- Hardcover: 896 pages
- Publisher: Allen Lane; First Edition edition (24 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 071399309X
- ISBN-13: 978-0713993097
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16.8 x 5.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 256,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.95
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.95, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
The Telegraph, 13th June, 2004
a formidable addition to the literature of this period...indispensable
Michael Burleigh, Sunday Times
'Overy's monumental comparative history is invaluable'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
It is spring 1924. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
It is spring 1924. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Excellent in all respects. Quite the best coverage in detail of both Hitler and Stalin, and with excellent comparisons between the two dictators and the two regimes. Very full and comprehensible on the economic and social aspects of the regimes, penetrating on the crimes of both but without allowing this to unbalance the narative, which remains analytical and comparatively dispassionate throughout. This work would be excellent for sixth-formers as well as university students (and indeed everyone else interested in this subject) but sixth-formers would probably benefit from some guidance, given the length of the work and the quantity of detail it contains. The index in this respect is very useful and they would be advised to begin with particular subject areas that they are interested in. At all times some guidance from the teacher would be useful. General readers too will find it absorbing and not a particularly demanding read despite its length. This is one of the best books available on the area of modern history by one of the very best historians alive today.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm doing my A2 History coursework at the moment, which is comparing Hitler and Stalin, and this book has been a god- send.
It's entirely comparative and it's contents is clear, with each Chapter having a particular focus so that it is easy to dip in & out of.
For anyone studying History, this book is great, and for anyone not studying the subject, it could be a little dry to read in one go, but is easy and clear to understand.
It's entirely comparative and it's contents is clear, with each Chapter having a particular focus so that it is easy to dip in & out of.
For anyone studying History, this book is great, and for anyone not studying the subject, it could be a little dry to read in one go, but is easy and clear to understand.
8 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Alright now, where should I start.
I must express my general opinion first. After I will justify my opinion. I think Overy is wrong. However, when I challenge his opinion, I challenge the opinion of the general stream of western history writing, so it's risky. I'm doing it anyway.
So, I'll kick this off by stating - at the risk of sounding extreme - that I believe the old generation of history writing is trying to push Britain's naive actions (appeasement) regarding to Hitler onto everyone of his contemporaries. In this book, on Stalin. It looks to me like an attempt to justify the "gutlessness" of those times by generalizing it and simply drawing Hitler out of it, as if he was extremely different from other dictators, other leaders.
I am no Hitler fanatic, simply interested in the man in a historical point of view. And the more I read, the more I'm beginning to think he wasn't so awful as portrayed by us Europeans. His actions were so little different from those of Stalin, for example. Are we judging Hitler on partially false charges?
Overy has choosen his general line, which is that Hitler wanted war and Stalin only wanted to defend his country, and sticks to it without second thoughts. In fact, this is where I think the value of this book is diminished: on page 443 of this book Overy says that Stalin was o n l y being defensive and reactive. He mentions the possibility of Stalin's possibly aggressive plans in the 30s and the 40s and discards it the next sentence, stating simply that "the balance of evidence favors my idea". As if it couldn't be true that Stalin wanted communism in Europe.
Overy seems to ignore very important facts and very important evidence when drawing his conclusions. He for example fails to mention the aggressive nature of the armament produced by the soviets. Honestly, no man in his right sense would suggest that Stalin wanted to Defend his country with weapons unsuitable for defensive warfare, unusable in the USSR! I think Overy is being too one-sided, leaving out some major facts. This limits his views. And this was just one example.
I also think Overy uses quotes and other citations where they are not relevant (you know this if you know the context). For example, when he cites a speech held by Stalin in 1925, where Stalin pronounces that "the USSR shall have to participate in WWII but it shall only do it last to throw the decisive weight onto the scales, the weight that shall turn the scales." This does sound offensive. Overy however, only chose to mention the part where Stalin says that the USSR shall act last. This doesn't sound offensive as in the original speech, but rather cautious, hereby supporting Overy's thesis.
Of course the book has its value. If you are a high school student holding a speech on Stalin or Hitler, you'll be sure to get full marks by simply quoting this book. The thesis supported by Overy is what the academic Europeans hold in value. I w o u l d be critical however.
There is more to it than what this book tells you.
I must express my general opinion first. After I will justify my opinion. I think Overy is wrong. However, when I challenge his opinion, I challenge the opinion of the general stream of western history writing, so it's risky. I'm doing it anyway.
So, I'll kick this off by stating - at the risk of sounding extreme - that I believe the old generation of history writing is trying to push Britain's naive actions (appeasement) regarding to Hitler onto everyone of his contemporaries. In this book, on Stalin. It looks to me like an attempt to justify the "gutlessness" of those times by generalizing it and simply drawing Hitler out of it, as if he was extremely different from other dictators, other leaders.
I am no Hitler fanatic, simply interested in the man in a historical point of view. And the more I read, the more I'm beginning to think he wasn't so awful as portrayed by us Europeans. His actions were so little different from those of Stalin, for example. Are we judging Hitler on partially false charges?
Overy has choosen his general line, which is that Hitler wanted war and Stalin only wanted to defend his country, and sticks to it without second thoughts. In fact, this is where I think the value of this book is diminished: on page 443 of this book Overy says that Stalin was o n l y being defensive and reactive. He mentions the possibility of Stalin's possibly aggressive plans in the 30s and the 40s and discards it the next sentence, stating simply that "the balance of evidence favors my idea". As if it couldn't be true that Stalin wanted communism in Europe.
Overy seems to ignore very important facts and very important evidence when drawing his conclusions. He for example fails to mention the aggressive nature of the armament produced by the soviets. Honestly, no man in his right sense would suggest that Stalin wanted to Defend his country with weapons unsuitable for defensive warfare, unusable in the USSR! I think Overy is being too one-sided, leaving out some major facts. This limits his views. And this was just one example.
I also think Overy uses quotes and other citations where they are not relevant (you know this if you know the context). For example, when he cites a speech held by Stalin in 1925, where Stalin pronounces that "the USSR shall have to participate in WWII but it shall only do it last to throw the decisive weight onto the scales, the weight that shall turn the scales." This does sound offensive. Overy however, only chose to mention the part where Stalin says that the USSR shall act last. This doesn't sound offensive as in the original speech, but rather cautious, hereby supporting Overy's thesis.
Of course the book has its value. If you are a high school student holding a speech on Stalin or Hitler, you'll be sure to get full marks by simply quoting this book. The thesis supported by Overy is what the academic Europeans hold in value. I w o u l d be critical however.
There is more to it than what this book tells you.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > 1901 Onwards
- Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Europe
- Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Germany
- Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Russia
- Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Europe
- Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Germany
- Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Russia
- Books > History > Europe > Germany
- Books > History > Political History > Fascism & Nazism
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics > Countries & Regions > Europe
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
