Callum Brown is Professor of Religious and Cultural History, University of Dundee. His previous publications include The Death of Christian Britain (Routledge 2001) which controversially used postmodern theory to argue that Christian culture is dead in Britain, killed by cultural change from the 1960s.
Zumbro conveys the experience of urban combat from the German perspective while still making sense of the larger struggle. From the nightly terrors inflicted by aerial bombardment to the dogged struggle amid ruinstrewn cities, he captures well the essence of war at its most concrete--the daily struggle to survive and the almost routine agonies of existence amid the spreading chaos. Confusion, uncertainty, vicious resistance, revenge killings, casual violence on both sides--all these things, and even acts of charity and humanity, characterized the final days of the war. -- Stephen G. Fritz