NEW Books

I've bought two new works during my last business trip. Thought I'd share my thoughts on them.

Warsaw 1944 - The Rising by Norman Davies
This is the definitive account on one of the most dramatic episodes in twentieth-century history. Mr. Davies spotlights sixty-three days in 1944 when the Wehrmacht crushed the Polish Resistance in Warsaw, slaughtered thousands and destroyed the city.

Absolute War by Chris Bellamy
There have been many individual accounts of particular moments in the vicious war between Germany and the Soviet Union, but none which sets out to tell the full and dreadful story of that absolute war: absolute because both sides aimed to 'exterminate the opponent, to destroy his political existence' and total because it was fought by all elements of society, not simply the armed forces, but civilians - men, women, children - too. This book benefits from mr. Bellamy's remarkable insight into strategic issues as well as exhaustive research in hitherto unopened Russian archives. It is the definitive study of what the Soviets called - and what their fifteen successor states still call - the Great Patriotic War.