History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II

Average customer rating:

J ohn Sutphen MD, ex navy diver /submarine medical officer
Compulsion to know the answer.
Deep Thrills
Rare Intimate Journey To The Shadows
Enlightening and heartwrenching

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
Robert Kurson
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345482476
Release Date: 2005-05-31

Book Description

In the tradition of Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm comes a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.

For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.
But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.
No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.

Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.

Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

CHAPTER ONE

THE BOOK OF NUMBERS

Brielle, New Jersey, September 1991

Bill Nagle's life changed the day a fisherman sat beside him in a ramshackle bar and told him about a mystery he had found lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Against his better judgment, that fisherman promised to tell Nagle how to find it. The men agreed to meet the next day on the rickety wooden pier that led to Nagle's boat, the Seeker, a vessel Nagle had built to chase possibility. But when the appointed time came, the fisherman was not there. Nagle paced back and forth, careful not to plunge through the pier where its wooden planks had rotted away. He had lived much of his life on the Atlantic, and he knew when worlds were about to shift. Usually, that happened before a storm or when a man's boat broke. Today, however, he knew it was going to happen when the fisherman handed him a scrap of paper, a hand-scrawled set of numbers that would lead to the sunken mystery. Nagle looked into the distance for the fisherman. He saw no one. The salt air blew against the small seashore town of Brielle, tilting the dockside boats and spraying the Atlantic into Nagle's eyes. When the mist died down he looked again. This time, he saw the fisherman approaching, a small square of paper crumpled in his hands. The fisherman looked worried. Like Nagle, he had lived on the ocean, and he also knew when a man's life was about to change.

In the whispers of approaching autumn, Brielle's rouge is blown away and what remains is the real Brielle, the locals' Brielle. This small seashore town on the central New Jersey coast is the place where the boat captains and fishermen live, where convenience store owners stay open to serve neighbors, where fifth graders can repair scallop dredges. This is where the hangers-on and wannabes and also-rans and once-greats keep believing in the sea. In Brielle, when the customers leave, the town's lines show, and they are the kind grooved by the thin dif

Customer Reviews:

J ohn Sutphen MD, ex navy diver /submarine medical officer .......2007-09-21

Tantallizing and heart pounding tale based on incredibly researched information about u boats and diving with an accurate, simple description of practical diving, diving medicine and physiology.

Compulsion to know the answer........2007-09-13

A fascinating saga about 2 deep sea divers and their 6 year odyssey to uncover the identity of a sunken German U boat. A captivating story, and you'll learn a lot about deep sea diving.

Deep Thrills.......2007-09-05

An absorbing account of the discovery and identification by veteran divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of a sunken Nazi U-boat 100 miles off the coast of New Jersey. Kurson skillfully weaves together several threads into a very readable narrative, including the evolution of Chatterton and Kohler's rivalry-turned-friendship, the technical hazards of exploring a mangled wreck in 230 feet of water, and the duo's maddening, seven-year long ordeal to obtain positive evidence -- both on the wreck and in official but flawed US and German naval records -- of the boat's identity. As the tale draws to a close, Kurson also draws a moving portrait of the U-boat's crew, who went to sea in the final days of the war and knew that they likely would not return alive.

I started diving when the final pieces of this mystery were falling into place, and can remember following the story of New Jersey's mystery U-boat in the papers. However, none of those articles was anywhere as involving as Kurson's account, which I devoured in four days. Sure, there's some overheated prose here and there ("in a shipwreck, where every danger is first cousin to every other, a diver's desparation makes an open house of his bad situation."), but that's a minor strike against this otherwise excellent and comprehensive work.

Rare Intimate Journey To The Shadows.......2007-08-28

Sometimes the flaws make a thing so much more than perfection could ever achieve. The imperfections in this literary account of the exploration of a WWII submarine discovered in 1991 off the Coast of New Jersey are well documented. Those imperfections didn't bother me.

I was facinated by the detailed account of the personalities of the divers in "Shadow." Its easy to identify a future SCUBA diver - someone who is comfortable putting their face under water. Even better, because it will sometimes trump the 'face' test, is whether a person's curiosity is so intense that they are able to project their consciousness entirely onto something outside of themselves to the virtual exclusion of other thoughts. Divers want to investigate, explore, see something extraordinary, find out whats under that rock, go someplace very few people have been, find something unique, etc. The experience is so strong, you may forget to be worried about all the risks.

My enjoyment of "Shadow" was absolutely enhanced by my experience as a diver who is both Nitrox and advanced open water certified. I have never gone deeper than 110 ft - The U-boat 85, off of Nags Head, North Carolina, which is 20ft shallower than the recreational diving limit of 130 ft. So far, I've never wanted to see anything deeper, but I suspect I'll pass. Surface light begins to diminish rapidly. It usually gets alot colder.

At the depths routinely visitied by the divers in this book, 230 ft., nitrogen narcosis is an inevitability, and helium mixes carry their own risks. Water pressure increases to seven times what it is at the surface. Just when you need all your mental faculties and judgement, you can be assured they will be impared to an extent that cannot be anticipated from dive to dive. Even more frightening is that getting to the surface to resolve any problems that may arise (my mask came off once at 80 ft), must now include a life-saving decompression stop. When you head for the surface with less than 30 minutes of air for your stop, you're in trouble.

