Gerhard Weinberg

Gerhard Ludwig Weinberg (born 1 January 1928) is a German-born American diplomatic and military historian noted for his studies in the history of World War II. Weinberg currently is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a member of the history faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1974. Previously he served on the faculties of the University of Michigan (1959–1974) and the University of Kentucky (1957–1959).

Weinberg was born in Hanover, Germany, and resided there the first ten years of his life. As Jews living in Nazi Germany, he and his family suffered increasing persecution. They emigrated in 1938, first to the United Kingdom and then in 1941 to New York State. Weinberg became a U.S. citizen, served in the U.S. Army during its Occupation of Japan in 1946-1947, and returned to receive a B.A. in social studies from the State University of New York at Albany. He received his MA (1949) and PhD (1951) in history from the University of Chicago. Weinberg recounted some of his childhood memories and experiences in a two-hour long oral history interview for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Weinberg has studied the foreign policy of National Socialist Germany and the Second World War for his entire professional life. His doctoral dissertation (1951), directed by Hans Rothfels, was "German Relations with Russia, 1939-1941," subsequently published in 1954 as Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939-1941. From 1951 to 1954 Weinberg was a Research Analyst for the War Documentation Project at Columbia University and was Director of the American Historical Association Project for Microfilming Captured German Documents in 1956-1957. After joining the project to microfilm captured records at Alexandria, Virginia, in the 1950s, Weinberg published the Guide to Captured German Documents (1952). In 1958, Weinberg made the notable discovery of Hitler's so-called Zweites Buch (Second Book), an unpublished sequel to Mein Kampf, among captured German files. His find led to his publication in 1961 of Hitlers zweites Buch: Ein Dokument aus dem Jahr 1928, later published in English as Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf (2003).

In 1953-1954, Weinberg was involved in a major scholarly debate with Hans-Günther Seraphim and Andreas Hillgruber on the pages of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte journal over the question of whether Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 was a preventive war forced on Hitler by fears of an imminent Soviet attack. Seraphim and Hillgruber argued for the preventive war thesis, which Weinberg stoutly opposed. Hans Rothfels, editor of the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte and Weinberg's doctoral thesis advisor at the University of Chicago, was annoyed by Hillgruber's and Seraphim's arguments and invited Weinberg to write a reply to their article. Weinberg argued that the German invasion was primarily prompted by Nazi racial theories concerning the necessity of winning Lebensraum at the expense of Russia together with Hitler's ideological animosity towards what Hitler often called the "Judeo-Bolshevik" regime in the Soviet Union, and that the evidence for Soviet plans for an invasion of Germany in 1941 was slight. In the opinion of most historians, Weinberg effectively demolished Hillgruber's and Seraphim's case. This marked the beginning of the first of many clashes between Weinberg and Hillgruber over interpretations of German foreign policy, though it should be noted that in regard to the intentionalist-functionalist and globalist-continentalist debates (see below), the views of Weinberg and Hillgruber were quite similar.

In a 1956 review of Hillgruber's book Hitler, König Carol und Marschall Antonescu, Weinberg accused Hillgruber of engaging at times in a pro-German apologia such as asserting that World War II began with the Anglo-French declarations of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, rather than the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. In his 1980 monograph The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Starting World War II 1937-1939, Weinberg noted that about the question of the war's origins that "my view is somewhat different" from Hillgruber's. In his 1981 book World in the Balance, Weinberg stated that "Hillgruber's interpretation is not, however, followed here". In his 1994 book A World At Arms, Weinberg called Hillgruber's thesis presented in his book Zweierlei Untergang - Die Zerschlagung des Deutschen Reiches und das Ende des europäischen Judentums (Two Kinds of Ruin The Smashing of the German Reich and the End of European Jewry) "...a preposterous reversal of the realities". Weinberg sarcastically commented that if the German Army had held out longer against the Red Army in 1945 as Hillgruber had wished, the result would not have been the saving of more German lives as Hillgruber had claimed, but rather an American atomic bombing of Germany.

Another major scholarly debate involving Weinberg occurred in 1962–1963 when Weinberg wrote a review of David Hoggan's 1961 book Der erzwungene Krieg for the American Historical Review, which claimed that the outbreak of war in 1939 had been due to an Anglo-Polish conspiracy against Germany. Weinberg wrote a hostile review generally considered quite devastating, in which Weinberg suggested Hoggan had probably engaged in forging documents (the charge was later confirmed). Weinberg noted that Hoggan's method comprised taking of all Hitler's "peace speeches" at face value, and simply ignored evidence in favor of German intentions for aggression such as the Hossbach Memorandum. Moreover, Weinberg noted that Hoggan often rearranged events in a chronology designed to support his thesis such placing the Polish rejection of the German demand for the return of the Free City of Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland) to the Reich in October 1938 instead of in August 1939, thereby giving a false impression that the Polish refusal to consider changing the status of Danzig was due to British pressure.

