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JOSEPH GOBBELS: A Biography by Curt Riess

JOSEPH GOBBELS: A Biography

By

Pub Date: Aug. 5th, 1948
Publisher: Doubleday

An interesting experiment, the publication so close together of the Goebbels Diaries and this biography. Actually, the general public will find the Riess book bet reading. It makes a substantial contribution to the historical record, not only for its biographical data, but for the analysis of the extraordinary propaganda machine created by Goebbels, and for some newsworthy items of what went on inside Germany. Read in conjunction with the Diaries, this substantiates the impression conveyed by Goebbels of his dislike of the Russian invasion, his fear of the second front, his scorn of the Italians his detestation of the generals (the stories differ in regard to Roel and North Africa) his insistance on total war. Riess makes less of Goebbels' awareness of the collapse of civilian morale, the weakness of air defense, and stresses (in the period following the Diaries) his disillusionment with Hitler. One book should sell the other.