Morten Hansen

Excellent and broad introduction

Revisado: 06-13-23

A very good and broad introduction to the various topics and issues surrounding AI and machine learning.

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Interesting & thought provoking

Revisado: 04-17-23

Raises a lot of interesting questions while drawing on the history of the subject and practical implementation.

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Grey good - except for the German pronunciation

Revisado: 12-04-16

If you could sum up The Coming of the Third Reich in three words, what would they be?

Good book, bad pronunciation (yes, I know it's four words...)

Who was your favorite character and why?

Silly category for non-fiction

Did Sean Pratt do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Eh, yes, but... Another silly category for non-fiction...

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Oh, for crying out loud... Yes, you guessed it; another silly category for non-fiction.

Any additional comments?

This book is an excellent enquiry into the early history of the Nazi party before it came to power in 1933. I find the decision to translate practically all German terms into their nearest English equivalents a bit odd, but the reasoning behind it is sound and well explained by the author. However, it would have been even better if some of the concrete translations had been discussed, such as the translation of Mein Kampf into My Struggle. Yes, I know that this is the standard English translation of Hitler's biography, but it lacks the martial or violent aspects that connotes the word Kampf in German where it can also mean battle (for instance, a Kampfgruppe is a battle group). Still, this is a relatively minor quibble. A nice aspect of the book is that the author doesn't subscribe to the "Mein Kampf as a blueprint"-school, which is far more prevalent in popular discussions about Hitler and Nazism than among historians specialising in these subjects, and that the author clearly explains why such a simplistic interpretation is dubious. To me, this first volume of a Richard J. Evans' trilogy on the Nazi party and its history is the most interesting as it covers the crucial period before it was able to employ the powers of the state to further its cause and addresses the important question of how and why Hitler and the Nazi party came to power.

What mars this audio rendition is the narrator's rather shallow interest in how German words and names are pronounced. It's rather strange that you would hire someone to narrate a trilogy on the Nazi party and its history and neither care about whether he is able to pronounce German nor help him with a basic course on the matter, but this is apparently what happened. Having now finished the two first audiobooks in the trilogy, I'm sad to report that Sean Pratt's German pronunciation doesn't improve with time either. While he does manage to pronounce Göring correctly, he apparently hasn't bothered with the simple matter of checking up on such basics as the fact that German words beginning with v should be pronounced as if it was an f; it's pronounced "fon Ribbentrop", not "von Ribbentrop". Generally, Pratt simply transliterates any German word into English as if German and English pronunciation were equivalent, though sometimes he can't even meet this low standard with the worst case probably being his rendition of Karl Liebknecht's last name which would be incoherent if heard in isolation (the context makes it clear who Pratt is talking about). However, apart from this major caveat, Pratt is a pretty decent narrator, neither overly dramatic nor particularly boring.

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Interesting longue durée narrative marred by an Anglocentrist Whig interpretation of history

Revisado: 07-22-16

David Reynolds' history of the consequences of WWI is great in, for instance, its emphasis on reminding us not to look at the Interwar era anachronistically as its contemporaries considered it the Postwar era (until WWII came along, obviously) and he similarly cautions against interpreting WWI in the light of WWII.

However, I was increasingly frustrated by his implicit view of the U.K. as the "standard model" against which deviations were judged (and typically viewed as failings). This made Reynolds' narrative into something that ended up resembling an updated version of the British tradition of the Whig interpretation of history where Britain is the model of proper, modern, liberal, democratic civilisation and every other society or state is evaluated based on how well it conforms to this British ideal (stereo)type.

Sure, Reynolds state upfront that his main focus is Britain and to a lesser extent the US, but even so, it ought to be possible to write such a book without veering off into this Whig'ish view of history.

This perspective and the complete lack of self consciousness about it and its provenance is why I end up giving only 3 stars to a book that I'd otherwise would easily give 4 and perhaps even 5 stars.

I have nothing against the narrator, however, as the narrative flowed well and was easy on the ears as well as being clear and unproblematic to follow.

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