Book Description
A chilling memoir by the head of Hitler's Foreign Intelligence Service-the only SS-man to describe the inner workings of the Nazi bureaucracy
This unique account of Hitler's corrupt regime illuminates more vividly than any other the deepening atmosphere of terror and unreality in which the Nazi leadership lived as the war progressed. Schellenberg recounts with firsthand knowledge the motivations and machinations surrounding the Nazi Army's every move in Poland, Austria, and Russia. But this remarkable inside account is perhaps most memorable for its riveting portraits of Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, Heinrich Mueller, Ernst Kaltenbrunner-men whom Schellenberg calls, with stunning lack of irony,"Hitler's willing executioners."
"[Schellenberg's] lack of self-consciousness, damning as a revelation of character, makes him the more valuable as an historical witness." -Alan Bullock
"The interest of this book lies in the rich assortment of 'cloak and dagger' stories, some of them so fantastic that they could only have taken place in the loony world of the Nazis, and in the picture of the sinister, bloodthirsty world of the Gestapo." -William L. Shirer
Customer Reviews:
Good but he keeps his nose clean.......2007-10-12
Its a well written easy to follow book about Walter Schellenberg the head of counter intelligence in the SS, he gives good details about a number of operations he took part in but their is limited details on a number of things such as concentration camps, death squads and July 20 plot.
History from someone who was there at the highets level.......2005-09-14
Since Mr. Schellenberg was a high ranking nazi you have to be aware that he has to have been covering his own tracks. Lets be honest he had to walk a fine line between the complete truth and perhaps a noose. We can assume he stretches the truth a bit here and there and surely omits things he'd rather not have known. But it is fasinating to learn what it was like being as close as he was to Himmler, Hitler and the rest of the nazi leadership. We learn that even someone as high up as Shellenberg was spied on by his fellow nazis. Even someone at his level had to watch his back.
A Historical Polaroid. .......2005-01-05
This is an amazing testimonial about life within the NAZI German rogue state. Schellenberg's confessional documents the attempts by one man to put together an intricate secret service on the behalf of his totalitarian benefactors. His tales are rather bewildering and one is grateful that he had the time with which to memorialize his deeds in print before he died. Ultimately his organization became extensive but paled in comparison to that of the Soviets.
Indeed, The Labyrinth also tells us much about the Soviet Union as their espionage links were so established that Schellenberg, in a country where he could randomly assasinate nearly anyone that he wished, was unable to completely disable the transmitters of the Rote Kapelle (Red Chapel).
To me, the most valuable thing about the book is the historical primary source information it provides. These prose portraits of Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich, Canaris, Ribbentropp and Kaltenbrunner are quite thorough and illuminating. Schellenberg has many useful insights about human nature that he shares as well.
The only reservation I had is that the narrator seems to be putting forth a sugar coated version of himself in its pages. This appeared to me to be a final bit of misinformation before death. His self-description is highly non-ideological and one feels as if they are being played while reading it. He really portrays himself as a highly humane individual who is an outsider within this criminal regime. His SS ranking of Brigadefueher belied such a conclusion.
The book of a master of deception.......2003-02-26
Walter Schellenberg, -the closest friend of Reinhard Heydrich, an intimate of Himmler- was an "idea man" for both and his career sky-rocketted to make him the youngest SS General. How are we expected to believe that he had nothing to do with the mass murdering of Jewish people?
Isn't he the one, who, on May 20 1941, ordered to stop the emigrations of Jewish people from France and Belgium, being the first to refer to the coming "Final Solution" of the Jewish problem... Well, you will not find this in his Memoirs, and neither in the US archives on Walter Schellenberg which have just been declassified (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) and even less in the British archives which have not been declassified.
Thanks to a plea bargain with the British, owing to the Allies desire to conceal that the duke of Windsor (former king Edward VIII) and Wallis Simpson (his wife) were Nazi spies, Walter Schellenberg's history was rewritten with the help of his western Allies investigators.
Schellenberg was given the time to prepare his defense in Sweden with Himmler's chyropractor, Felix Kersten, to be later acting as a defense witness. Thus, through the "Troza Memoradum" then written by Schellenberg, Felix Kersten was informed of how he had to adapt the "notiezen" which would be used for writing his own Memoirs. This avoided him of being convicted and helped saving his Gestapo accomplice.
Walter Schellenberg had attempted more negotiations for a separate peace witht the west than anybody else event if he was carrying them out not for a return to democracy but only for replacing Hitler by Himmler. Even this part is misinformation.
Schellenberg in fact was just an agent-provocateur, who infiltrated every treason attempt against the nazis. It did cost, at Venlo, Menzies and Dansey (heads of the British IS) their spy network in continental Europe.
