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1938: Hitler's Gamble
In this masterful narrative, acclaimed historian Giles MacDonogh chronicles Adolf Hitler’s consolidation of power over the course of one year. Until 1938, Hitler could be dismissed as a ruthless but efficient dictator, a problem to Germany alone; after 1938 he was clearly a threat to the entire world.It was in 1938 that Third Reich came of age. The Führer brought Germany i...more
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published
December 1st 2009
by Basic Books
(first published 2009)
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This is the first truly negative book review I have ever given.
What disturbs me the most about this book was the LACK of information given by the author. When I first picked up this book, I was actually scared knowing that once again I was going to have to re-read and learn even more about the gruesome history that Hitler and his Nazis had permanently marked the face of human history with. However, MacDonogh's way of reporting "history" during this time is condescending in its lack of detail. Th...more
What disturbs me the most about this book was the LACK of information given by the author. When I first picked up this book, I was actually scared knowing that once again I was going to have to re-read and learn even more about the gruesome history that Hitler and his Nazis had permanently marked the face of human history with. However, MacDonogh's way of reporting "history" during this time is condescending in its lack of detail. Th...more
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This book is the author's analysis of why the year 1938 was a turning point which lead to the conflagration of WWII. History buffs would agree that Hitler, in his quest for control of Europe (and beyond), gambled on the inept leadership of England (Chamberlain, the great appeaser), and France (a government in chaos) to back away from any confrontation with Germany. Despite the fact that Hitler kept gobbling up one territory and country after another, they turned a blind eye to the portents of th...more
This is sobering history. The melancholy fact that Hitler might've been stopped at several points before bringing about the cataclysm of WW II is profoundly disturbing. A good addition to the scholarship regarding the Third Reich.
Dec 10, 2012
Ian Major
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in our present society's possible development.
A gripping account month by month of this year that made WWII inevitable. Looking back we can see how differently things might have worked out if the bullies had been faced down. And how widespread was anti-Semitism in Europe.
MacDonogh gives the essential mix of detail for us to place ourselves at the time. It made me reflect how the little affairs and crises we 'get over' in a week or so can in fact be final stepping stones to disaster. The shameful prevarication in helping resettlement of the...more
MacDonogh gives the essential mix of detail for us to place ourselves at the time. It made me reflect how the little affairs and crises we 'get over' in a week or so can in fact be final stepping stones to disaster. The shameful prevarication in helping resettlement of the...more
An incredible amount of detail and information packed in this book that covers so many key events that took place during 1938 in the rise of Nazi Germany. The book is broken down by month and outlines the climate of the times as well recounting the major historical decisions that were made that shaped the coming of World War II. There were so many major events that took place during 1938 and the author does an excellent job walking the reader through the timeline with commentary that helps form...more
Giles MacDonogh’s book 1938: HITLER’S GAMBLE was an interesting eye-opening book, which focuses on what happened in Austria to the Viennese Jews after the Anschluss. I found this book interesting precisely because the typical treatment of this material is to focus on what was going on in Berlin, London, Paris and Washington. Mr. MacDonogh makes vivid the plight of the Austrian Jews, who were singled out for bad treatment within days of the Anschluss. Through his vivid writing, I could see myself...more
Complements the other book, Munich 1938, that I read recently, with appalling accounts of what happened to Austrian Jews. MacDonagh has an unusual writing style (clipped sentences, similar to reading news bulletins) that grew on me. Neither book holds many surprises, since the story is so familiar and the interpretations conventional. But this history of these years never fails to shock.
A good book of a bad year for the world. The real emergence of Hitler to a world menace. Many factors, not the least of which was Europe losing a generation of young men in WWI, resulted in a failue to confront and missed opportunities to contain or topple the Nazi regime. Some insight into the antisemitism in Europe, it was not just a German phenomenon.
Readable, rather than dense. Proceeds as one chapter per month, covering the Nazi progress into Austria, Czechoslovaki, and more, and the beginnings of "cleansing" that became the holocaust. Kind of who's who of Nazis but sometimes it seems like a pile of names.
Many names, hard to follow. The two themes that were throughout the book were perhaps one too many for me.
Going month by month, McDonogh chronicles the slide towards the full invasion of Czechoslovakia, including the often overlooked purge of the old Hapsburg-hangers-on (including the sons of Franz Ferdinand) to Dachau, the birth of Edda Goring, Hitler's fit over being improperly dressed on a state visit to Rome and the sheer haphazardness and terrifying randomness of the Nazi state apparatus, from negligent or abusive border guards to the paperwork loopholes that saved lives one day and doomed them...more
2.5 stars
"Masterful narrative"?? I must have read the wrong version. Certainly a great deal of good information, but very, very dry. Even as a reader fascinated by WWII history, I had to force myself to finish it. Rarely does a book take me longer than a week to finish, but this one took a month.
"Masterful narrative"?? I must have read the wrong version. Certainly a great deal of good information, but very, very dry. Even as a reader fascinated by WWII history, I had to force myself to finish it. Rarely does a book take me longer than a week to finish, but this one took a month.
Apr 04, 2013
Adrian
marked it as to-read
Apr 04, 2013
Lazarovicedo
added it
Mar 29, 2013
Daniel
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Mar 28, 2013
Wilson Tomba
marked it as to-read
Mar 28, 2013
Jerome
marked it as to-read
Feb 25, 2013
Milly
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2013
Arif Zainudin
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