Ranked #1
David Stahel, “Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East” (Cambridge UP, 2009)
David Stahel, “Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East” (Cambridge UP, 2009)
This week’s podcast is an interview with David Stahel. I will be talking to him about his 2009 work, Operation Barbaross... Read more
13 Feb 2012
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1hr 3mins
Ranked #2
Nicholas Stargardt, “The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945” (Basic Books, 2015)
Nicholas Stargardt, “The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945” (Basic Books, 2015)
In all of the thousands upon thousands of books written about Nazi Germany, it’s easy to lose track of some basic questi... Read more
18 Nov 2015
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1hr 10mins
Similar Podcasts
Ranked #3
Mark Mazower, “Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe” (Penguin, 2008)
Mark Mazower, “Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe” (Penguin, 2008)
It’s curious how historical images become stereotyped over time. One hears the word “Nazi,” and immediately the Holocaus... Read more
2 Oct 2008
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46mins
Ranked #4
Robert Citino, “Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942” (UP of Kansas, 2007)
Robert Citino, “Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942” (UP of Kansas, 2007)
Robert Citino is one of a handful of scholars working in German military history whose books I would describe as reliabl... Read more
22 Apr 2011
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1hr 4mins
Ranked #5
Norman Ohler, “Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
Norman Ohler, “Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)
Norman Ohler’s Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017) explores the drug culture of Nazi Ger... Read more
8 Mar 2017
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52mins
Ranked #6
Robert Gerwarth, “Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich” (Yale UP, 2012)
Robert Gerwarth, “Hitler’s Hangman: The Life of Heydrich” (Yale UP, 2012)
Few history books sell better than biographies of Nazi leaders. They attract anyone even tangentially interested in Worl... Read more
24 Jul 2013
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1hr 4mins
Ranked #7
Mark Mazzetti, “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth” (Penguin, 2013)
Mark Mazzetti, “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth” (Penguin, 2013)
There are many movies about evil CIA agents assassinating supposed enemies of the US. Those who saw the latest Captain A... Read more
8 Aug 2014
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34mins
Ranked #8
Heather Cox Richardson, “Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre” (Basic Books, 2010)
Heather Cox Richardson, “Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre” (Basic Books, 2010)
Of all the events in American history, two are far and away the most troubling: slavery and the near-genocidal war again... Read more
3 Jun 2010
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1hr 12mins
Ranked #9
John Prados, “Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy” (NAL, 2016)
John Prados, “Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine Invasion and the Destruction of the Japanese Navy” (NAL, 2016)
Narratives of the Pacific War frequently examine the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf from the operational perspective, focusin... Read more
13 Oct 2016
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54mins
Ranked #10
Christopher DeRosa, “Political Indoctrination in the U.S. Army from World War II to the Vietnam War” (University of Nebraska Press, 2006)
Christopher DeRosa, “Political Indoctrination in the U.S. Army from World War II to the Vietnam War” (University of Nebraska Press, 2006)
One of the greatest challenges American military leaders have faced since the American Revolution has been to motivate c... Read more
20 Jun 2011
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1hr 8mins
Ranked #11
Giles MacDonogh, “After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation” (Basic Books, 2007)
Giles MacDonogh, “After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation” (Basic Books, 2007)
Many years ago I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Germany, more specifically in a tiny town on the Rhine near Ko... Read more
20 Jun 2009
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1hr 7mins
Ranked #12
Christian Goeschel, "Mussolini and Hitler: The Forging of the Fascist Alliance" (Yale UP, 2018)
Christian Goeschel, "Mussolini and Hitler: The Forging of the Fascist Alliance" (Yale UP, 2018)
In his new book, Mussolini and Hitler: The Forging of the Fascist Alliance (Yale University Press, 2018), Christian Goes... Read more
2 Apr 2019
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1hr 5mins
Ranked #13
Rodric Braithwaite, “Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89” (Oxford UP, 2011)
Rodric Braithwaite, “Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89” (Oxford UP, 2011)
I was still in high school the year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, 1979. I remember reading about it in Time maga... Read more
26 Aug 2011
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1hr 6mins
Ranked #14
Daniel Stahl, "Hunt for Nazis: South America's Dictatorships and the Prosecution of Nazi Crimes" (Amsterdam UP, 2018)
Daniel Stahl, "Hunt for Nazis: South America's Dictatorships and the Prosecution of Nazi Crimes" (Amsterdam UP, 2018)
How did the search for Nazi fugitives become a vehicle to oppose South American dictatorships? Daniel Stahl’s award-winn... Read more
26 Dec 2018
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54mins
Ranked #15
Ben Shepherd, “Terror in the Balkans: German Armies and Partisan Warfare” (Harvard UP, 2012)
Ben Shepherd, “Terror in the Balkans: German Armies and Partisan Warfare” (Harvard UP, 2012)
With Terror in the Balkans: German Armies and Partisan Warfare (Harvard University Press, 2012), Ben Shepherd, a Reader ... Read more
26 Sep 2012
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47mins
Ranked #16
Alex J. Kay, "The Making of an SS Killer: the Life of Colonel Alfred Filbert, 1905-1990" (Cambridge UP, 2016)
Alex J. Kay, "The Making of an SS Killer: the Life of Colonel Alfred Filbert, 1905-1990" (Cambridge UP, 2016)
Alex Kay’s The Making of an SS Killer: the Life of Colonel Alfred Filbert, 1905-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 2016) ... Read more
16 Sep 2019
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47mins
Ranked #17
Bernard Kelly, “Returning Home: Irish Ex-Servicemen and the Second World War” (Merrion, 2012)
Bernard Kelly, “Returning Home: Irish Ex-Servicemen and the Second World War” (Merrion, 2012)
The Republic of Ireland (aka The Irish Free State, Eire) declared neutrality during the Second World War. That wasn’t pa... Read more
21 Feb 2013
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57mins
Ranked #18
Joe Maiolo, “Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941” (Basic Books, 2010)
Joe Maiolo, “Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941” (Basic Books, 2010)
In Cry Havoc: How the Arms Race Drove the World to War, 1931-1941 (Basic Books, 2010), Joe Maiolo proposes (I want to wr... Read more
12 Nov 2010
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1hr 1min
Ranked #19
Craig Symonds, “World War II at Sea: A Global History” (Oxford UP, 2018)
Craig Symonds, “World War II at Sea: A Global History” (Oxford UP, 2018)
Though there are numerous books about the naval history of the Second World War, very few of them attempt to cover the s... Read more
6 Jul 2018
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55mins
Ranked #20
John Steinberg, “All the Tsar’s Men: Russia’s General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2010)
John Steinberg, “All the Tsar’s Men: Russia’s General Staff and the Fate of the Empire, 1898-1914” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2010)
The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was the most important political event of the twentieth century (no Revolution; no Nazi... Read more
9 Jul 2010
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1hr 11mins