A comprehensive look at the U.S.-Germany relationship that enhances readers’ understanding of World War II.
A history book explores the ties between Germany and the United States before, during, and after World War II.
In this work, Brown (The Legacies, 2018, etc.) delivers a minutely documented overview of the many connections between Americans and Germans during and after the Nazi regime’s time in power. The volume covers technological innovations with impacts on the two countries, prominent Americans like Charles Lindbergh and Joseph Kennedy who forged personal links with Germany, and the many multinational corporations that operated and had financial interests in both nations, from I.G. Farben and Allianz to Alcoa and Eastman-Kodak. The business and financial associations make up much of the narrative, with the author skillfully explaining not only how they operated across national borders, but also why (“The second reason American businesses began to invest more in the Third Reich occurred on July 5, 1935 when President Roosevelt signed the Wagner Act into law”). The book provides a high-level overview of the many individuals and companies involved and details noteworthy or unusual cases, like IBM’s lengthy appeals to a U.S. commission for compensation for its Third Reich facilities. Brown also includes many of the war crimes trials, the Cold War-driven relocation of German officials to America, and the decadeslong effort to restore property confiscated from Jews in Germany and the occupied countries, presenting readers with a clear picture of how entangled the two nations were despite being on opposite sides of a global conflict. The book is thoroughly researched (back matter, including substantial endnotes that both supply citations and allow Brown to digress on topics that do not fit into the main narrative, takes up about a quarter of the pages) and evenhanded. The volume sticks to documented facts, telling an often troubling story without histrionics (“One cannot justify the American thefts for any reason, but one can also understand, maybe even identify with, how otherwise upstanding and honorable American servicemen could have a little sense of entitlement and, in turn, steal from the people who supported, or chose to be unaware of, the monstrous crimes committed against so many innocent people”). The writing is solid, and the author does a good job of analysis, highlighting the conclusions of previous works on the subject (“Michael Bazyler points out that the American jurisprudence system served as the conduit in helping Holocaust survivors to receive compensation”; Erik Larsen’s In the Garden of Beasts “provides an intimate, but chilling examination of just how troublesome life was for” William Dodd (the American ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937) and drawing connections for his readers. The book is particularly effective in explaining the combined efforts necessary to obtain some level of compensation for Holocaust survivors, with threats of divestment and pleas of moral suasion balancing lawsuits. Thanks to the work’s voluminous range, both World War II aficionados and those who have only a passing familiarity with the topic should find the text easy to follow and filled with noteworthy information.
A comprehensive look at the U.S.-Germany relationship that enhances readers’ understanding of World War II.Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73210-883-7
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Albrecht
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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