Weinberg noted that Hoggan had appeared to engage in forgery by manufacturing documents and attributing statements that were not found in documents in the archives. As an example, Weinberg noted during a meeting between Neville Chamberlain and Adam von Trott zu Solz in June 1939, Hoggan had Chamberlain saying that the British guarantee of Polish independence given on March 31, 1939 "did not please him personally at all. He thereby gave the impression that Halifax was solely responsible for British policy". As Weinberg noted, what Chamberlain actually said was:

Do you [Trott zu Solz] believe that I undertook these commitments gladly? Hitler forced me into them!

Subsequently, both Hoggan and his mentor Harry Elmer Barnes wrote a series of letters to the American Historical Review protesting against Weinberg's review and attempting to rebut his arguments. Weinberg in turn published letters rebutting Barnes's and Hoggan's claims.

Weinberg's early work was the two-volume history of Hitler's diplomatic preparations for war: The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany (1970 and 1980; republished 1994). In this work, Weinberg portrayed a Hitler committed to his ideology, no matter how inane or stupid it might seem to others, and therefore as a leader determined to use foreign policy to effect a specific set of goals. Weinberg thus countered others, such as British historian A.J.P. Taylor, who had argued in The Origins of the Second World War (1962) that Hitler had acted like a traditional statesman in taking advantage of the weaknesses of foreign rivals. The first volume of The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany received the George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association in 1971.

Weinberg's attention then turned to the Second World War. He published dozens of articles on the war and volumes of collected essays such as World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II (1981). All such work was preparation for the release in 1994 of his 1000-page one-volume history of the Second World War, A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Weinberg continued his studies of the World War II era even after the publication of his general history by examining the conceptions of World War II's leaders about the world they thought they were fighting to create. It was published in 2005 as Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders. In this book, Weinberg looked at what eight leaders were hoping to see after the war ended. The eight leaders profiled were Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, General Hideki Tōjō, Chiang Kai-shek, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, General Charles de Gaulle, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Weinberg has continued to be a harsh critic of those who claim that Operation Barbarossa was a "preventive war" forced on Hitler. In a very hostile review of Ernst Topitsch's book Stalin's War, Weinberg called those who promote the preventive war thesis as believers in "fairy tales". In 1996, Weinberg was somewhat less harsh than in his review of Topitsch's book, but still very critical in his assessment of the Czech historian R.C. Raack's book Stalin's Drive to the West (which did not accept the preventive war thesis, but argued that Soviet foreign policy was far more aggressive than many other historians would accept, and Western leaders too pliant in their dealings with Stalin).

In the globalist versus continentalist debate, concerning whether Hitler had ambitions to conquer the entire world or merely the continent of Europe, Weinberg takes a globalist view, arguing Hitler had plans for world conquest. On the question of whether Hitler intended to murder Europe's Jews before coming to power, Weinberg takes an intentionalist position, arguing that Hitler had formulated ideas for the Holocaust by the time he wrote Mein Kampf. In a 1994 article, Weinberg strongly criticized the American functionalist historian Christopher Browning for arguing that the decision to launch the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" was taken in September–October 1941. In Weinberg's view, July 1941 was the more probable date In the same article Weinberg praised the work of the American historian Henry Friedlander for arguing that the origins of the Holocaust can be traced to the Action T4 program, which began in January 1939 Finally, Weinberg strongly praised the thesis put forward by the American historian Richard Breitman that planning for the Shoah began during the winter of 1940-41, but argued that Breitman missed what Weinberg argued was a crucial point, that because the T4 program had generated public protests, the Einsatzgruppen massacres of Jews in the Soviet Union were intended as a sort of "trial run" to gauge reaction of the German people to genocide.

