Comments: Nazis, damned Nazis, and statistics
Comment by r a:

He has a few good lines; including (p395)

". . . the world's most sophisticated barometers of public opinion, the Gallup polling organization in the United States and the Gestapo in Germany. . . "

zingers aside, though, this is a terrific book.

Posted at 2007-08-27 20:33:59 [PermaLink]
Comment by Mark Collins:

r a: Unfortunately for the alliteration it was the SD not the Gestapo that prepared the internal morale reports.
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The book is excellent up until around the second part of the war when Tooze goes far beyond his economic background and ends up basically just slanging Speer (who certainly deserves it on moral grounds) and not I think really convincingly. Moreover he is rather weak on armaments matters--e.g. he almost totally ignores the very important role of the excellent FW 190 fighter (began combat in 1941 and to the great shock of the British was considerably superior to the Spitfire) while harping on the increasing inadequacies of the Bf 109 (which, just like the Spit, was developed throughout the war).
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Mark
Ottawa

Posted at 2007-08-28 17:39:37 [PermaLink]
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