Hitler Moves East reprint (1 Viewer)

[lancer]

As many of you WW2 Eastern Front collectors are aware, the holy grail for the German POV general history has been Paul Carell's 2 books, 'Hitler Moves East' and Scorched Earth'. For whatever reason, 'Scorched Earth' (1970, Little Brown Pub. and Harrap & Co. UK) has always been the more plentiful, easier to get hold of, and cheaper to buy, of the 2 titles, mainly because the UK version was remaindered in large quantities here in the US. 'Hitler Moves East' (1964, Little Brown Pub.) is the harder book to find in good condition at reasonable prices. Both titles were reprinted, HME by Fedorowicz in 1991, and SE by Schiffer in 1994. Both of these reprints are inferior print jobs to the originals, but did make the books available again to many who missed the initial printings. I say inferior because of binding being cheaper and smaller, paper used, and photo reproduction, but the books are perfectly fine, just not for the true collector. The original printings had color photos that the reprints do not. In 2009, Aberdeen Books out of Colorado, reprinted HME in an unnumbered limited edition and they did a superb job, using a superior cloth binding and even reproduced the color plates and 2-color fold-out map. They must have also used the original printing sheets as the letter print and layout is identical to the original and is the same size. This is a superior reprinting job that offers equal quality to the original HME, down to the identical dust jacket. Unfortunately, in the mysterious world of book pricing, and the fact that the Aberdeen reprint is now 9 years old and getting harder to find, it is not cheap. Even so it is a viable alternative to the collector who doesn't want to drop $150+ on a fine 1st edition of HME. As in anything else, it pays to shop around. If it just the info you seek, go with the Fedorowicz and Schiffer reprints. If you are a collector who wants a handsome book to go with his info, get an original of the 2 books, or opt for the Aberdeen HME. It will look great on the shelf next to the original 'Scorched Earth'. Just as a matter of interest, paperback versions of both books were done, but are decades old, have not been reprinted, and HME is ridiculously expensive for a Pb over 50 years old. Spend the money on a good hardback version. -- Al

 

[lancer]

As many of you WW2 Eastern Front collectors are aware, the holy grail for the German POV general history has been Paul Carell's 2 books, 'Hitler Moves East' and Scorched Earth'. For whatever reason, 'Scorched Earth' (1970, Little Brown Pub. and Harrap & Co. UK) has always been the more plentiful, easier to get hold of, and cheaper to buy, of the 2 titles, mainly because the UK version was remaindered in large quantities here in the US. 'Hitler Moves East' (1964, Little Brown Pub.) is the harder book to find in good condition at reasonable prices. Both titles were reprinted, HME by Fedorowicz in 1991, and SE by Schiffer in 1994. Both of these reprints are inferior print jobs to the originals, but did make the books available again to many who missed the initial printings. I say inferior because of binding being cheaper and smaller, paper used, and photo reproduction, but the books are perfectly fine, just not for the true collector. The original printings had color photos that the reprints do not. In 2009, Aberdeen Books out of Colorado, reprinted HME in an unnumbered limited edition and they did a superb job, using a superior cloth binding and even reproduced the color plates and 2-color fold-out map. They must have also used the original printing sheets as the letter print and layout is identical to the original and is the same size. This is a superior reprinting job that offers equal quality to the original HME, down to the identical dust jacket. Unfortunately, in the mysterious world of book pricing, and the fact that the Aberdeen reprint is now 9 years old and getting harder to find, it is not cheap. Even so it is a viable alternative to the collector who doesn't want to drop $150+ on a fine 1st edition of HME. As in anything else, it pays to shop around. If it just the info you seek, go with the Fedorowicz and Schiffer reprints. If you are a collector who wants a handsome book to go with his info, get an original of the 2 books, or opt for the Aberdeen HME. It will look great on the shelf next to the original 'Scorched Earth'. Just as a matter of interest, paperback versions of both books were done, but are decades old, have not been reprinted, and HME is ridiculously expensive for a Pb over 50 years old. Spend the money on a good hardback version. -- Al

Forgot to mention one very important thing in relation to the Aberdeen reprint, and that it is a reprint of the UK edition, titled 'Hitler's War On Russia', and is titled as such. It replicates the UK binding, red cloth, and the spine title panel, ie., a very close copy of the original UK book. Otherwise, content is identical to the US version. -- Al

 

[sfarrelly]

Those books used to be the best but not anymore. Germany has released their official history of WW2 and now the main volume on Russia 1943-44 is out in English as of March 2017.

Search for this on amazon "Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII: The Eastern Front 1943-1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts Hardcover – 16 Mar 2017"

All 1,344 pages of it. There is nothing better.

The first volume covering Russia is here on amazon "Germany and the Second World War: Volume IV: The Attack on the Soviet Union Paperback – 25 Jun 2015" again 1,456 pages.

Cheers,

Stefan

 

[lancer]

Those books used to be the best but not anymore. Germany has released their official history of WW2 and now the main volume on Russia 1943-44 is out in English as of March 2017.

Search for this on amazon "Germany and the Second World War Volume VIII: The Eastern Front 1943-1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts Hardcover – 16 Mar 2017"

All 1,344 pages of it. There is nothing better.

The first volume covering Russia is here on amazon "Germany and the Second World War: Volume IV: The Attack on the Soviet Union Paperback – 25 Jun 2015" again 1,456 pages.

Cheers,

Stefan

Quite agree. Time has caught up to them in certain degrees. It is sort of like the John Erickson books, 'Road to Stalingrad' and Road to Berlin', as both of these have also aged a bit. Both Carell and Erickson still have a lot to offer the reader, but both have fallen a bit behind the latest research. That is inevitable for history books where research is always evolving. The German official histories are amazing but the downside to them is their cost. Building a complete set in hardback can be very expensive, and like with many multi-volume publications done over a long period of time, some of the volumes are harder to find than others. Best to pick the front you want to study with this huge set. -- Al

 

[lancer]

Looked further into the ongoing printing of 'Germany and The Second World War'. It is to be a projected total of 10 volumes (Volumes 5, 9, and 10 are done in 2 parts, thus 13 books total) encompassing 12,000 pages. Volume 1 was published in 1990 and the most recent, Vol.9 part 2, was published in 2014. The 2 part finale, Vol. 10, is to be done in 2018, or thereabouts. Collecting this massive study in HB form is VERY expensive and even in PB form it is not cheap. PB volumes seem to run between $75-$85 per volume on Amazon, with HB volumes running at a minimum of $143 for Vol. 3 all the way up to the $400 range for others. Prices are all over the map at any source you care to check, with the common thread being no source is cheap. Just a matter of finding the price that hurts the least. A magnificent work but one that will cost dearly to collect in it's entirety. -- Al

 

[blaster]

Hello Al,

I remember reading Carrell's " Hitler Moves East" when I was a kid and it bowled me over. The writing was excellent. Doubtless better books would have emerged since then but it was a classic!


Rgds Victor