Diving can put you face to face with three realities that I don't sense as readily on land: 1.) the incredible spiritual beauty of the natural world, 2.) how alone we really are (I've never felt more alone than those very few times I've dived without a buddy), 3.) Death is always hiding within convenient reach.

The insatiable curiosity of the two lead characters, Chatterton and Kohler, also drives them above the water, as they travel to Europe to learn as much as they can about the submarine and its crew. There was no 'gold' involved, just an incredible mystery to solve.

"Shadow" was one of those books I read in one sitting (I missed dinner). I would compare it to Krakauer's works in power and drama, if not as well written. But again, in a way the rough nature of the text enhanced the story, as if I was sitting across the table from the author.

NOTE TO FELLOW DIVERS: After reading this book I have found my goal for my diving trips next summer - get my "Rescue Diver" certification.

NOTE TO THOSE PEOPLE trying to get young men (ages 9-15) into reading - I know of two young men who hated to read until they picked up this book. Not that they love reading now, but the 'no trespassing' sign is now down in front of the library.

Enlightening and heartwrenching.......2007-08-27

This was a great character-driven book about the lives of two divers surrounding their six-year effort to identify a sunken U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. I started Shadow Divers right after finishing Keven McMurray's Deep Descent and appreciate both books even more now. While Deep Descent is more focused on the diving fatalities on the wreck itself, Shadow Divers goes into detail about the lives of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, how their research and relentless pursuit of the U-boat's identity affected their lives, and how they grew as people from the experience. There are also good descriptions of the U-boat crewmen and how the submarine likely met its end. A great read.

Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918 (New Approaches to European History)

Average customer rating:

Very good book
Central Powers
A Model of Its Kind
Outstanding survey of the topic!
Clear, reliable account of events on Germany's home front

Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918 (New Approaches to European History)
Roger Chickering
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521567548

Book Description

This important new contribution to the successful textbook series New Approaches to European History explores the comprehensive impact of the First World War on Imperial Germany. It examines military aspects of the conflict, as well as the diplomacy, government, politics and industrial mobilization of wartime Germany. Unlike other existing surveys, Roger Chickering also offers a rich portrait of life on the home front: the war’s pervasive effects on wealthy and poor, men and women, young and old, farmers and city-dwellers, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. At the same time, Roger Chickering analyzes the growing burdens of war and discusses the translation of the hardship of war into political opposition. This excellent, well-illustrated study of the military, political and socio-economic effects of the First World War will be essential reading for all students of German and European history, as well as for those interested in the history of war and society.

Download Description

This book provides a comprehensive survey of Germany's experience during the First World War. Roger Chickering examines the military aspects of the conflict, as well as the diplomacy, government and politics of wartime Germany. However, at the same time, he also provides an important, and rare, portrayal of life on the homefront: the war's pervasive effects on people from all walks of life and from varying religious backgrounds. This well-illustrated study will be essential reading for all students of German and European history.

Customer Reviews:

Very good book.......2002-08-22

This book combines a look at the WW I battlefield with events on the German homefront very well. Chickering focuses on the homefront and details very well the reaction to mobilization and the events of the war, as well as the defeat. One of the best chapters of the book is on the myth of the stab in the back. This book really is a necessary read if one also wants to understand the "other half" of the European Civil War, WW II.

Central Powers.......2002-04-28

As a self taught historian of The Great War, I think this book is excellent.

A Model of Its Kind.......2001-07-18

Imperial Germany and the Great War is a masterful combination of the political, social, and cultural history of the war with the relevant military events. I know of no single book that covers so much territory in so little space. Anyone interested in the what was going on behind the lines will find the answers here!

Outstanding survey of the topic!.......2001-01-11

In a relatively short volume, the author gives a lucid, restrained survey of a complicated and controversial topic. Coverage is of all phases of the war affecting Germany--military, social, economic, and political--though relatively short shrift is given to military matters, so this book is not for World War I military "enthusiasts"--unless they want to go beyond what occurred in combat. A particularly good feature of the book is the wealth of references to the vast amount of scholarly work done on the war in English and German over the last half century. The author's comprehensive "Suggestions for Further Reading" will serve well either the novice historian or the layperson interested in particular aspects of Germany and the Great War.

Clear, reliable account of events on Germany's home front.......1998-10-30

The theme of this well-balanced, well-arranged book is not the German military effort but political and social developments on the home front. In the end, these were to prove almost as decisive as the greater military strength of the Entente powers and the United States in bringing about Germany's defeat. As the author shows, Germany was a deeply divided society going into the war, and the "civic peace" proclaimed in August 1914 among the nation's bitterly opposed social classes and political interests was not to last long. The attempt to sustain a war effort against France, Great Britain and Russia - with only the hopelessly incompetent Austro-Hungarian Empire as an ally - necessitated huge sacrifices on the home front. Ultimately, the majority of the German population was not willing to keep making those sacrifices, particularly on behalf of a political system that had evolved by late 1916 from the semi-authoritarianism of the pre-war Kaiserreich into a pure military dictatorship. Adolf Hitler later came to power exploiting the myth of the "November criminals" - that is, those who led the German revolution of November 1918 and who, in his eyes, traitorously inflicted a defeat on Germany that need never have taken place. However, as Chickering shows in some detail, the truth is that Germany was certain by mid-1918 to lose the war anyway. This is a book for readers who are interested more in the political than the military aspects of the First World War. It holds no surprises but is authoritative and efficiently written.

