'Hitler's Scientists ? Book Value?

[Carl Schwamberger]

Hitler's Scientists'

Accquired this recent book by John Cornwall. anyone read it throughly, have a background in the subject, or familar with Corwall's work? I'm curious about the merit of the content and what I should expect when I start reading it.

[Nick Beale]

It's reviewed by five people on Amazon, if that helps.

[Carl Schwamberger]

I'm halfway though the book (from the middle, ready to start the first chapter) and I agree with the Amazon reviewer's. This is a broadly aimed book that first places science in the Third Reich in the context of modern science, contrasts nazi era science development with that of the US & Britain, and looks at the moral questions. This is no book for nazifanbois or any others looking for atom bomb conspiricys & wonderwaffe. It looks to like a very usefull supplement to books like Tooze's 'Wages of Destruction' or John Ellis's 'Brute Force', a book needed to understand the economic and industrial basis of WWII.

[edwest]

As someone who specializes in German science and technology, a single book such as this can only scratch the surface. Who came up with a process to replace natural saltpeter with a substitute? If not for Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, World War I would have ended sooner.

The fourth largest company in the world when Hitler came to power was I.G. Farben. Get a copy of Treason's Peace by Howard Watson Ambruster (1947) and IG Farben by Richard Sasuly (1947). The German atomic project (actually, three projects) required a chemical company. The Americans chose DuPont de Nemours and the Germans certainly knew about Plutonium and that it needed to be separated by chemical means for use as an explosive - see Spying on the Bomb by Jeffrey T. Richelson (2006).

Who brought Hitler to power? A handful of fanatics? Who paid for the materials for the war?

See The Paperclip Conspiracy by Tom Bower, page 161. A warning was issued by the Joint Intelligence (Sub-) Committee: "In the field of atomic research for example, we estimate that German assistance has cut substantially, probably by several years, the time needed for the USSR to achieve practical results."



Ed

[Carl Schwamberger]

Thanks for the remarks & the advice. Cornwall seems to be very concise & clear. Thus far I am suprised by the ammount of detail he covers in relatively little text. I may have seen everything you refer to mentioned in his book thus far. I've some familarity with the atomic research question from other English language sources & Cornwall manages to add details to that without a lot of verbaige. That is he goes beyond Heisenberg and one or two others in Germany and identifys the roles and actions of some ten others involved in physics during the nazi era.

Thanks again for posting here.

[edwest]

You're welcome, Carl.




Ed