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Learn to COOK - Wine & War: The French, the Nazis & the Battle for France's Greatest Treasure
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List Price: $24.00
Our Price: $44.91
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Broadway
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5344
EAN: 9780767904476
ISBN: 0767904478
Label: Broadway
Manufacturer: Broadway
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2001-05-15
Publisher: Broadway
Release Date: 2001-05-15
Studio: Broadway
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Editorial Reviews:
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In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown—until now. Wine and War tells the alternately thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them.
By rooting the narrative in the stories of five prominent winemaking families from France's key wine-producing regions of Burgundy, Alsace, the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, and Champagne, journalists Don and Petie Kladstrup vividly illustrate how men and women risked their lives for a cause that meant saving the heart and soul of France as much as protecting its economy. It was a extraordinary partnership involving everyone from the owners of Paris's famed restaurant La Tour d'Argent who rushed to build a wall to conceal their most precious twenty thousand bottles, to French soldiers who triumphantly reclaimed Hitler's enormous cache of stolen wines at the conclusion of the war.
Wine and War portrays the central role wine has long played in France’s military campaigns—how Napoleon ordered wagon loads of champagne to sustain the morale of his armies and how, during World War I, huge quantites of wine were shipped to soldiers in the trenches of Northern France. By the beginning of World War II, wine represented a living for nearly 20 percent of France's population and the authors chronicle the Nazis' determination to seize control of the French wine industry and its profits. At the same time, Wine and War brings to light the resourcefulness of wine producers who employed spiderwebs to "age" false walls hiding their best wines, who foisted off their worst bottles on the Germans or gleefully misdirected shipments, sending champagne to Homburg instead of Hamburg, and who sabotaged trains transporting wine to Germany. It also recounts the heroics of winemakers who hid Jewish refugees and smuggled members of the Resistance across the Demarcation Line in wine barrels, as well as the villainy of collaborators who worked with Nazi occupiers for their own benefit.
Finally, Wine and War reveals that the French were not alone in trying to save their wine. They received help from unexpected quarters: the German weinfuhrers, the very men the Nazis sent to requisition wine, whose close ties to the French wine industry mitigated their actions, and even the collaborationist Vichy regime, which recognized the importance of keeping France's vineyards French, and prevented the Nazis from seizing the Jewish-owned Chateaux Mouton-Rothschild and Lafite-Rothschild.
Based on three years of research and interviews with the survivors who engaged in this epic enterprise, Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting material, lazy compilation
Comment: I found this book enjoyable. Stories of the French resistance during Nazi occupation were something I hadn't had exposure to before, and found quite exciting. In addition, the breadth of anecdotes illuminates a number of segments of French society during a fascinating period, and covers people from a wide range of regions and socioeconomic backgrounds. The book is only tangentially about wine, in that most of the anecdotes deal with winegrowers and wine merchants in some way, but the stories themselves don't necessarily focus on that. For me, this wasn't a problem, since I didn't seek out the book out of an interest in wine, just a general interest in history.
The biggest problem I had with this book was the authors seemed to research and organize it sloppily. Reading it, I get the distinct impression that the authors didn't want to go through too much work to compile material that would fit perfectly, just that they got what they got, threw it together, and called it a book. Chapters lack continuity and flow, and there are few unifying themes, except that all of the stories involve people who are connected to wine in some way. To me, that's not enough to call the book cohesive. As a result, I don't feel I took away much from reading this, aside from a few amusing anecdotes without a real lesson.
As I said, I enjoyed reading this, but it was much more a function of the subject matter than the writing. With this subject, the authors had dynamite and should have been able to write a spectacular book. Instead, it lacks luster and flow, and left me wondering what the point was. I wouldn't dissuade someone from reading it, but I definitely would dissuade them from expecting much from it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Documentary
Comment: I had no idea how much the French suffered during World War II. I am jewish and have been well aware since childhood of the brutality imposed on jews during the war. I was not aware of the difficulties imposed by the occupying nazi forces on the local towns and villages of France. I was amazed at the bravery and ingenuity of the French winemakers who were able to preserve much of their beloved wines during times of extreme hardship.
Don and Petie Kladstrup take the reader on a fascinating journey through the French countryside during one of the most horrifying periods of world history. Their descriptions of the unbelievable acts of bravery that took place are gripping.
You don't need to be a wine expert like me to enjoy this book. If you like true stories about courage, adventure, and self-sacrifice, then you will enjoy reading Wine & War.
Mitch Paioff, Author, Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant
Getting Started as an Independent Computer Consultant
Customer Rating:
Summary: Community power in the face of political might
Comment: One of the best 'war' books I have ever read, as it is not about agression, but of collaboration and a love of something which bonds so many together. The repercussions of the strength of these wine families and communities is felt still today.
I have actually just started to re read this boook, and am fascinated again to read about Berchesgarten in the first few pages - a place I have seen, but at the time had NO idea what lay behind those walls. I love books which give you a new perspective on a well written about series of events.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alternative History
Comment: A great book that is very entertaining in a serious way. If you like the history of Europe and of WWII and especially if you are a wine drinker and appreciator this book is for you. Get it here since the price is a lot less than at book stores.
Customer Rating:
Summary: War and Peace it isn't - nor is it intended to be
Comment: Readers should take their cue from the length and title of this book. No book of this size can definitively cover the wine industry in France nor can it address at any length the effects of war on this country. This in not the intent of the authors though, who make it clear in the introduction that this book is instead a collection of stories that give insight into the effects that wars have had on the French people, their wine industry, and the ways some of those in the industry dealt with the German occupation.
For readers who have an interest in both viticulture and winemaking, Wine & War introduces an interesting perspective. Students of winemaking understand the importance of terroir, vineyard management, and enology techniques. How often however, have those of us fortunate enough not to have lived in a war torn country, had to think about bomb craters, poisons leaching into the soil from chemical shells, and no manpower to work the fields? The beginning of the book also briefly discusses previous wars and helps remind us that the seeds of World War II were sown by the Treaty of Versailles, negatively affecting the victors as well as the vanquished.
This book is interesting in that it explores a topic not previously covered. Don't make the mistake of expecting an in depth research piece, but rather think of it as an appetizer. Something to whet your appetite for explorations into meatier works or even as a guide to future travels in the French wine country. Wine & War personalizes the ongoing struggle of the growers and winemakers to produce the best wine possible under adverse conditions and helps the reader understand what an important economic resource wine is to France. Recommended to be read by the fireplace with a nice Bordeaux in hand.
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