Opening the Gates of Hell: Operation Barbarossa, June - July 1941 by Richard Hargreaves

Richard Hargreaves is not new to the Second World War or the Eastern Front as this is his fourth monograph on this period of history. As someone with an intimate understanding of this particular period of the Second World War and the Easter Front - specifically, Operation Barbarossa and the war's initial period - I did not think there would be much value to another text covering territory that numerous other historians, journalists, and hobbyists have already published many volumes on. Yet, I stand corrected.

The biggest value to 'Opening the Gates of Hell' is the vast amount of eye-witness accounts the author has unearthed. From German, Soviet, and Romanian soldiers, officers, and commanding generals to Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian men, women, and children, the reader is offered a montage of experiences from the unfolding invasion.  An essential aspect that often gets lost in operational histories or those devoted to the Holocaust by Bullets or the Holocaust in general is the significant level of interconnectedness between the unfolding massacres of civilians and the German advance during the first few days and weeks of Operation Barbarossa, which often military personnel either witnessed, encouraged, or directly participated in themselves.

Readers should be warned that this is not an easy read. It is easily one of the most difficult, raw, and emotionally draining texts written about Operation Barbarossa and the title of this book accurately reflects the events that readers will be exposed to. Hargreaves follows all three army groups and traces their advances, clashes with Red Army forces, and their experiences in unearthing atrocities perpetrated by the NKVD as they massacred prisoners who either could not be evacuated or were simply slated for execution, and the ensuing retribution by locals against Jews as the face of the 'Judeo-Bolshevik' regime.

German and Red Army actions are described in minute detail at times and frontline accounts help give color to the chaotic conditions Red Army forces experiences on the ground and in the air as the Germans enjoyed initial surprise and numerical advantage against peacetime forces who were more often than not scrambling to figure out what they needed to do and then further scrambled to gather up the forces to make a worthwhile stand or counteroffensive on the ground while in the air desperate attacks by bombers without fighter escort resulted in ever-increasing German kill counts.

The one weakness that I would point out is some additional information could have been provided about the operational experiences of these three army groups as often the attention is more so on the tactical and immediate actions on the ground taking place in a wide variety of places along a rather long frontline. But there are other volumes that could provide that information; the value of this volume rests in its readability and the wealth of primary source eye-witness accounts the author was able to unearth and bring together into a coherent narrative. This is a highly recommended work for those interested in the Second World War and, more specifically, Operation Barbarossa.

While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East by Yaakov Katz, Amir Bohbot

It's been over a year now since the events of October 7, 2023, and books are finally starting to come out about the events that happened that day, the lead up to the terrorist actions that resulted in over a thousand lives lost and hundreds taken hostage, as well as the followup operations, both military and intelligence, that have been in the news since Israeli politicians and military leaders decided to initiate an invasion of Gaza, parts of Lebanon, and hunted the individuals behind the planning and execution of October 7th.

The author are two journalists and this volume definitely resembles a journalist effort in its readability. With these events still fresh on our minds and consistently being reported on in the media, the amount of background information will always be richer than studies of current events both on October 7th and since then. Consequently, many of the pages of this text offer a rich array of background information on the foundation of Hamas, the backgrounds of some of its most important leaders (spiritual/religious and military) as well as their roles in perpetrating October 7th and when they were killed/assassinated by Israeli forces. Similarly, there is background offered about Israeli intelligence operations, and failures, including the numerous issues that plagued Israeli intelligence agencies and resulted in a complete failure to predict the actions of October 7th, even though numerous warnings were given from a variety of intelligence sources and agencies. Lastly, there is a deep-dive into the history behind the various Israeli administrations' relationship with Hamas, including how they deluded themselves into thinking by supplying Hamas and Gaza with Qatari money and Israeli goodwill (with work permits in the tens of thousands) they were changing hearts and minds and preventing war and discussions about a larger Palestinian state. The reality is that they were delaying the inevitable and allowing Hamas to amass a significant war chest that allowed them to purchase military equipment and construction equipment, which they put to effective use on October 7th. Netanyahu's government, and Netanyahu himself, have much to answer for as their plans went up in flames along with countless Israeli civilians as the largest pogrom since the Holocaust took place on Israeli territory with the IDF scrambling to do all it could to limit a massacre that should have never happened in the first place.

