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This is comparative history at its very best. Elliott superbly describes and chronicles the history of the British and Spanish exploration and colonization of the Americas, as well as the process whereby both the British American and Spanish American colonial societies brought about their independence from the imperial governments. It is a comprehensive, detailed, and yet highly readable overview of the political, economic, social, military, and religious forces at play in the Americas during the time period. Elliott goes beyond the telling of historical events and facts, to provide analysis and interpretation of why history unfolded as it did. The writing is excellent and clearly reflects a highly learned historian who has the ability to tell history in a an engaging manner. His juxtaposition and comparison of British and Spanish America in a single volume results in a very interesting and stimulating way to learn about the two empires. The book contains very attractive end papers, a number of excellent maps and numerous color plates. Very highly recommended.

Elliott delivers the masterpiece that those who study the Atlantic World have been waiting for. The idea of studying history from the perspective of the Atlantic has been growing in popularity and worth taking a further look at. Britain and Spain established mammoth empires and Elliot looks at their rise and fall. He also considers other powers including the French and Dutch but focuses mainly on the first two mentioned. The age of exploration is put in context and in true Atlantic fashion the slave trade and development in Latin America are very important. The revolutions of the Atlantic world are very clearly explained in this book and Elliott leaves you wondering where else this field can go. Elliott writes very well and this book is a must read for those who want to consider how the Atlantic world impacted Europe and the United States.

In Empires of the Atlantic World, Professor Elliot compares and contrasts Spanish colonial America with British colonial America. I am not aware of any other books that take this is their subject, and I think that it is worthy of attention. Elliot presents 2 very different experiences in terms of government, economy, and culture. For instance, the Spanish conquistadors came upon a very highly centralized political structure, which they were able to penetrate (and co-opt for their own rule) with relative ease. This enabled them to retain the tributary labor system of the Aztecs and Incas, which they labeled the encomienda system. The British in North America did not have the same experience, as the Indians there tended to be far more decentralized. This forced the British to pursue a far different strategy in their efforts at conquest. Also, the scarcity of gold and silver in North America forced the British to diversify the colonial economy, leading to a more developed economic scene.

Additionally, I found Elliot's side-by-side discussion (between the British and the Spanish) of various other colonial themes to be well-developed. In particular, he goes into considerable detail in contrasting Spain's Catholic-only policy in the Americas with the religious diversity that existed in the British colonies. At the same time, he also explores the very different attitudes that the British and the Spanish had toward the Indians, and how those differing attitudes shaped political and social orders in the 2 regions (look at the large "Mestizo" population that exists in many parts of Latin America today, in contrast to the relatively small population within the United States). For instance, the Spanish sought to bring the Indians into the Catholic Church (witness the significant presence of the Catholic Church in the colonies), and even (theoretically) included a measure of legal protection for Indians within the encomienda system. On the other hand, the British did not make christianizing the Indians a high priority, nor did they concern themselves wth any legal protections for the Indians (a notable exception to this was William Penn).

Elliot gives a great deal of space to discussing how the political and religious regimes that existed in Great Britain and Spain were transferred to these nation's respective American colonies. For example, the British colonists were nurtured, to some degree, by the growing "liberal" ideas that were coming out of Great Britain at the start of the 1700s, while Spanish colonists had no such ideas to turn to (at least none in Spanish). Moreover, British control over its colonies was relatively decentralized (many of the colonies were private or corporate, and all enjoyed a measure of self-government), though Spanish colonies were under the tight grip of the Spanish monarchy. Finally, Elliot demonstrates how both Great Britain and Spain began to "reform" their administrative policies vis-a-vis the colonies, and how those reforms triggered colonial resentment (though the 2 nations had different results in quashing this resentment).

This well written and well organized book is a careful synthesis of the enormous secondary literatures on colonial British America and colonial Spanish America. Elliott provides a pair of parallel narrative overviews of British and Spanish America from their foundings to the revolutions that severed ties to their home nations. The narratives provide the basis for some comparative analysis that recurs throughout the book.

Knowledgeable readers will probably be familiar with much of the narrative about British North America. Much of the information about Spanish North American will probably be new to many readers (like me). For example, the small British settlements of the 17th century were dwarfed by the scope of the Spanish colonial enterprise. When Boston and Philadelphia were modest seaports, Spanish America boasted several large cities. At the time of Harvard's foundation, Spanish America already possessed several universities.

Elliott divides this book into three sections; Occupation, Consolidation, and Emancipation. Occupation is devoted to the initial experience of exploration, colonization, and encounters with the native peoples of the Americas. The chapters in Consolidation describe the development of mature colonial economies and imperial government, the challenge of developing European style societies in radically different circumstances, and the sense of identities developed in these new societies. Emancipation describes the 18th century conflicts between the metropolitan centers and the colonies, particularly as London and Madrid attempted to develop closer control and upset traditional arrangements. All chapters are particularly good combinations of political, economic, and social history.

Elliott points out the common problems faced by both British and Spanish colonial efforts but also how the different features of the home nations and different circumstances in the Americas produced different outcomes. The Spanish, for example, were confronted with very large native populations that they attempted to incorporate into their empire. This fact, plus traditions inherited from the Reconquista, would contribute to the generation of the very racially differentiated society in much of Spanish America. The existence of enormous silver deposits in Mexico and Peru drove the Spanish Crown to exercise considerably closer control of its colonies than the British monarchy would exercise over its colonies.