Average customer rating:

Plodding & Difficult to Read
wiped out by page 25
The writing gets in the way
A moral view of Nazi Germany
Constant surprises

The Third Reich: A New History
Michael Burleigh
Manufacturer: Hill & Wang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0809093251

Amazon.com

Humans have a fascination with evil. We long to identify it, quantify it, and understand it. To this end, newspapers frequently splash photographs of murderers with the caption "The face of evil." Heading most lists of the 20th century's most evil people would be Adolf Hitler, but, as Michael Burleigh's tour de force makes clear, evil is not always as cut-and-dried as we would like. The Nazis could not have come to power and committed Germany to a policy of war and genocide without the tacit consent of the German people. This makes Germany as a whole responsible for the crimes committed in its name, but it is clearly wrong to label every German as evil. Through his painstaking research and direct prose, Burleigh slowly builds up a picture of a people desperate for identity and economic prosperity, who, bit by bit, closed off their conscience as the price of their dreams. There was no one cathartic moment when Germany, under the Third Reich, lapsed from goodness into badness; rather, there was an incremental realignment of a collective morality. Burleigh's explanation of this phenomenon is so simple, yet so obviously right, that you can only wonder that it didn't become the generally accepted currency years ago.

Instead of viewing Nazi Germany in purely social, political, and economic terms--though he doesn't ignore these spheres--Burleigh wraps them all into a picture of a country gripped in a religious, messianic fervor, and that which had previously felt inexplicable suddenly seems clear. If you want the nitty-gritty details of the Second World War and the genocide, they are here, retold as well as, if not better than, many of the other histories of this period. But it's Burleigh's take on the people of Germany that makes this book so special. Above all, with similar genocidal wars currently being fought in Kosovo, Rwanda, and Iraq, it makes you think, "Would I be able to resist becoming complicit in such regimes?" This is a must for every 20th-century historian. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Until now there has been no up-to-date, one-volume, international history of Nazi Germany, despite its being among the most studied phenomena of our time. The Third Reich restores a broad perspective and intellectual unity to issues that have become academic subspecialties and offers a brilliant new interpretation of Hitler's evil rule.

Filled with human and moral considerations that are missing from theoretical accounts, Michael Burleigh's book gives full weight to the experience of ordinary people who were swept up in, or repelled by, Hitler's movement. It emphasizes, as well, the international themes -- for Nazi Germany appealed to the political classes and the ordinary people of many European nations, its wartime conduct included efforts to dominate the entire continent's economy, and its murderous policies involved gigantic population transfers and exterminations, recruitment of foreign labor, and multinational armies.

What happened when many, or most, of Germany's elite as well as a majority of its citizenry chose not to think for themselves and to favor instead a politics based on faith, hope, hatred, and sentimental regard for their own race and nation? The consequences were catastrophic for Germany, Europe, and the wider world, but no more so than for European Jews. Michael Burleigh's account of the moral breakdown and transformation of an advanced industrial society in the heart of Europe is a remarkably clearheaded assessment of the dangerous consequences when, in a country still obsessed with its losses in a previous war, a political movement takes on the form of a pseudo- or substitute religion. His narrative of events in Nazi Germany, and in a world that was forced to respond to its criminal actions, is a masterpiece of great intellectual and moral courage.

Customer Reviews:

Plodding & Difficult to Read.......2007-05-10

I agree with "writing got in the way". The writing was so difficult to follow it required reading a sentence 2 or 3 times to figure out what he was saying. I finally give up after 90 pages. No comparison to "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" which kept me up for days. A new viewpoint gets you nowhere if you can't finish the book. Wish I had saved my money.

wiped out by page 25.......2007-03-17

This is trenchant, demanding, totally depressing. I found myself defeated by this book early on. It was like an avalanche. Nor do I find the view that Nazism=a religion very enlightening, short of being an obvious comparison. I guess I just don't have the heart to go through this book, right now.

The writing gets in the way.......2005-11-09

I don't mind an academic using fancy words and I didn't need a dictionary more than once or twice (per page, that is). Anyway, I like dictionaries. Nor do I mind a historian positing moral equivalence between Hitlerism and Stalinism. There is an important difference, though: most Stalinists were never held to account for their crimes, and they still have apologists such as Hrycenko (June 12, 2001 below) who gets some cheap mileage out of the author being British.

But while this may be 'writing of the highest order' (Financial Times), not every reader will find it a page-turner. What makes it heavy going is that too many passages turn into a kind of semantic obstacle course - the result not of high-flown language but of obtuse constructions - which can leave readers wondering: what is he trying to say? There have been popular historians capable of trenchant or refined wit (think Taylor or Tuchman) who, not coincidentally, were models of clarity. Prof. Burleigh, on the other hand, could use a good editor. I don't suppose he does this deliberately like some pomo poseur. Then again, some people don't seem to mind.

