| Riddle of the Reich
(1941)
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| Front Cover |
Book Details |
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| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
National socialism; World politics - 20th century; World War, 1939-1945 |
| Publication Date |
1941 |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
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| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
DD253 .W53 1941a |
| Dewey |
943.085 |
| No. of Pages |
351 |
| First Edition |
No |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
Text block is clean and tight. Minor water damage to back cover. D/j has several small tears, damage to back. Price clipped.
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After an unpromising start, I found this book quite interesting. Published in the spring of 1941, the bulk of the book is an argument in support of the British against the Nazis. A slow start because I found much of the argument against the Nazis almost comical. It's a document of its times, the vast majority of the actual horrors of Nazi rule still unknown. We should be against the Nazis because of their economic policies, because the Hitler Youth are taught promiscuity, because of their alliance with the Soviets. Most of the arguments are true, as far as they go, but fall far short of the ultimate reality.
The book got better toward the end. It's funny, given the imperfect starting point of the book, and knowing how so few people manage to predict the future, how the authors come so close to prescribing the actions that would be taken to defeat Nazi Germany.
In the final chapter the authors take a swing at predicting a Nazi-free future. This, they imagined, would feature the USA as the sole power in the world: "Out of the conflict, we are bound to emerge as the strongest power on earth."
Viewed 75 years later, it's a deeply flawed document with an odd combination of myopia and farsightedness, written in a journalistic voice very much of its time. It might be more useful if it included an index, bibliography, or notes. |
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