Arms of Krupp, 1587-1968

This is an excellent description of a family, noted for their involvement with the steel industry and especially the manufacturer of arms. They struggle with Germany's economy and influence Germany's foreign policy covering about 400 years between 1587 and 1968. It looks like a lengthy volume however it is over just as you are getting started. A side benefit is the technical information added helps you imagine what is like to design and sell the arms. In some cases arms were almost given away for a cause. At other times they mercenarily sold arms to may conflicting countries on both sides. This story parallels other books on history and makes the world seem that it is made up of people not just historical facts. Speaking of historical facts, one of the things I like to do is to read books that become movies and movies that are novelized. This would have to be a mini-series. Notice that in the book; interestingly enough William Manchester mentions that George Bernard Shaw actually based a play on the Krupp family, "Major Barbara" which consequently was made into a movie with windy Hiller in 1941.

"The Arms Of Krupp" is the incredible biography of a powerful and incredibly rich and powerful family that was central in the advent and progress of European history for the more than four hundred years they presided as an almost imperial force within the boundaries of what is present-ay Germany. Certainly no other non-royal dynasty engenders such controversy and hotly expressed differences in opinion than does the multiple generations of this critically based family so critical to the development and technological capabilities of the German war machine. Of course, no one could do a better job at providing a definitive historical biography of the Krupp family than William Manchester. This is truly a magnificent book, a spellbinding story splendidly told by a master of English prose, rendered in a flawless, comprehensive, and objective treatment of this fascinating, often outrageous, and sometime imperious string of Krupp family member who ignited the wars raging in Europe in terms of their ability to provide the motherland with such complex, ingenious, and technically superior weapons of war. This is, in fact, considered a masterwork of history, an eminently readable and elegantly stylish work by Manchester, a master of the trade. Manchester, a retired history professor at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, is widely regarded as one of this country's preeminent biographers and historian. The Krupp dynasty was extinguished in 1967, when the last surviving family member passed away. With his death the legacy of a four hundred year span of contribution to the European armaments industry came to an end, and so brought to a conclusion a tradition spanning wars and quite profoundly influencing outcomes of European history for centuries. The Krupp Arms conglomerate was technologically innovative, devising new weapons such as a superior cannon to an anti-air vehicle weapon designed to counter the reconnaissance capabilities of aerial observation balloons to exotic and much more capable submarines, which they then built for over four decades. In so doing, they became fabulously rich, and rose to become extremely influential and exceedingly conservative voices within the realm of German political circles. No German leader could hope to marshal the resources or the weapons of war necessary to mount a military campaign without first gaining the trust, confidence and support of the Krupp family, which then cleverly and cynically manipulated this influence to vastly enrich themselves. During World War One, their cannons helped to flatten the French city of Verdun, and at one point succeeded in lobbing projectiles into Paris from as distant a location as some eighty miles away, an unheard-of innovation at the time. Aiding the Third Reich in its secret rearmament effort after the end of the First Word War, they provided a much advanced tank design that eventuated in the Panzer tank, used subsequently so successfully in Hitler's blitzkrieg through France in the

Now in the twilight of his years Manchester has revealed he lacks the mental focus necessary to complete his trilogy on the life of Winston Churchill (while heroically fending off his publisher's suggestion that he graft on a co-author to complete it). In its zeal to conjure some way to make more money off the Manchester name, is it perhaps time for this publisher to ponder why one of the greatest biographers and historians in memory can only be read by combing the bins of used bookstalls or grasping the dog-eared library tome?The Arms of Krupp (out of print), and many others of the canon are seminal works with a devoted readership. Perhaps the right marketing opportunity simply has yet to strike. Making a movie (and a bad one at that) about Pearl Harbor popped even the questionable Gordon Prange back into prominence. Clearly, in these days when book publishers are conveniently tied into the entertainment world as a matter of corporate domain, the lonely vigil of the Manchester devotee must await the serendipity of Hollywood. Until then, Mr. Manchester I laud you with the words of one still in print:"To me fair friend you can never be old,For as you were when first your eye I eyed,Such seems your beauty still."

How DARE they let this book go out of print! This is one of the most brilliant histories of recent years, a classic to go along with Bill Shirer's "Rise and fall of the Third Reich" and Barbara Tuchman's "August 1914"/"The guns of August", to which it is an excellent companion. It captures both eras and characters wonderfully well. ABove all, Manchester is a passionate historian. No academic distance for hîm. The words burn with anger at the treatment of the slave workers of the Third Reich - and their murdered offspring, to whom the book is dedicated. Long it may be but it bears rereading, because nobody ought to forget this stuff.