In his comparative analysis, Elliott deals with the major differences in British and Spanish America, and implicitly how they led to such differing outcomes after the revolutions at the end of the 18th century. Elliott's answers are surprisingly traditional. He stresses the centralized bureaucratic nature of the Spanish empire, the more 'commercial' nature of British settlements, the religious pluralism of the British colonies, and the more liberal/representative political traditions that the British brought with them. Elliott is careful to point out that many of these ultimately beneficial features were essentially inadvertant. If the English crown had been stronger or if rich gold mines had been found in the Blue Ridge mountains, the path of British colonization might well have been closer to the Spanish model.

This was an eye-opener for me as I knew very little on Spain's American territories, besides brief descriptions of some of the conquistadors such as Cortes and Pizzarro. What Elliott has done in this book is to show the comparisons and contrasts between England's New World Colonies and Spain's. There are many fascinating facets underlaying the reasons for acquiring these territories, how both sides viewed their mission and goals, and how they governed them. This is without a doubt a remarkable book that revealed a lot for me.

The first colonization was begun by the Spanish in the early 16th Century. The English made their first successful attempt in the early 17th Century. Both South and North America posed different challenges for both governments, i.e. the size of the indigenous populations, the geography and climate, natural resources and so forth. For me, the real fascination was learning more about the Spanish colonies and the establishment of the viceroyalties of New Spain (based in Mexico City) and Peru (based in Lima) with additional ones developing over time. The interaction with the natives, the attempts at Christianization, trade, and many other aspects of Spain's colonization were quite enlightening.

Being more familiar with United States history, I felt more familiar with the material covered on England's planting of settlers in Jamestown and later in New England. However, the real education was in Elliott's efforts to show how each of these two powers (Spain and England) confronted the realities and challenges of establishing their presence in these very different regions. The differences were often quite stark. Some of the points of contrast that most differentiated the two powers included each nation's attitude towards the Indians (including the attempts or lack of evangelization) and the extent of imperial bureaucracy brought over from the mother countries.

Elliott also describes how world events had helped to shape and or guide the developments that occurred in both country's territories. The Reformation, the British Commonwealth under Cromwell, the Restoration, the Glorious Revolution, the French and Indian War, the French Revolution and so forth, all served as factors in shaping the events that transpired in North and South America. The role of various monarchs, religious, military and political leaders, as well as indigenous leaders, are also discussed.

Elliott does try to take an even-handed approach in acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of both government's endeavors. Of course it goes without saying that the notion of empire, with the connotations of exploitation of natives and their cultures, is unpopular in most peoples minds nowadays. Yes, it was and remains a blot on the records of all nations that engaged in replacing the livelihoods and cultures (sometimes more like extermination) of indigenous peoples, or those who engaged in the slave trade, but we must keep in mind that we have to try to keep modern standards in check for historical purposes.

This is such a broad subject that I find it hard to even begin to touch on more specific details found in this book; I'm just trying to outline the broader contours of Elliott's book. Having some introduction to this time period will help you, but you need not be an expert on this particular topic. An illuminating read.

This is the first time I had a problem with Amazon shipment. I ordered the 1995 edition, but Amazon repeatedly (twice) shipped the 1966 edition. However, the customer service was excellent. I could ship back without charge and the amount was credited to my account. That is the reason I am giving 4 stars.

Peter Gay needs no introduction, but I still feel that this work needs to be lauded for what it manages to achieve: it provides an exhaustively detailed socio-cultural account of the enlightenment that is as enjoyable as it is informative. The main slant of this work, namely that the 18th century enlightenment was a reprisal/continuation/adoration of classical (hence Pagan) culture is coherent and functions as a solid structure to this work. Highly recommended.

A magnificent, thorough, and long book (419 pages), impeccably documented, the first volume of two. A "must read" for anyone interested in the Enlightenment. The "cheerleaders" of the Enlightenment, from all over Europe, called themselves the philosophes. For a preview, read the 25 page beginning, "Overture."

BOOK ONE: THE APPEAL TO ANTIQUITY

CHAPTER ONE: The Useful and Beloved Past

1. Hebrews and Hellenes: As the philosophes of the Enlightenment saw it, the world was divided into two irreconcilable patterns of life: superstition versus the affirmation of life; mythmakers versus realists; priests versus philosophers. The historical writings of the Enlightenment were all part of their comprehensive effort to secure rational control over the world and freedom from the pervasive domination of myth. The most glaring and notorious defect of the Enlightenment was its unsympathetic, often brutal, estimate of Christianity.

2. A Congenial Sense and Spirit: Rome belonged to every educated man Classic antiquity was inescapable, therefore, some of the philosophes' seemingly pagan ideas were simply the property of thinking men in their time. The philosophes identified with their favorite ancient philosophers, especially Cicero, who had contempt for the fear of death, contempt for superstition, and admiration for sturdy pagan self-reliance. Modern historians no longer think of Christianity as a complete swamp, but the reliance of the Enlightenment on ancient classicism has withstood two centuries of criticism.