It's a shame, because he has a vast amount of scholarship at his fingertips and he has genuinely original ideas. His latest book ('Earthly Powers: Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War', just published in the UK) suffers from the same sort of bafflegab. Like this one it promises to be really interesting, if only you can get past the writing. I will finish it. I will.

A moral view of Nazi Germany.......2005-10-14

I picked up this massive tome with the anticipation of being served up something akin to Shire's excellent "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". Had I not read that book with it's emphasis on the organization, personalities and political history of the Nazis, Burleigh's work would have been even harder to follow then it was. It is implied that you have read it already or something like it, perhaps even Mein Kampf -- though the author rarely cites the latter and the former not at all -- and assumed you know the difference between a Gauleiter and Gruppenführer or are fully aware of the nature of the events and party infighting behind the Night of the Long Knives.

You will find little information in this book about the roots of Nazism or the events that led to it's rise; nor will you get more than a glimpse of characterization of it's principal actors. Having said that, A New History fills in some gaps left out of the popular William L. Shire work and others in the areas of economy, government, policy, and society with a very heavy emphasis on the crimes of Nazi Germany.

Burleigh does not try to hide -- and neither necessarily should he -- a personal bias that should be lacking in the objective observer in his view of seeing Nazi Germany as nothing but a state of pure evil with hatred it's only raison d'etre and who's only historic legacy was mass murder. The narrative does a fine job of identifying the evolution and natural progression from eugenics to euthanasia to murders-of-convenience during wartime to large scale assembly-line genocide. And yet, after we are told how it happened, we are still left to wonder -- and continue to wonder today, even as our own inner demons lead to events such as an abu gharib -- about the nature of the psyche that could lead sane people in a highly civilized culture to sink into barbarity.

Constant surprises.......2005-08-27

This is not your father's history of Nazi Germany. Burleigh skips the standard and too many times retold elements of the rise of Nazi Germany and concentrates instead on a corrective explanation of previously unexplored undercurrents that made the Third Reich what it was. Every chapter abounds with discoveries you will not find in any other standard history of the period. Beyond this, Burleigh has a refreshingly energetic writing style and I find myself eager to pick the book up again each day to continue. It's probably not the best choice for a first book on the Third Reich, but I'm sure it will one day be considered one of the greatest.

Average customer rating:

it's good, but not exactly what i thought it would be.
This book is more about the interpretation of history than the actual events/people
Amazing Book
A Concise History of Germany
Telling Us Germany Straight Forward

Germany: A New History
Hagen Schulze
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674005457

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In a pithy, concisely written text, Hagen Schulze chronicles Germany's often spotted historical past from the time of the nomadic Nordic tribes who migrated South into the Roman Empire to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, offering the past as a pretext for what he considers a new history yet unfolding. Consciously written for the general reader with little or no knowledge of German history, Schulze's account reads easily (superbly translated by Deborah Lucas Schneider), combining historical detail with broader analysis and consistently placing the German historical moment within a global context.

In his chronicle of Wilhelmine Germany, the period from 1890 to 1914, Schulze skillfully outlines details of political events both inside Germany and throughout Europe, then illustrates how they delineate a turning point from the precarious political order previously maintained by Bismarck. He interweaves this political narrative with analysis of social, economic, and cultural events of the era: the legacy of Prussian militarism, the rise of industrial and agricultural unions, the disillusionment of German youth with the rise of industrialism, German advances in scientific research, musical developments by Wagner and Brahms, the theatrical productions of Gerhard Hauptmann and Georg Kaiser, and the growing intellectual influence of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Freud. Supplemented by relevant photos and suggestions for further reading, Schulze's account provides the reader with a concise, accurate, and well-balanced presentation of the pre-war period, exemplifying a consistently balanced approach throughout the text. --Bertina Loeffler

Book Description

In one concise volume, Hagen Schulze brilliantly conveys the full sweep of German history, from the days of the Romans to the fall of the Berlin Wall. A story two thousand years in the making, it rings with battle, murmurs with intrigue, and hums with the music of everyday life. This richly various legacy, often overshadowed and distorted by the nation's recent past, offers a hopeful answer to the perennial question of what kind of country Germany is and will be.

From the revolt of the indigenous tribes against Roman domination, Schulze leads us through the events that have defined a nation at the center of European culture--the Thirty Years' War and the decline of the Holy Roman Empire, Luther's Reformation and Bismarck's attendance at the birth of modern Germany, the Great War and its aftermath, the nationalistic megalomania under Hitler, the division of the nation after World War II and its reunification. Throughout, we see what these developments have meant for the German people, in the arena of private life and on the stage of world history. A lavish array of illustrations provides a lively counterpoint to Schulze's elegantly written narrative.

As it follows the threads of German language, nationalism, and culture to the present day, this dramatic account provides ample reassurance that recent history will not repeat itself. Germany: A New History will prove indispensable to our understanding of Germany, past and present, and the future of Europe.

