Customer Reviews

Is Paris Burning?

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As was advertised, the book IS PARIS BURNING was in perfect condition and, timewise, arrived when I expected it. This is a trustworthy seller.

For aficionados of WWII history this book is a must read. That statement would apply to anyone who has a deep interest in Paris as well. The book depicts the last days of the Nazi occupation of Paris through a series of carefully reconstructed events that appear with all the drama and vividness they deserve. As the allies began to push back the Nazis from formerly occupied territories such as in France, Hitler demanded that Paris be rigged with bombs and destroyed. The Nazi general in charge arranged for the bombs to be placed but hesitated in the execution of Hitler's orders. Hitler apparently called him with this persistent and famous question, "Is Paris burning?" This book explains the response of the general and the subsequent controversy over his decision. The battle scenes are not for the faint of heart. The book is a page turner and provides excellent historical information.

No novel could have been more exciting than this detailed story of the birth of Isreal and the early struggles. This book is written with all the suspense and excitement of a novel but what sets it aside is that it is all factual.

One of my favorite books!

This was the question asked by Hitler of his generals after giving the order to raze Paris to the ground as the German army departed. Collin's novelistic narrative is one of the classic World War 2 books to come out of the fifties and sixties, and is a perfect companion to Cornelius Ryan's works such as "Bridge Too Far" and "Longest Day." (Too bad the movie didn't match these.) The many players include resistance leaders, Gaullist soldiers, German generals, French collaborators and ordinary folk, as well as the odd Swedish diplomat. De Gaulle's parade down the Champs Elysees is the emotional highlight of the story but there are also gripping descriptions of activity along the barricades.

Airplanes are boxes that can transport us to places of wonder. Books can also transport us to these same places but not necessarily in the same time frame. This book allows you to imagine the Paris that could have been against the one you actually arrive in. It is as invaluable as a guidebook and will not go out of date.

This is, without a doubt, hands down, the BEST book on the liberation of Paris that I have ever read-- indeed, one of the best books in the subject of military history, period. The book includes little profiles of people never mentioned in the history books, which make the book come alive in the mind of the reader. You will NOT regret buying this book.

As part of Adolf Hitler's nihilistic resolution to decimate all traces of his infamous conquests and satanic occupations, Paris was to turn into a victim of Warsaw proportions. Lapierre and Collins masterfully direct the reader to the grueling scenario Generalfeldmarschall Dietricht von Choltitz had to endure: a German army turned decadent from Parisian amenities; allied troops slowly filling in the fringes of the French capital; and most importantly, Hitler's irreversible obsession to obliterate le Champs Elysées, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the perennial scars of European history.

Hopscotching between enemy lines, the authors draw the nauseating political picture of Paris during August of 1944 with Resistance militias and FFI agents vying for eventual supremacy, de Gaulle battling against time and the insensitive Eisenhower to avoid internal military strife and eventual Communist hegemony, and Wehrmacht officers contemplating the insurmountable fate of the City of Lights. They also explain in detail the military background of the liberation of northwest France and the strategic and political dilemma facing the Supreme Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces: chasing after the subdued German army all the way to the Rhine or liberating a Paris overshadowed by the hammer and the sickle.

"Is Paris Burning?" is superbly documented, intelligently written, and scrutinizingly researched. The real accounts of heroes and antiheroes, mothers and sons, Fascists and Communists, French and German alike are spellbinding and Homeric.

I bought this book, started reading it on the way home from the store, and finished it all in the same day. The author's style of writing is eminently readable. The book introduces you to many of the people involved in saving Paris, makes you love some and loathe others and keeps your attention glued to the end.

The book is based on interviews with as many of the key players in the liberation of Paris as possible, including the German commander of the city. The facts are laid out clearly, and the differing points of view are based on the actual opinions of the people involved, unlike some histories which seem to attempt telepathy.

The only (minor) problem I had with this book was a lack of footnotes, although there is a good bibliography some explanation in the text of where some of their information comes from. I could have used a bit more support for some of it, but on the whole I was pleased with and enjoyed the book.

This excellent book not only describes the events that happened in Paris during her liberation in 1945, it also describes the emotions felt by the different people living those events. Few books have made me feel a bizarre mixture of feelings like this one did. From one page to the next I found myself feeling happy, angry, surprised, sad, worried (yes, worried... even though I'm able to see every day that the city was not destroyed). This book has given me new eyes to see my own city. Paris is full of little plates with the dates and the names of the persons who died for her liberation. I didn't use to pay attention to these things. Today, I look at them with new interest and gratitude. There's only one little detail I would criticize about the book: its continuous repetition about Paris being the most beautiful city in the world. Even though I agree with the authors about this fact, I think their use of this remark was a little exaggerated and sometimes you loose the real context with so many repetitions. But well, no book is perfect and at the end, this is a very negligible thing compared to the interesting stories the authors share with the reader. They did a marvelous job researching the existing documents and interviewing the different intervening persons. I can't imagine the enormous amount of work this represented....

Is Paris Burning? is one of the best books that Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins have wrote together. A huge job, a piece of history novel, good as only a few can be, with a great work of investigation; interviews with people like General Dietrich von Choltitz, (who recieved the order from Adolf Hitler, to burn Paris, in case that the defense couldn't be accomplish) or for example the Chief of Operations in Europe, the General Dwight Eisenhower. As usual in their books, Lapierre and Collins, put the reader inside of one of the most importants chapters in the history of the XX century, the liberation of Paris, with precisions of days, hours, and places. The order of Hitler, the beginning of the resistance, the slow arrival of the allied, the clear disobedience of General Von Choltitz.... in fact, a crucial moment in the history of one of the most beautiful citys in the world, a turning point in the development of the Second World War. A different way to learn history.