The Third Reich Series
The Third Reich is a series of books published by Time Life Books that chronicles the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, relating historical events as experienced by the German side. The series began its release run on the home market from 1988 onward, followed a year later by a European dissemination release, typically by series subscription through the "Time-Life Books BV" Amsterdam-branch subsidiary, among others in the UK.[1] Each book focused on a different topic, such as the SS, Afrika Korps and various campaigns.
Overview
Each volume in the series was 192 pages in length, heavily illustrated and with pictorial essays on specific topics within the volume. Each book was executed in faux black leatherette with silver and red text imprints, and featured a large glued-on picture on its front. The books were issued without a dust jacket, though there are some rare, later UK reprint versions with redesigned covers and newly assigned ISBNs known to have been issued with one by the London-based Caxton Publishing Group,[2] who partially reissued the (British-spelled) series for their home market in the years 2004-06. They did so under a full license from the Amsterdam "Time-Life Books B.V." European branch (as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes), which had managed to stay in business a few years longer after its American "Time Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher.[3] Each volume came additionally with a bookmark/map key insert explaining the military symbology used on the maps as featured in the series.
The overall Editor-in-Chief for the series was the renowned military historian Col. John R. Elting, already a regular contributing editor on Time Life's prior World War II (the de facto progenitor series for The Third Reich publication) and The Civil War series. The second-most prolific series contributor concerned American military historian Charles Victor Pennington von Luttichau, who was singularly well suited to serve as such as he had been a participant on the German side in several of the campaigns covered in the series as a Luftwaffe antiaircraft officer during the war; shortly before the outbreak of war his American mother managed to evade Nazi Germany, but her son was not able to, resulting in that he became drafted by the Wehrmacht.[4]
The technical hardware illustrations were done by John Batchelor, a renowned British technical illustrator of the era.
There are 21 volumes in the series:
Title | Consultants/Authors | Volume | Year published (US, UK) | ISBN (US 1st printing, UK 1st printing) |
---|---|---|---|---|
The SS | George H. Stein | 01 | 1988, 2004 | ISBN 0809469502, 1844470733 |
Fists of Steel | George H. Stein | 02 | 1988 | ISBN 0809469669 |
Storming to Power | William Sheridan Allen | 03 | 1989 | ISBN 0809469545 |
Wolf Packs | Timothy Patrick Mulligan | 04 | 1989, 2004 | ISBN 0809469758, 184447075X |
The Reach for Empire | Gerhard L. Weinberg | 05 | 1989, 2006 | ISBN 0809469588, 1844470784 |
The New Order | William Sheridan Allen | 06 | 1989, 2006 | ISBN 0809469626, 1844470776 |
Afrikakorps | Williamson Murray | 07 | 1990 | ISBN 0809469839 |
The Twisted Dream | Robert G. L. Waite | 08 | 1990 | ISBN 0809470004 |
Barbarossa | Charles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray | 09 | 1990 | ISBN 080946991X |
The Southern Front | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 10 | 1991 | ISBN 0809470160 |
War on the High Seas | Robert O. Dulin, Jr., William H. Garske, Jr., Charles S. Thomas, Charles V. P. Luttichau | 11 | 1990, 2004 | ISBN 0809469952, 1844470741 |
Lightning War | Charles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray | 12 | 1989 | ISBN 0809469707 |
Conquest of The Balkans | Charles V.P. von Luttichau, Williamson Murray | 13 | 1990 | ISBN 0809469790 |
The Center of the Web | Peter Hoffmann, Robert G. L. Waite | 14 | 1991 | ISBN 0809469871 |
Apparatus of Death | John M. Bridgman, Sybil Milton | 15 | 1991 | ISBN 0809470047 |
Road to Stalingrad | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 16 | 1991, 2004 | ISBN 0809481502, 1844470725 |
The Heel of the Conqueror | Norman Rich | 17 | 1991 | ISBN 0809470128 |
Fortress Europe | John M. Bridgman | 18 | 1991 | ISBN 0809470330 |
Scorched Earth | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 19 | 1991 | ISBN 0809470292 |
The Shadow War | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 20 | 1991 | ISBN 080947008X |
Descent Into Nightmare | Charles V.P. von Luttichau | 21 | 1991, 2004 | ISBN 0809470373, 1844470709 |
note: Some, but not all, of the US releases have seen a second printing the subsequent year with newly assigned ISBNs, which were typically eight numbers higher.