Customer Reviews:

it's good, but not exactly what i thought it would be........2007-08-04

This book seems to be more an interpretation of German history. When it comes to the actual historical facts, they are skimmed through rather briefly. Few German greats were mention in depth. Overall it seems that the book was propaganda to justifying German history by painting dramatic pictures of the effects to the masses by the economy, the Treaty of Versailles, etc. but avoids taking it too far by making sure to condemn Hitler from the beginning, but in turn justifying why Germany rallied behind him. It was successful in that aspect, i felt bad for the historic Germans. However when it actually came to the actual facts and prominent figures of German history, www.wikipedia.org was far more successful and required far less reading.

This book is more about the interpretation of history than the actual events/people.......2006-11-30

This history provides only an overview of Germany's history, which is good if you only want to learn general concepts and events. The text is as you might have noticed in the product description, very short. Don't let the fact that it is 300 or so pages fool you; the typeface is very large and the lines are double-spaced. This may be exactly what readers are looking for, but I found the vague references to certain historical figures by surname only annoying, because Schulze is assuming the reader knows the name but he or she may not. I suppose it is only to be expected of a book that spends a few paragraphs on the Reformation and Counter-reformation. I'm not saying it is not a good read, in fact the narrative flows quite nicely, but it is obviously a book more dedicated to exposing Schulze's perspective to readers who already know the people and events in German history. What Schulze wants to convey is his interpretation of the events, their consequences, and lasting effects on the German people. If you want to learn about those events and people, a more detailed history is definitely a must. Readers already grounded in German history will find this perspective interesting, but will probably do like me and wonder why this book is $18.00.

Amazing Book.......2006-09-02

Germany: A New History is a great book dealing with the complex history of Germany. Beginning with the time of the Roman empire, to the era of the German states and the Holy Roman Empire, to the German Empire and the Nazi Reich, to the division of Germany and ending with the breaking of the Berlin Wall, this compact, precise history presents the reader with a vivid and easy-to-read narrative. Tons of illustrations and charts are common throughout the book. However, even though I would highly recommend this book as a beginner's history to Germany, the only problem is that, for those scholars who enjoy a visual look at where the history is taking place, this book does not have many maps, and so an historical atlas would be recommended while reading this book.

A Concise History of Germany.......2005-01-26

I am one of those people who likes history but don't have time to read thick history books. When I searched the Internet for a one-volume-book that can cover the complete history of the Germany, I came across Dr. Schulze's book and bought it. It was a very good choice and I finished reading the entire book just in three days! The main reason might be the continuity and the pedagogic nature of the book: the entire history of the "German Nation" is divided into well-defined parts and you know where you are at this long history when reading the book. The author also does a good job by integrating the German History into the World History, drawing important lessons from the past.

The negative sides of the book may be threefold: First, as is the case for most history books, the author writes some parts like a novelist losing the main point. This approach may seem "romantic" for some readers but not for starters like me, who wants to learn rather than to be impressed by the history. Second, probably because the book is a translation, some sentences are longer than necessary and difficult to understand at first reading. Lastly, although the pictures in the book reflect the corresponding era of the history quite well, some of them are not related to the theme highlighted in the corresponding chapter.

Overall, the book is an excellent work especially for intermediate-level history learners, but some pre-requisite reading may be required for starters.

Dr. Yasin Ozcelik
www.misworld.org

Telling Us Germany Straight Forward.......2003-12-30

Schulze willfully wrote Germany's 2,000 year history for the general reader with little or no knowledge of the country's history. His digested account starts from Charlemagne to Frederick the Great to Hitler and ends just before the dawn of the European Union.

With four maps, five charts, 56 color illustrations and 59 photos and every page printed on art-book stock, Schulze presents worthy information in this high-quality volume. Interweaving social, economic and cultural events, Schulze leads us through Germany's tumultuous, militant past, telling us about its scientists, theatrical producers and composers. Any book concerning Germany and its history would be remiss without discussing its military leaders, and Germany: A New History is no exception.

Book Description

Published for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-a devastating and surprising account of the most infamous death camp the world has ever known.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the site of the largest mass murder in human history. Yet its story is not fully known. In Auschwitz, Laurence Rees reveals new insights from more than 100 original interviews with Auschwitz survivors and Nazi perpetrators who speak on the record for the first time. Their testimonies provide a portrait of the inner workings of the camp in unrivalled detail-from the techniques of mass murder, to the politics and gossip mill that turned between guards and prisoners, to the on-camp brothel in which the lines between those guards and prisoners became surprisingly blurred.

