The first study based on a large national sample of both urban and rural districts examines the Nazi constituency -- how it was formed; from which social groups; under what conditions; and with what promises. Using advanced statistical techniques to analyze each national election of the Weimar era; Childres offers a new and challenging interpretation of who voted for Hitler's NSDAP and why. He also provides a systematic examination of Nazi campaign strategy.
#414854 in Books The University of North Carolina Press 2007-09-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 1.09 x 6.47 x 9.51l; 1.22 #File Name: 0807831549336 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Great Civil War History ReadBy oldAvnNo student of Grant's overland campaign should forego reading this thoroughly researched study. As the author thoroughly documents; field fortifications were critical for both sides of that struggle.25 of 27 people found the following review helpful. Important Work of Civil War ScholarshipBy Bruce TrinqueEarl J. Hess's new "Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign" is as good a piece of Civil War scholarship as I have read in years. It is at the most fundamental level a narrative history of military operations in the Overland Campaign of May and June; 1864: the Wilderness; Spotsylvania; North Anna; and Cold Harbor; but it is a narrative history that focuses particularly on how field fortifications evolved over the course of those six weeks of heavy combat and it details how the use of field fortifications influenced the course of that campaign. In his earlier volume; "Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War;" Hess dispelled the old myths that such entrenchments were a direct consequence of the power of rifled-muskets or that their use suddenly sprang into being in the spring of 1864 (he documented three years of field fortifications; although not on such a scale as became standard by the end of the Overland Campaign) and that these entrenchments were somehow merely the fruit of the teaching of Dennis Hart Mahan at West Point. Or to quote the author: "The use of field fortifications evolved during the Civil War not due to some irrational fear; but due to a real and potent threat: the continued presence of an enemy army within striking distance. Their use was a rational and logical response to that threat."Hess reserves most of the technical details of entrenchment and breastwork design for an appendix; leaving his main narrative fast-moving and compelling. "Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee" is an important contribution to Civil War literature and should find a ready spot on the bookshelves of any serious student of the era. I look forward to his planned third volume; to examine field fortifications during the Petersburg campaign.Inevitably; it must be asked how Hess views the Overland Campaign in balance. Was it a Union or a Confederate success? Although Hess does not absolve Grant of errors in too hastily ordering attacks or in failing to recognize the power of impromptu fieldworks; Hess concludes: "Grant's most significant achievement in the Overland campaign was not in capturing territory; or in positioning his army close to Richmond; or in reducing the fighting strength of the Army of Northern Virginia by 50 percent; rather it lay in robbing Lee of the opportunity to launch large-scale offensives against the Army of the Potomac. In laying claim to the strategic initiative; Grant won an important physical and emotional victory over Lee; and he did it with fewer losses than his predecessors had suffered in attempting the same goal ... Most important; he did not give up the strategic initiative and thereby brought the war to an end. The Overland campaign was as much a watershed in the strategic course of the Civil War as the Seven Days."0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Learn and enjoyBy David MarshallGreat book from a great academic.
