The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941

The War in The West, Volume 1

By: James Holland

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 27 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

For seven decades, our understanding of World War II has been shaped by a standard narrative built on conventional wisdom, propaganda, the dramatic but narrow experiences of soldiers on the ground, and an early generation of historians. For his new history, James Holland has spent over 12 years unearthing new research, recording original testimony, and visiting battlefields and archives that have never before been so accessible.

In The Rise of Germany, the first of a major new three-part history of World War II in the West, he weaves together the experiences of dozens of individuals, from civilians and infantrymen to line officers, military strategists, diplomats, and heads of state, as well as war strategy, tactics, and the economic, political, and social aspects of the war to create a captivating audiobook that redefines and enhances our understanding of one of the most significant conflicts in history.

Beginning with the lead-up to the outbreak of war in 1939 and ending in 1941 on the eve of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia, The Rise of Germany is a masterful history of the war on land, in the air, and at sea, destined to generate significant scholarly debate and listener interest.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2015 James Holland. First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers. Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A must listen!

James Holland sheds new light on a subject that many may believe has been covered to the point of exhaustion!! From his re-examination of the myth of Wehrmacht mechanization and “blitzkrieg” to his in depth look at the nuts and bolts operational level of the war.

Paul Boehmer does a magnificent job narrating! Right down to spot on pronunciations of names and technical terminology along with various accents that, along with tone help keep a 28hr book alive and interesting!

Looking forward to volumes 2 and 3 of this series!!

Epic

listened to part 1, 2, 3 in reverse. Fascinating. The authors level of detail and use of personal storys is great

Keen Information

Though I knew much of this, learned much. The pronunciation of words took away from the flow of the narrative. I can say this as a German speaker with some French learning. Nontheles, about to download part 2.

Thorough treatment of WW2: 1939-1942

Narration is reasonably clear but uneven: occasionally speaker sounds like he is in an echo chamber; seems to be switching off between two speakers, which is jarring; overuse of some phrases (eg., in terms of); lack of variation in rhythm and cadence.

Explanation of how war materials procured and influence on tactics and strategies is exceptionally well explained. This book-length integration of each of these factors is this a unique, important contribution to the WW2 literature.

Many important ideas repeated throughout the story, so I suppose some listeners Will be annoyed, preferring several hours be edited out if this audiobook.

RECOMMENDED, but I rate this audio lower than volume two of this three-volume series.

Good Story; Bad Reader

Would you consider the audio edition of The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941 to be better than the print version?

No opinion

Who was your favorite character and why?

No opinion

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His French pronunciation is appalling; he even gets some English words wrong. He is overly dramatic. He did a bad job on The Red Flag too.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Old war; new facts

Two historical and epic years.

Great detail of specific events and persons. It favored the Allied perspective. The narrator brought good energy.

Excellent

I'm glad I ignored some of the other reviews. I personally thought it was well-written and well performed. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the events between 1939 and 1941.

Kept my interest all the way through

I really appreciated how Holland emphasizes aspects about the war that are often ignored, such as logistics and industrial output. He doesn’t set out to show how powerful Germany was compared to a weak France, but instead reveals the opposite: France was still one of the most powerful industrialized nations in the world by 1940, and Germany’s apparent mechanization was only still developing. German victory over Poland, Norway, France, and Greece was indeed swift, but it came at a tremendous cost of lives and machines and relied on near reckless risk-taking.
Some people said they couldn’t stand the narrator, but I thought he was fine. I definitely will be listening to more James Holland books.

Another stunner from James Holland

James Holland is at his best here. The history of the beginnings of WWII, this being part 1 before the US is trust into the effort completely, is not a new undertaking. The history of the Third Reich has been told repeatedly, but Holland always brings a well o under and personal perspective. He’s able to at once maintain an overall perspective mixed with first person accounts. It’s brilliant as ever. What a stunning work. Paul Boehmer is exceptional here.

The logistics of war

One modern day general said that “arm chair” generals speak of strategy while real generals worry about supply and logistics and that is one of the things this book discusses in detail - how the logistics of war affect the fighting war. I have read many books on World War II but none of them ever paid anything more than lip service to the constraints imposed on war strategy by the need for proper supplies, maintenance and repairs, while that is perhaps the main thrust of this book.

Why did the Allies only use Sherman tanks later in the war? Because it simplified the need for supply, training, maintenance and repair. What affect did the quality of the German soldier’s “kit” have on the German war effort? You will find the answer in this book. How about the Allies’ need to standardize rifle bullet calibers? Again, read this book. While this book covers the basics of the war itself, its main concern is the steps taken by the Allies to standardize as much as could be standardized between the Allies to make the task of resupply and repair as easy as possible.

I personally found the book very interesting but also found it a bit jarring to come across a large number of “British-isms”, many of which I had not heard before. The author and the narrator are British so this should not be a surprise and common British terms such as “spot on”, “put paid to” and “done for” were not a surprise, but I had to check on the exact meaning of terms like “teeth sucking”, “getting up the noses” and “keen as mustard”. Added to that I found the narrator’s voice and pronunciation to be a bit difficult. I suppose the British, living a lot closer to Europe than Americans, tend to try to be more accurate in their pronunciation of non-English words and that is certainly true for this narrator. Still, after listening a bit I found the odd, but properly proper, pronunciations to lend a more accurate feeling to the book and to be a net positive rather than a negative.

This is far from being either the most interesting or most informative book I have read on the European Theater of World War II, but it has the advantage of tacking an issue that I have never seen handled properly before and that certainly added to my interest in this book. I found myself torn between giving the book 5 stars for being the only book I have read that treated the logistics of the war as being important and 4 stars as it simultaneously disregarded other important aspects of the war. In the end I decided on 4 stars as I felt that this book did not have either the same interest or immediacy as some of the truly great books on the European Theater of World War II. Still, I recommend it for anyone really interested in how the various armies struggled to fight during the initial part of the war. I am looking forward to the second volume.