Rees examines the strategic decisions that led the Nazi leadership to prescribe Auschwitz as its primary site for the extinction of Europe's Jews-their"Final Solution." He concludes that many of the horrors that were perpetrated in Auschwitz were driven not just by ideological inevitability but as a"practical" response to a war in the East that had begun to go wrong for Germany. A terrible immoral pragmatism characterizes many of the decisions that determined what happened at Auschwitz. Thus the story of the camp becomes a morality tale, too, in which evil is shown to proceed in a series of deft, almost noiseless incremental steps until it produces the overwhelming horror of the industrial scale slaughter that was inflicted in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Customer Reviews:

Humans at the worst they can be.......2007-03-23

Most history books tend to get bogged down in their own data and dry writing style. What makes "Auschwitz" stand out as one of the most important books ever on the infamous concentration and death camp (there were both in many locations in Nazi Germany) is its readability - accurate but poignant and full of the drama that the subject provided.
Rees offers staggering information concerning the camp - the horrifying conditions for those selected to work and die as soon as they were unable to work any more - others "selected" outright for murder, most commonly by gas and guns, and even the occasional breakouts and shows of kindness, sometimes even by the SS troops who ran the camp.
Combined with the horrors of other concentration and death camps like Bergen-Belsen, the first discovered by British troops, Treblinka, Dachau and smaller camps that are not as well known, over six million Jews, gypsies and political "enemies" died at the hands of Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, easily Hitler's equal for depravity and pure hatred.
It is mind boggling how anybody can deny the events here, or the Holocaust in general. Yet Rees doesn't ignore naysayers who still try to deny such atrocities ever took place. Such denials belong in the same category as those who believe the earth is hollow, the moon visits were faked in a Hollywood studio or, believe it or not, that the Earth does not revolve around the sun!! This was opined by a state representative from, I believe, South Carolina just in the last few weeks.
We must remember too that the hate that leads to genocides is present in all of us and still occurs with regularity. We cannot forget Stalin's murder of 25 million Soviets, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, Idi Amin, and Rhodesia and Darfur. We still have troops in Kosovo after the "ethnic cleansing" that took place in the mid '90's.
Understanding what we, as humans are capable of, good and evil, gives us a better perspective on our behavior. We see in "Auschwitz" how "normal" people, placed in horrible situations, could turn murderous, callous and numb to what they were forced to do. We also see how some preferred death to killing others. It's not a fun read, but it should be in every high school classroom.

History of the Camp.......2006-12-07

When considering the history of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and extermination are synonymous, as it should be for the 1.1 million people who were killed by the Nazis at this concentration camp alone. Yet as Laurence Rees sets out to show in "Auschwitz: A New History", the camp's beginnings were a far cry from its final stages. Like other concentration camps within the Nazi's network, Auschwitz evolved as Hitler and the SS found themselves further forced to eliminate their self-imposed "Jewish problem".

Rees begins his history with an examination of the camp's beginnings, built by prisoners of war and meant to serve a myriad of research and industrial purposes. Heinrich Himmler and camp commandant Rudolf Hoss discussed various strategies for using the Auschwitz 'Zone of Interest' - as agricultural research center to coal factory, neither seemingly forseeing the infamous nature it would assume as the war progressed and fortunes turned for the Nazi party. Filled with eye-witness accounts and personal interviews, "Auschwitz: A New History" is a chilling testimony of the Nazi's cold-blooded attempt to exterminate an entire people.

Rees' examination, though compact, is complete. He offers not only the eye-witness accounts and hard facts, but is able to debunk the theories that Holocaust deniers and Nazi sympathizers have seized upon. The greatest power this book holds is the testimony of the SS men themselves, men unabashed in their view of what transpired within the camp, men who cannot (to this day) see their actions as anything but right. They will not just deny their actions away by claiming they were "following orders".

It can often be difficult for someone who did not experience the atrocities firsthand to understand what life in Auschwitz was like: it is rightly difficult to grasp something so incomprehensible. Rees uncovers tender histories along with the harsh, moments of joy and love and the reality of daring escapes. By comparing Auschwitz to the other camps within the Nazi system, he is able to offer a complete picture of the greatest crime in history. Yet while his book has the added title of "How Mankind Committed the Ultimate Infamy at [Auschwitz]", the greater infamy lies in the fact that the majority of those responsible for the mass murder went unpunished, free to live the life they had taken away from so many others. And at the conclusion, Rees points to the very real fear that this may one day become just another piece of ancient history: the survivors and eyewitnesses are growing fewer, and the greatest infamy may be that one day Auschwitz is just another word, just another place in the history books. Lest we forget.

Haunting.......2006-08-03

The story of Auschwitz is often taught in today's schools as that of a concentration camp erected during the Second World War that witnessed one of the world's worst genocides - the slaughter of one million innocent Jewish souls.

Laurence Rees has written this book, Auschwitz: A New History, in part to dispel the common thought and bring the reality of what happened at this death camp to light for a new generation. Auschwitz may have been built originally as a concentration camp, but it soon became a key cog in the wheel of the "final solution" when the SS heirarchy elected to evolve it into its more sinister role as that of a death camp.

As Rees so poignantly states at the conclusion of the book - soon there will be no survivors, no living witnesses to the horrors that took place in Auschwitz. Books like this must speak for them instead.

Rees has relied largely on original research; interviews with survivors and SS members who were stationed at the camp, in order to compile this tome. His writing style is engrossing, and the stories he recounts from the victims and perpetrators are haunting indeed. This book is not for the faint of heart - the atrocities described are gut-wrenching, and the tales of escape or victories by the oppressed are cause for cheer. The book draws the reader in and never lets him/her go.
As I was reading this history of Auschwitz, which could be more accurately described as a brief history of the entire German concentration camp system, as other camps, such as Treblinka, Dachau, and Bersen-Belgen do get their fair share of attention, I could hardly put the book down. For anyone that has an interest in Holocaust studies or World War II in Europe, this book should be put on the "must read" list.

