Strange Defeat

Author : Marc Bloch
Publisher : Rare Treasure Editions
ISBN 13 : 1774643901
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Strange Defeat written by Marc Bloch and published by Rare Treasure Editions. This book was released on 2021-11-09T16:36:00Z with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned historian and Resistance fighter - later executed by the Nazis - analyzes at first hand why France fell in 1940. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. In the midst of his anguish, he nevertheless "brought to his study of the crisis all the critical faculty and all the penetrating analysis of a first-rate historian" (Christian Science Monitor). Bloch takes a close look at the military failures he witnessed, examining why France was unable to respond to attack quickly and effectively. He gives a personal account of the battle of France, followed by a biting analysis of the generation between the wars. His harsh conclusion is that the immediate cause of the disaster was the utter incompetence of the High Command, but his analysis ranges broadly, appraising all the factors, social as well as military, which since 1870 had undermined French national solidarity. "Much has been, and will be, written in explanation of the defeat of France in 1940, but it seems unlikely that the truth of the matter will ever be more accurately and more vividly presented than in this statement of evidence." - New York Times Book Review. "The most wisdom-packed commentary on the problem set [before] all intelligent and patriotic Frenchmen by the events of 1940." - Spectator.

Author : Ernest R. May
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1466894288
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Strange Victory written by Ernest R. May and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940. Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances? Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field. Why did Hitler want to turn against France at just this moment, and why were his poor judgment and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? It is May's contention that in the future, nations might suffer strange defeats of their own if they do not learn from their predecessors' mistakes in judgment.

Author : Joel Blatt
Publisher : Berghahn Books
ISBN 13 : 0857457179
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The French Defeat of 1940 written by Joel Blatt and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 1997-08-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why France, the major European continental victor in 1918, suffered total defeat in six weeks at the hands of the vanquished power of 1918 only two decades later remains moot. Why the stunning reversal of fortunes? In this volume thirteen prominent scholars reexamine the French debacle of 1940 in interwar perspectives, utilizing fresh analysis, original approaches, and new sources. Although the tenor of the volume is critical, the contributors also suggest that French preparations for war knew successes as well as failures, that French defeat was not inevitable, and that the Battle of France might have turned out differently if different choices had been made and other paths been followed.

Author : Marc Bloch
Publisher : Rare Treasure Editions
ISBN 13 : 1774643901
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Strange Defeat written by Marc Bloch and published by Rare Treasure Editions. This book was released on 2021-11-09T16:36:00Z with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A renowned historian and Resistance fighter - later executed by the Nazis - analyzes at first hand why France fell in 1940. Marc Bloch wrote Strange Defeat during the three months following the fall of France, after he returned home from military service. In the midst of his anguish, he nevertheless "brought to his study of the crisis all the critical faculty and all the penetrating analysis of a first-rate historian" (Christian Science Monitor). Bloch takes a close look at the military failures he witnessed, examining why France was unable to respond to attack quickly and effectively. He gives a personal account of the battle of France, followed by a biting analysis of the generation between the wars. His harsh conclusion is that the immediate cause of the disaster was the utter incompetence of the High Command, but his analysis ranges broadly, appraising all the factors, social as well as military, which since 1870 had undermined French national solidarity. "Much has been, and will be, written in explanation of the defeat of France in 1940, but it seems unlikely that the truth of the matter will ever be more accurately and more vividly presented than in this statement of evidence." - New York Times Book Review. "The most wisdom-packed commentary on the problem set [before] all intelligent and patriotic Frenchmen by the events of 1940." - Spectator.

