Standard histories on the Age of Colonization tell a sad story of the ills inflicted on indigenous peoples by exploitative Western powers. This book offers a realistic corrective. The Spanish conquest of the New World is shown vividly—in its fervor and exuberance; but most importantly; with its central evangelical and civilizing impulse that transformed the Americas from savagery into a central part of Christendom.
#1581087 in Books Fedorowicz (J.J.);Canada 1996-12Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 #File Name: 0921991355390 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Great read!By Michael HerndonGood book! Good account of the horrendous battles fought on the Eastern Front in WWII. The good thing about this book is that it presents the fullpicture of the sheer size of the armies engaged at this time in Russia. The Germans were losing thousands of men a week on the Eastern Front;the Russians twice that! This book has a fairly fast paced narrative good details on the individual units commanders involved. It is especiallyinsightful for readers who are not as familiar with the titanic struggle in the East as with the better known (in the west) war in NW Europe.6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. interesting historyBy IlbobI got this for free back in late April. I started reading it shortly thereafter. It is a long book and I just finished it.I suspect this is another book that was scanned from hard copy to the Kindle format as there are a number of errors in the book that jump out at me like hyphens in the middle of words that do not belong there and some spacing issues. But; they are not so bad they ruin the book. Just noticeable.I never heard of the author before; and there is very little available on the Internet about him. I have read some other Stackpole books that were pretty good; but at least one I recall seeing for free some time ago I passed up because the preview annoyed me so much. I don't know much about Stackpole either but it appears to have a long history of publishing this kind of non-fiction.I suspect any history of Germany's military forces during WWII is going to have detractors; just because of who they fought for; and the fact that they lost the war. The winners get to write the history and being associated with the Nazi cause does not get you any sympathy at all.The book goes into great detail regarding the fighting in the Ukraine. Sometimes in excruciating detail. I think most objective people would concur with what I got as the book's conclusion. That conclusion would be that the Germans while they fought well and much; much better than the Soviets; that the overwhelming weight of manpower and material that the Soviets had just eventually wore down the Germans.The book suggests in numerous places that the Soviets outnumbered the Germans in men and materials in many battles by a factor of 5 or more and yet the Germans held their own for the most part and actually won many engagements. This is no surprise to anyone who has done any reading on the war on the Russian front.There are also repeated suggestions that Hitler's meddling at critical times was largely responsible for much of the defeat the Germans suffered. I am not sure that is the case. The Russians were willing to throw any amount of men and material at the Germans. And they seemed to have both in virtually unlimited quantities. It does seem likely that Hitler's meddling probably saved a lot of Soviet lives; and cost a lot of German soldiers their lives. Whether Germany could ever have won enough of a military victory to have taken Russia out of the war and allowed Germany to focus on Europe remains an open question.Its not popular to express any admiration for the German troops fighting on the Eastern Front; especially the Waffen SS troops. However; they fought well; and it is unlikely that any significant number of them really knew what was going on. They fought for their country as best they could; and did so with great bravery and skill.The reality is that it was two great evils going up against each other; and it may well be that the greater evil won. Certainly the Soviets were directly responsible for the deaths of far more people than the Nazis.I think one has to read this kind of history with some detachment. It is tough to read this kind of book without wanting to take sides. It seems to me that the author did a reasonably good job of being objective. Mostly it is a chronological narrative; heavily footnoted; and with many maps to illustrate the battles.Parts of it are tough to read. It often seems like the same thing over and over again. The Russians attack with overwhelming force and the Germans counterattack and beat back the Russians inflicting massive casualties on them while incurring substantial casualties of their own.Some of the numbers in the book on tanks destroyed are tough to figure. It seems like hundreds of tanks are damaged to the point they are not usable on both sides but shortly thereafter there are hundreds more. Either the guys salvaging and repairing the damaged tanks were very good (and they probably were) or there was some exaggeration going on.What the book tells about the battles and how much ordinance and other material was expended by the Germans at the end of a very long supply line suggests a very sophisticated logistics system.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Nipes' books should be required reading for east front loversBy Kreg FamilyguyGeorge Nipe is another great writer on east front battles and campaigns'. He takes Mr. Glantz research and the day by day battle reports of the German units and weaves a great story; he gives the actual number or German panzers and assault guns day by day. There are no inflated exaggeration's of thousands of burning tigers and panthers litter at Prokhorovka