My Russia by Jill Dougherty

 Jill Dougherty's 'My Russia' is part memoir, and part dive into episodes of Russian and Soviet history and current events. It's a mix of history, political science, and reporting/journalism. There are numerous strengths to having direct anecdotes about Dougherty's experiences and interactions with Soviets and then post-Soviet Russians/Ukrainians, etc., especially when contextualized with larger socio-economic, political, or diplomatic events taking place in parallel. For those unfamiliar with Soviet/Russian history, this is a readable dive into some of the more critical events from the past decades that the author was witness to or was able to interview those involved in the decision-making process. There are, however, numerous weaknesses. This is someone close to the events and people they are interviewing and writing about which reduces the ability to offer a more objective take and commentary on the historic episodes in question. Moreover, based on the limited bibliography, this is someone fully entrenched (understandably so) in journalism and political science rather than history. Thus much of the reasoning Putin and his regime have been using to explain and attempt to justify their actions are missing. Even numerous political scientists who have been writing on Russia, like Richard Sakwa, are missing from the bibliography. So this volume will be of limited use for those familiar with the past thirty-five years of Russia's post-Soviet history, and less useful for those looking at anything beyond an eye-witness account of interactions with the Soviet Union and Soviet citizens by a student participating in study abroad opportunities.

Japan's Holocaust by Bryan Mark Rigg

Bryan Mark Rigg's "Japan's Holocaust" is a bit of a conundrum. This is a historian who initially wrote about "Hitler's Jewish Soldiers" and has recently seemingly altered his interests, focus, and research toward the Pacific Theater of Operations. There's no doubt that he's gone through a large amount of primary and secondary source material in putting this volume together (over 1500 footnotes) but the structure/organization, central argument(s), and polemical detours often take away from what could have possibly been an excellent single volume look at Japan's war effort against the various civilian populations that fell under their occupation.

In effect, Rigg has a few agendas he is routinely pushing throughout this monograph. First is that the atomic bombs should have been used and this is in response to the fact that, second, the Japanese were perpetrating their own version of the 'Holocaust' throughout their occupied territories. This is somewhat simplistic and reductionist but, giving the author the benefit of the doubt, readers will be presented with a history of Japan and Japanese war crimes that encompass over 300 pages. The narrative is not necessarily based on a chronology of Japanese actions in the Pacific and it's more that the chapters are broken up thematically, so there is a fair amount of repetition when it comes to Japanese crimes and the author's condemnation.

Unfortunately, when reducing the history of the Pacific Theater of Operations to just Japanese war crimes this volume begins to read like a voyeuristic look at the basest acts humanity is capable of, ranging from mass rape, to mass suicide, cannibalism, and grotesque torture of human bodies before and after death. When just reading through Iris Chang's "Rape of Nanking" is a soul-crushing task, this book multiples that to the Nth degree. Every page is a new horror and every chapter reaches another level of depravity and debauchery. This is a volume that cannot but haunt readers and while I can appreciate wanting your audience to understand what occupied populations and prisoners of war endured, I'm not sure that an encyclopedic discussion (akin to "The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry," which chronicles the Holocaust on Soviet territory from primary sources) will accomplish much without the required academic commentary.

Which brings us to one of the significant weaknesses, in my opinion, of this work. There is simply not enough context for the amount of information presented. Going through the crimes of a perpetrator on the scale of Japan from the late 1920s through 1945 is simply not enough. While Rigg's does offer some contextual discussion about why Japanese soldiers and officers might have ignored orders, rules of war, and insisted on allowing wanton destruction, rape, and murder more often than not it is generally applied rather than based on specific situations or events and that can become problematic all too quickly.

Finally, while it is undoubtedly true that Germany has done a better job of reconciling with its past than Japan, Rigg's is either unaware or chooses to ignore the numerous obstacles that were put in the way of that reconciliation throughout the Cold War period, nor does he comment on the myth of the Wehrmacht with Clean Hands, which was only addressed in the 1990s and not without criticism. While there is much to admire in how Germany today approaches its past, that should not obscure the resistance many put up to recognizing the crimes of the Third Reich when it comes to the Holocaust and its occupation policies throughout Eastern and Western Europe.

In the end, this is a book I would only recommend to those already familiar with the Second World War and the Pacific Theater, otherwise, the author's polemical style and at times subjective commentary limits the utility of this work.

