Ribbentrop
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Hailed in turns as 'excellent', 'intelligent', 'scrupulously fair', 'remarkable', 'impressive', and 'definitive', this superb book, by one of the pre-eminent writers of his generation, focuses on the life of Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's Foreign Minister from 1938 until the end of the Third Reich. At the heart of German power during the war, this strange, sinister and intriguing character was violently anti-British, and encouraged Hitler in a policy that led to war with Great Britain. His grandiose attempts at alliance-building produced a disastrous military coalition with Italy and Japan, and the infamous Pact with the Soviet Union. It was a career that would end on the gallows at Nuremberg, where he headed the death procession.
Written with verve, pace and the subtle intelligence of a world-class biographer, Michael Bloch's universally praised book vividly portrays this bizarre and historically neglected figure.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's foreign minister, played a prominent but by no means essential role in the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis and the 1939 Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact, we're reminded here. Additionally, he took part in planning the attack on Poland that set off WW II. Bloch also introduces new material about Ribbentrop's role in Hitler's 1933 ascension to power, his tenure as German ambassador in London (alienating much of the British populace with his arrogance), his participation in anti-Jewish policies as foreign minister and his harebrained scheme to kidnap the Duke of Windsor. This involving, revealing biography of Hitler's yes-man makes clear that Ribbentrop was wanting in character and ideas and that his pompous manner made him an international buffoon. Still unanswered is the question of why Hitler retained him in such an important post. Ribbentrop was convicted at Nuremberg and hanged as a war criminal in 1946. Bloch is the author of The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor.
