Next book

KNIGHT'S CROSS

THE LIFE OF FIELD MARSHAL ERWIN ROMMEL

A judicious appraisal of Germany's best-known WW II soldier, from a retired British general whose published works include a well-regarded 1982 biography of Lord Alanbrook. Drawing on archival and secondary sources, as well as on the assistance of Rommel's son, Fraser offers a nuanced portrait of the so-called Desert Fox. The son of a Swabian schoolmaster, Rommel decided to make arms his profession at an early age. Commissioned less than three years before the outbreak of WW I, he led small units in combat on several fronts, earning the highest awards for bravery. Rommel's organizational gifts attracted Hitler's attention after their initial 1934 meeting, and the officer was given command of the 7th Panzer Division, which spearheaded the Wehrmacht's 1940 conquest of France. Posted to the North African theater early in 1941, he made a world-class name for himself as a master of battlefield maneuver by keeping better-equipped, numerically superior enemy forces at bay for over two years in campaigns from Cyrenaica to the Kasserine Pass. Back in Europe in mid-1943, Rommel oversaw strengthening of Axis defenses against an anticipated invasion by the Allies. Anglo-American troops nonetheless gained a secure foothold in Normandy, which marked the beginning of the Third Reich's end. Meanwhile, Rommel (who'd been implicated in a plot to assassinate Hitler) chose to commit suicide in return for a promise that his family would not be harmed. In addition to authoritative critiques of Rommel's military career, Fraser probes the content of his character and provides perceptive takes on the geopolitical as well as socioeconomic events that made him an originally enthusiastic instrument of an abhorrent movement he never formally joined. A tellingly detailed account that manages to put Rommel into a human context. (Sixteen pages of b&w photos and 20 helpful maps)

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1994

ISBN: 0-06-018222-9

Page Count: 616

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2016


  • New York Times Bestseller

Next book

SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS

An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2016


  • New York Times Bestseller

Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.

These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.

An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.

Pub Date: March 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015

Next book

A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING

Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science...

Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999, etc.), a man who knows how to track down an explanation and make it confess, asks the hard questions of science—e.g., how did things get to be the way they are?—and, when possible, provides answers.

As he once went about making English intelligible, Bryson now attempts the same with the great moments of science, both the ideas themselves and their genesis, to resounding success. Piqued by his own ignorance on these matters, he’s egged on even more so by the people who’ve figured out—or think they’ve figured out—such things as what is in the center of the Earth. So he goes exploring, in the library and in company with scientists at work today, to get a grip on a range of topics from subatomic particles to cosmology. The aim is to deliver reports on these subjects in terms anyone can understand, and for the most part, it works. The most difficult is the nonintuitive material—time as part of space, say, or proteins inventing themselves spontaneously, without direction—and the quantum leaps unusual minds have made: as J.B.S. Haldane once put it, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose.” Mostly, though, Bryson renders clear the evolution of continental drift, atomic structure, singularity, the extinction of the dinosaur, and a mighty host of other subjects in self-contained chapters that can be taken at a bite, rather than read wholesale. He delivers the human-interest angle on the scientists, and he keeps the reader laughing and willing to forge ahead, even over their heads: the human body, for instance, harboring enough energy “to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.”

Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science into perspective.

Pub Date: May 6, 2003

ISBN: 0-7679-0817-1

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Broadway

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Close Quickview