Customer Reviews

Germany and the Second World War: Volume V: Organization and Mobilization of the German Sphere of Power (Part 1: Wartime administration, economy, and manpower resources, 1939-1941)

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While these ten volumes are indispensable to anyone seriously interested in studying Germany in the second world war, Oxford have priced the translation so extortionately that even many libraries will not be able to afford them.

What they get out of this I really can't see - at this price point I doubt they will sell more than a few dozen copies worldwide per volume.

Although realistically this is never going to sell in large quantities, interest in the Third Reich and WW2 is so extensive they could undoubtedly sell many more copies at a normal academic paperback price point as their are hundreds of academics working in the field who would want a set if they could afford it.

Plus as every publisher knows there are many thousands of militaria fanatics and Nazi-obsessive general readers who will buy anything with a swastika on the cover.

As regards libraries very few will buy the full set at this price (I only know of one academic library in London that has it) - or allow it out of the reference reading rooms if they do - but at a sensible price it would be placed on many more university course reading lists.

Given that the authors are the Military History unit of the Bundeswehr who are hardly going to be profit-driven, I doubt they are driving Oxford's pricing.

Certainly translating this mountain of verbiage must be very expensive but that is all the more reason to sell it at a price that would maximise sales.

Given that the German edition costs 'only' 50 euros a volume from amazon.de (one-sixth of the Oxford translation price) it would probably be cheaper for normal mortals to pay for advanced language courses and read it in the original.