Thirty years of celebrating the comic genius of Douglas Adams... On 12 October 1979 the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor (and Earth) was made available to humanity -- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's an ordinary Thursday lunchtime for Arthur Dent until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly afterwards to make way for a new hyperspace bypass & his best friend has just announced that he's an alien. At this moment they're hurtling through space with nothing but their towels & an innocuous-looking book inscribed with the big friendly words: DON'T PANIC. The weekend has only just begun... Volume one in the trilogy of five ...

Now available in a single abridged paperback Ian Kershaw's Hitler" is the definitive biography of the Nazi leader. Ian Kershaw's two volume biography " Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris" & " Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" was greeted with universal acclaim as the essential work on one of the most malign figures in history from his earliest origins to the final days of the Second World War. Now this landmark historical work is available in one single abridged edition tracing the story of how a bitter failed art student from an obscure corner of Austria rose to unparalleled power destroying the lives of millions & bringing the world to the brink of Armageddon. " Supersedes all previous accounts. It is the sort of masterly biography that only a first-rate historian can write". (David Cannadine " Observer"). " The Hitler biography for the twenty-first century". (Richard Evans " Sunday Telegraph"). "I cannot imagine a better biography of this great tyrant emerging for a long while". (Jeremy Paxman). " Magisterial...anyone who wishes to understand the Third Reich must read Kershaw for no one has done more to lay bare Hitler's morbid psyche". (Niall Ferguson " Sunday Telegraph"). " For the present generation Kershaw's Hitler stands out as a clear beacon of truth illuminating a dark age of terror & mendacity". (" Mail on Sund"). " An achievement of the very highest order". (Michael Burleigh " Financial Times"). Ian Kershaw (b. 1943) was Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield from 1989-2008 & is one of the world's leading authorities on Hitler. His books include " The ' Hitler Myth'" his two volume biography " Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris" & " Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" & " Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World 1940-1941". He was knighted in 2002." ...

Ian Kershaws Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris" charts the rise of Adolf Hitler from a bizarre misfit in a Viennese dosshouse to dictatorial leadership. With extraordinary skill & vividness drawing on a huge range of sources Kershaw recreates the world which first thwarted & then nurtured Hitler in his youth from early childhood to the first successes of the Nazi Party. As his seemingly pitiful fantasy of being Germanys saviour attracted more & more support Kershaw brilliantly conveys why so many Germans adored Hitler connived with him or felt powerless to resist him. " Supersedes all previous accounts. It is the sort of masterly biography that only a first-rate historian can write". (David Cannadine " Observer" Books of the Year). " The Hitler biography for the 21st century...cool judicious factually reliable & intelligently argued". (Richard Evans " Sunday Telegraph"). " One of the major historical biographies of our times...a riveting read". (Jackie Wullschlager " Financial Times" Best Biographies of the Year). " His analysis of Hitlers extraordinary character has the fascination of a novel but he places his struggle & rise in the context of meticulously researched history... Deeply disturbing. Unforgettable". (A.N. Wilson " Daily Mail"). "A sane erudite moral & intellectually honest biography of the 20th centurys most destructive politician". (Ruth Scurr " The Times"). Ian Kershaws other books include " Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" " Making Friends with Hitler" " Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World 1940-1904" & " The End: Hitlers Germany 1944-1945". " Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" received the Wolfson History Prize & the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for Political Book of the Year & was joint winner of the inaugural British Academy Book Prize." ...

Winner of the Wolfson Prize for History Ian Kershaws Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" is the concluding second volume of one of the greatest biographies of modern times. No figure in twentieth century history more clearly demands a close biographical understanding than Adolf Hitler; & no period is more important than the Second World War. Beginning with Hitlers startling European successes in the aftermath of the Rhineland occupation from Czechoslovakia to Poland; addressing crucial questions about the unique nature of Nazi radicalism; exploring the Holocaust & the poisoned European world that allowed Hitler to operate so effectively; & ending nine years later with the suicide in the Berlin bunker Kershaw allows us as never before to understand Hitlers motivation & impact. " Magisterial.. .anyone who wishes to understand the third reich must read Kershaw for no on has done more to lay bare Hitlers morbid psyche". (Niall Ferguson " Sunday Telegraph"). " An achievement of the very highest order.. .a marvellous book". (Michael Burleigh " Financial Times"). " No previous biographer has examined Hitlers devilishness in Kershaws detail.. .his book is so comprehensive so richly documented & so judicious that it will not soon be superseded". (Daniel Johnson " Daily Telegraph"). Ian Kershaws other books include " Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" " Making Friends with Hitler" " Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World 1940-4" & " The End: Hitlers Germany 1944-45". " Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" received the Wolfson History Prize & the Bruno Kreisky Prize in Austria for Political Book of the Year & was joint winner of the inaugural British Academy Book Prize." ...