Two further titles have been reported for a slated release as well, Empires in the East and Homeland Besieged,[5] but the series was terminated before they could be issued resulting in that no bibliographical data are recorded in the Library of Congress.[6]
International editions
In stark contrast to the World War II progenitor series (which had seen a plethora of international editions in translation), there is only one other international edition of The Third Reich known besides the UK Caxton edition, the 2008-09 Spanish-language El III Reich y Hitler series released by Barcelona-based Ediciones Folio, S.A.[7] likewise fully licensed by Time Life Inc. – through Dutch agent "Direct Holdings Holland B.V." per the book colophons, as Time-Life Books B.V. had by then become defunct as well – with radically redesigned covers as well.[8] Noteworthy was, that the Spanish edition had three 248-page UK/non-Time-Life pedigree volumes included which had been lacking from the originating English-language release; the first "Hitler: máquina de guerra" title by William Carr (ISBN 9788441327856) had originally been the "Hitler's War Machine" release (OCLC 2585107) from 1975. The second by military historian Christopher Chant authored "Los generales de Hitler" (ISBN 8441327157) actually concerned his older "Hitler's Generals and Their Battles" title (ISBN 0890090491) he had already written in 1976. The third "La Luftwaffe de Hitler" (ISBN 9788441327849) title by historians Bill Gunston and Tony Wood, had likewise been a reissue of their older "Hitler's Luftwaffe" book (ISBN 0517224771) from 1978.
Interested customers in other-language territories were, alongside their 1990s UK and Spanish contemporaries, offered the opportunity to acquire the original American version via mail through their nearest Time Life Books subsidiary, the aforementioned Time-Life Books B.V. in particular, typically by series subscription.
Spin-off
Contrary to several other Time Life Books history series, no spin-offs from this particular series are known, save one; it turned out that Time Life had been commissioned by the BBC to sell their 1997 six-part The Nazis: A Warning from History documentary series on DVD in North America. For the BBC's North American July 2006 four-disc DVD set release, Time Life provided retail distribution and promotional services, which included at least one television commercial.[9]
Promotion
Time Life Books' usual standard operating procedure in the late 1970s and 1980s to promote their book series was to embark on a vigorous television ad campaign in the form of a series of commercials transmitted either in first-run syndication or during late-night television programming. This was complementary to their standard practice of sending out elaborate multi-sheet mailings to their already existing customer base, in which a series was introduced in detail to a potential subscriber; having taken out a subscription once, a customer was then registered in Time Life Books' customer database, at the time a crucial business model marketing tool for the company, making that customer eligible for receiving the company's mailings henceforth.[10]
However, in this particular case though, Time Life appeared to have taken a more low-key approach because of the sensitive nature of the series' subject matter, particularly restraining themselves in regard to television ads, as very few were aired, though there is at least one known.[11] That one commercial was subdued in comparison to Time Life's sensationalized commercial made a decade earlier for "The Nazis" volume of the progenitor World War II series.[12]
As was customary for Time Life Books at the time, the first book ordered (typically volume 1 in this case) was sent on a ten-day trial basis at a reduced price, after which each bi-monthly next installment could be assessed by customers on the same basis. That first book came additionally with a free bonus gift in the form of a facsimile reproduction – taken from the in the Imperial War Museum kept only known surviving original – of Hitler's 31 August 1939 four-page "Anweisung Nr. 1", considered his very first wartime general directive to his armed forces. The four single print pages came along with an extra publisher's note and translation double print page in a document folder adorned with the Nazi eagle. Customers were allowed to keep the reproduction even if they decided to return the volume it came with.
References
- ^ "The SS". Worldcat.org.; the (English-language) releases intended for international dissemination, concerned US reprint editions endowed with ISBNs that were typically eight numbers higher that those on the originating US home market releases as listed in the table in the article.
- ^ "The SS (The Third Reich)". Amazon.com.
- ^ Hatch, Denny. "The Rise and Fall of Time-Life Books". TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ "In Memoriam, Charles V. P. von Luttichau (1917–2005)".; after the war, von Luttichau did rejoin his mother in the USA and eventually became a naturalized US citizen.
- ^ Having already received their respective "080947025X". and "0809470209". ISBNs on Amazon.com.
- ^ "The Third Reich". Leggman's Time-Life Library, a compendium of Time-Life Books information. 23 June 2003. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- ^ "III Reich y Hitler". WorldCat.org.
- ^ "Las SS (El III Reich y Hitler)". Amazon.com.
- ^ The Nazis Time Life BBC on YouTube
- ^ Hatch, Denny. "The Rise and Fall of Time-Life Books". TheFreeLibrary.com. Retrieved 1 April 2021.; Hatch, Denny. "The Rise and Fall of Time Life Books". Target Marketing. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
- ^ July 1989 Time Life Books "Third Reich Series" TV Commercial on YouTube
- ^ "The Nazis" Time-Life Books World War II Commercial on YouTube