3. The Search for Paganism: From Identification to Identity: The philosophes had been born into a Christian world. They knew their Bible, their catechism, their articles of faith, their apologetics, retained many of their Christian friends, and even had clergy in their families. Gibbons was not without anxiety when he wrote his notorious chapters on the origin of Christianity in "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." The German philosophes were reluctant to completely abandon the religion of the past. Diderot, the most ebullient of the French philosophes was driven and harassed by doubts. In a letter to his mistress, he cursed the atheism he accepted as true that "reduced their love to a blind encounter of atoms." Even David Hume, whose good cheer was celebrated, had to brood and struggle his way into paganism.

CHAPTER TWO: The First Enlightenment

1. Greece: From Myth to Reason: The philosophes' historical thought was closely tied and deeply, if unconsciously, indebted to the Renaissance. Pious historians during the Renaissance and in the 17th century aided secularization by refining techniques of research, throwing doubt on extravagant tales of Hebrew prophets or Christian saints. The Old Testament, which had served countless generations as authoritative was in decline. The philosophes used it as neither authoritative nor historical, but as an incriminating document. Petrarch removed the label "Dark Ages" from classical pre-Christian times and fastened it instead on the Christian era.

2. The Roman Enlightenment: The Greeks were the teachers of the Romans, but the Romans were the Greeks made plain. The philosophes' two most reliable sources of literature were the Romans Lucretius and Cicero. No propagandist ever conducted a battle of science against religion more exuberantly than Lucretius. Religion was just superstition maintained by terror. Science was reason, offering a complete and coherent account of the universe. Cicero gave them even more - a philosophy of the public servant was that of humanism. Not far behind was the historian Tacitus, who was Gibbon's source of much of what is in "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." These and other Roman Stoics and Epicurians gave the philosophes much fuel for their political and religious criticisms.

CHAPTER THREE: The Climate of Criticism

1. Criticism as Philosophy: Hume proclaimed philosophy the supreme, indeed, the only, cure for superstition. Diderot - The philosopher should not be the inventor of systems but the apostle of truth. Adam Smith - Cultivation of philosophy is "the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition." For the Enlightenment, the Age of Philosophy was also, and mainly, the Age of Criticism - they were synonyms - and there were plenty of liberal Christians ready to allow the new philosophy elbow room, provided it stopped barely short of the holiest of matters.

2. The Hospitable Pantheon: Each philosophe took what suited him from the Romans (or from anywhere) and added their characteristic touches, leading to eclecticism - the school that denied being a school. The eclectic "makes a philosophy for himself, individual and personal, one that is his own." The favorite theft of the philosophes was from the Stoicism of Cicero, but since they addressed their propaganda to a largely Christian audience, they also quoted the founders of Christianity, including Jesus. Such adroit posturing barely concealed the philosophes' convictions that Christianity was the worst of fanaticisms.

3. The Primacy of Moral Realism: The philosophes' practicalities were worldly, designed to translate into reality Bacon's and Descarte's grandiose vision of man controlling nature for his profit and desire. In a culture in which men believed in God and yearned for salvation, the study of His nature were matters of intense blessed concern - but during the Enlightenment, they seemed more like verbal games. Nor could the philosophes separate the study of nature from the study of morality. They were confident that the public needed to be educated and it was their calling to educate them.

4. Candide: The Epicurean as Stoic: Voltaire wrote a reality tale - a dialogue on behalf of Newton's empiricism in a world that had discarded myth; and one that caricaturized and satirized Leibniz. Candide is essentially a declaration of war on Christianity.

BOOK TWO: THE TENSION WITH CHRISTIANITY

CHAPTER FOUR: The Retreat From Reason: Educated Romans had at least made a serious attempt to construct a civilization based on reason, not myth. Then came Christianity, which claimed to bring light, hope, and truth - but its central myth was incredible, its dogma a mixture of older superstitions, and its sacred book an incoherent collection of primitive tales. Once the church had discarded its apocalyptic expectations, it settled down to the business of organizing a Christian community - eventually a rigid hierarchy.

1. The Adulteration of Antiquity: In the callous hands of Christians, Greek and Roman literature survived, but barely, and at great cost. The church fathers could not deal generously with secular literature - they were at war for a higher cause. However, there was a minority that maintained an interest - and Christian policy ran somewhere between these two extremes. The great compromise, in the fourth and fifth centuries, was to adapt from paganism whatever could be adapted to religious purposes and to throw the rest away. They invented pious meanings for secular passages, converting and allegorizing meanings - but at least it kept the classics from extinction, though at the price of covering them with pious legends. Cicero was persistently misread into the thirteenth century.

2. The Betrayal of Criticism: Medieval philosophers believed the advent of Jesus had subordinated the need for higher degrees of insight. Abelard devoted much of his ethical and theological speculation to the disappointing thought that his favorite pagan philosophers had been born too early for Christ, thus missing out on salvation. The philosophes saw this as despising and abusing the resources of the mind.