A major theme of Weinberg's work about the origins of the Second World War has been a revised picture of Neville Chamberlain and the Munich Agreement. Based on his study of German documents, Weinberg established that the demands Hitler had made concerning the cession of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia were not intended to be accepted, but were rather to provide a pretext for aggression against the latter state. Weinberg has established that Hitler regarded the Munich Agreement as a diplomatic defeat that deprived Germany of the war that was intended to be begin on October 1, 1938. Weinberg has argued against the thesis that Chamberlain was responsible for the failure of the proposed putsch in Germany in 1938. Weinberg has argued that the three visits to London in the summer of 1938 of three messengers from the opposition, each bearing the same message that if only Britain would promise to go to war if Czechoslovakia was attacked, then a putsch would remove the Nazi regime, each ignorant of the other messengers' existence, presented a picture of a group of people apparently not very well organized, and that it is unreasonable for historians to have expected Chamberlain to stake all upon the uncorroborated words of such a badly organized group. In a 2007 review of Ian Kershaw's book Fateful Choices, Weinberg, though generally favorable to Kershaw, commented that Chamberlain played a far more important role in the decision to fight on despite the great German victories in the spring of 1940 and in ensuring that Churchill was his successor instead of the peace-minded Lord Halifax, than Kershaw gave him credit for. Weinberg's picture of Chamberlain has led to criticism; the American historian Williamson Murray condemned Weinberg for his "…attempts to present the British Prime Minister in as favorable a light as possible".

In 1983, when the German illustrated weekly magazine Der Stern sensationally reported its purchase of the alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler, the U.S. weekly magazine Newsweek asked Weinberg to examine them hurriedly in a bank vault in Zürich, Switzerland. Together with Hugh Trevor-Roper and Eberhard Jäckel, Weinberg was one of the three experts on Hitler asked to examine the alleged diaries. Squeezing the visit into just a few hours so as not to miss any of his teaching assignments at Chapel Hill, Weinberg reported in Newsweek that "on balance I am inclined to consider the material authentic." Weinberg also noted that the purported journals would likely add less to our understanding of the Second World War than many might have thought and that more work would be needed to "make the verdict [of authenticity] airtight." When that work was undertaken by the German Federal Archives, the "diaries" were deemed forgeries.

Weinberg supervised over two dozen Ph.D. dissertations during his career, along with many more M.A. theses. In 2003, thirteen of his former doctoral students presented him with a Festschrift honoring his contributions to the study of history and to their lives (The Impact of Nazism: New Perspectives on the Third Reich and Its Legacy). Weinberg was elected president of the German Studies Association in 1996.

Weinberg has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, a Fulbright professor at the University of Bonn, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Shapiro Senior Scholar in Residence at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum among many other such honors.

In June 2009, Weinberg was selected to receive the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime excellence in military writing, sponsored by the Chicago-based Tawani Foundation. As part of his acceptance, he gave a webcast lecture at the library on "New Boundaries for the World: The Postwar Visions of Eight World War II Leaders."

Books

• Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf, Enigma Books, 2003 ISBN 1-929631-16-2.
• Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939-1941, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954.
• The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–36, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970 ISBN 0-226-88509-7.
• (editor) Transformation of a Continent: Europe in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis, Minn.: Burgess Pub. Co., 1975 ISBN 0-8087-2332-4.
• The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Starting World War II, 1937-1939. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980 ISBN 0-226-88511-9.
• World in the Balance: Behind the Scenes of World War II, Hanover, New Hampshire: Published for Brandeis University Press by University Press of New England, 1981 ISBN 0-87451-216-6.
• A World at Arms : A Global History of World War II, Cambridge [Eng.]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994, revised edition 2005 ISBN 0-521-44317-2. online edition
• Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History. Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995 ISBN 0-521-47407-8.
• Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-521-85254-4.
• Hitler's Foreign Policy, 1933-1939: The Road to World War II. New York: Enigma Books, 2010 ISBN 978-1-929631-91-9.