Few twentieth-century political leaders enjoyed greated popularity among their own people than Hitler in the 1930s & 1940s. This remarkable study of the myth that sustained one of the most notorious dictators & delves into Hitlers extraordinarily powerful hold over the German people. In this major contribution to the study of the Third Reich (Times Literary Supplement) Ian Kershaw argues that it lay not so much in Hitlers personality or his bizarre Nazi ideology as in the social & political values of the people themselves. In charting the creation rise & fall of the Hitler Myth he demonstrates the importance of the manufactured Fuhrer cult to the attainment of Nazi political ends & how the Nazis used the new techniques of propaganda to exploit & build on the beliefs phobias & prejudices of the day. ...

This is the untold story of life in the allied camps under the Nazis. Sean Londgen has conducted numerous interviews & reveals a new perspective on life under the Nazis that has long been forgotten & replaced by the myth of Colditz & The Great Escape. Between 1939 & 1945 almost 200 000 British & Commonwealth Servicemen were held as Prisoners of War in Germany. Every Allied soldier under the rank of Sergeant was forced to work 12 hour shifts six days a week cutting timber quarrying stone carving ice from frozen rivers & clearing bombsites. It drove the soldiers to the brink in which survival was a daily trial. Many starved to death or died from disease others were killed in accidents or at the hands of their guards. ...

Its April 1940 & German troops are pouring onto the streets of Denmark. 12-year-old Bamse is ordered by his father to keep his head down & stay out of trouble. But Bamse & his daring friend Anton cant resist playing the occasional practical joke on the invading soldiers. When it becomes clear that the trouble isnt just going to pass them by the people of Denmark decide to take action & Bamse & his eccentric family are about to take part in one of historys most dramatic rescues
- smuggling Denmarks Jewish population across the water to Sweden & safety. Many of the characters are based on Sandis own family including her father Bamse & the book was inspired by the stories he told to her.
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In January 1945 the Red Army unleashed its long-awaited thrust into Germany with terrible fury. One by one the provinces & great cities of the German East were captured by the Soviet troops. Breslau capital of Silesia a city of 600 000 people stood firm & was declared a fortress by Hitler.A bitter struggle raged as the Red Army encircled Breslau then tried to pummel it into submission while the citys Nazi leadership used brutal methods to keep the scratch German troops fighting & maintain order. Aided by supplies flown in nightly & building improvised weapons from torpedoes mounted on trolleys to an armoured train the men of Fortress Breslau held out against superior Soviet forces for four months. The price was fearful. By the time Breslau surrendered on May 6 1945 four days after Berlin had fallen the city was a wasteland & 25 000 soldiers & civilians had died. Savage retribution was visited on the survivors by the Russian conquerors. What was left of the city was pillaged its womenraped & every German inhabitant driven out of the city which became Wroclaw in post-war Soviet-occupied Pol&. Hitlers Final Fortress is the first full length account of the notorious siege of Breslau in English is based on painstaking research of official documents newspapers letters diaries & personal testimonies. ...

Fascinating
- assiduously researched". (Michael Burleigh). " Hitlers Foreign Executioners" reveals for the first
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A fresh perspective on Hitlers secret weapons which stresses the true impact they had on the course of the war The German Third Reich had the most technologically advanced & innovative weapons industries in World War II with aircraft tanks & bombs that could match & beat anything else in the World. What is less known is the extent of Germanys secret weapons development. Germany pioneered rocket & jet-propelled aircraft the pilot-less plane long-range rocket technology & robot bombs & the worlds first super-heavy tanks. Many of these weapons had a real impact on the course of the war. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union & the realisation that a state of conflict could continue for years Hitler put great resources into the development of new & technologically advanced weaponry in the belief that the production of wonder weapons were the key to winning the war. This book gets behind this little-know aspect of the Nazi war machine to reveal the real extent of German secret weapons development. Broken down by weapon types the book

Includes:: exhaustive reference tables diagrams colourful maps & charts presenting all the core data in easy-to-follow formats. World War II Data Book: Germanys Secret Weapons 1939
- 45 is an essential reference guide for anyone interested in the history & make-up of Germanys secret weapons industry.


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