During the war it only costed Himmler the life saving of a couple of Swedish jews, and, at the very end of the war, a train of 1200 Jewish persons which were about to be liberated by the Allies: for this "Musy train" negotiations had been dragging since June 1944 (almost one full year) but were arranged in a matter of days when it became strategic for Himmler.
Schellenberg worked as a chief of the Gestapo Office E, before directing (only for two and a half year) the political espionage of the Nazi Security Service. After the von Stauffenberg attempt against Hitler (which he and Himmler had fully penetrated) he also gained full control over the military espionage. Naturally the Memoirs loose the reader in the Labyrinth of the spy stories to avoid him getting to the Minotaur of the Holocaust. Wasn't the Minotaur symbolically representing the guilt of King Minos of Crete?
Schellenberg's Memoirs duly called the Labyrinth are full of silence and subtle lies, well wrapped up in true fascinating but misleading spy stories.
Unfortunately lots of historians did base other analysis on this twisted and biased account written by one of the nazi monster.
To be read with more than caution as, contrary to what the investigators claimed, the author is extremely clever. Their statement about his alleged lack of intelligence was only aiming at covering the holes left in their own investigation, and at hiding some inconsistencies in their presentation.
This book doesn't supply any answers but it raises a huge number of questions for the knowlegeable historian.
One day someone will use the Ariadne thread to find the proven way to the Minotaur and fly above the intricacies of the Labyrinth with wings that the sun will not melt down.
Schellenberg - A master in deceipt.......2002-12-30
I've been studying the American, British and German archives and testimonies about Walter Schellenberg for the last ten years. His memoirs are a masterpiece... in deception. The book aims at focusing attention on spy stories and personal stories concerning Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich (most of the times totally twisted but never totally factually false). Yet he would not have become the youngest SS general just on the accounts of his failed spying attempts that he very subtely describes in his book (omitting he had a heart attack at the only successful one). Readers should know that he was one of the originators of the Einsatzgruppen who shot millions of men, women and children behind the Eastern European front. He did play a part in the organization of the emigration of rich Jewish persons after they had been so heavily ransomed that they were basically left with their lives. He basically was the recognized idea man behind Heydrich (the worst of the worst) and Himmler. A letter signed by him demonstrates that he was working on the Final Solution of the Jewish Problem before May 20th 1941 (the Wannsee conference -where Heydrich announced it- would only come on January 1942) He favored the massacre of Jews (namely in Hungaria) to have something to exchange with the allies for peace negotiations allgedly preparing an alliance against the Soviet Union. He managed to go through Nurenberg by dealing with the American juges and the British Secret services and lying to them about the were-wolfes and the Alpine Reduit, which never existed. He was helped by charging some other major criminal when other evidences were inconclusive (Kaltenbrunner). He sprinkles his book with reference to a few Jewish persons (Portugal) or to Kersten (Himmler's chyropractor) who occasonally helped Jewish families to be saved. He used his negotiation attempts as if they were political and humanitarian (for historical practical reasons, the allies acted as if they believed it). To crown everything, he may have been [the young] "Werther", the soviet spymaster who had access to Hitler's most secret military plans and transmitted them, unpunished, daily from Berlin (he supported and save several times his adjutant Stirlitz really a Soviet agent, Colonel Maksim Maksimovich Isaev, who had infiltrated the SD): after all he was the head of the counter-intelligence. Naturally he did put historians on a false track inducing that H. Mueller (head of Gestapo) had turned into a communist. This book is very dangerous for historians as many massively quoted it, taking it at face value: these memoirs are one of the first real successful attempts at what is now called desinformation. It is done intelligently, with charm, making it all the more ambiguous. The other reviews here demonstrate how successful Schellenberg was, but he was one of the most cynical murderers of the time: he invented the solutions to Heydrich, Hitler and Himmler's problems and had others doing the dirty work to keep his hands clean and collecting the rewards of his murderous masters. Don't forget that this book was written after Nurenberg to clean his past preparing his future career. Fortunately there is a form of justice and he died from a liver cancer convinced that he was being poisoned by the British. Readers should remember that Bin Laden's September 11th is a (macabre) joke compared to what this guy invented.
Book Description
On a spring afternoon in 1942, Japanese American (Nisei) students in Seattle's Washington School said goodbye to their friends and boarded buses bound for a relocation center in Pullayup, Washington. Forced to bring only what they could carry, these students' families sold most of their belongings; they burned much of their personal memorabilia, for fear it would be deemed "suspect" by the FBI. Yet amid the tumult of their evacuation and internment, some students left a record of their departure in letters to their homeroom teacher, Ella Evanson.