Articles and reviews

• "A Critical Note on the Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945" pages 38–40 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 23, Issue # 1, March 1951.
• Guide to Captured German Documents. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University, Human Resources Research Institute, 1952.
• "Der deutsche Entschluß zum Angriff auf die Sowjetunion" pages 301-318 from Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte Volume 1, Issue # 4 1953.
• The Partisan Movement in the Yelnya-Dorogobuzh Area of Smolensk Oblast, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air Research and Development Command, Human Resources Research Institute Headquarters, United States Air Force, 1954.
• "A Proposed Compromise over Danzig in 1939?" pages 334-338 from Journal of Central European Affairs, Volume 14, Issue 4, January 1955.
• Review of Wen Sie verderben wollen: Bericht des grossen Verrats by Jürgen Thorwald pages 83–85 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 27, Issue # 1, March 1955.
• "Hitler's Private Testament of May 2, 1938" pages 415-419 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 27, Issue # 4, December 1955.
• Review of Die deutsche Besetzung von Dänemark und Norwegen 1940, nach amtlichen Unterlagen dargestellt by Walther Hubatsch pages 432-433 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 27, Issue # 4, December 1955.
• Review of Hitler, König Carol und Marschall Antonescu: die deutsch-rumänischen Beziehungen, 1938-1944 by Andreas Hillgruber pages 80–82 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 28, Issue # 1, March 1956.
• "Deutsch-japanische Verhandlungen über das Südseemanddat, 1937-1938" pages 390-398 from Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Volume 4, Issue 4, October 1956.
• Review of Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers: 1938 pages 409-410 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 28, Issue # 4, December 1956.
• Review of Das deutsche Reich und Polen, 1932-1937: Aussenpolitik und Volksgruppenfragen by Richard Breyer pages 403-404 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 28, Issue # 4, December 1956.
• "German Recognition of Manchoukuo" pages 149-164 from World Affairs Quarterly, Volume 28, Issue #2, July 1957.
• "The May Crisis, 1938" pages 213-225 from The Journal of Modern History Volume 29, Issue # 3 September 1957.
• Review of The Reichswehr and the German Republic, 1919-1926 by Harold J. Gordon pages 414-415 from The American Historical Review, Volume 63, Issue # 2, January 1958.
• Review of Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945 pages 63–64 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 31, Issue # 1, March 1959.
• Supplement to the Guide to Captured German Documents. Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1959.
• Review of Correspondence between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. and the Presidents of the U.S.A. and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 pages 142-143 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 31, Issue # 2, June 1959.
• "Secret Hitler-Beneš Negotiations in 1936-37" pages 366-374 from Journal of Central European Affairs, Volume 19, Issue 4, January 1960.
• Review of Logistical Support of the Armies by Roland G. Ruppenthal page 195 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 32, Issue # 2, June 1960.
• Review of Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918-1945 page 420 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 32, Issue # 4, December 1960.
• Review of Die Verspätete Nation: Über die Politische Verführbarkeit Bürgerlichen Geistes by Helmuth Plessner pages 419-420 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 32, Issue # 4, December 1960.
• Review of The German Northern Theater of Operations, 1940-1945 by Earl F. Ziemke pages 478-479 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 33, Issue # 4, December 1961.
• Review of The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg pages 694-695 from The American Historical Review, Volume 67, Issue # 3, April 1962.
• Review of Der Zweite Weltkrieg by Hellmuth Günther Dahms pages 994-995 from The American Historical Review, Volume 67, Issue # 4, June 1962.
• Review of Die Obersten Behorden der k. u. k. Kriegsmarine 1856-1918 by Walter Wagner page 142 from Military Affairs, Volume 26, Issue # 3, Autumn 1962.
• Review of Der erzwungene Krieg by David Hoggan pages 104-105 from The American Historical Review Volume 68, Issue # 1, October 1962.
• Review of Operationsgebiet Ostliche Ostsee und der Finnisch-Baltische Raum, 1944 page 366 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 34, Issue # 3, September 1962
• "Schachts Beusch in den USA im Jahre 1933" pages 166-180 from Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, Volume 11, Issue #2, April 1963.
• "German Colonial Plans and Policies, 1938-1942" pages 462-491 from Geschichte und Gegenwartsbewusstsein Festschrift für Hans Rothfels, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruphrect, 1963.
