Germany Books

this book includes some of the dishes that have nearly been lost in time. My mother-in-law uses it all the time. Everything is authentic and wonderful.

I'm sorry to see that this cookbook has gone out of print, because it's a really excellent book... that is, it does an excellent job of fulfilling its promise. I have had this cookbook for upwards of ten years, and when I prepare a German meal, this book rarely stays on the shelf. If you're at all serious about cooking German food, you should own this book.

Unlike a lot of other cookbooks, this isn't just a collection of recipes with a few perky paragraphs introducing each one. It's as much a course in "food history in Germany" as it is a cookbook. You don't just learn how to make dumplings; you get a detailed study of regional versions in a whole chapter on the subject (I lost count after 14 dumpling recipes). The emphasis is on the traditional dishes -- some of which date from the 1700s -- and the author prints the original "mix some this with some that" version as well as a modern detailed recipe. It's wonderful reading, at least assuming that you're a foodie of any merit.

This sometimes means that you get a very long essay on technique. But, gosh-durnit, at the end of reading the essay, you'll know exactly how to make the food come out the right way. Scharfenberg's spaetzle recipe is 2.5 closely written pages of instructions, but you'll feel like he's standing at your elbow, helping you to get the dough to the exact right consistency and to set the water to the right simmer (it shouldn't boil).

After 75 pages about regional foods and food history, the chapters cover soups; salads and appetizers; cheese, eggs, and breakfast cakes; fish; poultry; beef, veal, and pork (50 pages, right there!); game; sauces; dumplings, spaetzle, and other side dishes; pickles, relishes, and preserves; desserts; pastries and other baked goods; drinks.

And, fortunately, it's a *great* cookbook, particularly for those who want to make food the way Grandma did. The first way I check out a German cookbook is to examine its recipe for saurbraten; does it use wine, or just vinegar? What's the ratio of meat to vegetables? For how long do you marinate? This is the saurbraten recipe that sets the standard for us. The marinade has 1.5 cups of red wine and 1/4 cup of vinegar; it also has juniper berries, which make quite a difference; and you soak the roast for 3-5 days in the fridge. It makes even the cheapest cut of meat taste wonderful, and incidentally it goes well with the aforementioned spaetzle.

What this book is *not* is modern. You won't find recipes for light meals, you won't find a lot of vegetables (other than potatoes and cabbage), and you will almost certainly want a good long nap after eating one of these meals. Instead, you'll find recipes that are hard to locate elsewhere, from "handkase mit musik," a cheese appetizer found around Frankfurt, to several stollen recipes, to dandelion salad.

This book deserves a reprint. The author and his translator have done a superb job of capturing both the haute cuisine and the more humble home cooking of Germany. The book is exceptionally well organized and accessible. Originally published in 1980 by Hallwag in German, it appeared in a limited print run in English in the late 1980's. The accuracy, clarity of style and common-sense approach to preparing German food will be of great help to the home preparer. Marked contrast to the more sophisticated and less well organized tomes on German cooking by the current doyen of English language German cookery, Mimi Sheraton. This is a 5-STAR work.

I have twice checked out this book from the library, now I'm buying it! This is not just a book of recipes, the author puts every recipe in the context of regional and historical provenence--very important when you are dealing with German anything. There are recipes from all of the more commonly recognized regions (Bavaria, Prussia, Hesse,etc), as well as the historically less well known regions such as Pomerania, Silesia and Friesland. The recipes are doable and good (if you like Central European food, as I do). Plenty of herring and cabbage, yum! Whole chapters on dumplings and potatoes. This is a great book.

I stumbled onto this book after reading about the Normandy invasion. I think it's an interesting book in that it shows how effective French and English guerrilla operations were, and were not, against a very ruthless armored unit.

I wish more detail had been included about what happened to the Germans after they arrived at the battle of the Falaise Gap, other than to remark that 2/3 of them did not emerge from that battle.

When the crack SS division "Das Reich" was called upon to march from southern France to Normandy in summer 1944, it was asked to hose down resistance on its way. It was traveling through the forests of the Dorgogne area, where the maquis were strongest. Thanks to the bravery of the various resistance units - not to mention the stoicism of the French peasantry - the Germans arrived in Normandy bloodied and depleted. The French "victory" came at a terrible cost, as "Das Reich" razed entire towns and in one case, massacred an entire town's (Oradour-sur-Glane's) population by locking them in a church and burning them alive. I take issue with those who see Hastings as remotely sympathetic to the Axis: the Oradour massacre is laid out in unflinching detail, as are various other atrocities. While this is very much a military history, Hasting's broader purpose in writing is actually to illuminate one instance where France, in 1944 still a weak and divided country, was able to recapture its national honor. Some passages are not for the faint-hearted.