These engaging letters, at the center of Yoon Pak's Wherever I Go, I Will Always Be a Loyal American, document junior high students' response to the news of the impending internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. In their responses, these students reveal their complex relationship with their schools and their country at a time when their citizenship and patriotism were cast in doubt. Using previously untapped sources, Pak explores how Seattle schools dealt with the dissonance between the rhetoric of democracy and the anti-democratic practice of internment. Yoon Pak painstakingly chronicles these schools' struggle to maintain a tradition of tolerance in the face of the government's evacuation orders.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book!.......2002-01-04
Yoon's words and pictures tell of a time when people were interned for the way they looked and their ancenstry. She allows the reader to be drawn in by the helplessness that must have been felt by Japanese Americans during WWII. Her descriptions are haunting and will never let you forget the words of those that were interned. She has a way of writing that conveys her deep feelings for those who were imprisoned and pulls the reader in emotionally. This book expresses feelings that I hope will never be felt again.
Great Book!.......2002-01-04
Yoon's words and pictures tell of a time when people were interned for the way they looked and their ancenstry. She allows the reader to be drawn in by the helplessness that must have been felt by Japanese Americans during WWII. Her descriptions are haunting and will never let you forget the words of those that were interned. She has a way of writing that conveys her deep feelings for those who were imprisoned and pulls the reader in emotionally. This book expresses feelings that I hope will never be felt again.
Book Description
Carmel Snow, who changed the course of our culture by launching the careers of some of today's greatest figures in fashion and the arts, was one of the most extraordinary women of the twentieth century. As editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958 she championed the concept of "a well-dressed magazine for the well-dressed mind," bringing cutting-edge art, fiction, photography, and reportage into the American home.
Now comes A Dash of Daring, a first and definitive biography of this larger-than-life figure in publishing, art, and letters. Veteran magazine journalist Penelope Rowlands describes the remarkable places Snow frequented and the people whose lives she transformed, among them Richard Avedon, Diana Vreeland, Geoffrey Beene, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cristobal Balenciaga, Lauren Bacall, and Truman Capote.
She chronicles Snow's life on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning in nineteenth-century Ireland and continuing to Paris, Milan, and New York City, the fashion capitals of the world.
Snow was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who was herself a forward-thinking businesswoman, and she worked in her mother's custom dressmaking shop before being discovered by the magazine publisher Conde Nast and training under Edna Woolman Chase, the famous longtime editor of Vogue. From there it was on to Harper's Bazaar which, with the help of such key employees as Avedon, Vreeland, and art director Alexei Brodovitch, Snow turned into the most admired magazine of the century. Among the disparate talents who worked at Bazaar in the Snow era were Andy Warhol, the heiress Doris Duke, Maeve Brennan, and members of the storied Algonquin Round Table.
Overflowing with previously untold stories of the colorful and glamorous, A Dash of Daring is a compelling portrait of the fashion world during a golden era.
Customer Reviews:
Fashon editor of the 20th century?.......2007-05-27
A very good biography of one of the legendary fashion editors of the 20th century. After reading 'Always in Vogue' by Edna Woolman Chase, her former boss, editor of Vogue and Bettina Ballard's own fashion biography this completes the picture of fashion in the 20th century. I enjoyed it, especially after seeing 'The Devil wears Prada' a couple of months ago. Having been in involved in Fashion as a designer and as a lecturer in design and creative cut for over 50 years it was also a trip down memory lane.
Stuart Aitken
A very well researched book of a fascinating subject.......2006-12-27
Carmel Snow is an extraordinary subject and Ms. Rolands did a marvelous job in recementing her legendary status in the fashion industry. The research she did for this book is outstanding but her writing skills could be more polished at times. I feel that the size of the book could be trimmed down a little bit, perhaps they should split it into two books, one biography and one coffee table book of photographs and illustrations. Ms. Rolands' view are also very biased throughout the book. She tried to discredit all Carmel Snow's competitors and critics in order to show Snow's greatness. It's unnecessary as Snow's work certainly speaks for itself and her contribution to the fashion industry is unquestionable. I highly recommend this book for fashion historians and fashion students.
A Bazaar Life.......2006-03-13
When you crack open a 500 page book, it better be good. This biography of Harper's Bazaar fashion editor Carmel Snow is everything a heavy tome should be: entertaining, insightful, and thouroughly researched. The writing style is a perfect match for the subject matter: Penelope Rowlands' prose is as sharply defined as a couture garment, and, as a result, reading her book is the next best thing to actually owning a Dior original.
But the most rewarding part of the book is the revelation that elegance is all about gutsiness. In fact, if you look objectively at the clothes women wore back then (the book is rife with photographic documents) all those proper little wool suits and belted silk dresses look quite frumpy in restrospect. But what poise those girls had! Where did their get their attitude? Reading A Dash of Daring is a lesson in real coolness.