• Review of Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht, 1940-1945 by Percy Ernst Schramm pages 328-329 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 35, Issue # 3, September 1963.
• Review of Der Hitler-Stalin-Pakt, 1939-1941: Ein Beitrag Zur Methode Sowjetischer Aussenpolitik by Philipp W. Fabry pages 107-108 from The American Historical Review, Volume 69, Issue # 1 October 1963.
• Review of Munich by Keith Eubank pages 763-764 from The American Historical Review, Volume 69, Issue # 3, April 1964.
• "Hitler's Image of the United States pages 1006-1021 from American Historical Review, Volume 69, Issue #4, July 1964.
• Reviews of The Early Goebbels Diaries, 1925-1926 edited by Helmut Heiber & The Struggle for Germany, 1914-1945 by Lionel Kochan pages 453-455 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 79, Issue # 3, September 1964
• "National Socialist Organization and Foreign Policy Aims in 1927" pages 428-433 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 36, Issue # 4, December 1964.
• Review of Hitler et les Etats-Unis (1939-1941) by Saul Friedländer pages 483-484 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 36, Issue # 4, December 1964.
• Review of Big Business in the Third Reich by Arthur Schweitzer pages 439-441 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 80, Issue # 3, September 1965.
• Review of The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich by George Mosse pages 108-109 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 81, Issue # 1, March 1966.
• Review of Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht (Wehrmachtführungsstab) by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Andreas Hillgruber & Walther Hubatsch pages 328-330 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 38, Issue # 3 September 1966
• Review of Hitler and Russia: The Third Reich in a Two-Front War, 1937-1943 by Trumball Higgins page 965 from The American Historical Review, Volume 72, Issue # 3 April 1967.
• Review of While Berlin Burns: The Diary of Hans-Georg von Studnitz, 1943-1945 by Hans-Georg von Studnitz pages 208-209 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 39, Issue # 2, June 1967.
• Review of Germany: A Brief History by Walter Michael Simon page 413 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 40, Issue # 3, September 1968
• Review of The Trial of the Germans: An Account of the Twenty-two Defendants before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg by Eugene Davidson pages 670-671 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 40, Issue # 4, December 1968.
• Review of Stalin, Hitler, and Europe Volume I: The Origins of World War II, 1933-1939 by James E. McSherry page 660 from Slavic Review, Volume 27, Issue # 4, December 1968.
• Review of Stauffenberg. The Architect of the Famous July 20th Conspiracy to Assassinate Hitler by Joachim Kramarz pages 669-670 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 40, Issue # 4 December 1968.
• Review of The Conspiracy Against Hitler in the Twilight War by Harold C. Deutsch pages 1027-1029 from The American Historical Review, Volume 74, Issue # 3, February 1969.
• Review of The Rise of Fascism by Francis L. Carsten pages 122-123 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 84, Issue # 1, March 1969.
• "The Defeat of Germany in 1918 and the European Balance of Power, pages 248-260 from Central European History, Volume 2, Issue 3, September 1969.
• Review of The Free City: Danzig and German Foreign Policy, 1919-1934 by Christoph M. Kimmich pages 168-169 from The American Historical Review, Volume 75, Issue # 1 October 1969.
• "Germany and Czechoslovakia 1933-1945" pages 760-769 from Czechoslovakia Past and Present edited by Miloslva Rechcigl, The Hauge: Moution, 1969.
• Review of The Arms of Krupp, 1587-1968 by William Manchester pages 420-421 from Military Affairs, Volume 33, Issue # 3, December 1969.
• Review of The End of Glory: An Interpretation of the Origins of World War II by Laurence Lafore pages 2040-2041 from The American Historical Review, Volume 75, Issue # 7, December 1970.
• Review of Deutsch-Sowjetische Beziehungen bis Rapallo by Horst Gunther Linke pages 398-399 from Slavic Review, Volume 30, Issue # 2, June 1971.
• Review of Stalin, Hitler, and Europe Volume 2: The Imbalance of Power, 1939-1941 by James E. McSherry page 668 from Slavic Review, Volume 30, Issue # 3, September 1971.
• Reviews of The Ideology of Fascism: The Rationale of Totalitarianism by A. James Gregor & Fascism Today: A World Survey edited by Angelo Del Boca; Mario Giovana; R. H. Boothroyd pages 665-667 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 86, Issue # 4, December 1971.
• Review of Die Sowjetunion und das Dritte Reich: Eine Dokumentierte Geschichte der Deutsch-Sowjetischen Beziehungen von 1933 Bis 1941 by Philipp W. Fabry pages 681-682 from Slavic Review, Volume 31, Issue # 3, September 1972.
• Review of Economic Appeasement: Handel und Finanz in der britischen Deutschland-Politik, 1933-1939 by Bernd-Jürgen Wendt pages 643-644 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 44, Issue # 4, December 1972.
