Review by Choice Review
Drawing upon documents that have recently become available to researchers, Irving has written a lengthy biography of Hermann Goering, focusing on the personality and human peculiarities of the man who was second to Hitler in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Irving details Goering's vanities, his enjoyment of the good life, his greed for paintings and fine jewelry, his lust for power, his slavish obedience to Hitler, and his drug addiction. He does not examine Goering's role in the defeat of the Luftwaffe, as did R.J. Overy in Goering, the "Iron Man" (CH, Jul '85). Irving, however, has found new material on Goering's suicide and offers a convincing theory as to how the deed was accomplished. This biography is long on anecdote but short on analysis. Irving never really grapples with the causes for the changes in Goering's personality from the daring fighter pilot and ruthless politician to the fat sluggard who fled from Hitler's rages. A very readable, often witty biography, it is recommended for undergraduate and public libraries. -K. Eubank, Queens College, CUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
``I've had a good run for my money,'' said Hermann Goring shortly after his capture by American troops in 1945. In this important biography, Irving amply demonstrates that this gloating summation was justified. The book is the first major effort at documenting the life of the complex, multifaceted Nazi whom Hitler had named as his successor. Working from diaries, letters, medical reports, interviews and archival records, the author describes Goring's experiences as World War I fighter ace, Stormtroop commander in the 1920s, Reichstag official in the 1930s and Luftwaffe chief throughout World War II. New material includes details of Goring's two marriages, his morphine addiction and withdrawal, his role in founding the Gestapo, his secret negotiations with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain before the war with England, his intrigues to take over command of the German army as well as the air force, and his impressive performance during the Nuremberg war-crimes trials. Irving ( The Destruction of Dresden ) claims to have solved one minor but intriguing mystery: how the closely monitored Goring obtained the poison with which he committed suicide on the eve of his execution by hanging. Photos. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Like Irving's previous work on the Third Reich ( The Trail of the Fox), Goring is impossible to ignore. Judgments such as its dismissal of the German resistance as traitors, or its admiration for Goring's stand during the Nuremberg trials, are sure to generate controversy. The biography's critical shortcoming, however, is its approach: narrative and anecdotal at the expense of analysis. Goring's bizarre private life is juxtaposed to his public roles as chief of the Luftwaffe, master of Germany's economic mobilization, and Hitler's first lieutenant. His failures as general and statesman, and his accompanying personal degeneration, are described but not explained. Irving does usefully highlight the grotesqueries and inefficiencies at the regime's higher levels. Except for details, however, students of the Third Reich will find Goring of limited direct value. Not recommended.-- Dennis E. Showalter, Colorado Coll . , Colorado Springs (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
British historian Irving (The Destruction of Dresden, The Trail of the Fox, Hitler's War, etc.) now undertakes a surprisingly rare--and baldly melodramatic--documentation of Hitler's number-two man, Reichsmarschal Hermann Goring. Despite Iving's access to exhaustive archival material, his penchant for pop-dramatics mars what could have been a definitive work. In his overeagerness to get to the meaty years, the author dispenses with Goring's first 25 years in a mere 20 pages. Afterwards, we are treated to such authorial excesses as a description of Goring responding to a Hitler rampage against the Versailles Treaty: ""Goddammit, thought Goring, that's the stuff!"" Or, after quoting the bragging of Gestapo chief Diels that he had his finger in many pies, this bonbon: ""One of the sweetest pies Diels had his fingers in was an American lady. . .Martha Dodd, the U.S. ambassador's. . .daughter."" Even on firmer ground, Irving fares no better. Too often, he portrays Goring as a peaceful man who was forced, out of fear of Hitler, into ruthlessness. And Irving's presumption to ""solve"" the question of Goring's death (already well-known to be from a cyanide suicide on the day of his appointment with the gallows) is based upon wholly circumstantial evidence (that a Dr. ??flucker brought the pill to him and later planted a suicide note in his dying hands). One of Irving's only genuine coups may be in setting the record straight concerning a mid-1920's trip to Italy made by Goring on behalf of Hitler's fledgling movement: Most biographers have assumed that Goring then met with Mussolini, but Irving fairly conclusively shows this to be untrue, a rumor encouraged mostly by Goring's own braggadocio. Seeded with many juicy quotes from insider conversations, this is a work best suited for those who prefer their history a la network docudrama. Goring remains in search of a more mature and thoughtful treatment. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