An exceptional biography.......2006-03-02
This beautifully produced and perceptive biography of Carmel Snow, arguably the greatest fashion editor who ever lived, is a sheer delight to read. The author focuses our gaze on both the biographical subject and the milieu in which Snow lived and worked. Penelope Rowland's impressive research and extensive interviews, combined with her sure touch as a storyteller, have yielded an engaging and compelling story.
Wonderful!.......2006-03-02
I have bought many copies of this book to give to friends. I think it is a very special. It is a fascinating story, beautifully told. It is not just for those interested in fashion. It is a masterpiece of biography.
Book Description
50 illustrations 6 x 9
From 1799 to 1819 more than 1,000 pages of British naval news and views were published every year in The Naval Chronicle, including action reports, intelligence of foreign naval matters, and biographies of officers. In short, it was the most important original account of the naval part of the Napoleonic Wars. Outside the major libraries the 40 volumes of The Naval Chronicle are not generally available. This new consolidated edition, in five volumes, contains all the most significant material from the originals, including Admiral Nelsons only autobiographical record.
Book Description
An updated account of the explosion in America's prison population.
In this revised edition of his seminal book on race, class, and the criminal justice system, Marc Mauer, executive director of one of the United States' leading criminal justice reform organizations, offers the most up-to-date look available at three decades of prison expansion in America.
Including newly written material on recent developments under the Bush administration and updated statistics, graphs, and charts throughout, the book tells the tragic story of runaway growth in the number of prisons and jails and the over-reliance on imprisonment to stem problems of economic and social development. Called "sober and nuanced" by Publishers Weekly, Race to Incarcerate documents the enormous financial and human toll of the "get tough" movement, and argues for more humane—and productive—alternatives.
Customer Reviews:
Many good facts; should be (and isn't) a spellbinder.......2001-06-09
Small, slim book. Easy reading. The author provides numerous endnotes so you can track down the sources. I wanted more sound bites, more pithy quotes, more compelling arguments -- not because the book lacks for substance, but because the author does not present his powerful facts in the persuasive language of a lawyer or pundit.
Example: on pp. 156-57, he says, "The folly of using expensive prison space for drug offenders, even traffickers, has been documented in research conducted on the federal prison population." My objections: (1) The author uses the passive voice constantly, and it sounds weak. Why not phrase it like this: "Researchers have documented the folly ...." (2) I would break out the argument about traffickers separately. Win the point about small-time users first, and then piggyback on that to explain the presumably more controversial view that we should not even incarcerate the traffickers. (3) After reading the sentence just quoted, I immediately thought to myself that the other dumb thing about locking up a small-time user is that you basically send him/her to graduate school for criminals. S/he might learn better ways of avoiding detection or conviction for crimes, drug-related or otherwise, and might come to sympathize with the anti-law enforcement attitudes of convicted criminals who become his/her friends in prison. I wanted to know whether these sorts of outcomes do occur, and I wanted the author to make a strong anecdotal and/or statistical case for the rather obvious point that iffy characters, who are not hardened criminals, should have good role models. The author did not say any of these things, nor indicate the extent of existing or needed research on such questions. Moreover, he said nothing at all on this matter until his very last sentence in that section of the book, where he said only this: "Further, by reducing ties to legitimate institutions, incarceration may make these offenders 'more prone to subsequent criminal involvement.'" I make this point because it happened repeatedly throughout the book: to me, a stated fact or finding immediately implied certain follow-up questions or conclusions, but the author did not seem to share my sense of what was most interesting or important about it.
Admittedly, more persuasive language would have lengthened the book, and possibly the author and/or publisher decided the actual writing style would be better for their own particular purposes. For instance, I did in fact check this book out of the library, and I did read it, whereas I, or at least some readers, might not have checked out a thicker volume. Even so, I did not come away from the reading with a sense of having been moved, persuaded, or given the sort of substance that would stay with me. I submit that, ultimately, the reader will prefer a longer book over a shorter one if the longer book is more gripping.
An Important and Thought-Provoking Book.......1999-08-22
I want to recommend this book to anyone who is troubled by the fact that the US is the country with the world's second highest incarceration rate, right after Russia: currently, 1.7 million Americans are in prison or jail. Half of all prison inmates are African American. It is impossible to summarize the author's subtle and well documented analyses in a few sentences. He convincingly shows that these numbers are not, or are not merely, due to high rates of criminal activity, but rather to factors such as social inequality, inordinate media attention given to crime, political demagoguery ("get tough on crime"), and a long legacy of racial discrimination. Mauer makes many suggestions for a more humane and effective response to crime than the current "race to incarcerate." He concludes his book with the moving appeal to stop "caging the least fortunate among us to solve our problems." Read it!!
Average customer rating:
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Birds Of Minnesota 2006 Calendar
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ASIN: 1591931169 |
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