• Review of Icon and Swastika: The Russian Orthodox Church under Nazi and Soviet Control by Harvey Fireside pages 135-137 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 88, Issue # 1, March 1973.
• Review of The Czechs under Nazi Rule: The Failure of National Resistance, 1939-1942 by Vojtech Mastny pages 322-323 from Political Science Quarterly, Volume 88, Issue # 2, June 1973.
• Review of Akten zur deutschen auswartigen Politik, 1918-1945, aus dem Archiv des Auswartigen Amts. Series C: 1933-1937. Das Dritte Reich: Die ersten Jahre. Volume 1. Part 1, 30. Januar bis 15. Mai 1933; part 2, 16. Mai bis 14. Oktober 1933 pages 462-463 from The American Historical Review, Volume 78, Issue # 2, April 1973.
• Reviews of Republic to Reich: The Making of the Nazi Revolution edited by Hajo Holborn; Hitler's Weltanschauung: A Blueprint for Power by Eberhard Jäckel & Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader by Percy Ernst Schramm pages 306-307 from The American Political Science Review, Volume 68, Issue # 1, March 1974.
• Reviews of The War Hitler Won: The Fall of Poland, September 1939 by Nicholas Bethell & Codeword Barbarossa by Barton Whaley pages 361-362 from Slavic Review, Volume 33, Issue # 2, June 1974.
• Review of Hitler's Strategy, 1940-1941: The Balkan Clue by Martin van Creveld page 805 from Slavic Review, Volume 33, Issue # 4, December 1974.
• Review of Stalin und Hitler: Pakt Gegen Europa by J. W. Brügel pages 151-152 from Slavic Review, Volume 34, Issue # 1, March 1975
• Review of The Nazi Movement in the United States, 1924-1941 by Sander A. Diamond pages 1140-1141 from The Journal of American History, Volume 61, Issue # 4, March 1975.
• Review of Stalingrad, Risse im Bundnis, 1942/43 by Jurgen Forster page 45 from Military Affairs, Volume 40, Issue # 1, February 1976.
• Review of Russland und Deutschland by Uwe Liszkowski pages 632-633 from The American Historical Review, Volume 81, Issue # 3, June 1976.
• Review of Friedensinitiativen und Machtpolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 1939-1942 by Bernd Martin pages 740-742 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 48, Issue # 4 December 1976.
• Review of Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia, 1941 edited by Robert Cecil; Noble Frankland & Christopher Dowling pages 305-306 from Slavic Review, Volume 36, Issue # 2, June 1977.
• Review of Adolf Hitler by John Toland pages 1280-1281 from The American Historical Review, Volume 82, Issue # 5 December 1977.
• Review of Von der Strategie der Gewalt zur Politik der Friedenssicherung: Beitrage zur deutschen Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen page 197 from The American Historical Review, Volume 83, Issue # 1, February 1978.
• Review of The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler by Robert G. L. Waite pages 753-756 from The American Historical Review, Volume 83, Issue # 3, June 1978.
• "Recent German History: Some Comments and Perspectives" pages 358-368 from Deutschland-Russland-Amerika: Festschrift für Fritz Epstein, Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1978.
• Review of Le IIIe Reich et la pétrole roumain 1938-1940: Contribution à l'étude de la pénétration économique allemande dans les Balkans à la veille et au début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale by Philippe Marguerat pages 556-558 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 50, Issue # 3, September 1978.
• Review of Hitler's War and the Germans: Public Mood and Attitude during the Second World War by Marlis G. Steinert pages 795-797 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 50, Issue # 4, December 1978
• Review of The Decision to Divide Germany: American Foreign Policy in Transition by John H. Backer pages 1185-1186 from The Journal of American History, Volume 65, Issue # 4, March 1979
• Review of Germany and the United States: A "Special Relationship?" by Hans W. Gatzke pages 1225-1226 from The American Historical Review, Volume 85, Issue # 5 December 1980.
• Review of Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Volume I: Ursachen und Voraussetzungen der Deutschen Kriegsopolitik by Wilhelm Deist; Manfred Messerschmidt; Hans-Erich Volkmann; Wolfram Wette pages 732-734 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 52, Issue # 4, December 1980.
• Review of Hungary, the Great Powers, and the Danubian Crisis, 1936-1939 by Thomas L. Sakmyster page 166 from Slavic Review, Volume 41, Issue # 1, Spring 1982.
• Reviews of The Swiss Corridor: Espionage Networks in Switzerland during World War II by Jozef Garlinski & The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes by Gordon Welchman pages 91–92 from Military Affairs, Volume 47, Issue # 2, April 1983.
• Review of Germany and the Far Eastern Crisis, 1931-1938: A Study in Diplomacy and Ideology by John P. Fox page 421 from The American Historical Review, Volume 88, Issue # 2, April 1983.
• Reviews of Poland's Place in Europe: General Sikorski and the Origin of the Oder-Neisse Line, 1939-1943 by Sarah Meiklejohn Terry & The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 by Joanna K. M. Hanson pages 566-568 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 56, Issue # 3, September 1984.