3. The Rehabilitation of Myth: In the Christian millennium, myth was preserved, transcended, and raised to a higher level. The philosophes liked to deride medieval categories as infantile or vicious, but the myths merely followed inevitably from the medieval mind bent on finding religious significance everywhere. Science was done, but like philosophy, it was guided by man's search for holiness and salvation. The enormous distance separating the philosophes from the medieval world view is proof that the Enlightenment was the terminal point of a long process of alienation that had begun centuries before, in the Renaissance.

CHAPTER FIVE: The Era of Pagan Christianity - For all their enormous but gradual contributions to secular thought, Europeans were still overwhelmingly religious - religious fervor attenuating slowly and uncertainly.

1. The Purification of the Sources: Humanists of the Renaissance began to correct the corrupt interpretations of the Greek and Roman philosophers. Many new manuscripts, stored in monastery libraries and guarded by monks, were uncovered, although covered with dust, torn, and mutilated. Unknown copies of Cicero, a single copy of Lucretius's "De Rerum Natura," a single copy of Catullus, and whatever we have of Tacitus were uncovered by persistent Humanist effort bordering at times on thievery. Gradually, classis after classic was reborn, and Humanist scholars purified them of the corrupt accretions of centuries. The veil of pious interpretation was pierced.

2. Ancients and Moderns - The Ancients: The protestant heresy persisted and thus stripped Christian Europe of one of its most tenacious myths, the myth of a Catholic commonwealth centered at Rome. Exploration discovered strange cultures which raised disturbing questions about the souls of heathens and the value of Christian civilization. The Copernican revolution in cosmology began to reverberate among educated men. The printing press and translations, the book trade, the growth of science, and the explosion of interest in accurate interpretations of ancient Greeks and Romans - all these things questioned the authority of the papacy. As Voltaire put it, "a corner of the veil was lifted. The nations, aroused, wanted to judge what they had worshipped."

3. Ancients and Moderns - The Moderns: By the force of its logic, science began to cut its ties with philosophy and to assume a posture at first equal, and then hostile, to theology - less by literary than by scientific means. Even so, the Church first took the findings of Gallileo, Boyle, and Newton as evidence of faith rather than as a threat. Locke called for liberation from the shackles of antique and medieval rules of thought and his impact was huge, the last in a long line of pagan Christians. The philosophes, arrogant as they were, still displayed great reverence for this Age of Genius.

CHAPTER SIX: In Dubious Battle

1. The Christian Component: Locke and his disciple, Toland, both wrote books in 1695 and 1696. Locke tried to prove that Christianity was acceptable to reasonable men; Toland, that what was mysterious and miraculous about Christianity must be discarded - and within those two years the essence of revealed, dogmatic religion evaporated. The philosophes took advantage, striving to maintain a separation between reason and religion while well-meaning Christians continued to try to unite them. This was the beginning of deism, which maintained a healthy respect for Jesus as a teacher, but held that his teachings were distinct from what resulted as the Christian religion.

2. The Treason of the Clerks: Clerical establishments didn't collapse, but every part of life became more secular - there was a subtle shift where religious institutions and religious explanations for events were slowly being displaced from the center of life to its periphery. The evidence for a growing critical rationalism among educated Christians is overwhelming, with a decline in religious fervor. They were thus open to the antireligious propaganda of the philosophes, as Sunday sermons simultaneously grew less severe and more accommodating to an easier life. As the Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists fought amongst themselves, the philosophes triumphed over them all.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Beyond the Holy Circle - the philosophes appropriated Christian labors for their own purposes.

1. The Abuse of Learning: This was a time of the beginnings of Biblical critical scholarship. Diderot, Voltaire, and Gibbon each took particular advantage of a different scholarly friend, and applied that scholarship where it could be devastating to Christianity. The philosophes were missionaries - for the sake of their calling they were ready to exploit the best their enemy had to offer, without mercy or gratitude.

2. The Mission of Lucretius: Lucretius was to Epicureus what the philosophes were to the Enlightenment - purveyors of savage, brutal, and relentless diatribes against superstition and religion. Religion retreated to the extent that philosophy and science advanced.

3. David Hume: The Complete Modern Pagan - Whatever misgivings the philosophes had about their passion, Hume had the least. He thought all houses of faith were houses of infection and that a rational man must escape, after exposing, the squabbles of theologians. His philosophy embodies the dialectic of the Enlightenment at its most ruthless. Without melodrama, Hume lived cheerfully and without complaining, with no supernatural justifications, demanding no complete explanations, no promise of permanent stability, with guides of merely probable validity. He was a cheerful Stoic.

