New Book on Sturmabteilung (SA)

[J. Duncan]

Coming later this year by Daniel Siemens "Stormtroopers: A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts"
504 pages, Yale u. Press, Oct. 2017 I think he wrote the recent bio. on Horst Wessel

https://www.amazon.com/Stormtroopers-Ne ... =hitler+sa

[J. Duncan]

Now available. Looks to be good.
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Search ... rownshirts

[Michael Miller]

Not at all what I was hoping for; was anticipating something considerably more in-depth. What I hope to see will be two- or three-times longer, maybe multiple volumes, showing the development and organization of the SA in every region, with more information on the commanders at the regional level and the administrators at the OSAF level. This does not even come close to providing that.

459 pages (not 504 as described on Amazon), with pp. 339-459 consisting of notes and index. The photo section adds nothing of great interest.

~ Mike Miller

[pim]

Totally agree with Mike's comments. The book is quite often a mish-mash of over-detailed information, information that deservers much more detail and many gaps on important SA history. I was hoping for something better.

[J. Duncan]

I got a copy of it and it is more of a "man on the street" viewpoint (socio-psycho-political). Skimpy on the photos with only one interesting portrait of Roehm. Not much biographical detail on leaders like Heines , Ernst, Schneidhuber etc...sorry guys. I'm glad I got it but I can't say there is a lot of "new" in it. So many books get cranked out these days that fail to deliver on what their titles promise, unless of course it comes in the form of a Michael Miller Bender Special (looking forward to your re-crafted volumes however I'm glad I got Vol. 1 under the old publisher).
Siemens book on Horst Wessel was good. This new one not so good. I posted this originally to keep people abreast of new titles (and admittedly I was excited to see something new on the SA) but it's the same old story so often these days (as stated above).

[jeffhan373]

This wasn't what I was expecting either. Siemens' book on Horst Wessel was quite good, I thought. But this is not a "linear" history of the SA, which we still need. I think you have to view it as a series of loosely connected chapters, each of which centers on one topic (e.g., SA leaders as diplomats in the Balkans 1940 - 1945). But it's not an overall history of the organization from beginning to end. Still glad I have it...but I probably won't be using it all that much...

[J. Duncan]

Jeffhan mentioned Balkans and I remember the book did have some interesting information on Hanns Ludin, a more obscure figure in most books but a person who went way back in the SA to 1930. He became a diplomat in Czechoslovakia and was later executed for crimes committed (in Bratislava? - can't remember offhand without getting the book off the shelf). He left behind a wife and 6 children, one of whom participated in a documentary about his father.

[Skysoldier80]

What I enjoyed most about the book was the first four chapters, the rest was not as interesting. The first four chapter set the global stage on the formation of political extremism, which led to the formation of the SA. Quite a few parallels with what is going on in Europe and US right now.

[adamb]

Hello, is there anything in it from the 36th SS Standarte? If so, can I count on pictures of these pages?
Greetings Adam.