Rise and Fall of the third Reich: long read!

[Jamesuk]

If you are free for a few weeks I highly recommend William L. Shirer:
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Brilliant book, facinating, quite incredible how Nazi came to power, very long and quite sickly in places especially the chapters on Medical Experimentation.

Good books to read after:

The Great Depression: James Ledbetter and The Churchill Factor: Boris Johnson.

Anyone have any recommendations for similar books?

 

[Fantasie 19]

Packenham's book on the Boer War is very readable, and also long! Very good though and I thought gave a good balanced view..

 

[LittleSister]

'Cape to Cairo' by Mark Strage.

It doesn't quite convey what a ripping yarn the author tells, but the blurb on the back is unusually accurate:

'In thirty years between 1870 and 1900, the European powers parcelled out Africa amongst themselves to the extent that less than a tenth of its surface remained in the hands of its indigenous inhabitants.

For the British, who did best in this gigantic free for all, one of the most compelling of dreams was of a railway across six thousand miles of British colonies from Cape Town to Cairo. Mark Strage's story of this endeavour is told with great panache, bringing out the courage, the vaulting ambition and plain greed which characterized the imperial expansion. It is a story studded with extraordinary personalities: Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt; 'Chinese' Gordon of Khartoum; Cecil Rhodes, the diamond millionaire; Le Capitaine Marchand of Fashoda. In telling the story of one of the most colourful and influential, if disreputable, episodes in African history, Mark Strage has contributed to our understanding not only of imperialism, but of the situation of Africa today.'

 

[jerrytug]

If you are free for a few weeks I highly recommend William L. Shirer:
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Brilliant book, facinating, quite incredible how Nazi came to power, very long and quite sickly in places especially the chapters on Medical Experimentation.

Good books to read after:

The Great Depression: James Ledbetter and The Churchill Factor: Boris Johnson.

Anyone have any recommendations for similar books?

The Face of Battle, by the academic military historian John Keegan. It looks at three battles which occurred in the same area, Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, and explores what happened from the point of view of the squaddie in the mud ( and the knight in his armour for the first one..), a great read, and pulls no punches discussing diarrhea, stabbing prisoners and all sorts. Probly on Amazon for a couple of quid.

 

[Fantasie 19]

The Face of Battle, by the academic military historian John Keegan. It looks at three battles which occurred in the same area, Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, and explores what happened from the point of view of the squaddie in the mud ( and the knight in his armour for the first one..), a great read, and pulls no punches discussing diarrhea, stabbing prisoners and all sorts. Probly on Amazon for a couple of quid.

Bravo.... Excellent choice...

 

[bikedaft]

'Cape to Cairo' by Mark Strage.

It doesn't quite convey what a ripping yarn the author tells, but the blurb on the back is unusually accurate:

'In thirty years between 1870 and 1900, the European powers parcelled out Africa amongst themselves to the extent that less than a tenth of its surface remained in the hands of its indigenous inhabitants.

For the British, who did best in this gigantic free for all, one of the most compelling of dreams was of a railway across six thousand miles of British colonies from Cape Town to Cairo. Mark Strage's story of this endeavour is told with great panache, bringing out the courage, the vaulting ambition and plain greed which characterized the imperial expansion. It is a story studded with extraordinary personalities: Mehmet Ali, Pasha of Egypt; 'Chinese' Gordon of Khartoum; Cecil Rhodes, the diamond millionaire; Le Capitaine Marchand of Fashoda. In telling the story of one of the most colourful and influential, if disreputable, episodes in African history, Mark Strage has contributed to our understanding not only of imperialism, but of the situation of Africa today.'

thanks for that - it arrived today, looks good, cheers

 

[skipmac]

The Last Lion, trilogy. I think the most complete and definitive biography of Winston Churchill.