About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCase Mate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC

ISBN-101612008240

ISBN-139781612008240

eBay Product ID (ePID)10038668499

Product Key Features

Book TitleBlack Tulip : the Life and Myth of Erich Hartmann, the World's Top Fighter Ace

Number of Pages240 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicMilitary Science, Military / World War II, Military / Aviation, Military

Publication Year2020

IllustratorYes

GenreTechnology & Engineering, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorErik Schmidt

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2021-275540

ReviewsA fascinating insight into the making of a flying legend ... exposes through rigorous analysis how myths are made, and sometimes used, to excuse one of the most evil mass slaughters in history., ''What sets this book apart is the in depth analysis of who Hartmann was and whether his reputation is apt and why he was and still is held in such high regard. It's a fascinating book and I highly recommend it.'', This is a genuinely fascinating and often compelling book. I like Erik Schmidt's honesty and his attention to detail. , This book offers a clear look at a complex figure and the wider world of the Third Reich which surrounded him and used him for their propaganda. It is an interesting and well-done biography, Portrays a complex human ... Black Tulip does much to fill in the backstory of the greatest fighter ace., ''If you are attracted to the idea of a book that attempts to explore, lucidly, the Nazi period German serviceman's mindset and which uses Hartmann as its fulcrum, then this might appeal.'', I am jealous. This is a wonderfully different--and wonderfully written--work. Schmidt is no fawning fanboy of the 'Greatest Ace of All Time.' Instead, he is a sympathetic and insightful researcher who has produced an engrossing and thoughtfully wandering analysis of the multi-dimensional Hartmann that is unlike, and better than, anything ever done. Get this one.

Dewey Edition22

Dewey Decimal358.414092

Table Of ContentIntroduction Part 1: Inheritances 1. 'The force that is devoted to death'2. Harmony3. The demolition function4. Jugend5. Into the Luftwaffe Part 2: Hartmann's wars 6. Kills7. Against Stalin's falcons8. Recognition and attrition9. Into captivity10.The east and the west11. Old gray ghosts Part 3: Stories told 12. Marketing the Wehrmacht13. The first, the last, the family14: What we can sayConclusion

SynopsisThe story of the top-scoring ace in history, a Luftwaffe pilot named Erich Hartmann who totaled 352 kills. Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War.Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst. Just when Hartmann's second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann's legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life--devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler--has gone unchallenged for almost a generation. Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we're used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we've inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves., The story of the top-scoring ace in history, a Luftwaffe pilot named Erich Hartmann who totaled 352 kills., Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War.Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst. Just when Hartmann's second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann's legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life--devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler--has gone unchallenged for almost a generation. Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we're used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we've inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves., The story of the top-scoring ace in history, a Luftwaffe pilot named Erich Hartmann who totaled 352 kills. Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War.Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler's Eagle's Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst.Just when Hartmann's second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann's legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life--devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler--has gone unchallenged for almost a generation. Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we're used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we've inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves., The most accomplished fighter ace in history remains an enigma. Erich Hartmann, who claimed 352 aircraft shot down over the World War II Eastern Front was both a dutiful servant of the Third Reich and a man celebrated by Western observers after the war-safely cleansed of Nazi ties and moral complexity. This rigorous, even-handed new book gives Hartmann his first full-length biography in sixty years. Finally, we see into his childhood under Hitler, his incredible talents and performance as a Messerschmit Bf 109 pilot, his decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet camps, and his idolization during the Cold War. The result is a penetrating work of history that teaches us about more than a man and a country and a war. Black Tulip also teaches us about ourselves and how we choose to remember. Book jacket.

LC Classification NumberUG626.2