Hastings in no way glorifies the Das Reich's march to Normandy. He does a good job of pointing out the delays that the Resistance imposed upon the division because Das Reich first orders were to combat the maquis, not to march to Normandy. He is very fair to point out that some the "atrocities" accorded the Das Reich were actually within the rule of law. I find his comments about the execution of 29 maquis captured along the road to Gueret and the execution of a maquisard captured in Terrasson especially insightful in regard to today's GWOT.

His comment from John Tonkin of the SAS that 'I have always felt the Geneva Convention is a dangerous piece of stupidity, because it leads people to believe that war can be civilized. It can't' is also worth pondering in 2005.

If you can get your hands on this book, read it. It covers a small period of time, early spring 1944 - D-day, but is packed with info on the resistance in France (FFI, FTP, AS etc.), the British SOE and SIS, as well as the personalities of the Das Reich Division and their interactions ending in the massacre at Oradour. To me Hastings is not quite a David Irving, in terms of revisionism, but is more full of admiration for the Germans than say, John Keegan. This book belongs on any armchair historian's bookshelf.

A friend recommended Dathan Charles to me as an antidote to the many formula style books on the market now. Wasn't that the truth! Warned in advance, I settled down in my most comfortable chair, put a full bottle on the table beside me with a large glass and set out to be entertained. The following morning I finished the book and the bottle. During that night I was transported to another time and place filled with characters, good and evil, so real they were like family.

When you enter the world of Dathan Charles, you encounter a rich tapestry of very human beings playing out their lives against a background of international business, organised crime and world events. It is by turn a thriller, a mystery, a romance as the twists in the multi-layered life of Dathan Charles unfold.

Born into a very old English landed family, falling foul of the Nazi regime in the early thirties, Dathan goes to New York to avoid repercussions. There she attempts to build her business which is popular one with organised crime. Lethally dealing with the opposition, she falls in love and into a business arrangement to launder money with an ex-gangster and his partner.

With her lover in jail for ten years, Dathan dedicates her life to her business to find she now has various government agencies determined to ruin her because of her connections. On the other side of the Atlantic, her problems come from the nefarious activities of her family. To her fury both are drawn together during WW2 when British Intelligence start sharing information with their American counterparts. Eventually, in 1948, she is forced to devise a scheme to bring all her adversaries down at the same time, by exposing them and diverting them into fighting each other.

By introducing real life characters and events, with historical accuracy, the narrative seamlessly draws together all the threads of Dathan's life in such a way, it's hard to believe she herself is a figment of the author's imagination.

I wondered, laughed and cried as the many plots unfolded and finished the book with regret. Soon I'll read it again for the sheer pleasure of walking around the "labyrinthine mind" of Dathan Charles and picking up what I missed the first time.

I hope to there's going to be more books about the de Charles family, this author is brilliant.

Prepare to devote an entire weekend to an extraordinary new novel written by Dione M. Coumbe. Through 600 pages of mystery, intrigue and compelling action, Coumbe chronicles the life and times of Dathan Charles, the charming, beautiful, devious, always ingenious tycoon phenomena of a huge international business empire. Crossing the ocean from England at the age of 21, just before the outbreak of WWII, Dathan Charles begins her odyssey by opening a small bridal gown emporium with her own, made-to-order designs. Coumbe hereby sets the stage for the herione's rise to head Dathan Charles International. But on the way to that goal lies a world of amazing business acumen, thrilling adventures involving the Nazi SS and the flight of the Jews from Germany, maneuvers in high finance, intrigue in gangland NYC and wonderful piano concertos which fairly waft among the pages. Behind all this is yet another facet, the world of art and the artists who mingle in Dathan Charles' life.

Coumbe has brought together an absorbing cast of characters, each wonderfully rounded and complete in themselves, yet interdependent and integral to the heroine. Coumbe, as a historian and genealogist in her own right, follows the history of pre WWII to the mid 90s in this country, England and Europe, allowing the reader to visualize how each character is a product of history and their own family trees. The weaving of this web is so deft that one is amazed at how smoothly it all comes together. A risky flight from the SS, a chilling gangland shoot-out, financial finagling of the highest order, romance which warms the heart, fashion, art and music all surround and intermingle with the international cast.

