Frederick Taylor

The astonishing drama of Cold War nuclear poker that divided humanity - reissued with a new Postscript to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the wall. During the night of 12–13 August 1961, a barbed-wire entanglement was hastily constructed through the heart of Berlin. It metamorphosed into a structure that would come to symbolise the insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Frederick Taylor tells the story of the post-war political conflict that led to a divided Berlin and unleashed an East–West crisis, which lasted until the very people the Wall had been built to imprison breached it on 9 November 1989. Weaving together history, original archive research and personal stories, The Berlin Wall, now published in fifteen languages, is the definitive account of a divided city and its people in a time when humanity seemed to stand permanently on the edge of destruction.

13 August 1961 - 9 November 1989 (reissued)

The Berlin Wall

Tuesday, February 13, 1945

Dresden

An economic horror story: The complete meltdown of a major modern country's financial system, and its disastrous effects on every aspect of society. A hundred years ago, many theorists believed-just as they did at the beginning of our twenty-first century-that the world had reached a state of economic perfection, a never before seen human interdependence that would lead to universal growth and prosperity. Then, as now, the German mark was one of the most trusted currencies in the world. Yet the early years of the Weimar Republic in Germany witnessed the most calamitous meltdown of a developed economy in modern times. The Downfall of Money will tell anew the dramatic story of the hyperinflation that saw the mark-worth 4.2 to the dollar in 1914-plunge until it traded at over 4 trillion to 1 by the autumn of 1923. The story of the Weimar Republic's financial crisis clearly resonates today, when the world is again anxious about what money is, what it means, and how we can judge if its value is true. It is a trajectory of events uncomfortably relevant for our own uncertain world. Frederick Taylor-one of the leading historians of Germany writing today- explores the causes of the crisis and what the collapse meant to ordinary people and traces its connection to the dark decades that followed. Drawing on a wide range of sources and accessibly presenting vast amounts of research, The Downfall of Money is a timely and chilling exploration of a haunting episode in history.

Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class

The Downfall of Money

At 9.51 p.m. on Tuesday 13th February 1945, Dresden's air-raid sirens sounded as they had done many times during the Second World War. But this time was different. By the next morning, more than 4,500 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices had been dropped on the unprotected city. At least 25,000 inhabitants died in the terrifying firestorm and thirteen square miles of the city's historic centre, including incalculable quantities of treasure and works of art, lay in ruins. In this portrait of the city, its people, and its still-controversial destruction, Frederick Taylor has drawn on archives and sources only accessible since the fall of the East German regime, and talked to Allied aircrew and survivors, from members of the German armed services and refugees fleeing the Russian advance to ordinary citizens of Dresden.

Tuesday, 13 February 1945

The Peacebrokers

Operation Thunderclap

13 August 1961 - 9 November 1989

Berlin Wall

During the night of 12-13 August 1961, a barbed-wire entanglement was hastily constructed through the heart of Berlin. It metamorphosed into a structure that would come to symbolise the insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Frederick Taylor tells the story of the post-war political conflict that led to a divided Berlin and unleashed an East-West crisis, which lasted until the very people the Wall had been built to imprison breached it on 9 November 1989. Weaving together history, original archive research and personal stories, The Berlin Wallis the definitive account of a divided city and its people in a time when humanity seemed to stand permanently on the edge of destruction.

"Excellent . . . Mr. Taylor tells the history of the Weimar inflation as the life-and-death struggle of the first German democracy . . . This is a dramatic story, well told." --The Wall Street Journal

Germany�s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class

Many theorists believed a hundred years ago, just as they did at the beginning of our twenty-first century, that the world had reached a state of economic perfection, a never before seen condition of beneficial human interdependence that would lead to universal growth and prosperity. And yet the early years of the Weimar Republic in Germany witnessed the most complete and terrifying unravelling of a major country's financial system to have occurred in modern times. The story of the Weimar Republic's financial crisis has a clear resonance in the second decade of the twenty-first century, when the world is anxious once more about what money is, what it means and how we can judge if its value is true. The Downfall of Money will tell anew the dramatic story of the hyperinflation that saw the once-solid German mark, worth 4.2 to the dollar in 1914, trading at over four trillion by the autumn of 1923. It is a trajectory of events uncomfortably relevant for today's uncertain world. The Downfall of Money will reveal the real causes of the crisis, what this collapse meant to ordinary people, and also trace its connection to Germany's subsequent catastrophic political history. By drawing on a wide range of sources and making sense for the general reader of the vast amount of specialist research that has become available in recent decades, it will provide a timely, fresh and surprising look at this chilling period in history.

Germany's Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class

Det ble reist et piggtrådgjerde gjennom sentrum av Berlin natt til 13. august 1961. Gjerdet ble til Berlinmuren. Forfatteren beskriver i boken etterkrigstidens politiske forhold som førte til at byen ble delt i to. Dette utløste en konflikt mellom øst og vest som kunne fått katastrofale følger. Verden sto for første gang overfor trusselen om en kjernefysisk tilintetgjørelse. Trykket lettet først da muren falt 9. november 1989. Boken fletter sammen murens dramatiske historie, nye funn fra arkivene og berlinernes personlige opplevelser, som blant annet inkluderer fluktforsøk og forfølgelse.

