John Toland

Los últimos cien días de la Segunda Guerra Mundial en el escenario europeo son la culminación del drama que se ha desarrollado a lo largo de toda la contienda. En esos tres meses los Aliados darán el golpe de gracia al Tercer Reich pero, antes de que este se hunda definitivamente, Alemania tendra que soportar una tragedia con escasos precedentes en la historia de la humanidad. Victima de intensos bombardeos, del frio y la falta de alimento, de los excesos cometidos por las tropas rusas y del terror impuesto por los ultimos guardianes del nazismo, la poblacion germana acabara recibiendo la noticia de la derrota con indisimulado alivio. En estas paginas, el historiador John Toland ofrece una extensa, documentada y apasionante reconstruccion de esos ultimos y dramaticos dias. Su lenguaje ameno y directo, mas cercano al periodismo que al propio de los libros de historia, transporta al lector a los diferentes escenarios en los que se libra esa partida final, en un fascinante relato de interes creciente que logra captar toda su atencion desde el primer momento.

Esta es una biografía monumental y reveladora de Adolf Hitler, con originales y brillantes enfoques sobre aspectos íntimos de su vida. Considerada aún por muchos como la mejor biografía sobre Hitler, pues evita los juicios de valor y prefiere ofrecer datos concretos, lo que paradojicamente ofrece como resultado un Hitler aun mas aterrador. Toland posee, asimismo, el don de la narracion y el gusto por los detalles: decribe como Hitler jamas fue pintor de brocha gorda, auque si aficionado a jugar a "indios y vaqueros", que fue responsable de la "Solucion final", tenia miedo al cancer, escribio varias obras de teatro y estaba obsesionado tanto con la "cuestion judia" como por el temor a que uno de sus abuelos pudiera haber sido judio. Una biografia esencial y completa de una figura clave para entender el siglo XX.

'Pantheisticon, o fórmula para celebrar una fraternidad socrática' (1720), la última obra de Toland, es una brillante exposición de la fuerza y la perennidad de la naturaleza, un ejercicio de interpretacion del pensamiento clasico y un ironico panfleto antirreligioso en forma de liturgia parodica. Escrito y publicado originalmente en latin, tuvo una circulacion limitada no solo por su formato inusual, sino tambien por voluntad del autor, que distribuyo personalmente unos pocos ejemplares entre un circulo reducido de amigos. Esta obra constituye uno de los primeros manifiestos en favor de la libertad de pensamiento, de la investigacion de la verdad y de la amistad entre personas que no tienen miedo de imaginar nuevas realidades.

Pantheisticon, o fórmula per a celebrar una fraternitat socràtica (1720), la darrera obra de Toland, és una brillant exposició de la força i la perennitat de la natura, un exercici dinterpretació del

During World War II, a group of American fighter pilots roamed the skies over China and Burma, menacing the Japanese war effort without letup. Flamboyant, daring, and courageous, they were called the Flying Tigers. The Tigers, who had been recruited from the Army, Navy, and Marines, first saw action as a volunteer group fighting on the side of the Chiang Kia-sheks China against Japan. Trained in the unconventional air-combat tactics of their maverick leader Claire Lee Chennault, they racked up some of the most impresive air victory records of World War II. This is the story of Chennault and his magnificent Tigers and how they performed the impossible.

Bestselling author and historian John Tolands expertise and skill as a narrator were awarded with the Pulitzer Prize for his sweeping Rising Sun. In Infamy, Toland extends and corrects his account of the events leading up to Japans attack on Pearl Harbor, addressing persistent questions: Could FDR have engineered a conspiracy to get the US into the War? Did high-level military and civilian leaders lie under oath? Were the wrong men held culpable in order to protect Washington? Accessing formerly secret government, military, and diplomatic records--including the account of the then anonymous and controversial Seaman ZToland masterfully reevaluates what we know about this infamous act of aggression against the US.

A dramatic countdown of the final months of World War II in Europe, The Last 100 Days brings to life the waning power and the ultimate submission of the Third Reich. To reconstruct the tumultuous hundred days between Yalta and the fall of Berlin, John Toland traveled more than 100,000 miles in twenty-one countries and interviewed more than six hundred peoplefrom Hitlers personal chauffeur to Generals von Manteuffel, Wenck, and Heinrici; from underground leaders to diplomats; from top Allied field commanders to brave young GIs. Toland adeptly weaves together these interviews using research from thousands of primary sources. When it was first published, The Last 100 Days made history, revealing after-action reports, staff journals, and top-secret messages and personal documents previously unavailable to historians. Since that time, it has come to be regarded as one of the greatest historical narratives of the twentieth century.

1918: The end of the war to end all wars. The end of an era for victors and vanquished alike.When Germany launched the Ludendorf Offensivesthe most massive military bombardment of World War Ithey seemed certain to win. But when American troops began arriving in droves, the Allies certain defeat became a decisive victory. No Mans Land takes us into the trenches, behind enemy lines, into military strategy sessions and through the corridors of power in London, Paris, Berlin, and Washington in a brilliant account of one of the most fateful years in Western history. Drawing on new sourcesdiaries, memoirs, vivid personal experienceshere is a book that for sheer excitement, drama, vigor, and emotional impact rivals the greatest novels, history marvelously told by the incomparable John Toland. "A compelling human picture...a marvelous job by a master of the big-canvas history."Business Week

[The Rising Sun] is quite possibly the most readable, yet informative account of the Pacific war.Chicago Sun-TimesThis Pulitzer Prizewinning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the authors words, a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happenedmuddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox. In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history. In his Foreword, Toland says that if we are to draw any conclusion from The Rising Sun, it is that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.Unbelievably rich . . . readable and exciting . . .The best parts of [Tolands] book are not the battle scenes but the intimate view he gives of the highest reaches of Tokyo politics.Newsweek

December 7, 1941 - at exactly 7:55AM on a seemingly peaceful Sunday morning, the United States was plunged into the greatest war in history!What were the events which determined the Pearl Harbor catastrophe? What were the last few days on Wake Island like? What really occurred on the infamous Bataan Death March and why did it happen? How did MacArthur make his dramatic escape from Corregidor? And what is the story behind the greatest capitulation in American history, General Wainwrights forced surrender of the Philippines?But Not in Shame begins with the race to decode intercepted secret Japanese messages the day before the Pearl Harbor attack, and ends six months later with the stunning victory which unexpectedly turned the tide - the Battle of Midway. More than an exciting narrative of battles and leaders, it is a story of the individuals on both sides who took part in the most critical decisions and momentous events.

Hypatia is John Tolands biography of the one he calls "a most beautiful, most vertuous, most learned, and every way accomplishd lady, who was torn to pieces by the clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, emulation, and cruelty of their Archbishop, commonly but undeservedly stiled St. Cyril." - Summary by Leni

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian John Tolands classic, definitive biography of Adolf Hitler remains the most thorough, readable, accessible, and, as much as possible, objective account of the life of a man whose evil affect on the world in the twentieth century will always be felt.Tolands research provided one of the final opportunities for a historian to conduct personal interviews with over two hundred individuals intimately associated with Hitler. At a certain distance yet still with access to many of the people who enabled and who opposed the fuhrer and his Third Reich, Toland strove to treat this life as if Hitler lived and died a hundred years before instead of within his own memory. From childhood and obscurity to his desperate end, Adolf Hitler emerges , in Tolands words, "far more complex and contradictory . . . obsessed by his dream of cleansing Europe Jews . . . a hybrid of Prometheus and Lucifer."