He brings to life a rich cast of characters, and we witness how they develop in the face of Hitler’s oppression. This is a poignant human story of loyalty, love and courage in the face of extortion, treachery, blackmail and murder. There is humor, too, as Arnold learns that his best weapons are ridicule and cunning. Readers of this intriguing book will find themselves in a ringside seat witnessing one of the most extraordinary and sinister social and political phenomena of the 20th Century.
REVIEWS
Beautifully written and wonderfully edited, Sown With Corn will be enjoyed by all World War II enthusiasts as well as those with an interest in German history.
WW2 Connection.com
This extraordinary tale in not quite history but a semi-fiction-alised account by Frank Binder, a Germanophile who spent the Great War in Dartmoor Prison as a reward for conscientious objection and lectured at Bonn University between 1921 and 1933.
The discovery and publication of this manuscript is the work of one of his former pupils, Michael Rines, who is to be congratulated on bringing to us this moving, colorful and evocative account of the rise of Nazism in the Rhineland.
Robert Gildea, History Today
Sown with Corn might offer insights into Naziism, based on first-hand experience, which could appeal to many who are interested in the topic but perhaps not keen to read through an extensive non-fictional literature.
Sir Ian Kershaw, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at Sheffield University
The portrayal of the collapse of a society and its slow but inevitable degeneration into a police state makes for painful but riveting reading. However, it is not all a description of a grim descent into authoritarianism. Arnold [the hero] finds ways of outwitting the Nazis and using the different factions within the movement to the advantage of their opponents. Other villagers, too, resist both the physical and psychological reign of terror and that is where the book is at its most impressive, begging the questions we all hesitate to ask ourselves. What way would we go? Would we resist? Or would we be like several characters, all too ready to change our political tune to fit in the realities of a new age. Binder’s novel … is probably the most unsettling and difficult tome I have ever read, helped by the brilliance of the language and the author’s ability to portray so realistically the dilemmas faced by very ordinary folk in extraordinary times historian Christian Wolmar published in The Oldie
I am struck with the authenticity of this account of the Nazi government’s impact on a single village in the Rhineland... I cannot in a few sentences describe the subtlety of the author's analysis of village society under stress; it is a sophisticated account that is wholly convincing. The importance (not to say significance) of a book written by a contemporary English observer of intelligence and sensitivity, one who spoke and understood the language, and who loved Germany, cannot be overstressed. Frank Binder taught at the University of Bonn from 1921 to 1936: he was, therefore, a first-hand witness of the rise and triumph of Nazism (which he detested for its corrupting effect on all that was good in Germany). It is fortunate that he was capable of a deeply felt, acutely vivid description of what he witnessed. He was the right man in the right place at a terrible time.
Professor Colin Richmond, Emeritus Professor of History, Keele University, an authority on the Holocaust and German/Jewish relations
a most valuable contribution to the mutual understanding of a comparatively little known aspect of Anglo-German history.
Dr Dieter Mehl, Emeritus Professor of English, American and Celtic Studies, Bonn University
A lightly fictionalized recollection of the Rhenish province on the cusp of the abyss by a young
English academic with a Leica eye and an ear to the ground, Binder's novel is as close as we're likely to get to to the Germany he experienced in 1932-33. His story, filled with believable characters in a believable landscape, is a salutary reminder that the road to hell is paved with self-deceptions
David Schoenbaum, History Professor at Iowa University
He brings to life a rich cast of characters, and we witness how they develop in the face of Hitler’s oppression. This is a poignant human story of loyalty, love and courage in the face of extortion, treachery, blackmail and murder. There is humor, too, as Arnold learns that his best weapons are ridicule and cunning. Readers of this intriguing book will find themselves in a ringside seat witnessing one of the most extraordinary and sinister social and political phenomena of the 20th Century.
REVIEWS
Beautifully written and wonderfully edited, Sown With Corn will be enjoyed by all World War II enthusiasts as well as those with an interest in German history.
WW2 Connection.com
This extraordinary tale in not quite history but a semi-fiction-alised account by Frank Binder, a Germanophile who spent the Great War in Dartmoor Prison as a reward for conscientious objection and lectured at Bonn University between 1921 and 1933.
The discovery and publication of this manuscript is the work of one of his former pupils, Michael Rines, who is to be congratulated on bringing to us this moving, colorful and evocative account of the rise of Nazism in the Rhineland.
Robert Gildea, History Today
Sown with Corn might offer insights into Naziism, based on first-hand experience, which could appeal to many who are interested in the topic but perhaps not keen to read through an extensive non-fictional literature.
Sir Ian Kershaw, Emeritus Professor of Modern History at Sheffield University
The portrayal of the collapse of a society and its slow but inevitable degeneration into a police state makes for painful but riveting reading. However, it is not all a description of a grim descent into authoritarianism. Arnold [the hero] finds ways of outwitting the Nazis and using the different factions within the movement to the advantage of their opponents. Other villagers, too, resist both the physical and psychological reign of terror and that is where the book is at its most impressive, begging the questions we all hesitate to ask ourselves. What way would we go? Would we resist? Or would we be like several characters, all too ready to change our political tune to fit in the realities of a new age. Binder’s novel … is probably the most unsettling and difficult tome I have ever read, helped by the brilliance of the language and the author’s ability to portray so realistically the dilemmas faced by very ordinary folk in extraordinary times historian Christian Wolmar published in The Oldie
I am struck with the authenticity of this account of the Nazi government’s impact on a single village in the Rhineland... I cannot in a few sentences describe the subtlety of the author's analysis of village society under stress; it is a sophisticated account that is wholly convincing. The importance (not to say significance) of a book written by a contemporary English observer of intelligence and sensitivity, one who spoke and understood the language, and who loved Germany, cannot be overstressed. Frank Binder taught at the University of Bonn from 1921 to 1936: he was, therefore, a first-hand witness of the rise and triumph of Nazism (which he detested for its corrupting effect on all that was good in Germany). It is fortunate that he was capable of a deeply felt, acutely vivid description of what he witnessed. He was the right man in the right place at a terrible time.
Professor Colin Richmond, Emeritus Professor of History, Keele University, an authority on the Holocaust and German/Jewish relations
a most valuable contribution to the mutual understanding of a comparatively little known aspect of Anglo-German history.
Dr Dieter Mehl, Emeritus Professor of English, American and Celtic Studies, Bonn University
A lightly fictionalized recollection of the Rhenish province on the cusp of the abyss by a young
English academic with a Leica eye and an ear to the ground, Binder's novel is as close as we're likely to get to to the Germany he experienced in 1932-33. His story, filled with believable characters in a believable landscape, is a salutary reminder that the road to hell is paved with self-deceptions
David Schoenbaum, History Professor at Iowa University
Their Cemetery Sown With Corn: An Englishman's Stand Against the Nazi Storm
336
Their Cemetery Sown With Corn: An Englishman's Stand Against the Nazi Storm
336Related collections and offers
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781781590836 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Pen & Sword Military |
| Publication date: | 02/02/2013 |
| Pages: | 336 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d) |