13. august 1961 - 9. november 1989

Berlinmuren

‘Een indrukwekkend, maar ook diep-menselijk verhaal.’ The Times Een stad van vier miljoen inwoners werd op 13 augustus 1961 van de ene op de andere dag op wrede wijze in tweeën gedeeld. De Berlijnse Muur vertelt het beklemmende verhaal van een betonnen versperring die bijna dertig jaar lang een stad, een land, eigenlijk de hele wereld verdeelde. Zwaar bewapende grenswachten die met scherp schoten, waakhonden en meer dan 300 uitkijktorens maakten de Muur tot het symbool van een verscheurde wereld met ideologieën die lijnrecht tegenover elkaar stonden. Dit boek is het ultieme en vooral menselijke relaas van een verdeelde stad en haar inwoners. Van ingenieus bedachte ontsnappingspogingen die maar zelden slaagden, van de moedeloosheid en het ontbreken van welvaart en intellectuele vrijheid voor miljoenen Oost-Europeanen. De Britse historicus, schrijver en vertaler Frederick Taylor werd bekend als redacteur en vertaler van de dagboeken van Goebbels in het Engels. Hij is tevens de auteur van de bestseller Dresden Dinsdag 13 februari 1945. De pers over De Berlijnse Muur: ‘Een buitengewoon boek, dat de perfecte balans houdt tussen historische analyse en menselijke verhalen. Met verve geschreven.’ Literary Review ‘Een geweldig aangrijpend verhaal.’ Bookseller

13 augustus 1961 - 9 november 1989

De Berlijnse muur

'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. Bestselling historian Frederick Taylor focuses on the day-to-day experiences of British and German people trapped in this disastrous chain of events and not, as is so often the case, the elite. Drawn from original sources, their voices, concerns and experiences reveal a marked disconnect between government and people; few ordinary citizens in either country wanted war. 1939: A People's History is not only a vivid account of that turbulent year but also an interrogation of our capacity to go to war again. In many ways it serves as a warning; an opportunity for us to learn from our history and a reminder that we must never take peace for granted.

A People's History

1939

A Manual of the practice of medicine

"On the evening of Thursday 14 November 1940 began the most severe bombing to hit Coventry during the Second World War. This raid represented a new kind of air warfare, one which sacrificed any immediate military goals and instead focused on obliterating all aspects of city life. By playing down the fact that Coventry was an industrial city and key centre for British armaments, and therefore a fair target, attention was drawn to the destruction of an ancient historic town and the total indifference of the bombers to civilian casualties, in this way the systematic bombing of this city was successfully exploited by the British by several means. Initially the media used reports and horrific images to tip American opinion away from isolationism and in favour of help for Britain. Also, while the politicians and military establishment were furiously condemning this raid in public, they were busily appreciating the effectiveness of this method. Finally, the German tactics provided not only a 'blueprint for obliteration' but also allowed the Allied forces to justify later bombing raids of Germany which resulted in over half a million victims, many of whom were civilians. Frederick Taylor draws upon numerous sources to reveal the true repercussions of the bombing of Coventry in November 1940. He teases out the truth behind the persistent rumours and conspiracy theories that Coventry may have been left undefended to protect Britain's knowledge of the enigma codes. This major work of history assesses this significant turning point in modern warfare, considers how it affected Britain's status in the war, and looks at whether this attack really could provide justification for the horror of Dresden, 1945."--Book jacket.

Thursday, 14 November 1940

Coventry

The collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 was an event nearly unprecedented in history. Only the fall of the Roman Empire fifteen hundred years earlier compares to the destruction visited on Germany. The country's cities lay in ruins, its economic base devastated. The German people stood at the brink of starvation, millions of them still in POW camps. This was the starting point as the Allies set out to build a humane, democratic nation on the ruins of the vanquished Nazi state-arguably the most monstrous regime the world has ever seen. In Exorcising Hitler, master historian Frederick Taylor tells the story of Germany's Year Zero and what came next. He describes the bitter endgame of war, the murderous Nazi resistance, the vast displacement of people in Central and Eastern Europe, and the nascent cold war struggle between Soviet and Western occupiers. The occupation was a tale of rivalries, cynical realpolitik, and blunders, but also of heroism, ingenuity, and determination-not least that of the German people, who shook off the nightmare of Nazism and rebuilt their battered country. Weaving together accounts of occupiers and Germans, high and low alike Exorcising Hitler is a tour de force of both scholarship and storytelling, the first comprehensive account of this critical episode in modern history.

The Occupation and Denazification of Germany

Exorcising Hitler

‘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. Bestselling historian Frederick Taylor focuses on the day-to-day experiences of British and German people trapped in this disastrous chain of events and not, as is so often the case, the elite. Drawn from original sources, their voices, concerns and experiences reveal a marked disconnect between government and people; few ordinary citizens in either country wanted war. 1939: A People’s History is not only a vivid account of that turbulent year but also an interrogation of our capacity to go to war again. In many ways it serves as a warning; an opportunity for us to learn from our history and a reminder that we must never take peace for granted.

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.

The War Nobody Wanted

Whatever happened to Sacagawea's son? His mother became a legend. But the infant boy who also made the hazardous 1,900-mile journey to Oregon with the Lewis and Clark Expedition nearly disappeared from sight after their return. Yet he lived a long, adventurous life. Educated in St. Louis by William Clark, he spent six years in Europe as the ward of a German prince. Upon his return he joined the fur trade, working with the famous of the west--Jim Bridger, Tom Fitzpatrick, Kit Carson--a guide for the Mormon Battalion in its 1,100-mile march across the Southwest to California, the alcalde of Mission San Luis Rey, and a gold miner. He died, in a remote corner of Southeastern Oregon, at age 61.

Frederick Taylor

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