A credible and fascinating account of Great Britain moving into the 20th century. Miller excels in portraying a critical cusp in British military history. Are the technological paradigm shifts, and calming prosperity of Great Britain in the late 19th Century, so much different than the new world milieu facing the US moving into the 21st? The immediacy of the past is why I love history. Although young at the time of publication, clarity of writing indicates touches of genius; one can easily see a "David" emaniting from this intelligent writer.

'Hermann Goring, Hitler Paladin or Puppet' by Wolfgang Paul is very weakly written. Covering the life of one of history's most fascinating individuals, the author, Wolfgang Paul fails miserably to deliver an interesting, well written book. Supposedly covering the life of the Reichmarshall from birth until death, this book lacks different and varied source material for quotes and does not even include a bibliography. Poorly written when compared to some of the classic works on World War II, such as Toland's work on Adolph Hitler, this book is better left on the shelf in the bookstore. One is forced to wonder if the author even bothered to do adequate research on his subject. A BIG disappointment from the first page until the last.

This book suffers only from its lifeless and tedious style. I suspect that the translation is partly to blame. It is not an easy read, but it is a very well researched and highly detailed factual study of the Reichsmarschall--the only prominent Nazi to come from a "good" family: he was a descendant, on his father's side, of the high nobility and most of the reigning houses of the Middle Ages. The author's knowledge of, and recitation of, collateral factual details is amazing, if not slightly pretentious. Did you know, for example that the Reichsmarschall kept one of his three glass vials of hydrocyanic acid in a jar of Nivea? The book is a tour de force of Teutonic trivia and a delight for any serious student of the Third Reich. The style in which the book is written is problematic, off-putting and a bit irritating, but the quality of the research content is definitely worth the effort. A four page bibliography is present.