Peter Gay is an important intellectual historian and in his lengthy work "The Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Paganism" he summarizes the ideas of the great philosophers and how they changed the world. This book is a work of great erudition, of synthesis and he begins with the relationship between the philosophers of the 18th century and those of the classical period. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, active in the late seventeenth through the middle of the eighteenth century, had an affection for the Greek and Roman era, but felt the recent discoveries in science, the search for empirical fact, had allowed their own era to supercede the work of the great classical philosophers.
While the classicists inspired the philosophers of the Enlightenment, theis new breed of thinkers were generally contemptuous of religion and they sought to confront, to challenge and to overturn the philosophical concepts of the Hebrew and Christian thinkers who they viewed as their rhetorical adversaries in the battle beaten reason and faith.
Gay is an engaging writer with a gift for synthesizing a raft of material. Here he neatly summarizes the philosophical historians work: "...the philosophes wrote history with rage and with partisanship, and their very passion allowed them to penetrate into regions hitherto inaccessible to historical explorers. Yet it also made them condescending and oddly parochial: their sense of the past merged all too readily with their sense of the present." Although the philosophes view of history was critical, pessimistic, they saw the world "divided between ascetic superstitious enemies of the flesh, and men who affirmed life, the body, knowledge, and generosity; between mythmakers and realists, priests and philosophers."
Gay's book neatly depicts an age, the conflicts between enlightenment thinkers and the past, their areas of agreement and disagreement and, their battles with the weakened Christianity of the day. He points out how te philosophers used the scholarship and erudition of the Catholic orders against them. "The Enlightenment" is not a history of philosophy, summarizing the work of each major philosopher, but a history of the way that the ideas and the debate developed in the period. In this volume, he writes of Voltaire, Hume, Smith, Bentham, Gibbon, Diderot, Montsequieu, Lessing, Locke, Holbach, Rousseau and finally, Jefferson and Franklin, intertwining them in a consistent narrative. He concludes the book with a helpful bibliographical essay which will help point those of us who want to do further reading in the right direction. Elegantly written, in clear, crisp prose, "The Enlightenment" is a detailed and nuanced account of the men and ideas that gave us the gift - and curse - of modernity.

The Enlightenment has met many critics nowadays, which even make people overlook the positive worth of the enlightenment to modren society. This great book can help readers make a comprehensive and positive view to the enlightenment. I recommend it !

The book is engaging and unique. Tells about a personal story and also explains the historical background of this period which is invaluable part to understanding the chain of events, events which are often overlooked.

This book expertly combines historical revelations and insights with an against-all-odds survival story!

This is a extremely engaging and informative book about a long overlooked aspect of the Holocaust. And it's a real page-turner. Whiteman's background as a Holocaust survivor and psychologist shines through her astute observations. Whiteman also gives wonderful presentations on Holocaust-related issues.

Through the eyes of a boy battling history, Escape Via Siberia tells the long overlooked story of Eastern Europe during WW II. This willful and wile boy somehow manages to always give the slip to the Nazis and Stalin's forces, which both hunt him throughout Eastern Europe. This true story packs so much suspense and history that it should be made into a movie! It is a must-read for historians and lay audiences alike.

I bought this book after talking to Dorit Whiteman at her book signing at the Holocaust Museum and seeing her engrossing presentation at a library. She is an utterly charming and thoroughly knowledgeable individual! Her book expertly weaves together history with the true story of a how a resourceful, clever boy repeatedly gave the slip to German and Russian forces. I stayed up all night reading this book even though I already knew the end!

Wow. Possibly the most amazing book I've read. Elkins is furious and angry and this oozes from his writing. How then does it not come across as an emotional diatribe??? This was simply great writing and story telling. The events are interesting. The people are interesting. That the book is fact shocked and depressed me. How much have I already heard about the holocaust? I've seen Schindler's List. I've seen footage of the bodies on the History Channel. I'm reasonably well informed. But this book......this book not only seemed to make the known more real and vivid, it told an incredible and dramatic story I never heard before. I loaned my only copy to a friend and he is just as blown away. I think I'll buy another.

Though horrible and shocking, this book shows how the human spirit cannot be surpressed. In spite of an absolute impossibility of success, a small handfull of men kept the spirit of survival and revenge alive during the darkest period in history. While revenge may seem inappropriate in our concept of ideal society, at that time, no other emotion is conceivable! This book very clearly shows how revenge was a natural outgrowth of the horrors of the holocost.

Elkins keeps his work to the point. He does not hide the facts, but tells them as they really were. For a real close look at the holocaust, this book is a perfect read

A comprehensive chronology of Jewish resistence to the Nazis and their collaborators from the late 30's through the war. It also details complicity of the Central and Eastern Europeans with the Nazis, the apathy of the "Allies" during the war, and the shameful behavior of the world after the war with respect to refugees, Nazi criminals and Israel. This book will make you proud if your Jewish and angry if your human (Jewish or otherwise).

A very good book that makes you feel the pain that the Jews have felt. To try a turn this around and say look how horrible the Jews are is totally insane. The Jews should be commended on being able to keep a cool head after so long. Any other ethnic group of people who would have experienced this would have carried out equal horrible attrocities upon their oppressors. To whine and say what was mentioned in the book was cowardly is pothetic.

I have used this book as a reference work as part of the research into a presentation I was giving on "The Role of the Glider in WW II". The book is well written and covers the descripotion of the Fort itself and its defences, as well as the context of the disposition of the Belgian defenders and the German airborne tactical assault, and besides being well written, provides a large amount of historical material. In addition to these values, it is an excellent read for anyone interested in the details of WW II, that is better than fiction.

This book is interesting to students of military history and does not fulfil the novel reader. It does certainly show how the once wonderful defensive building fell victim to the fresh thoughts of its attackers.

The author does a fine job covering the Eben Emael and its design and the German operation that took it. Some other books in this series, like American World War II defenses, the Maginot Line, and the Western Front in World War I do not do just as good a job because their topics cover a greater subject. The book is well illustrated and the commentary is excellent.

