Resistance: European Resistance to the Nazis 1945

Description

"If you who read this can say, I am not under fire; I am not under torture; I am not on the run; if I hear a noise at six in the morning, I know it is a neighbour or a milkman, not the secret police; no one in my country is arrested and held without prompt charge and trial ...then you owe it, in a larger degree than most historians have so far allowed, to the resistance that occupied Europe put up to Hitler."An instant classic upon its initial publication in 1976, this fluent and persuasive book was the first to analyse the whole field of wartime resistance to the Nazis in Europe, to explain what resisters could and could not do, and to assess whether they achieved their aims. It is a truly epic theme, with its drama of intelligence, deception, escape and subversion. In gathering the threads of this important narrative into the fabric of a single volume, M. R. D. Foot, one of the most distinguished historians of his time, achieved a work of gripping and major significance.

Michael Foot CBE served throughout the Second World War and in 1945 was decorated for service with the French Resistance in Brittany. His service included a brief spell as a prisoner of war, which involved several unsuccessful escapes. He then taught at Oxford University for eight years, before going on to become Professor of Modern History at Manchester University. He wrote and edited a number of books, including MI9: Escape and Evasion 1939-1945 and his classic S.O.E: Special Operations Executive 1940-46. He died in February 2012.

"The definitive history." - Sunday Telegraph; "The best one-man synoptic survey of World War II resistance yet." - The Guardian; "No book in 1976 has given me more satisfaction or taught me more about man." - Ronald Lewin, Sunday Times