Peter Hoffmann (1) (1930–)
Autor de The History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945
Para otros autores llamados Peter Hoffmann, ver la página de desambiguación.
Sobre El Autor
Peter Hoffmann is William Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University, Montreal. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal of the state of Baden-Wrttemberg (Germany), the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit (Germany), and the Konrad Adenauer Research Award. He is the author mostrar más of books on the German Resistance including The History of the German Resistance 1933-1945 (1977), Hitler's Personal Security (1979), German Resistance to Hitler (1988), and Stauffenberg: A Family History, 1905-1944 (1995,3rd ed 2009). mostrar menos
Obras de Peter Hoffmann
Obras relacionadas
If the Allies Had Fallen : Sixty Alternate Scenarios of World War II (2010) — Contribuidor — 317 copias
To the Bitter End An Insider's Account of the Plot to Kill Hitler, 1933-1944 (1946) — Contribuidor, algunas ediciones — 61 copias
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1930-08-13
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- Germany (birth)
- Lugar de nacimiento
- Dresden, Germany
- Lugares de residencia
- Canada
Stuttgart, Germany
Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Educación
- University of Munich
- Ocupaciones
- historian
professor
scholar - Organizaciones
- McGill University
- Premios y honores
- Royal Society of Canada
- Biografía breve
- Peter Hoffmann was born in Dresden, Germany, and grew up in Stuttgart. His father Wilhelm Hoffmann became director of the Wurtemberg State Library. After studying at the universities of Stuttgart, Tübingen, Munich, Zurich, and Northwestern University, he received his PhD degree in 1961. In 1970, he began teaching German history at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He is the William Kingsford Professor of History and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is known as the leading authority on the German resistance against Nazism for his research and numerous books on the subject.
Miembros
Reseñas
1 
blake.rosser | otra reseña | Jul 28, 2013 |
blake.rosser | otra reseña | Jul 28, 2013 | 
Starting from a point where I only knew about Stauffenberg what school taught me, this is the most interesting of the lot I picked up at the library, because it doesn't describe the event and personae superficially but digs deep into the personal and family history of Claus and Berthold von Stauffenberg. Looking at Claus Stauffenberg from the year 2007, as a republican, middle-class person it is not easy to understand why he thought the way he did, but Hoffmann does a very good job in describing the family background and especially the influence of the cult-like George circle on Claus and Berthold. Definitely not hagiographic, and a good read to boot.
Edited to add: New edition, 2007 under the title "Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Die Biographie". About 700 pages, so a lot more material.
[not finished yet, but my rating so far:]… (más)
Edited to add: New edition, 2007 under the title "Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Die Biographie". About 700 pages, so a lot more material.
[not finished yet, but my rating so far:]… (más)
The definitive treatment of its subject, but somewhat plodding in the telling.
Premios
También Puede Gustarte
Autores relacionados
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 10
- También por
- 3
- Miembros
- 258
- Popularidad
- #88,950
- Valoración
- 3.6
- Reseñas
- 3
- ISBNs
- 70
- Idiomas
- 4
- Favorito
- 1
I approached this book more interested in organized resistance to an oppressive regime from a tactical, moral and psychological perspective, and Hoffman doesn't really go at it from that angle. What he does instead is tirelessly catalogue all of the facts concerning the events of any sort of semi-serious anti-Nazi resistance effort from the time period of the title. The first five or so sections were extremely dry as they dealt primarily with discontented grumblings and premature attempts at conspiracy formation.
Almost despite himself, Hoffmann still managed to build a certain amount of tension in his account at various points, particularly beginning with the "Stauffenberg and the Replacement Army" section VIII. He is at his best when describing the assassination attempts in detail and speculating on the mindset of the would-be assassins and conspirators, or speculating on why the coup was not more successful. Unfortunately, my main criticism of the book is that these moments of analysis and interpretation of events are lacking. Instead, Hoffmann seems to just post a bunch of facts on the blackboard and leave them for you to make sense of. As a reviewer of his other book on Stauffenberg said, Hoffmann simply lists more names, ranks, and army groups than you can reasonably be expected to follow. Or perhaps he is assuming a certain amount of background knowledge in his reader that I simply did not have. I would have preferred to have him more often spell out the implications of the facts he was providing. Particularly egregious is the complete lack of summative conclusion, epilogue or otherwise-appropriate ending.
Overall, I quite respect this book (and Mr. Hoffmann) without having really enjoyed it that much. I know much more now about the existence of an organized resistance to Hitler, their motivation, and the reasons for their failure (indeed they almost seemed doomed from the start). It was astonishing to learn that even if many top officials refused to participate in the coup, they certainly had knowledge of it and did not report it to the Gestapo. Just as astonishing was the fact that conspirators could openly discuss their feelings against the regime, and even attempt to recruit army officers with little to no repercussion. It was almost like an open secret, and Hitler et al. were the last to know. In other words, Hoffman paints a portrait of a Germany that as a whole was very ambivalent about their charismatic leader, yet did not quite possess the conviction (or courage?) to do anything about it.
An interesting aside: Anyone interested in this topic without wanting to wade through all of the 534 pages (and endnotes) might check out the Tom Cruise movie "Valkyrie," on which Peter Hoffmann served as a consultant to make sure all of the facts were historically accurate. I haven't seen it but I imagine it would be a good summary.
A quote to sum it all up poignantly:… (más)