This book was a pleasant surprise. The German assault on Eben Emael tends to be covered very briefly in general histories of the Second World War, because it was over in a flash, and was quickly followed by even more dramatic events. On the other hand, it is not exactly forgotten, because it was very novel. Even though the wrong side won, it was still an impressive feat of cleverness. The Germans realised that the fort would be a difficult target for their tanks and infantry, so they landed gliders on the roof. It shouldn't have worked, because the fort had plenty of weapons that could beat off gliders and close-range attacks, but it did work, because it was carried out with skill and daring.

This book does a super job of describing the battle, in such a way that it would be entertaining even if you didn't care about the topic. I have flicked through Osprey books that have made major battles seem dull, and it's ironic that this book makes such a small action seem intensely epic. I imagine the German paratroopers must have felt they were participating in the most incredible Boy's Own adventure, and afterwards I bet they walked tall, and got free drinks in pubs, or bierkellers, or any place in Germany in 1939 that sold drinks.

The book starts off by covering the strategic reasons for the fort, which had been under construction since the 19th Century. The fort was was supposed to be a kind of self-sufficient underground town, a contemporary nuclear submarine, except that it was a static nuclear submarine that could not attack. The book covers the political situation leading up to the Second World War, and the German preparations for the attack. It explains why the Germans didn't simply go past the fort. The glider assault plan was complex, and might not have worked if Eben Emael had been running at peak efficiency, staffed with crack troops led by top officers, but the book makes clear that the fort was going through a bad patch. The officers in charge come across particularly poorly. The book is so finely-detailed that the individual Belgian casualties are named, and I hope the men who led them so poorly feel humble.

The assault took only a few minutes, and the book does a lot of cross-cutting, but it still makes sense. In theory the fort could have peppered the German gliders with anti-aircraft machineguns, and blasted the German paratroopers with canister rounds shot from its howitzers, but it was embroiled in administrative chaos. The Germans had their fair share of technical problems - a couple of the gliders fell short, several of the anti-bunker explosives had no effect, the troops attacked dummy bunkers - but overall the Germans made very few mistakes, and successfully improvised solutions to the problems they faced. The Belgians made lots of mistakes, big and small mistakes, institutional mistakes, and they did not deal with them, and they lost.

Overall this is a great read. The assault feels like an action film, a very short action film, one in which the Germans win. The level of detail is sufficient for picky people, and it does a good job of explaining that the victory wasn't a simple matter of flying some planes onto the fort and then jumping out, throwing grenades. By the end you'll find yourself cheering on the brave Germans, and then having to wash yourself to get rid of the nasty guity feeling.

A wrestling coach of old was said to tell his wrestlers that there was no escape-proof lock, hold, or other technique in his sport. The same is true of military operations. Eban Emael was said to be impregnable--I forgot; was it politicians or newspapermen who made that claim? Germany exploited new techniques of war to conquer this Belgian fortress, and the Belgian Army appears to have provided less than adequate means to shore up this keystone of the Belgian defenses.

Most modern armchair generals claim that fortifications are holes in the ground that armies pour men and material into for no gain. Permanent fortifications are universally condemned, and even field fortifications are said to sap the offensive strength and morale of the defending armies. It was for this reason that the World War One French Army instituted the spirit of the assault--and suffered massive losses against German barb wire and German Spandau machine guns in 1914 and 1915. Simon Dustan establishes the rational for putting this hole in the ground in the first part of his book. Attempting to understand World War Two in isolation, without considering the bloodbath of 20 years prior, is to ignore reality. The first pages of Fort Eban Emael lay this out quite well, placing the concrete-lined hole-in-the-ground in context of the political and economic climate in Belgium. Note that Dunstan doesn't explore the alternatives to Fort Eben Emael--this is a book about what was, not what could have been.

Hugh Johnson's illustrations clarify how the fort was laid out. Battle is "organized chaos," with the emphasis on "chaos;" the neat diagram of the glider assault on page 50 clarifies how the Germans took the fort, and the text hints at the confusion among the Belgian defenders. Germany developed several new weapons that were first used in this attack: shaped charge demolitions, gliders capable of carrying the heavy equipment needed for reducing gun positions, glider infantry teams task-organized for this mission, and most importantly, the operation was integrated into the campaign. Simply completing a brilliant mission is not enough when that single mission does nothing else. On pages 42 and 43, Johnson's artwork shows how the Luftwaffe circumvented the Belgian wartime blackout (an air raid precaution) to land the glider troops under cover of darkness, and Dunstan's text explains the coordination so that maximum surprise was achieved by the glider assault and the necessary follow-up actions by the ground forces.

Just because the Germans found a countermeasure didn't invalidate the defensive capabilities of Eben Emael. Could the same number of half-trained troops, WITHOUT Eben Emael's powerful fixed artillery batteries, have withstood a German combined arms assault? Resources include men and material--the aircraft and tanks and field artillery used by the allies in 1940 were inferior to the German equipment, and the leadership and common soldier was less experienced and skilled than the German counterparts. I think Belgium was doomed from the moment that Hitler decided to use that small nation as a highway because Belgium couldn't muster resources enough to fight the entire German war machine, and the nation is small! Modern manuever warfare must have manuever room. Belgium tried to remain neutral--couldn't. It takes only one side to start a war. The only chance that Belgium had to remain uninvaded would have been to invade Germany during September of 1939, while most of the German war machine was mobilized for the Polish Campaign--a political impossibility. Besides, Belgium didn't have the mobile, "offensive army" this operation would have required--even if France and Britain would have had the political will and military might to seize the western parts of Germany.

