Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 [Paperback]

Paul Addison (Editor), Jeremy A. Crang (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2006

Firestorm assembles a cast of distinguished scholars to review the origins, conduct, and consequences of the World War II U.S. and British raids on Dresden. Here is a panoramic reassessment of the evidence and the issues, including the question of whether the bombing of the city constitutes a war crime. Firestorm cogently demonstrates the reasons why Dresden has come to symbolize the military and ethical questions involved in the waging of total war.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Invaluable context and perspectives...consistently thought–provoking.... (Times Literary Supplement )

Unashamedly sober and scientific, providing a welcome dose of objectivity. (Bbc History )

An outstanding book on a subject that will simply not go away. (Gary Sheffield Military Illustrated )

Perhaps the most rewarding of the many books written about the Dresden bombing...Short, easy to read, and of great value. (Clayton, Anthony Journal Of Military History )

About the Author

Paul Addison is an Honorary Fellow in the School of History and Classics at the University of Edinburgh where he was from 1996 to 2005 Director of the Centre for Second World War Studies. His most recent book isChurchill: The Unexpected Hero (2005).

Jeremy A. Crang is senior Lecturer in History and Assistant Director of the Centre for Second World War Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author ofThe British Army and the People's War 1939-45 (2000) and co-editor (with Paul Addison) ofThe Burning Blue: A New History of the Battle of Britain (2000).

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (August 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566637139
• ISBN-13: 978-1566637138
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A balanced description of the attack and its aftermath, April 5, 2008

By 

Steven J. Pachuta (Mpls-St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 (Paperback)

_Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945_ consists of ten chapters (including the retrospect) by ten authorities on various aspects of the Dresden raids, from the post-WWI British military theory which in part justified the raids in the eyes of its planners, to the modern day reconstruction of the city's monuments. I found the multiple perspectives very useful, and a good supplement to the single-author volumes on the topic. For detailed information on the attack itself, read one (or, in the interest of balance, several) of these other volumes. For the larger historical/philosophical/legal aspects of the attack, I'd recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Firestorm, the bombing of Dresden, June 20, 2008

By 

Eugene F. Harrie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 (Paperback)

Firestorm: This book could have been written with far fewer words. The format of several different writers was intended to expand the perspective, but it was largely repetetive and judgemental. It was not all that enlightening. On a scale of one to five, it was about a two.

14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Bag, February 13, 2007

By 

A. K. Palmer - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945 (Paperback)

There are good and bad points about this book. Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good by a bit. There are interesting factoids presented throughout the book, which periodically does illuminate some little-known aspects of the Allied bombing of Germany that in a sense culminated in Dresden. But the book is a mish-mash. Every now and again the author, in explaining topic A, mentions toic B, at which point we get a multi-page exegesis on Topic B. Unfortunately, Topic B is often at best tangential, and at worst almost irrelevant, to the main subjects addressed in the book. It's as if the author either wanted to add words and pages for the sake of increasing volume or to show off his knowledge regarding diverse subjects. Not well edited.