Stalin's Plans for Capturing Germany by Bogdan Musial

I'm not exactly sure what the point of this book was aside from trying to cash in on the usual conspiracy theories surrounding Stalin's purported invasion plans when it came to Germany during the Second World War. In the usual style of those who enter into this type of conspiracy theory laden discussion, we begin with the Revolutionary/Civil War period and proceed to the eventual German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

A monograph that tries to cover that much territory in about 300-400 pages means there will be more missing than included, especially considering the numerous topics that need to be touched on, discussed, contextualized, etc. The basic idea for this author is that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union always aimed to export Revolution. Was Stalin going to invade Germany?  Maybe in 1943, but it's still all speculation and conjecture according to the author. That, in essence, is the entire book. Nothing new, nothing original.

What are the strengths? The author uses some good documentation from the archives and other primary sources. That's it for the strengths.

What are the weaknesses?  Everything else. Those documents and primary sources need to be contextualized and they rarely are. The numerous volumes that exist in terms of research on dozens of topics that are covered here are rarely if ever referenced nor are large, block quotes that are often introduced adequately contextualized.

Does this book develop a new central thesis/argument?  No.

Is it worth your time/money if you're familiar with the history of the Soviet Union, WWII, or the Eastern Front?  No, and if you're not familiar with those topics, then this isn't a good starting point for them.

I'm not at all sure who this book is for unless you're a fan of conspiracy theories and need some additional ammunition to reinforce what you already believe.

Fascism in America: Past and Present by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and Janet Ward

Without a doubt this is a timely and needed volume that looks at the intersection of US history and fascism.  Numerous experts in a variety of fields offer a collection of chapters that explore American history and question to what extent we can lean on the framework of fascism to explain both events during the early twentieth-century as well as the recent Trump administration.  Some of the chapters offering theories and ideas in development, others lean on established work and positions, and some discuss more original research that helps readers, academics, and policy experts think about the possibilities open to them when it comes to leaning on comparisons to fascism and how to address growing right-wing animosity, rhetoric, and violence.  Personally, I found myself in agreement with the idea of 'fascism' as a mobile, moving target that is in part influenced by the time and place in question. The US will never find itself in a similar situation to Italy, Germany, Spain, or Japan in the inter-war period, yet all experienced a level of fascism. So it will be impossible to point to exact parallels and know when we are staring in the proverbial face of US fascism. However, looking at the US and our current political environment means appreciating both how historical US racism influenced the rise of German fascism and vice versa. As a transcontinental phenomenon, fascism should not be viewed in isolation but always contextualized and historicized with room left for taking into account future development based on transmitted ideas and the influence of successful policies. Thus there is certainly room for calling reactionary, right-wing policies fascistic, and personalities fascists, even if they do not perfectly line up with what happened in 1930s and 1940s Germany. They are an evolution that has built on previous authoritarian, racist rhetoric and actions and are abusing and subverting our current democratic system with the aim of turning it into something that will certainly taste the same, even if the recipe is different from what we know as 'fascism.'

Invasion On!: D-Day, the Press, and the Making of an American Narrative by Stephen Rusiecki

 In 'Invasion On!' Stephen Rusiecki offers a look at how wartime media (specifically radio and newspapers) were able to come together to help craft a memorable and myth-laden narrative of the Allied invasion of Normandy, which became known simply as D-Day.  The basic elements the author concentrates on are the limitations under which radio and newspapers operated within, and their concentration on four specific myths (the significance of the invasion, the religions undertones of the "Great Crusade', the emphasis on the leadership of British and US commanders, and the highlighting of the heroic nature of the G.I. who made his way across the ocean to help liberate a subjugated Europe from Nazi tyranny.  One chapter is devoted to each of these myths but the author often belabors the point and often there's repetition or excessive detail.  Additionally, while the author makes frequent mention of the omission of Black Americans in the myths revolving around D-Day, there is little to no mention of any other minority group. The final chapter tackles the legacy of these myths as they have been regularly recycled in presidential addresses since Ronald Reagan's visit to Europe in 1984 (the author also discusses Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama, and Trump's speeches). The larger argument is that the collective memory around D-Day was formulated in the lead up to the invasion and during its first few days because of how well the media apparatus worked in cooperation with government needs, desires, and censorship. The lasting influence of that relationship between the media and government is the continuation of the myth surrounding D-Day to the present.