• Review of Germany, Russia, and the Balkans Prelude to the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact by Marilyn Giroux Hitchens pages 711-712 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 56, Issue # 4 December 1984.
• Review of Das deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg by Horst Boog pages 761-762 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 56, Issue # 4, December 1984
• Review of "Unternehmen Barbarossa," der Deutsche Uberfall auf die Sowjetunion 1941: Berichte, Analysen, Dokumente by Gerd R. Ueberschar & Wolf Wette pages 727-728 from Slavic Review, Volume 44, Issue # 4, Winter 1985
• "Stages to War: Response" pages 316-320 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 57, Issue # 2, June 1985.
• Review of Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918-1945 pages 964-965 from The American Historical Review, Volume 90, Issue # 4, October 1985.
• Review of Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg by Gerhard Schreiber; Bernd Stegemann; Detlef Vogel pages 374-376 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 58, Issue # 1, March 1986.
• Review of Eine vertane Chance: Die Stalin-Note vom 10. Marz 1952 und die Wiedervereinigung; Eine Studie auf der Grundlage unveroffentlichter britischer und amerikanischer Akten by Rolf Steininger page 1189 from The American Historical Review, Volume 91, Issue # 5, December 1986.
• Review of Zwischen Anpassung und Widerstand: Deutsche Diplomaten, 1938-1941 by Marion Thielenhaus pages 637-638 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 59, Issue # 3, September 1987.
• Review of Frankreich und die Sowjetunion 1938-1940: Ein Beitrag zur Franzosischen Ostpolitik Zwischen dem Munchener Abkommen und dem Ende der Dritten Republik by Heinrich Bartel pages 609-610 from Slavic Review, Volume 46, Issue # 3/4, Autumn - Winter 1987.
• "Hitler's Memorandum on the Four-Year Plan: A Note" pages 133-135 from German Studies Review, Volume 11, Issue # 1, February 1988.
• Review of Jugoslawien in Strategie und Politik der Alliierten 1940-1943 by Hans Knoll pages 363-364 from Slavic Review, Volume 47, Issue # 2, Summer 1988
• "Munich After 50 Years" pages 165-178 from Foreign Affairs Volume 67, Issue # 1 Fall 1988.
• Review of Hitler and the Quest for World Dominion by Geoffrey Stoakes pages 1355-1356 from The American Historical Review, Volume 93, Issue # 5, December 1988.
• Review of Die neue Alte Welt: Roosevelt, Churchill und die europaische Nachkriegsordnung by Axel Gietz pages 101-102 from The American Historical Review, Volume 94, Issue #. 1, February 1989.
• Review of Stalin's War: A Radical New Theory of the Origins of the Second World War by Ernst Topitsch pages 800-801 from The American Historical Review, Volume 94, Issue # 3, June 1989.
• Review of Das Auswartige Amt im Dritten Reich: Diplomatie im Schatten der "Endlosung" by Hans-Jürgen Döscher pages 420-422 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 61, Issue # 2 June 1989.
• "The Munich Crisis in Historical Perspective" pages 668-678 from International History Review Volume 11, Issue #4, November 1989.
• Review of German Resistance to Hitler by Peter Hoffmann pages 1419-1420 from The American Historical Review, Volume 94, Issue # 5, December 1989.
• Review of Between Churchill and Stalin: The Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the Origins of the Grand Alliance by Steven Merritt Miner pages 1168-1169 from The American Historical Review, Volume 95, Issue # 4, October 1990.
• "Hitlers Entschluß zum Krieg" pages 31–36 from 1939 An der Schwelle zum Weltkrieg. Die Entfesselung des Zweiten Weltkrieges edited by Klaus Zernack, Jurgen Schmadeke & Klaus Hildebrand, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1990 ISBN 978-3-11-012596-2.
• Review of Organisation und Mobilisierung des Deutschen Machtbereichs by Bernhard Kroener; Rolf-Dietrich Muller; Hans Umbrei pages 885-887 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 62, Issue # 4, December 1990.
• Review of Turkish Foreign Policy during the Second World War: An "Acute" Neutrality by Selim Deringil pages 923-924 from The American Historical Review, Volume 96, Issue # 3, June 1991.
• Review of Der Pakt: Hitler, Stalin und die Initiative der Deutschen Diplomatie 1938-1939 by Ingeborg Fleischhauer pages 237-238 from The American Historical Review, Volume 97, Issue # 1, February 1992.
• Reviews of Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War edited by Robert Boyce & Esmonde M. Robertson & How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939 by Donald C. Watt pages 382-385 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 64, Issue # 2, June 1992
• "Some Thoughts on World War II" pages 659-668 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 56, Issue # 4, October 1992.
• Review of The Opening of the Second World War by David Wingate Pike page 341 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 57, Issue # 2, April 1993.