This is a heart warming, heart rending, heart stopping story, one guaranteed to fascinate, captivate and dominate the reader. Coumbe, already a published author, has come on the fiction stage with a truly distinctive concept and a wonderfully unique and thrilling reading experience.

Where has this author been all my life? A brilliant and intelligent book. human, serious, flippant, romantic, comic, written with a real knowledge of the events and places. In Dathan Charles, the author has created a larger than life character, who leaps from the pages with joi de vivre, deviousness, loyalty and an iron determination not to allow her business, family and friends be destroyed by any organization, good or bad. Her greatest asset is her ability to keep silent. "She's so secretive, she does n't even talk to herself", sums up her prime tactic and her philosophy,"Justice,! Government,! the Mafia, there's them and us!" The author knows her stuff on the period and the psychological aspects ring true. The reactions described after the rape scene are atypical of a victim as are those of someone receovering their memory afer injury, rationalising sexual sadism, or homosexuality. Each are treated with sensitivity and understanding, without crudity. This is not sex and incident for the sake of it, each event is integral to the plot. The panoply of all virtues and vices which everyone has make you want to laugh and cry. Either Dione M. Coumbe is an ace researcher or her insights come from personal experience. A really terrific fast paced read, I could not, and did not, put it down.

A friend recommended Dathan Charles to me as an antidote to the many formula style books on the market now. Wasn't that the truth! Warned in advance, I settled down in my most comfortable chair, put a full bottle on the table beside me with a large glass and set out to be entertained. The following morning I finished the book and the bottle. During that night I was transported to another time and place filled with characters, good and evil, so real they were like family.

When you enter the world of Dathan Charles, you encounter a rich tapestry of very human beings playing out their lives against a background of international business, organised crime and world events. It is by turn a thriller, a mystery, a romance as the twists in the multi-layered life of Dathan Charles unfold.

Born into a very old English landed family, falling foul of the Nazi regime in the early thirties, Dathan goes to New York to avoid repercussions. There she attempts to build her business which is popular one with organised crime. Lethally dealing with the opposition, she falls in love and into a business arrangement to launder money with an ex-gangster and his partner.

With her lover in jail for ten years, Dathan dedicates her life to her business to find she now has various government agencies determined to ruin her because of her connections. On the other side of the Atlantic, her problems come from the nefarious activities of her family. To her fury both are drawn together during WW2 when British Intelligence start sharing information with their American counterparts. Eventually, in 1948, she is forced to devise a scheme to bring all her adversaries down at the same time, by exposing them and diverting them into fighting each other.

By introducing real life characters and events, with historical accuracy, the narrative seamlessly draws together all the threads of Dathan's life in such a way, it's hard to believe she herself is a figment of the author's imagination.

I wondered, laughed and cried as the many plots unfolded and finished the book with regret. Soon I'll read it again for the sheer pleasure of walking around the "labyrinthine mind" of Dathan Charles and picking up what I missed the first time.

I hope to there's going to be more books about the de Charles family, this author is brilliant.

By now, Nazism and the Second World War have taken on the magnitude of myth, where everything was pre-ordained, so it is fascinating to read a fresh opinion from the other side.

Goebbels was a contradictory man. He believed in the Fuhrer and Nazi ideology above personal experience. For example, he felt sympathy for negro POWs, describing them as "poor devils", and crashed English pilots, and seemed to have a deep love for his children, while having a one-dimensional hatred for the "Jews" and "bolsheviks" that supposedly were the cause of the world's problems. He also went on about American and English hypocrisy and war-mongering, while celebrating Hitler's real-politiking and deceit towards nearly everyone in Europe. He writes "the Ends always justify the means", while admitting if they don't win, they are doomed (lots of prophetic ideas and dramatic irony in this book!).

Hitler appears as a rather more insightful fellow than we would like to admit. Goebbels writes that he has great respect for classical Greek and Roman culture, and explains his belief in authoritarian regimes: when they become unpopular, the people will overthrow them anyway. Suprisingly, Goebbels and Hitler seem neutral towards 'negros'. They discuss whether the working classes are better off than the American slaves of yore, and Goebbels uses American lynchings (which I assume to be in the South) in Nazi propaganda against America.
Ironically, Goebbels as a film buff seemed to love "Mr Deeds goes to Washington" and "Gone with the Wind", while believing reports of America as a cultural desert (a cringeingly amusing paragraph for non-Americans) and stating that the Reich's contribution to history would be getting rid of democracy.
Also, Goebbel's analysis of the media, and his sophisticated plans to mask the invasion of Russia as an invasion of England, even at the cost of personal loss of "prestige", will make you think twice about what you hear from the press even today.

