Oh wow I didn’t know that. I’ve never been anywhere in New England but I’ll be sure to check that out if I ever head up that way. It would be so cool to see everywhere that she describes.
I was actually given this a few weeks ago by a professor but I haven’t been able to read it yet. Too many great things out there and so little time!
Romani, if you are interested in Nazi Germany and the hunt for Nazis after the war, I just finished Hunting Evil by Guy Walters. It is a pretty scholarly book, in depth with a lot of footnotes. I personally would have organized it a bit differently, but I think it is well researched. Walters does NOT like the famous Nazi hunter Saul Wiesenthal at all (thinks he was sloppy and a glory hound for “finds” that were not really his). I learned a lot (much of it appalling) about how little was done to track down war criminals after WWII. 
If you are interested in politics:
http://www.amazon.com/Case-Against-Supreme-Court/dp/0143128000
@intparent did you watch Hunting Hitler on the History Channel? It’s the History Channel so take it with a huge grain of salt but I found it absolutely fascinating. I got hooked and binged watched it over winter break.
I always assumed that the conspiracy theories about Hitler escaping were just that but then when it was revealed that the skull in Russia was a female’s, I admit that I took an interest.
The “truth” of what happened to Hitler isn’t really what interested me about Hunting Hitler but rather it was the elaborate escape systems Hitler hand planned, the exodus of Nazis to Argentina, the continued hunt by the US for him well after WWII, etc that I found fascinating.
I echo the recommendation of “The Warmth of Other Suns,” about the history of the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the North – it’s a general history, but also focuses on several individuals’ stories, beginning with their lives in different parts of the South in the first part of the 20th century: one who migrated to New York, one to the Midwest, and one to California . Not only one of the most fascinating, but, I think, one of the most important books I’ve read in a long time. I am sure that you would appreciate it.
Romani, you should read Hunting Evil – it has a lot of research on the “escape networks” and what was actually done by both the hunted Nazis and the Allies. Not sure you will believe much of that documentary when you are done. 
Haha, like I said, it wasn’t so much about the conclusions they were drawing from the “evidence” but just the fact that these things happened that I had no idea about.
I do love (not believe, but find incredibly entertaining) Ancient Aliens though so maybe I’m just a sucker for a fantastical story 
I will definitely read it though as Hitler is a source of intense fascination for me. I think I got into my line of research because I need to understand how evil is allowed to grow and seduce people… and how so many things that we now consider human rights abuses can be allowed to happen without real critical thought.
It is actually less about Hitler than about other Nazis who did escape (or were believed to have escaped).
I should’ve said the Hitler phenomenon because of course his rise and atrocities weren’t done single handedly. I already requested it from the library and am looking forward to reading it!
@romanigypsyeyes Evans covers the Nazi eugenics program in the third volume extensively.
Thanks for the tip, @NoVADad99. Does he go into the connections to the US eugenics programs by chance? One of the things that is always striking to me when I encounter eugenics discussions in American books and documentaries is how relatively little is said about the US’ influence on Nazi racial hygiene programs (if there is any mention at all).
It won’t discourage me from reading it if there’s not, I am just curious
No. I don’t recall him making that connection, but I may be wrong. It’s been a few years since I read the books. He talks about how the program was carried out and who the targets were, and how the war made the effort even more important for the regime. The series starts with the discussion of the various racial beliefs that predated the Nazis during the Hohenzollern times, the ‘racial hygiene’ theories. He talks about the language used, and how they would label non-aryans in terms of diseases. So you can see how eugenics could evolve from such theories and be applied to non-aryan populations in terms of hygiene and disease.
Have you read the brand-new book called Imbeciles by Adam Cohen? It is about the American eugenics program, and in particular the forced sterilization of mentally impaired Americans. I haven’t read it yet but it is supposed to be good. I’d be curious as to what you think, given your area of expertise.
http://www.amazon.com/Imbeciles-Supreme-American-Eugenics-Sterilization/dp/1594204187
@nottelling I did read it. It’s… OK.
I am biased because this is my field of extreme specialty.
I think he vastly oversimplifies the eugenics movement and makes it sound like it’s something that has been relegated to the past (except for some brief mentions in the introduction and conclusion of more recent cases) when nothing could be further from the truth. The book is essentially a biography of some of the major players in the Buck v Bell case but I don’t really think that adds to our understanding of the eugenics movement. More, it makes it look like these were “bad” people who did “bad” things but more or less completely neglects the social and historic context that allowed eugenics laws to be passed and celebrated.
I am biased because I don’t think the biographies of the major players in the Buck v Bell case are really all that important… but again, this is my bias. I think what is far more important is the historical context in which these events happened and the (minimum of) 70,000 individuals that it happened to… not to mention the day-to-day people who actually determined “feeblemindedness,” approved the sterilizations, and ultimately conducted the surgeries.
I think the likes of Paul Lombardo (Three Generations, No Imbeciles) does a much better job of telling the complicated and nuanced history of eugenics and I’d highly recommend his books over Cohen’s.
I’m reading a pretty new book right now called Framing the Moron by Gerald O’Brien. It looks at the eugenics movement through the lens of disability studies rather than through a eugenics lens. It looks at the well-studied history of eugenics through a completely new paradigm rather than rehashing old evidence the way (IMO) Cohen’s does.
I hope this doesn’t discourage anyone from reading it. That’s just my take on it from someone who is very deep in the trenches. Cohen is a journalist and not a historian in any traditional sense of the word. He is writing for a very different audience than the books that I typically read. So, for example, I wouldn’t assign his book to my undergrads but if people were interested in specific people, say Henry Laughlin, then I might recommend it.
Another vote for River of Doubt. I listened to it on audiobook during a road trip and it was so good that I went to the library to find a copy to read.
Thanks so much for that informative and very helpful review of the Cohen book.
If you are going to read that, read the original from the man who was in Nazi Germany at the time, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. There is a reason it is the best selling history on World War II.
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camp by Nikolaus Wachsmann is a well-written but relentlessly depressing story. Best book I have read in the past 12 months.
Manchester’s History of Churchill is excellent with the second volume “Alone” the high point. The third volume I found to be an disappointment as it reads like a readers digest version of Churchill’s own “The Second World War”. You are much better off reading the original source material in this case even if it is six volumes. Churchill made his living by writing, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 largely because of the “Second World War”.
Another recommendation for Thucydides and Chernow’s Hamilton. Whenever you read about a modern atrocity or tragedy, Thucydides is a reminder that human nature has not changed in 2,500 years. Hamilton on the other hand, is a reminder that individuals can change society for the better.
Shirer’s was a first person account of an American reporter that is dated because of the information that has become available in the German and Russian archives since that book was written. I read Shirer’s book and it is a good read, but misses a lot of information pertaining to insider Nazi party dealings, and things he simply had no access to, such as the records of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, the internal security apparatus of the SS). Evans makes extensive use of these newly available records and paints a very broad picture of what was really happening in the Third Reich. I’ve read both and Evans’ books are so much more detailed than Shirer’s.
I just read “Dark Tide”, about the Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919…it was surprisingly good! I’d recommend it.
Donald Miller’s books such as Masters in the Air are worth reading (that book is being made into a HBO shows with Tom Hanks)