• Co-written with Edwin Bridges, Gregory Hunter, Page Putnam Miller, David Thelen "Historians and Archivists: A Rationale for Cooperation" pages 179-186 from The Journal of American History, Volume 80, Issue # 1, June 1993.
• Review of Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. Volume 6: Der Globale Krieg: Die Ausweitung zum Weltkrieg und der Wechsel der Initiative, 1941-1943 by Horst Boog; Werner Rahn; Reinhard Stumpf; Bernd Wegner pages 666-668 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 65, Issue # 3, September 1993
• "Comments on the Papers by Friedlander, Breitman, and Browning" pages 509-512 from German Studies Review, Volume 17, Issue # 3, October 1994.
• Review of The German Resistance against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938-1945 by Klemens von Klemperer pages 222-223 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 67, Issue # 1 March 1995
• Review of Explaining Auschwitz and Hiroshima: History Writing and the Second World War, 1945-1990 by Richard J. B. Bosworth pages 553-554 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 59, Issue # 3, July 1995.
• Review of The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution by Henry Friedlander pages 176-179 from German Studies Review, Volume 19, Issue # 1 February 1996.
• Review of Stalin's Drive to the West: The Origins of the Cold War by R.C. Raack pages 278-279 from Central European History, Volume 29, Issue #2, 1996.
• "Changes in the Place of Women in the Historical Profession: A Personal Perspective" pages 323-327 from The History Teacher, Volume 29, Issue # 3, May 1996.
• Review of Why the Allies Won by Richard Overy pages 573-574 from The Historical Journal, Volume 39, Issue # 2, June 1996.
• "Germany's War for World Conquest and the Extermination of the Jews" pages 119-133 from Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 10, 1996.
• Review of Cooperation under Fire: Anglo-German Restraint during World War II by Jeffrey W. Legro page 1212 from The American Historical Review, Volume 101, Issue # 4, October 1996.
• Review of Ambassador Frederic Sackett and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic, 1930- 1933: The United States and Hitler's Rise to Power by Bernard V. Burke pages 1027-1028 from The Journal of Modern History, Volume 68, Issue # 4, December 1996.
• Review of The Holocaust and Strategic Bombing: Genocide and Total War in the Twentieth Century by Eric Markusen & David Kopf pages 89–90 from The American Historical Review, Volume 102, Issue #1, February 1997
• "World War II Scholarship, Now and in the Future" pages 335-345 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 61, Issue # 2, April 1997.
• Review of From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939-1941 by Bernd Wegner pages 834-835 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 61, Issue # 4, October 1997.
• "Reflections on Two Unifications" pages 13–25 from German Studies Review, Volume 21, Issue # 1, February 1998.
• "Unexplored Questions about the German Military during World War II" pages 371-380 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 62, Issue # 2, April 1998.
• Review of Sideshow War: The Italian Campaign, 1943-1945 by George F. Botjer pages 550-551 from The American Historical Review, Volume 103, Issue # 2, April 1998.
• Review of Czechoslovakia between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Beneš in the 1930s by Igor Lukes page 1646 from The American Historical Review, Volume 103, Issue # 5, December 1998.
• "German Plans and Policies regarding Neutral Nations in World War II with Special Reference to Switzerland" pages 99–103 from German Studies Review, Volume 22, Issue # 1, February 1999.
• Review of Armistice 1918 by Bullitt Lowry pages 221-222 from Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March 1999.
• "Reflections on Munich after 60 Years" pages 1–12 from The Munich Crisis, 1938 Prelude to World War II edited by Igor Lukes and Erik Goldstein, London: Frank Cass, 1999, ISBN 0-7146-8056-7.
• Review of The Roots of Nazi Psychology: Hitler's Utopian Barbarism by Jay Y. Gonen pages 210-211 from German Studies Review, Volume 24, Issue #1, February 2001.
• Review of The Germanic Isle: Nazi Perceptions of Britain by Gerwin Strobl pages 820-821 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 65, Issue # 3, July 2001.
• Review of From Versailles to Pearl Harbor: The Origins of the Second World War in Europe and Asia by Margaret Lamb & Nicholas Tarling page 600 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 66, Issue # 2, April 2002.
• Review of Verbrechen der Wehrmacht: Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941-1944 pages 440-441 from German Studies Review, Volume 26, Issue # 2, May 2003.
• Review of Disobedience and Conspiracy in the German Army, 1918-1945 by Robert B. Kane pages 980-981 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 67, Issue # 3, July 2003.
• Review of Präventivkrieg? Der deutsche Angriff auf die Sowjetunion by Bianka Pietrow-Ennker pages 864-865 from Slavic Review, Volume 61, Issue # 4 Winter 2002
• (editor & translator) Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf, New York: Enigma Books, 2003 ISBN 978-1-929631-61-2.