Was Churchill really a war-monger? Were France and others really content to be ruled by Nazi Germany? Disturbing ideas in a self-portrait of a professional, cunning, dilettante-hating master of propaganda.

The most vile aspects of man running a continent. This book will be one of the scariest you will ever read, and the sad part is that it all really happened. In true diary form, Goebbels recounts every decision and horrible "fun" the Nazi administration had during the early years of the war. Discover little-known facts, such as how many other religions Hitler planned to eradicate after the Jews. Experience the executions in blunt, diary form. Learn about war strategies and propaganda programs.

This is challenging reading. I could take only a few pages at a setting. It makes you think. It makes you understand the baser realities of life.

Nasty, but important reading.

This review can only briefly address a little of the wealth of information herein. Shortly after the German-Soviet conquest of Poland (Fall 1939), Goebbels paid the Poles a backhanded compliment for their continued resistance (October 19, 1939): "The Poles are becoming insolent and rebellious once more. We shall have to take a hard line with them; above all, they must be made to work. Our military authorities are too lackadaisical in their approach." (p. 25). Considering the fact that the Wehrmacht (German Army) had just murdered tens of thousands of Polish civilians and captured POWs in cold blood, Goebbel's latter comment is rather ironic!

Some recent authors have advanced the fallacious argument that there was no Polish Quisling only because the Germans never wanted one. In actuality, the Germans did try unsuccessfully to find a suitable Polish Quisling. For example, on February 9, 1940, Goebbels alluded to a "Polish leader Studnitzki", about whom translator Fred Taylor comments: "Possibly Professor Wladyslaw Studnicki, one of a handful of Polish politicians who were reckoned as potential collaborators at this time." (p. 118).

The constant emphasis on the murder of 5-6 million Jews has caused not only the forgetting of the 2-3 million murdered Polish gentiles (including half of Poland's intelligentsia), but also the considerable similarities in Nazi attitudes towards Jews and Poles. For example, the Nazis' obsession with the inferiority of Jews extended to Poles. In the entry for October 31, 1939, Goebbels quipped: "The right thing is to leave the Poles to their own devices and to encourage their weakness and corruption. This is the best way to rule inferior races." (p. 36).

It is well known that the Nazis thought of Jews as the bearers of dirt, lice, filth, and everything else that is vile. A comparable attitude existed towards Poles (October 10, 1939): "The Fuhrer's verdict on the Poles is damning. More like animals than human beings, completely primitive, stupid, and amorphous. And a ruling class that is an unsatisfactory result of a mingling between the lower orders and an Aryan master race. The Poles' dirtiness is unimaginable. Their capacity for intelligent judgment is absolutely nil." (p. 16). Ironically, for all their presumed dangerous cleverness, Jews, no less than Poles, were considered stupid. In an entry of June 30, 1941, shortly after the initiation of Operation Barbarossa, Goebbels wrote: "The Russian military communiqués are becoming more stupid by the day. They must be drafted by Jews. Trivial, moronic, and simple-minded..." (p. 438).

In some cases, Goebbels directly juxtaposes Poles and Jews with each other in his contemptuous statements about both (e. g., November 8, 1939): "I am also not much enamoured of the proposal to turn Lodz into a German city. The place is no more than a rubbish-heap, inhabited by the dregs of the Poles and the Jews." (pp. 42-43).

It is not only Jews that the Nazis thought of as devoid of redeeming values. In his entry for October 14, 1939, Goebbels elaborates on his racist contempt for Poles, and also gives a veiled threat of genocide: "And the Poles understand only force. Moroever, they are so stupid that no rational argument has any effect on them. The fact is, quite simply, that Asia starts in Poland. This nation's civilization is not worth consideration. Only the aristocracy has a thin veneer of culture. It is therefore the driving-force of the resistance against us. For this reason, it must be expropriated. German farmers will take its place." (p. 20).

