Is Paris Burning?

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The book is great! In fact, one of the best I've read. I love how it is written!

Rating:
Summary: Well written account of Paris' Liberation by Well known auth
Review: The book is very well written, as have been their previous books, like Freedom at midnight. It covers fairly objectively aspects of the city's liberation very well. It makes you fall in love with Paris, if not anything else. Any student of military history and french history must not miss it. Well done lads

Rating:
Summary: Thank God it isn't!
Review: The dreadful question "Is Paris burning?" was put by Hitler himself to the German commander of Paris.
It anticipated the mad politic he will follow in the last year of WWII: burn it all, destroy it all (enemy or German alike).

The authors of this book had done a great work performing a very readable and entertaining piece.
They apply the technique of interviewing key witness, ranging from public figures to almost unknown particulars, from Allies military thru Resistance members, from Diplomats to German military. All of them have their saying and express their viewpoints unrestricted.
The collective memories of the witnesses generate an enormous "collage" of the period.
Collins and Lapierre take this huge mass of information to produce a coherent, ordered, dynamic and griping story that keep the reader going on.
An excellent 1966's film of the same title with an all stars cast is done based on this book.

This is an informative book commendable for anyone who is interested in WWII history or in the curious and dangerous events that endangered the existence one of the most beautiful City Capitals of the world.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.


Rating:
Summary: fascinating history
Review: This book reads as a gripping fiction story rather than a history book. The setting is WWII Paris just before and during the Allied liberation of the city. The authors follow the activities of dozens of characters who played a role in the liberation. I got very engaged with the characters as well as the plot. Excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: A journey back in time
Review: 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....

Rating:
Summary: The Germans Leave Paris. YEA! YEA!
Review: This is a interesting, fact filled non-fiction novel about the last months of Nazi occupation in Paris during WW II. Very detailed and engrossing. A bit slow in the beginning, and a good family read-a-loud. A lot of French and German names, titles, and terms. You should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: A must read on your trip to Paris
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing read
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Brent Paris?
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Brent Paris?
Review: 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.