Frederick Taylor est un auteur britannique spécialisé dans l'histoire moderne de l'Allemagne. Ses œuvres plongent dans les événements complexes et les courants sociaux de l'Allemagne, examinant en particulier la montée de l'extrême droite au début du XXe siècle. Le style de prose de Taylor est méticuleux et analytique, permettant aux lecteurs de saisir la profondeur des événements historiques. Sa capacité à relier la précision historique à une narration captivante en fait une voix importante dans la littérature historique.
L'apparition d'une clôture de barbelés dressée en hâte en plein coeur de Berlin durant la nuit du 12 au 13 août 1961 fut un moment aussi tragique qu'inattendu. En quelques jours, elle se transforma en une structure imposante, incarnant la folie brutale de la guerre froide. Remontant au passé de l'Allemagne depuis le XIXe siècle, Frederick Taylor livre le récit saisissant du conflit politique de l'après-guerre qui engendra le drame d'un pays divisé et symbolisa la coupure du monde en deux blocs. La peur d'une apocalypse nucléaire dura jusqu'au jour où ceux que le Mur avait emprisonnés y ouvrirent les premières brèches, en cette incroyable nuit du 9 novembre 1989...
The narrative chronicles Fred Taylor's remarkable six-decade journey in the entertainment industry, where he played a pivotal role in developing three prestigious clubs. It highlights his talent for discovering, promoting, and managing numerous renowned stars, offering an insider's perspective on the evolution of showbiz. The story captures the essence of dedication and passion within the vibrant world of entertainment.
At 9.51 pm on the 13th of February 1945 an airstrike on Dresden started that left at least 25,000 people dead and 13 square miles of the centre destroyed. In this study of that night Taylor has researched in German, American and British archives and talked to those involved on all sides.
At 9.15 p.m. on Tuesday, 13 February 1945, Dresden's air-raid sirens sounded as they had done many times in the previous five years, until then almost always in false alarm. By the next morning, 796 RAF Lancasters and 311 USAAF Liberators had dropped more than 4500 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices. More than 25,000 inhabitants (possibly many more) perished in the terrifying firestorm, and thirteen square miles of the city's historic centre, including quantities of treasure and works of art, lay in ruins. It was Ash Wednesday, 1945. Almost a lifetime later, the name of the city continues to echo uneasily in our collective memory, and controversy about Dresden's destruction persists. In this fascinating and meticulous new study, Frederick Taylor has intensively researched the German, British and American archives, and talked to the allied air crew and to the city's survivors - whether Jews working as slave labourers in the munitions and radar factories, refugees, members of the German armed services, or civilians - to reveal the most complete portrait of the city and its fate ever attempted.
Not since the fall of the Roman Empire has Europe witnessed a collapse like that of Germany in 1945. Once a beacon of industriousness and creativity, home to many of civilization's greatest minds, Germany entered the twentieth century as a united and prosperous nation. However, the aftermath of World War I and the devastation of the 1930s led to the rise of National Socialism. Within a generation, Germany's cities lay in ruins, its industries shattered, and its cultural heritage seemingly lost. The perception of Germans shifted to that of evil monsters. In the wake of six years of warfare, the victors faced the unprecedented challenge of rebuilding a nation. Frederick Taylor's narrative explores Germany's "year zero" and the subsequent years. He details the final Allied campaign, the eradication of Nazi resistance, the mass displacement of populations, and the attitudes of the conquerors. Amidst hunger and devastation, initial efforts to eradicate Nazism evolved into a more pragmatic approach. This combination of conservatism and enterprise ultimately facilitated the economic miracle of the 1950s. It was only when the children of the Nazi era began to confront their parents' past that Germany began to awaken from its 'sleep cure.'
The appearance of a hastily-constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War- the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse. This threat would vanish only when the very people the Wall had been built to imprison, breached it on the historic night of 9 November 1989. Frederick Taylor's The Berlin Wall reveals the strange and chilling story of how the initial barrier system was conceived, then systematically extended, adapted and strengthened over almost thirty years. Patrolled by vicious dogs and by guards on shoot-to-kill orders, the Wall, with its more than 300 towers, became a wired and lethally booby-trapped monument to a world torn apart by fiercely antagonistic ideologies. The Wall had tragic consequences in personal and political terms, affecting the lives of Germans and non-Germans alike in a myriad of cruel, inhuman and occasionally absurd ways. The Berlin Wall is the definitive account of a divided city and its people.
At a few minutes past seven on the evening of Thursday, November 14 1940, the historic industrial city of Coventry was subjected to the longest, most devastating air raid England had yet experienced. Only after eleven hours of continual bombardment by the German Luftwaffe could its people emerge from their half-sunk Anderson shelters and their cellars, from under their stairs or kitchen tables, to venture up into their wounded city. That long night of destruction marked a critical moment in the Second World War. It heralded a new kind of air warfare, one which abandoned the pursuit of immediate military goals and instead focused on obliterating all aspects of city life. It also provided the push America needed to join Britain in the war. But while the Coventry raid was furiously condemned publicly, such effective enemy tactics provided Britain's politicians and military establishment with a 'blueprint for obliteration', to be adapted and turned against Germany. A merciless four-year war of attrition had begun. In this important work of history, Frederick Taylor draws upon numerous sources, including eye witness interviews from the archives of the BBC which are published here for the first time, to reveal the true repercussions of the bombing of Coventry in 1940. He teases out the truth behind the persistent rumors and conspiracy theories that Winston Churchill knew the raid was coming, assesses this significant turning point in modern warfare, looks at how it affected England's status in the war, and considers finally whether this attack really could provide justification for the horror of Dresden, 1945
`In 1939: A People's History, Frederick Taylor has done us a great service in
making the personal stories of what it was actually like to live through the
most crucial year of the twentieth century vivid, compelling and salutary.' -
Roland Philipps, author of A Spy Named Orphan: The Enigma of Donald Maclean In
the autumn of 1938, Europe believed in the promise of peace. Still reeling
from the ravages of the Great War, its people were desperate to rebuild their
lives in a newly safe and stable era. But only a year later, the fateful
decisions of just a few men had again led Europe to war, a war that would have
a profound and lasting impact on millions of innocent people. From the
bestselling historian Frederick Taylor, 1939: A People's History draws on
original British and German sources, including recorded interviews, as well as
contemporary diaries, memoirs and newspapers. Its narrative focuses on the
day-to-day experiences of the men and women in both countries trapped in this
disastrous chain of events and not, as is so often the case, the elite. Their
voices, concerns and experiences lend a uniquely intimate flavour to this
often surprising account, revealing a marked disconnect between government and
people; few ordinary citizens in either Britain or Germany wanted war.
Precisely for that reason, 1939: A People's History is also an interrogation
of our capacity to go to war again. In today's Europe, an onset of
uncertainty, a looming fear of radical populism and a revelatory schism are
dangerously reminiscent of the perils of the autumn of 1938. It is both a
vivid and richly peopled narrative of Europe's slide into the horrors of war,
a war that nobody wanted, and, in many ways, a warning; an opportunity for us
to learn from our history and a reminder that we must never take peace for
granted. show less