There are allusions to the planned genocide of both Jews and Poles, partial in extent at this stage of Nazi thinking (December 5, 1939): "With the Fuhrer. He looks wonderful and is in the best of moods. I tell him about my trip. He listens to everything very carefully and totally shares my opinion on the Jewish and Polish questions. We must liquidate the Jewish Danger. But it will return in a few generations. There is no panacea against it. The Polish aristocracy deserves to be destroyed. It has no links with the people, which it regards as existing purely for its own convenience." (p. 60). For now, both peoples are to be ruthlessly exploited. In his entry for November 5, 1940, Goebbels comments: "So far as we are concerned, the Fuhrer states, Poland will be an enormous reservoir of labour...And we shall shove the Jews out as well, later." (p. 165).

The virulent anti-Christian character of Nazism has been obscured by both the customary emphasis on Nazi anti-Semitism and the constant attempts to blame the Holocaust on prior Christian teachings about Jews. The Nazis did, to be sure, tolerate Christianity for political purposes (April 29, 1941): "Afterwards, long discussions about the Vatican and Christianity. The Fuhrer is a fierce opponent of all that humbug, but he forbids me to leave the church. For tactical reasons. And so for a decade now I have paid my church taxes to support such rubbish. That is what hurts most." (p. 340). Also (December 29, 1939): "The Fuhrer is deeply religious, though completely anti-Christian. He views Christianity as a symbol of decay. Rightly so. It is a branch of the Jewish race." (p. 77). Finally (April 8, 1941): "The Fuhrer is a man totally attuned to antiquity. He hates Christianity, because it has crippled all that is noble in humanity. According to Schopenhauer, Christianity and syphilis have made humanity unhappy and unfree." (p. 304).

The notion that vegetarianism is something enlightened is hardly new. On January 24, 1939, Joseph Goebbels wrote: "At table the Fuhrer makes another strong plea for vegetarianism. I consider his views correct. Meat-eating is a perversion of our human nature. When we reach a higher level of civilization, we shall doubtless overcome it." (p. 6).

I have just completed this book and will soon start on his diary covering 1942 - 1943.

The book took a little getting use to with its style and content. The book itself was not written for publication. He wrote on 30 March 1941 "I have my diaries, twenty fat volumnes, deposited in the underground vault of the Reichsbank. They are too valuable to be allowed to fall victim to some air raid. They provide a picture of my entire life and our times. If fate allows me a few years for the task, I intend to edit them for the sake of future generations. They may well be of some interest to the world at large."

There were, regrettably, some interesting events that were not in this book for whatever reasons. The book opens in early 1939 with a few entries and then jumps all the way to October 1939. During this time the Nazis negotiated a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union and the war started with the German successful invasion of Poland. Other notable missing events include the Scandinavia campaign of April 1940 and the defeat of France.

However other events are not missing. The propaganda minister's view of the "phony war" of 1939 - 1940 is recorded here along with the Nazis' impression of the Soviet war with Finland. Goebbels writes about their Italians allies in an insulting manner -- deservedly so -- because of their bumbling military adventures in the Balkans. The book covers the Nazis' invasion of the Balkans and Greece -- mainly to rescue the Italians and the early days of the north African campaign. He almost daily records the war with England and is convinced that with all the ships being sunk and the Luftwaffe constantly pounding England it is only a matter of time before the Germans will win. Another interesting event was when Rudolf Hess, a man he had great respect and admiration for, flew to England and almost instantly became persona non grata. Even more importantly, the book covers the preparation for Adolf Hitler's greatest gamble -- the war with the Soviet Union. The book covers the first few weeks of that adventure before ending in early July 1941.

The book gives an almost daily insight to the German government in the first two years of the war. Goebbels had to walk a tightrope in managing public morale. The Germans wanted peace but also victory. Goebbels had to keep morale high even when times were hard but also had to keep expectations of victory contained when victory seemed so close after the fall of France. The book also shows petty squabbles within the German government -- especially with the Foreign Ministry in general and Foreign Minister Ribbentrop specifically.

I call this Jekyll and Hyde because Goebbels also presents a very human and loving side in this diary. Despite some marital difficulties with his wife, Magda, he shows great affection and respect for her and all but worshipped his children. It is hard to see a man who loves his family so much being such a hateful man when it came to Jews. Most anti-Semites may hate Jews but not to the same level that Goebbels and the rest of Hitler's henchmen would.

The biggest problem I had with the book was the book itself. The seller described the book as being in acceptable condition. If so the seller had a low standard of acceptability. When I unpacked the book parts of the book was already loose and threatening to fall apart. The act of reading the book such as turning pages was almost too much for the book to handle.

