Customer Reviews

Goering

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This book is very much an analysis of the malignant effects of putting Göring in charge of the Four Year Economic Plan, the wastage and inefficiency resulting from his mis and non management of the economy. To get a better feel of Göring as a person, vile, vainglorious, vulgar, you should also read Irving's book.

This is a good book even if it does not resemble a conventional biography. The book has scant information on Goering's private life concentrating itself, rather, on Goering's performance at the helm of the German economy during Nazi rule. The author has a superb grasp of the subject at hand and he does portray an encompassing picture of German economic affairs during World War 2. Mr. Overy is an accomplished writer; his sentences are elegant and clear. Nonetheless, the book is difficult to read because the chapters and, even many paragraphs, are overly extensive causing fatigue to the reader. Overall, it is a good book that taught me a lot about Goering, the Nazis, and the German war effort.

While this book may be considered a biography it deals more with German economics and Luftwaffe related events than with the actual life of Hermann Goering.

If you are expecting a bio along the lines of Padfield's exhaustive "Himmler" or Kershaw's masterful "Hitler: Hubris" or "Hitler: Nemesis" forget it, this isn't for you. There are other Goering Bios that do a much better job of fleshing out the life of their subject than this relatively short book.

This book does do a passable job of covering Goering's war years and his influence on ,and failure of, the Third Reich.

Richard Overy's biography, "Goering" is less a fully fleshed out biography than an examination into certain aspects of Hitler's number two man between 1936 and 1942. Though the book begins with Goering's childhood and WWI service and continues throughout his life, these years are clearly given preference. Goering's role in the German economy is the principle theme of this work, and offers many keen insights. However, his other roles such as head of the Luftwaffe, Air Minister, President of the Reichstag, and others don't receive the same weight as Goering the Economics Czar. This book is must reading for those interested in the state directed economy of the Third Reich, but for those seeking a larger portrait of Goering the man you might want to check out Anthony Read's wonderful "The Devil's Disciples" which details Goering's life brilliantly beside Hitler's other lieutenants.

This was a difficult book to read since it is not really a biography. In fact you would learn little about Goering's early life from reading this book. What this book reviews are the policies Goering pursued at both the Luftwaffe and his Economics Ministry. Goering was no military genius, and he certainly couldn't organize like George Marshall, so he basically was a flop at both these positions. Yet, he garnered them up and retained them throughout much of the war to the detriment of Nazi Germany. It was a good thing he was on their side.

The other thing that is striking about this book is that Goering made possible much of the war and murderous genocide of the regime. Even though he acted as the humane face of the regime, he in fact was one of the chief devil's disciples. He deserved what he got at Nurnenburg. He was as guilty as Hitler for the genocide, slave labor, and brutal warfare.

This is a difficult read, since it covers primarily the policies of Nazi Germany. For policy wonks, this is a great read, for the lay reader, probably not.