Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden 1945

(Paperback)

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Description

A brilliant book about one of the most controversial British and America air campaigns of the Second World War. On the night of 13 and 14 February 1945 the RAF bombed the city of Dresden, causing devastating fires which obliterated the historic city centre and killed many thousands of people. Sixty years later these raids remain one of the most notorious, and also one of the most controversial, episodes in the history of the Second World War. Firestorm- The Bombing of Dresden 1945 assembles a cast of distinguished scholars, including Sebastian Cox, David Bloxham, Nicola Lambourne, Soenke Neitzel, Richard Overy and Hew Strachan, to review the origins, conduct, and consequences of the raids. Each contributor writes from his or her own perspective, offering the reader a panoramic reassessment of the evidence and the issues, including the question of whether or not the bombing of the city constitutes a war crime. Firestorm cogently demonstrates the reasons why Dresden has come to symbolise the military and ethical questions involved in the waging of total war.

Reviews

An authoritative, stimulating and compact guide to the often-disputed facts * Times Higher Education Supplement *
Extraordinary... deserve[s] to be read, not only by those interested in the history of the Second World War, but also by those who continue to be interested in the ethical questions of warfare * Daily Telegraph *

Author Bio

Paul Addison (Author) Paul Addison teaches history at the University of Edinburgh and is a former visiting Fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford. He is the author of Now the War is Over, a social history of post-war Britain which accompanied an acclaimed BBC television series; and Churchill on the Home Front, described by David Cannadine in the Observer as 'the best one-volume study of Churchill yet available'. Jeremy A Crang (Author) Paul Addison and Jeremy Crang work at the Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars at the University of Edinburgh. They are the editors of The Burning Blue (Pimlico, 2000) and Firestorm (Pimlico, 2006), collections of essays on the Battle of Britain and the Allied bombing of Dresden respectively.