On June 23 1943 the author, Jack Champ, was marched into the German prisoner-of-war camp designated Oflag IVC, these days better known as Colditz Castle. Colditz was Germany's seemingly escape-proof castle prison, where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful prisoners of World War II tirelessly carried out an unending campaign to achieve the seemingly impossible - freedom. By the end of the war, twenty Australians had spent time in Colditz, and this book looks at life in the ancient castle specifically from their point of view. Colditz was a very special camp - the guards outnumbered the prisoners, and the castle was floodlit at night. Initially the Germans boasted that Colditz Castle was escape-proof, but they were wrong. By the end of the war, there had been more escapes from Colditz than any prison of comparable size during both world wars. Jack Champ was a reluctant prisoner who took part in two of the most spectacular mass escapes of the war. This book describes in vivid detail how these indomitable and resourceful Australian servicemen tried, and at times succeeded, in turning dreams of escape into reality. Colin Burgess has interviewed many of the survivors and carried out extensive research to create this gripping account of the full story - from tense days in the care of the French Underground through to the only recently resolved fight for proper compensation.

On June 23 1943 the author, Jack Champ, was marched into the German prisoner-of-war camp designated Oflag IVC, these days better known as Colditz Castle. Colditz was Germany's seemingly escape-proof castle prison where hundreds of the most determined and resourceful prisoners of World War II tirelessly carried out an unending campaign to achieve the seemingly impossible - freedom. By the end of the war twenty Australians had spent time in Colditz, and this book looks at life in the ancient castle specifically from their point of view. Colditz was a very special camp - the guards outnumbered the prisoners, and the castle was floodlit at night. Initially the Germans boasted that Colditz Castle was escape-proof, but they were wrong. By the end of the war there had been more escapes from Colditz than any prison of comparable size during both world wars. Jack Champ was a reluctant prisoner who took part in two of the most spectacular mass escapes of the war. This book describes in vivid detail how these indomitable and resourceful Australian servicemen tried, and at times succeeded, in turning dreams of escape into reality. Colin Burgess has interviewed many of the survivors and carried out extensive research to create this gripping account of the full story - from tense days in the care of the French Underground through to the only recently resolved fight for proper compensation.

This is a great story of what determined men can achieve with severely limited resources. Much has been written on Colditz Castle, the men who were imprisoned there and the few who escaped. I visited the castle in 1999, and what I saw confirms the stories in the book. This book is great reading for those who prefer real adventures and exploits to fiction.

Great story of what determined men can achieve with severely limited resources. Lots has been written on Colditz Castle and the men who were imprisoned there and the few who escaped.

I visited the castle in 1999, and what I saw confirms the stories in the book.

Great reading for those who prefer real adventures and exploints to fiction.

I feel that Peter Schutz has some unique insights to offer on working effectively with people. The book has a narrative style that I found pleasant to read and the style worked nicely with the points that Peter made. I felt the book was more that worth the small investment in time and money to purchase and read. He has had several interesting positions through out his career including his time at Porsche. He's also had some great mentors and coworkers that helped him through some of the tougher times. I could relate to his early engineering background. I did find myself wondering at times when he was going to cut to the chase, but felt he effectively used the intro stories to help bring home his points. I found his business experiences with the very powerful unions in Germany at Porsche to be very interesting. I've already tried his method of how decisions must be made and how they have to be implemented to be effective and he's right. I've also paid attention to his different methods of management, authority and control noted in the book and it definitely makes a difference in the way people respond. I didn't realize till purchasing the book that he now works as a consultant and speaker to help with management/work issues.

Driving Force is an amazing book by Peter Schulz. Everyone aspiring to be a manager or is a manager should read this book.I read this book in three sittings. Peter is down to earth and wants to share his experiences to the world. He is a proven business leader and his writings come across with boldneess and clarity.

I found The Driving Force to be both delightfully engaging as biography and sanely instructive in its discussion of matters relating to business. Mr. Schutz writes in a direct and self-effacing manner, with both wit and conviction; his stories often having the character of parables in that the "lessons" they contain would seem not only applicable to business but to other areas of human interaction and decision making as well. His are not views commonly held, or practiced, by most of today's MBA trained business leaders but, given their many failures and Mr. Schutz's documented successes, perhaps should be. For those interested in management skills, a fascinating history of Porsche's return, and triumph, both in racing and business, or just a good story well told by a man whose own life seems itself to have been a most "extraordinary" journey, I would recommend this book most highly.

