Russell Hart

Bringing together the work of nine leading historians, and superbly illustrated with contemporary photography and colour maps, The Second World War gives readers a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of history’s greatest conflict.The period from 1939 to 1945 saw some of the most devastating and remarkable events in living memory. Labouring beneath a daily burden of fear, sacrifice, deprivation and uncertainty, soldiers and civilians of all nationalities were driven to extremes of selfless loyalty, dogged determination or bitter cruelty by the demands of a world at war. This book tells the stories of the men and women who lived and died during the Second World War, from politicians to factory workers, and from High Command to the conscripted men on the front lines. The experience of war is brought to life through a wealth of contemporary documentation, private writings and historical research, whilst the political, military and historical significance of the war is assessed and examined. From Europe's Western and Eastern Fronts to the war at sea, and from the Pacific to the Mediterranean and North Africa, every fighting front of the Second World War is covered in this truly comprehensive volume.

A poignant study of memory, dementia, and aging parentsAmerican photographer, writer, and teacher Russell Hart offers a highly focused visual essay about memory and the ways in which dementia destroys identity and personal history. The book's images are also an intimate study, through idiosyncratic objects and their settings, of an aging parent. The author created the photographs in his mother's house of over forty years after cognitive decline made it impossible for her to stay. Some of the images show the home's interiors as he emptied it out for sale. Others are close-ups of the hundreds of boxed arrangements of objects assembled by his mother, a hoarder, for both practical and sentimental purposes. Yet the book's narrative is sparing, leaving room for viewers to find evocations of their own experience, of caring for struggling family members and preserving a lifetime's memories.

A collection of paired flower photographs by a published author in another category, transformed through the process of solarisation, by esteemed art photographer, Brad Oliphant. Brad Oliphant is well-known in the fashion industry, where he worked for twelve years, with his photographic work featured by Dolce & Gabbana, Marie Claire, Ink, Flick, La Estetica, and Zink. In the autumn of 2014 the author released an illustrated keepsake book, Lessons in Love from A Course in Miracles (Sterling Ethos) that has given him great traction and exposure to wide audiences. The production values of this book make it an incredible gift for all of the spring holiday tie-ins (Easter, Mother's Day, Graduation) The foreword writer, Russell Hart, is the esteemed Executive Editor of American Photo magazine and his endorsement is very meaningful in terms of putting this first time illustrated art book author in context for the reader/consumer. "The results are published in the beautiful Enlightened Blooms (Glitterati Incorporated), a book which presents a highly saturated, almost neon vision of flowers, as though seen through an acid-trip lens. Published by Glitterati whose highly original books are produced absolutely impeccably, this is definitely one for the Jean-Michel Frank coffee table... put it beside Man Ray Portraits." - Christies.com In this exquisite collection of fine art photography, Brad Oliphant presents a distinctive new body of work - pairs of flower images transformed through the process of solarisation. Moving beyond the pastel palette of traditional flower photography, Oliphant has imbued these blooms with exuberant colour, breathing new life into a time-honoured subject matter. Side by side in stunning symmetry, these flowers are radiant - their glowing silhouettes, silver hues, and spectacularly distorted colours reminiscent of expressionist paintings. In an increasingly fast-paced world, the "Enlightened Blooms" encourages us to pause and pay attention to the beauty that surrounds us. While paying homage to a subject matter rich with symbolic and cultural significance, Oliphant makes us feel as if we are seeing flowers for the very first time. In their transformed states, these flowers beg to be lingered over, their forms contemplated, their very existence revered as a miraculous gift.

Biographers and historians have lionized Heinz Guderian as the legendary father of the German armored force and brilliant practitioner of blitzkrieg maneuver warfare. As Russell A. Hart argues, Guderian created this legend with his own highly influential yet self-serving and distorted memoir, which remains one of the most widely read accounts of the Second World War. Unfortunately, too many of Guderian’s biographers have accepted his view of his accomplishments at face value, without sufficient critical scrutiny, resulting in an undeserved hagiography. While undoubtedly a great military figure of appreciable ego and ambition and with a volatile, impetuous, and difficult personality, Guderian was determined to achieve his vision of a war-winning armored force irrespective of the consequences. He proved to be a man who was politically naive enough to fall under the sway of Hitler and National Socialism and yet arrogant enough to believe he could save Germany from inevitable defeat late in the war, despite Hitler’s interference. At the same time, Guderian was unwilling either to participate in attempts to remove Hitler or to denounce as traitors the conspirators who did. In the end, he distorted the truth to establish his place in history. In the process, he denigrated the myriad important contributions of his fellow officers as he took personal credit for what were, in reality, collective accomplishments. Thus, he succeeded in creating a legend that has endured long after his death. This brief biography puts the record straight by placing Guderian’s career and accomplishments into sharper and more accurate relief. It exposes the real Heinz Guderian, not the man of legend.

This book examines the seminal Northwest Europe campaign of the Second World War. This hard-fought campaign conducted by the Western Allies against the Germans during 1944-45 represented, for the former, the decisive theatre of the entire Second World War. From the desperate and risk-laden D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 to the rapid charge through western and central Germany in the last weeks of the war, American, British, Canadian and French military forces took on and defeated the German military. This victory ensured that the scourge of Nazism was finally expunged from the face of Europe.