Author : Timothy J. Henderson
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0809061201
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Glorious Defeat written by Timothy J. Henderson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-05-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The war that was fought between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 was a major event in the history of both countries: it cost Mexico half of its national territory, opened western North America to U.S. expansion, and brought to the surface a host of tensions that led to devastating civil wars in both countries. Among generations of Latin Americans, it helped to cement the image of the United States as an arrogant, aggressive, and imperialist nation, poisoning relations between a young America and its southern neighbors. In contrast with many current books that treat the war as a fundamentally American experience, Timothy J. Henderson offers a fresh perspective on the Mexican side of the equation. Examining the manner in which Mexico gained independence, Henderson brings to light a greater understanding of that country’s intense factionalism and political paralysis leading up to and through the war. Also touching on a range of topics from culture, ethnicity, religion, and geography, this comprehensive yet concise narrative humanizes the conflict and serves as the perfect introduction for new readers of Mexican history.

Author : Michael Jones
Publisher : John Murray
ISBN 13 : 1848543549
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Retreat written by Michael Jones and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2009-11-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the moment of crisis in 1941 on the Eastern front, with the forces of Hitler massing on the outskirts of Moscow, the miraculous occurred: Moscow was saved. Yet this turning point was followed by a long retreat, in which Russian forces, inspired by old beliefs in the sacred motherland, pushed back German forces steeled by the vision of the ubermensch, the iron-willed fighter. Many of Russia's 27 million military and civilian deaths occurred in this desperate struggle. In THE RETREAT, Michael Jones, acclaimed author of LENINGRAD, draws upon a mass of new eye-witness testimony from both sides of the conflict to tell, with matchless vividness and comprehensiveness, of the crucial turning point of the Second World War - the moment when the armies of Hitler could go no further - and of the titanic and cruel struggle of two mighty empires.

Author : Edward S Miller
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612511465
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book War Plan Orange written by Edward S Miller and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on twenty years of research in formerly secret archives, this book reveals for the first time the full significance of War Plan Orange—the U.S. Navy's strategy to defeat Japan, formulated over the forty years prior to World War II.

Author : Marc Bloch
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Historian's Craft written by Marc Bloch and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Wolfgang Schivelbusch
Publisher : Metropolitan Books
ISBN 13 : 1466851171
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Culture of Defeat written by Wolfgang Schivelbusch and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2013-08-13 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating look at history's losers-the myths they create to cope with defeat and the steps they take never to be vanquished again History may be written by the victors, Wolfgang Schivelbusch argues in his brilliant and provocative book, but the losers often have the final word. Focusing on three seminal cases of modern warfare-the South after the Civil War, France in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War, and Germany following World War I-Schivelbusch reveals the complex psychological and cultural reactions of vanquished nations to the experience of military defeat. Drawing on responses from every level of society, Schivelbusch shows how conquered societies question the foundations of their identities and strive to emulate the victors: the South to become a "better North," the French to militarize their schools on the Prussian model, the Germans to adopt all things American. He charts the losers' paradoxical equation of military failure with cultural superiority as they generate myths to glorify their pasts and explain their losses: the nostalgic "plantation legend" after the fall of the Confederacy; the cult of Joan of Arc in vanquished France; the fiction of the stab in the back by "foreign" elements in postwar Germany. From cathartic epidemics of "dance madness" to the revolutions that so often follow battlefield humiliation, Schivelbusch finds remarkable similarities across cultures. Eloquently and vibrantly told, The Culture of Defeat is a tour de force that opens new territory for historical inquiry.

Author : James Reston, Jr.
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 1400031915
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dogs of God written by James Reston, Jr. and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2006-10-10 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of Warriors of God comes a riveting account of the pivotal events of 1492, when towering political ambitions, horrific religious excesses, and a drive toward international conquest changed the world forever.James Reston, Jr., brings to life the epic story of Spain’s effort to consolidate its own burgeoning power by throwing off the yoke of the Vatican. By waging war on the remaining Moors in Granada and unleashing the Inquisitor Torquemada on Spain’s Jewish and converso population, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella attained enough power and wealth to fund Columbus’ expedition to America and to chart a Spanish destiny separate from that of Italy. With rich characterizations of the central players, this engrossing narrative captures all the political and religious ferment of this crucial moment on the eve of the discovery of the New World.