I read this book in two sittings. He did not write this book out of a desire for fortune or fame. He has plenty of both. He wrote this book out of a desire to humbly share some of the things he has learned, and is on point. His focus on accountability, values, and the workers and customers is very similar to some of our other current business heros, such as Herb Kelleher and Michael Dell. This is a must read for any manager, executive, or leader. Or anyone who aspires to something better.

I have read probably 100 books on management/leadership, and this is in the top five.

A wonderful read. Well-documented and beautifully presented. It realistically evokes a time when honor fueled men to do their perceived duty without hesitation and with great patriotism.

The book via letters and diaries creates a true emotional atmosphere of World War I and those committed to serve. It would make a superb film!

Not to be forgotten the men of L Regiment. Thank you Mr Harris for the insight to a time before I was born and frankly of a different type of men who had so much to give and so much to lose but honor and duty were so important to them all. This was a wonderful book and if you lived as I did in the Hudson River Valley the memories of all of this are so important to me.

Being a native New Yorker and a lover of history I was pulled into this book. With few "unit histories" of the Great War, this one is a must for any serious reader. The unit, made up from the elite of NYC, and men of more humble backgrounds from upper NY, forged a unit while not heralded, most certainly worthy of this book. The story, while never quick moving, will be interesting for the serious reader. The unit saw serious action in breaching the Hindenburg line while attached to the British. Good for the serious student.

This book is well written, well researched and well titled. I devoured it in three sittings. While the First World War has been eclipsed by the Second World War for most Americans, this story captures a fascinating piece of America's earliest military history as a world power. I particularly enjoyed the vivid descriptions which the author used to recreate the past. The arduous conditions the men experienced in South Carolina, where they trained at a partially built national cantonment, are so well drawn it unfolds like a movie. Their surroundings in the U.S. and abroad are brought dramatically to life. The troopship's approach to the French sea coast and entry into Brest harbor, the march through the city and the French countryside complete with the smells of tree blossoms, the troop trains, the billets, etc. were all wonderful. The graphic descriptions of life in the training areas, the reserve areas, marching to the front, entering the trenches, enduring incessant bombardments, making nighttime forays into "No Man's Land" and fighting the big battles was gripping.

The author's diligent research makes this a good read and good history. This reader became convinced that what was known as the Silk Stocking Regiment was far more than spoiled rich boys playing war. When they entered the war they may have been naive, but they rose to the challenges they faced with great courage. Despite suffering terrible casualties they fought valiantly. Their parent unit, the 27th Division, did not fight with the main American forces, the A.E.F., in France. It was assigned to the British Expeditionary Forces (B.E.F.), ultimately under the command of an Australian General, but that did not dampen their fighting spirit.

These soldiers enjoyed broad public support of the people of New York, both upstate farmers ("apple knockers") and New York City socialites, because it blended men from both. The book goes to great length exploring the pedigrees of many of the men of the historic old New York 7th Regiment. It leaves no doubt that many of the men came from the highest class of American society. We are also introduced to some of the "apple knockers". The story proves to be a very interesting social history. The trials, accomplishments and valor left this reviewer feeling very proud of these American soldiers. That feeling of pride is tempered with sadness for the many lives of these fine men which were given so unselfishly.

The author's expertise on WWI German aviation comes through clearly in this excellent and much needed addition to the Osprey aces series. Here is the story of how fighter aviation started, and is told via excellent text (much by the aces themselves), well-chosen photographs, and excellent color profiles of the planes. This book is a must for enthusiasts, historians, and modelers interested in WWI aviation.

This little book is a valuable resource for those wishing to know something of the early German aces of the "Fokker Scourge" period. Informative text, good photographs.

A first class basic reference book and well worth the price. I intend to add more in the series to my collection

If the German Air Service didn't invent air combat, they certainly contributed much to its initial development. Once German fighters were equipped with a forward-firing machine gun in 1915 - courtesy of Tony Fokker's Eindecker monoplane - intrepid pilots like Oswald Boelcke, Max Immelmann, Hans-Joachim Buddecke, Wilhelm Frankl and Gustav Leffers set about sweeping the skies of Allied aircraft and, in doing so, created many of the tactics and formations subsequently utilized by all fighter pilots. Greg VanWyngarden summarizes the exploits of these early Fokker pilots in this Osprey "Aircraft of the Aces" volume, #73.

VanWyngarden does a good job of relating the creation of the machine-gun armed fighter and the resulting 'Fokker scourge.' Along with relating numerous air combats, he also supplies a human face to the long-ago 'Hun' pilots - the brilliant fighter ace/tactician Boelcke, the rather foppish Max Immelmann, the grimly determined Rudolf Berthold, the playboy Ernst Freiherr von Althaus and so on. These were the days of the lone hunter and Germany's pilots were as fascinating as they were deadly.

