S2 Actual reading list

Ardennes 1944: The Battle of the Bulge

Antony Beevor

Viking · 2015

El sábado 16 de diciembre de 1944, Hitler inició su «última apuesta» en los bosques nevados de las Ardenas. Su intención era realizar un ataque por sorpresa que, al dirigirse hacia Amberes, dividiese los ejércitos aliados e hiciese posible infligirles una severa derrota: un nuevo Dunquerque que cambiase el curso de una guerra que había llegado a una situación angustiosa, con los ejércitos soviéticos avanzando en suelo alemán. La ofensiva, en la que intervendrían dos ejércitos blindados, se complementaba con la actuación en la retaguardia de un comando de soldados alemanes, con uniformes y vehículos norteamericanos. Como hiciera en Stalingrado, Beevor consigue aquí combinar una visión épica de la que fue la mayor batalla de la guerra en el frente occidental —una batalla librada en condiciones extremas, que llegó a implicar a un millón de hombres y en la que los dos bandos cometieron crímenes brutales— con una aproximación directa al heroísmo, el miedo y el sufrimiento de los seres humanos.

D-Day: The Battle for Normandy

Antony Beevor

Viking · 2009

The Normandy Landings that took place on D-Day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so too did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering. Even the joys of Liberation had their darker side. The war in northern France marked not just a generation but the whole of the post-war world, profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe. Making use of overlooked and new material from over thirty archives in half a dozen countries, "D-Day" is the most vivid and well-researched account yet of the battle of Normandy. As with Stalingrad and Berlin, Antony Beevor's gripping narrative conveys the true experience of war.

Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck

Hans von Luck

A stunning look at World War II from the other side... From the turret of a German tank, Colonel Hans von Luck commanded Rommel's 7th and then 21st Panzer Division. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front--von Luck fought there with some of the best soldiers in the world. German soldiers. Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman. Told with the vivid detail of an impassioned eyewitness, his rare and moving memoir has become a classic in the literature of World War II, a first-person chronicle of the glory--and the inevitable tragedy--of a superb soldier fighting Hitler's war.

The Russian Revolution: A New History

Sean McMeekin

Basic Books · 2017

In The Russian Revolution, historian Sean McMeekin traces the origins and events of the Russian Revolution, which ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and changed the course of world history. Between 1900 and 1920, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation: by the end of these two decades, a new regime was in place, the economy had collapsed, and over 20 million Russians had died during the revolution and what followed. Still, Bolshevik power remained intact due to a remarkable combination of military prowess, violent terror tactics, and the failures of their opposition. And as McMeekin shows, Russia's revolutionaries were aided at nearly every step by countries like Germany and Sweden who sought to benefit—politically and economically—from the chaotic changes overtaking the country. The first comprehensive history of these momentous events in a decade, The Russian Revolution combines cutting-edge scholarship and a fast-paced narrative to shed new light on a great turning point of the twentieth century.