Harrowing and powerful.......2006-07-15

This book is a fascinating, enlightening, and moving history of one of the most infamous of the Nazi concentration camps. Rees doesn't just explain the history of the camp itself, he frequently ties it into the "big picture," the things happening elsewhere in the world and how they affected the camp, and sometimes vice versa. This big picture focus really makes the book, showing how everything in interrelated and how even the distant Allied nations affected Auschwitz's development throughout the war.

The book is not only an indictment of the Nazis and those others responsible for such atrocities as Auschwitz and its sister camps, but even of the powers that "liberated" the inmates there at the end of the war. This was the part that really shocked me. The stereotypical image of the prisoners returning to hearth and home to resume their lives is shattered. Those lucky enough to be freed from Auschwitz had nowhere to go in the new eastern European totalitarian state created by the Soviets--their homes had been possessed and taken over by new owners "renting" from the state, and, as it turned out, the Soviets were no more friendly to the Jews than the Nazis. Women faced rape--some were even raped to death.

Of course, there were also happy endings, and Rees gives them time as well. But the book is still a harrowing exploration of how deep human beings can sink--Nazis, Soviets, and even some of the prisoners were conscienceless by the end.

Laurence Rees's new history of Auschwitz is a very good, readable book that should be required reading for anyone interested in Holocaust or World War II history.

Highly recommended.

Easily accessible and reader-friendly.......2006-05-22

This was my first attempt to learn about Auschwitz and I was very pleased with the book. The author explains the entire history of the camp without getting bogged down in any single aspect of the story. If you are a casual history buff like me, this book is a winner. The first-hand accounts of survivors and the SS men who worked at Auschwitz are amazing. I highly recommend this book.

Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation (Published in Association with the Jewish Museum, New York)

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Jewish Women's Power
A UNIQUE GEM

Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation (Published in Association with the Jewish Museum, New York)
Emily D. Bilski , and Emily Braun
Manufacturer: Jewish Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300103859

Book Description

From their debut in Berlin in the 1780s to their emergence in 1930s California, Jewish women’s salons served as welcoming havens where all classes and creeds could openly debate art, music, literature, and politics. This fascinating book is the first to explore the history of these salons where remarkable women of intellect resolved that neither gender nor religion would impede their ability to bring about social change.

Emily D. Bilski and Emily Braun examine the lives of more than a dozen Jewish salonières, charting the evolution of the salon over time and among cultures, in cities including Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London, New York, and Milan. They show how each woman uniquely adapted the salon to suit her own interests while maintaining the salon’s key characteristics of basic informality and a diversity of guests. Other distinguished contributors to the volume discuss in detail the Berlin salons of the 1800s; the salon in terms of Jewish acculturation and its relation to gender and music; and the relations of Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, and Gertrude Stein to the literary salon. The book is enriched with a lavish array of illustrations, including documentary photographs, paintings, drawings, prints, and decorative arts.

Customer Reviews:

Jewish Women's Power.......2006-02-25

The book on the Salons was part of the Jewish Museum (NYC) show last spring. I saw the show and the book is now a tool I use for research. The women and their salons include some of the most influental and creative forces through the centuries. The book is also worth having as table top book, for your salon/living room as a way to stimulate converstions when your friends gather. Biliski is to be commended for her work on a topic Jewish Women have been waiting for.

A UNIQUE GEM.......2005-08-31

For the earlier part of this analysis, I would like to retitle the book 'Salons'.
I know of no book that devotes its contents to the past two hundred years' cultural entity of the 'salon'. [For that matter I don't know of any book that devotes itself solely to the cultural entity of its 'equivalent' -- the 'musical(e)'.]
By provisionally eliminating the 'Jewish' or 'female' associations in the book, the study of the 'salon' as a cultural entity is unique itself.
Then coupled with the 'female' as the main creator and motivator of the salon is surely mind-expanding.
Then, in addition, (to those interested) to add the Jewish aspect (which, again, if one is interested) with its many associations (Jew and still German or Austro-Hungarian; the 'Court Jew'; voluntary conversion (or 'slipping away, or intermarriage) of some Jews, and its association with anti-Semitism, or just the desire to be 'less Jewish', the prominent place of many Jews in European history, etc., etc.) is surely a plus.
Now, to the physical aspect of the book: Its binding, quality of the paper, and quality of the (many colored) reproductions, are first quality.
Its content is unequaled with its seven introductory articles by the editors, the four monographs by other authorities; then the most interesting biographies of the female 'salon-keepers' [!!!]; and finally the fine notes, biblography and index.

To recapitulate: Physically this is a fine production; the subject (the salon) is a real contribution; plus the important function of the female (I can't think of any male 'salonniere'), and, to those interested, the importance of the Jew in the cultural history of particularly Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this a unique and entirely 'satisfying' production.

Jew or non Jew, if you are at all interested in this contribution to the culture of the 'western' world, the purchase of this book is a MUST.

Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in Southwest Germany, 15501750 (New Studies in European History)

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Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in Southwest Germany, 15501750 (New Studies in European History)
Marc R. Forster
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521780446

Book Description

This book seeks to explain the origins of the Catholic identity of the population of southwest Germany between 1550 and 1750. Many studies of this subject credit rulers and church leaders with creating and enforcing religious identity in Germany "from above." In contrast, this study argues that there were important local and religious reasons why people came to consider themselves loyal Catholics; and in order to understand the origins of Catholic identity, it examines the nature of "Baroque Catholicism"--including the significance of pilgrimages, processions, confraternities, and other religious ceremonies.

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This book is a study of Catholic reform, popular Catholicism, and the development of confessional identity in southwest Germany. Based on extensive archival study, it argues that Catholic confessional identity developed primarily from the identification of villagers and townspeople with the practices of Baroque Catholicism - particularly pilgrimages, processions, confraternities, and the Mass. Thus the book is in part a critique of the confessionalisation thesis which currently dominates scholarship in this field. The book is not however focused narrowly on the concerns of German historians. An analysis of popular religious practice and of the relationship between parishioners and the clergy in villages and small towns allows for a broader understanding of popular Catholicism, especially in the period after 1650. Local Baroque Catholicism was ultimately a successful convergence of popular and elite, lay and clerical elements, which led to an increasingly elaborate religious style.

Germany, Civilian Power and the New Europe: Enlarging NATO and the European Union (New Perspectives in German Studies)

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Germany, Civilian Power and the New Europe: Enlarging NATO and the European Union (New Perspectives in German Studies)
Henning Tewes
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

In 1990, the future of Europe's international politics hinged on two questions. How would unification affect the conduct of German foreign policy? Would those institutions that had given security and prosperity to Western Europe during the Cold War now do the same for the entire continent, and if so, how? The intersection of these questions is the topic of this book which lucidly explores what made Germany's policies toward its immediate Eastern neighbors tick.

Exit into History: A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe

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Intellectual meets intellectuals: talks, travels, writes
Excellent
A Good Portrait of Eastern Europe
It was for a paper I had to write....

Exit into History: A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe
Eva Hoffman
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140145494

Customer Reviews:

Intellectual meets intellectuals: talks, travels, writes.......2003-02-04

Eva Hoffman, back among her Polish homeland and other former Iron Curtained nations, offers a thoughtful look at the years just after the breakdown of the wall. Not a travelogue so much as an extended series of conversations with usually well-spoken people much like Hoffman herself. Not a book for those seeking Romany flavor, hotel mishaps, and quaint lore. She largely conveys her impressions and ideas in a style reminding me of essays for the New Yorker or the Sunday magazine of her own employer The New York Times.

Her reflections on Havel's Czech Republic, the still lurking oppressiveness of Romania post-Ceausescu, the Bulgarian-Soviet aura, and the Hungarian cynicism mesh nicely with her own Polish rather aristocratic attitudes (not by birth but by predilection?).

While the report's well-written, it does lapse into an over-reliance on the chat in the salon, so to speak, rather than on the street. You feel as if she, naturally attracted to educated dissidents for the most part, wished to relate their stories to us at the expense of a conventional tour of the countries she visits. For instance, little of Slovakia appears, and the sights she describes stick less in the mind than the ideas she ponders.

Fine, but fair warning for anyone expecting another Patrick Leigh Fermor (pre-WWII) or Brian Hall (Stealing from a Deep Place, 1988--Romania/Hungary/Bulgaria cycled through from an American's p-o-v). A useful introduction to how politics inevitably must give way to the ordinary, the human, the lived experience. Although she may differ from Havel, Hoffman provides a beneficial Western counterpart to his own thinking. 3 1/2 stars.

Excellent.......2002-02-21

I'm preparing to move to Romania, and read this book to give me an idea of the way things were over there a few years ago. I greatly enjoyed this book. It was well written, and thought-provoking. Every now and then the author would lapse into excessive use of "textbook speech", but for the most part I appreciated the way she wrote. I also appreciated the way she used various stories to get her information across. For someone with little to no interest in this area, this would not be a good book to start with. However, I found it very readable, and highly recommend it.

A Good Portrait of Eastern Europe.......2000-05-06

After studying the politics and history of Eastern Europe extensively as an undergraduate in college, I read this book and found it simply marvelous, for in all the history and political science books yo are given fact upon fact, but until I read this book I didn't know what it was like to actually be there. She vividly portrays the countries of the region from an ordinary person's perspective, the sights, the sounds, the feeling in the air of these countries. It can be read as an introduction to Eastern Europe, the avid student, or even the educated expert. It can also be enjoyable as simply leisure reading.

It was for a paper I had to write...........2000-03-31

I read Exit into History for a first-year history course. Hoffman describes her journey through some Eastern European countries in excruciating detail, which made it difficult for me to find any major relevant themes. It's basically a travel journal. Hoffman is a good writer - her descriptions use an interesting range of words, and her sentences are pleasantly structured. I would recommend it to people who have a major interest in Poland, or who are like Hoffman herself: immigrants from Eastern Europe to North America. It's not a story type of book, so you have to be interested in the topic beforehand.

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