The book features over 100 photographs, some quite rare, and 10 pages of color profiles by Harry Dempsey.

This is a marvelous chronicle of the early days of air combat. It's amazing when looking at the photographs of the Eindecker monoplanes to think that those rather flimsy aircraft were the F-15 of their day!

Recommended for all air war afficiandos.

I have always loved the story of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and have searched and searched for an adaptation that evoked the memories that I carried from my childhood. (As children, my sister and I fell in love with the Scholastic version which, sadly, is off the market.) But this version is as good, if not better! The pictures are simply beautiful ~ so full of color and expression and detail! And the story is told in a simple yet profound way so that children as young as three but as old as eight or nine will be able to find meaning and enjoyment. I can not recommend this book enough! In my mind, it deserves a space on every child's bookshelf!

This a beautiful version of one of my favorite stories. It is just perfect for read-aloud. Must have!

The illustrations in this book are wonderful. A true artist. Very cleverly hides the elves in each page and its much fun for a 3 year old to find them and the mice and birds too.

This book is a wonderful companion to any collection of classic fairy tales. The illustrations are lively and charming; the tale is retold simply and well. This book also does an excellent job of conveying what a cobbler does, if you are looking for some books to bring history alive. Not many children now think twice about where their shoes come from. Above all else, the illustrations really bring the tale alive. The quality of the expressions on each character's face is truly incredible and any small child can easily "read" along by seeing the delight on the faces of the customers, the patience and careful work done by the elves (you can practically hear them whistle as they work), the astonishment and gratitude felt by the shoemaker and his wife. This heartwarming story is a must for any preschool or first grade classroom.

This book is great in all senses: the information about the man and the epoch, the chess tournaments, the life of without doubt the greatest chess master ever, and probably he will remain insuperable, because he was not "only" a chess world champion, but also a "real" philosopher and mathematician in all the sense of those terms. So is sad when you hear that he has been called "a chess-coffee master" or something like that... ¿How dare them? His triumphs in life as a whole are innumerables, and in chess, without equal... "In august 1936 (Nottingham 1936), he once again amazed the chess world by a performance no one could possibly expect of him... achieved what seemed a miracle at the beginning of the tournament: he had caught up with the leaders every one of whom ranked among the world's top-players and was by decades his juniors (Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Reshevsky and Alekhine)... To have maintained his place among those leaders at the age of 68 was, perhaps, one of the greatest achievements in Lasker's long career..." (pgs. 297,299). This book, moreover, is beautifully written.

Another Dover reprint! You know I rate Dover books highly. This one is top notch too, reaching their usual high standards for binding etc. The original print is retained which is good as the diagrams from the hardcover edition were excellent. [For computer users they are the Hastings font ] The translation to English was done by Heinrich Fraenkel ('Assiac') and is excellent. The games are typical of Lasker - all fighting games ( there are losses) and all show his grim determination to win. But the best part is the biography. Lasker was a highly intelligent man, who only played chess out of necessity. We are treated to a description of his youth, his relationship with his brother, Berthold, who became a famous Doctor. But the real story is his romancing of Martha his wife. Great human interest, great chess, and we also get the crosstables for the events that Lasker played in. A must buy for all players no matter their strength.

Emanuel Lasker was one of the four or five greatest chess players of all time, an outstanding player of many other games, and an outstanding mathematician and philosopher. The biography is a good read, but the games alone are worth the price of the book. They are in descriptive notation. I know a lot of players don't like descriptive notation, but there is a mountain of low-priced classic chess literature in descriptive notation, of which this book is just one of the many outstanding examples. Take my advice: Learn descriptive and read the classics. You won't regret the experience.

This book is a combination of a biography and game collection. There are 102 games in the book. The games are given in descriptive notation. The annotations were collected. Many of them are from the original book of the tournament that they were played in, however there are alot of games annotated by Reinfeld and Reti. Most of the annotations are light, and there is only one diagram per game. For about 60% of the tournaments that Lasker played in, full results are given. The theory in the book that Lasker played pyschological chess was Reti's theory.
The biography side of the book is pretty interesting. For the sake of those who aren't Yiddish speakers, the term 'chammer', which appears in the beginning of the book, really should be 'chammore', and means donkey. For some reason, this is the Yiddish phrase used to insult someone of less than average intelligence.