I enjoyed this book because of the details of the fort's layout and construction. The text covered the German countermeasures to the fort's defensive strengths. Eben Emael's communications failed on May 10, 1940, and so the German Luftwaffe glider troops seemed to have had a cakewalk--but Dunstan's text shows that wasn't the case. The issue was in doubt until motorized pioneers arrived to help "mop up" the defenses. It wasn't an easy victory for the Germans.

I love WWII History items. This is a great book to read about the 82nd Airborne and the accomplishements of the great men who made up the 505th PIR. At times the read can be a little slow, but still a great buy.

By the time the troops of the 101st Airborne of "Band of Brothers" fame jumped into Normandy on D-Day, the men of the 82nd Airborne Division had already made two combat jumps -- leading the invasion of Sicily and saving the beachhead at Salerno, Italy. Arguably the finest and fiercest regiment of the 82nd was the 505th and Phil Nordyke has compiled an excellent profile of this group of remarkable warriors whose exploits on the field of battle are second to none but who have not received nearly the attention they deserve. Nordyke's work goes a long way toward correcting that. The author does a wonderful job of setting the stage in each chapter as he tracks the regiment from its formation and training in the states, through its deployment to North Africa, and then on to the battlegrounds in Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Holland, the Bulge, on into Germany, and then home. But after getting you onto the scene, he deftly hands the story of each action over to the veterans who tell the real story, in their own words, of what they experienced and what they accomplished. As a relative of one of the heroes of the 505, I too salute Phil Nordyke for this excellent book and recommend it highly to any serious student of the history of WWII. A word of warning, however: come prepared to spend time with this book. The stories told by the hundreds of veterans mentioned in this book are far too rich and compelling to be scanned. They deserve to be savored, and honored.

Great book. Very in-depth and a full factual account of the greatest parachute regiment in the history of the US military. Mr. Nordyke took the time to go thru millions of pages of archival documents and photos from both the 82nd AB Museum at Fort Bragg and the Cornelious Ryan Archives at Ohio University and it shows. It tells the story of the only regiment in the US Army to have 4 combat jumps in WWII in a gripping and easy to read way. The most fascinating thing about this book is that all the stories are true, no Hollywood exaggeration needed to tell the tales of these great and heroic men.
A must have, not only for history buffs, but the regular reader alike.

My eyes about popped out when I first saw this book. The 82nd Airborne had always been my favorite airborne unit of WWII, and the 505th Regiment the premier regiment for personal reasons. What luck finding a book that the 505th didn't have to share with other regiments! This is a whopper of a book. No skinny little rip off. You'll get our money's worth for sure,i.e., text, maps, photographs, all in ample amounts. For some, it may be more information than you want, for others, it will have everything and then some you want to know. In any event, that's why they invented skipping around, isn't it? I've enjoyed it and frequently find myself referring back to it. It is a worthy addition to your library.

......And this is it. Fills a much needed research hole in the scholarship and helps focus attention on the deeds and accomplishments of a famed WWII outfit. Exhaustedly researched, liberal in utilizing the extensive records of veteran first person accounts, well written, and coherent, this book really helps you understand the movements and the men behind some of the greatest battles in WWII history, perhaps in all history!

Wonderful gripping book! I couldn't put it down! So much history and so much strength in the Masin brothers and their group! I am proud to be a Masin (no close relation known). great job on the book!
DeAnn Masin

Despite her personal connection to the protagonists of the history, the author provides what seems to be a fairly unbiased accounting of events. Her closing notes regarding the impact in the politics and society of today's Czech Republic I found especially interesting. The book should be of interest to anyone looking at the particular events themselves or even more generally in the impact of the communist period on today's Republic.

Gauntlet brings to life a moment in history that seems to be forgotten, or never known, among today's youth. So few high school students know that Germany at one time was divided into East and West, that Czeckoslovakia was a unified country, and that the Cold War was an all too intrusive part of many people's lives. This book rectifies that. It is also a thriller impossible to put down.

Gauntlet is the true story of five dedicated anti-Communist young men whose epic journey and struggle in the 1950's could have altered the course of the Cold War in Europe. Though grounded heavily in historical testimony and evidence, Gauntlet reads like a novel, as it follows the group's fugitive attempt to deliver a message from a Czechoslovak general to U.S. authorities. An inspirational tale of courage, daring, and absolute commitment to ideals of freedom.

I could hardly put this book down. A loyal Czech father with a secret message throws down the gauntlet to his sons and they react with breathtaking action. This is a true story of incredibly daring young men who wre chased by the Communist Russian and East German Armies across East Germany. This book is based on five years of research by the daughter of one of the living survivors.

A "must have" for anyone interested in the German sniper development, the information present in the book is accurate and complemented by extraordinary photos. Equipments and sniping techniques from that era are described with great level of details, different kinds of ammo, scopes, rifles, and even real accounts based on fights in the eastern front can be found on it. Also, it's a great source for information about the evolution of the Mauser military rifles, truly a masterpiece.

