Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis

The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

Lynn H. Nicholas · 498 pages

A discussion on the theft and collection of great European art in World War 2.

And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris

Alan Riding

On June 14, 1940, German tanks rolled into a silent and deserted Paris. Eight days later, a humbled France accepted defeat along with foreign occupation. The only consolation was that, while the swastika now flew over Paris, the City of Light was undamaged. Soon, a peculiar kind of normality returned as theaters, opera houses, movie theaters and nightclubs reopened for business. This suited both c

The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century

Edward Dolnick · 384 pages

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

Anne-Marie O'Connor

Contributor to the Washington Post Anne-Marie O'Connor brilliantly regales us with the galvanizing story of Gustav Klimt's 1907 masterpiece -- the breathtaking portrait of a Viennese Jewish socialite, Adele Bloch-Bauer. The celebrated painting, stolen by Nazis during World War II, subsequently became the subject of a decade-long dispute between her heirs and the Austrian government. When the U.S.

Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece

Noah Charney · 327 pages

Presents a history of the world's most pilfered masterpiece--Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Alterpiece," treasured for its central panel, "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"--which has been looted in three wars, burned, forged, smuggled, hunted by the Nazis, and stolen thirteen times.

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Neil MacGregor · 707 pages

Neil MacGregor's radio series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' has been a unique event that has set a benchmark for public service broadcasting in the UK and across the world. This book will be the tie-in to that event, reproducing the scripts describing the objects that made us who we are.

The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family’s Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis

Simon Goodman · 368 pages

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II

Doris Kearns Goodwin · 759 pages

From the best-selling author of The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream comes a compelling chronicle of a nation and its leaders during the period when modern America was created. Presenting an aspect of American history that has never been fully told, Doris Kearns Goodwin writes a brilliant narrative account of how the United States of 1940, an isolationist cou

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

Steve Sheinkin · 266 pages

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship

Jon Meacham · 518 pages

Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis

Ian Kershaw · 1,162 pages

The climax and conclusion of one of the best-selling biographies of our time. In this volume, Ian Kershaw introduces Adolf Hitler at the apex of his power, idolized by millions of Germans for bringing the nation out of economic catastrophe. The Nazi party, the armed forces, the industrial cartels, and the civil servants are all "working towards the Führer." Meanwhile, Hitler is poised to realize h

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

Norman Ohler · 332 pages

"The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940. The promiscuou

Ravensbrück: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women

Sarah Helm · 675 pages

A masterly and moving account of the most horrific hidden atrocity of World War II: Ravensbruck, the only Nazi concentration camp built for women. On a sunny morning in May 1939 a phalanx of 867 women -- housewives, doctors, opera singers, politicians, prostitutes -- was marched through the woods fifty miles north of Berlin, driven on past a shining lake, then herded in through giant gates. Whippi

Defiance: The Bielski Partisans

Nechama Tec

Americans in Paris: Life and Death under Nazi Occupation 1940-1944

Charles Glass · 524 pages

"Nearly 30,000 Americans lived in or near Paris before the Second World War. Those who refused to leave were, paraphrasing Dickens, the best and the worst of America. Like the French, some collaborated, other resisted. The Germans forced some into slave labour. At least one was taken back to the United States to face a trial for treason. Americans in Paris under the occupation were among the most

The Blitzed Brits

Terry Deary, Tracey West · 136 pages

**History with the nasty bits left in!** Can you imagine life without television, road signs and bananas? Or only having enough clothing coupons to buy a small pair of knickers? Not to mention the late-night bombing raids. These were just some of the hardships for the people who stayed at home in World War Two – the blitzed Brits. Want to know: What *really* happened in Dad's Army? How to make

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War

Susan Southard · 402 pages

This book is a powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war, told through the stories of those who survived. On August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, a small port city on Japan's southernmost island. An estimated 74,000 people died within the first five months, and another 75,000 were

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

Doreen Rappaport · 228 pages

"Through twenty-one meticulously researched accounts-- some chronicled in book form for the first time-- Doreen Rappaport illuminates the defiance of tens of thousands of Jews across eleven Nazi-occupied countries during World War II."--Amazon.com.

Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain

Len Deighton · 272 pages

Novelist Len Deighton has written a military buff's delight: a meticulous history of the men and machines of the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force in their struggle over Britain in the summer of 1940. Deighton describes the Battle in the stark, no-nonsense terms of a chess player recounting a game; the reader will not feel what it was like to be a Spitfire or Messerschmitt pilot, but he will know

Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945

Rana Mitter · 480 pages

Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France

Caroline Moorehead · 384 pages

Relates the story of Le Cambon-sur-Lignon, a small, remote mountain village whose inhabitants banded together to save thousands from the Gestapo during World War II.

Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation

Anne Sebba · 457 pages

"What did it feel like to be a woman living in Paris from 1939 to 1949? These were years of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation and secrets until--finally--renewal and retribution. Even at the darkest moments of Occupation, with the Swastika flying from the Eiffel Tower and pet dogs abandoned howling on the streets, glamour was ever present. French women wore lipstick. Why? It was women

Isaac's Army: A Story of Courage and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland

Matthew Brzezinski · 472 pages

Describes the formation of one of the most daring underground movements of World War II under the leadership of twenty-four-year-old Isaac Zuckerman, and the group's collective efforts to gather information, build an arms cache, participate in uprisings, and organize escape systems.

The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II

Winston Groom · 512 pages

Groom tells the intertwined and uniquely American tales of George Patton, Douglas MacArthur, and George Marshall. These three remarkable men-of-arms who rose from the gruesome hell of the First World War to become the finest generals of their generation during World War II redefined America's ideas of military leadership and brought forth a new generation of American soldier. Against the backdrop