swept into power. His police department absorbed by the … Continue reading →

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Engines of War

Posted on July 17, 2015 by smellincoffee

Engines of War: How Wars Were Won and Lost on the Railways368 pages© 2010 Christian Wolmar An army marches on its stomach, but for a hundred years it rode to victory only on the rails.  It was Napoleon who observed … Continue reading →

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The Unknown War

Posted on October 25, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Unknown War© 1931 Winston Churchill396 pages The war to end all wars, what Sir Winston Churchill aptly described as the world crisis, began when a Serbian partisan assassinated the heir of Austria-Hungary’s throne, setting into motion a Rube Goldberg … Continue reading →

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They Thought They Were Free

Posted on October 22, 2014 by smellincoffee

They Thought they Were Free: the Germans, 1933-1945346 pages© 1955 Milton Mayer How could ordinary, decent people abide the Nazis for the span of twelve years — to allow a baby born at the NSDAP’s seizure of power to practically … Continue reading →

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The Age of Voltaire

Posted on September 30, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Age of Voltaire: A History of Civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756898 pages© 1965 Will and Ariel Durant             The ninth work in Will Durant’s sweeping Story of Civilization, The Age of Voltaire picks up … Continue reading →

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