Julia Boyd Livres

Cette histoire fascinante et choquante de la montée des nazis rassemble une multitude de voix d'expatriés, dont Charles Lindbergh et Samuel Beckett, dans un récit puissant qui retrace ce phénomène extraordinaire. Sans le bénéfice du recul, comment interpréter ce qui se trouve juste devant soi ? Les événements qui se sont déroulés en Allemagne entre 1919 et 1945 étaient dramatiques et terribles, mais il y avait aussi des moments de confusion, de doute, voire d'espoir. À quel point était-il facile de comprendre ce qui se passait réellement, de saisir l'essence du national-socialisme, de rester imperméable à la propagande ou de prédire l'Holocauste ? Ce livre propose une histoire extraordinaire de la montée des nazis, fondée sur des témoignages fascinants de première main, rassemblant une multitude de voix et d'histoires, y compris celles de politiciens, musiciens, diplomates, écoliers, communistes, érudits, athlètes, poètes, fascistes, artistes, touristes et même de célébrités. Leurs expériences créent un tableau remarquable de l'Allemagne sous Hitler, si palpable que le lecteur ressentira l'atmosphère. Ces témoins accidentels de l'histoire, à la fois troublants, absurdes et émouvants, offrent un nouvel éclairage sur les complexités du Troisième Reich, ses paradoxes et sa destruction ultime.

Oberstdorf is a beautiful village high up in the Bavarian Alps, a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere. Yet even here, in the southernmost corner of Germany, National Socialism sought to control not only people's lives but also their minds. Drawing on archive material, letters, interviews and memoirs, A Village in the Third Reich is an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler, of the descent into totalitarianism and of the tragedies that befell all of those touched by Nazism. In its pages we meet the Jews who survived - and those who didn't; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was judged 'not worth living'. ​It is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams, despair and destruction - but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs. These are the stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history.

With its fossil hunters and philosophers, diplomats, dropouts, writers and explorers, missionaries and refugees, Peking's foreign community in the early 20th century was as exotic as the city itself. Always a magnet for larger than life individuals, Peking attracted characters as diverse as Reginald Johnston (tutor to the last emperor), Bertrand Russell, Pierre Loti, Rabrindranath Tagore, Sven Hedin, Peter Fleming, Wallis Simpson and Cecil Lewis. The last great capital to remain untouched by the modern world, Peking both entranced and horrified its foreign residents. Ignoring the poverty outside their gates, they danced, played and squabbled among themselves, oblivious to the great political events that were to shape modern China unfolding around them. This is a dazzling portrait of an eclectic foreign community and of China itself.