The book had a great deal of information about the different models, production and specifics. A great reference or just general knowledge.

Outstanding book with very good detail about the history of German snipers in WWI and WWII. Covers the rifles, scopes and equipment like never before. A must for collectors or anyone with an interest in snipers.

If anyone in this world knows about Sniping, whether it be a US or german sniper, this writer does. He is highly intelligent and uses the best terminology of any one in his field. I highly recommend this book as well as his others to anyone who is interested in it!!

After owning this book for some time and only glancing through it, I took it upon myself to go through it in detail. Like all of the other books by Mr. Senich, the attention to detail and focus on the technical side of the German weapon systems (and supporting equipment) is second to none. The photography is splendid, the focus on equipment (including serial numbers) is accurate and sharp, and the archival work that must have gone into putting this together (both text and photos) is truly fantastic.

My only critique would be that in a book of this magnitude, a more precise listing of all references and sources be provided so that future historians can use it as a reference or "jump-off" point in their study of german snipers.

That being said, I have looked and found no better book on German sniping. One can only hope that Mr. Senich keeps on publishing.

Last summer my family and I traveled in Germany, Austria, and several other European countries, and I wish that we had had a guide such as the German Survival Guide with us then. I would find the material inside the front and back covers very useful. It is quick to locate, and the information given includes the terms and phrases that people need most often. For additional words, the German-English and English-German dictionaries are available at the end of the book. The specific chapter we would have used the most would be Ch. 3 on Restaurants and Food since we frequently ate at restaurants without English on the menu. The other parts that are especially helpful are the cultural notes that are interspersed throughout the book. If we travel in Germany again, we definitely will take this book with us!

I have never been to germany although one day I really hope to go. My husband is german and his mother does not speak a lick of English. This desperate daughter-in-law was saved many embarrassing and fustrating moments by this book. It is a handy size to keep in the car or in a good size purse. I had to live with my MIL for a couple months and weeks at a time and this book has helped me communicate with her on many levels about many necessary topics, especially when my husband wasnt always around to translate or got tired of it.
Granted it doesnt have every single thing about germans in it but it sure has made my life easier.

I am very impressed by the information in the German Survival Guide. I took German in college several years ago and had forgotten most of what I had learned, so the guide is a great refresher. The pronunciation guide is excellent and very easy to read. Even if I had not had German, I would be able to pronounce the words in an appropriate manner in order ask for the things I would need.

In addition to the pronuncation guide, the cultural notes are great. I think that when traveling this is a very important aspect, as I certainly do not want to do something or say something to upset the native speakers.

I have traveled to many different countries and if I would have had a guide such as this, I would have been better prepared and less apprehensive about the language and the customs of the country.

The ultimate compliment you can pay a travel guide? "Works as advertised". I'd argue the same goes for this survival guide of Germany and to a less extent, Austria.

I acquired a handful, really just a small amount of German as a result of this book, but I used it all for twelve days, and it made a world of difference. The cultural notes, however, were of even greater value: *when* to use phrases is integral to knowing *how*.

My only two concerns, a half-star I withhold for each: the two-cassette method of delivery and a too-small glossary/ vocabulary/ dictionary. Pack a CD with the book and it's a five-star value; pack another forty pages of German-English word translations and it's official.

However, if you're serious about German, get the FSI course; if you need a German-English dictionary, pick up a Collins Pocket Gem. Tschüs!

Ideal for anyone contemplating a precarious excursion to Germany.

This book may be a little out dated here and there (thats why only 4 star) but it still serves the purpose nonetheless. I studied abroad in Germany for 6 months and this gave me an amazing insight into the culture of Germany. Put it on as your #1 on your reading list while in Germany or before going. It will help you cope very well. My other study abroad friends also found it very insightful.

It is also a nice quick well thought out book.

The author achieved his purpose of providing an objective and unbiased account of the cultural differences between Germans and Americans. This is a definite must read, and a real page-turner. The only critique point I have concerns a couple of paragraphs on the European Union. The majority of the German people did not want the EU, period. They were not allowed to vote on it like France, for example. Germans still would much prefer their German Mark over the Euro. In fact, there are still vast sums of German Marks still in circulation. Many Germans are keeping them as they are not convinced the EU will hold together.

As an American living in Germany, I've become accustomed to asking "why?", this book has given me many of the answers. Now I understand the German social market economy, German communication styles, the importance of formality and work/non-work divisions, the importance that Germans give to "doing something right the first time", etc.

I couldn't stop reading this book. It is done in an academic style much like a college text but I was still captivated over the detailed explanations of the cultural and behavioral differences. Keep an open mind when reading how others might perceive American culture. Enjoyable and informative!

The book overall is quite good. Also, as a German, I can speak to its incredible accuracy in terms of our custums/traditions and how they differ from those in America. I enjoyed chapter 4 the most and as I was reading it only for enjoyment purposes did not really benefit from the discussion of the differing business practices. However, if you are an American unfamiliar with us and will be doing business in Germany or with Germans it is a definite must read. It is well worth the price of the book.