Naples 1944: The Devil's Paradise at War

by Keith Lowe Narrated by Richard Trinder

Overview

Keith Lowe has chronicled the end of WWII in Europe in Savage Continent and the war's aftermath in The Fear and the Freedom. In Naples 1944, he brings listeners another chronicle of the terrible and often unexpected consequences of war. Even before the fall of Mussolini, Naples was a place of great contrasts filled with palaces and slums, beloved cuisine and widespread hunger. After the Allied liberation, these contrasts made the city notorious. Compared to the starving population, Allied soldiers were staggeringly wealthy. For a packet of cigarettes, even the lowest ranks could buy themselves a watch, a new suit, or a woman for the night. As the biggest port in Allied hands, Naples became the center of Italy's black market. Within a few months the Camorra began to re-establish itself. Behind the chaos and the corruption, there was the threat of violence. Army guns were looted and traded. Gangs of street kids fought battles with the military police. Public buildings, booby-trapped by departing Germans, began to explode.



Then in March 1944, Vesuvius erupted. Naples was the first major European city to be liberated by the Allies. What they found there would set a template for the whole of the rest of Europe in the years to come. Naples 1944 is about a city on the brink of chaos and glimpse into the dark heart of postwar Italy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Naples 1944:

"[a] trenchant study...a scorching tour of a seldom explored circle of hell." - Publisher's Weekly

Praise for Prisoners of History:

"Compelling...powerful...[Lowe] looks at the ways in which a diverse set of countries have memorialized that bloody conflict, which set the stage for the world in which we still live... What Prisoners of History does do—and does well—is explain why groups in each country built the monuments in the first place and how changes in politics and international relations affected interactions with them afterward." —Wall Street Journal

“[An] inspired idea . . . Always thoughtful and evocative, sometimes controversial . . . Lowe’s sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers.”

—The Sunday Times (UK)

"Thought-provoking . . . a perceptive and persuasive call for remembering the tragedies and triumphs of the past." —Publishers Weekly

"Fascinating and thoughtful." —Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs Magazine

“The well-balanced range here enables the retelling of some remarkable war stories, while also providing fascinating insights into the ways different nations have remembered or denied issues around national identity and the glory and horrors of war . . . this is some of the most thought-provoking writing about the Second World War.”

—Spectator Magazine

“In this timely book, which neatly combines history, art criticism, and travelogue . . . Lowe is a fine guide to these monuments because he feels the moral force—for good or bad—of each site he visits.”

—The Times (UK)

"[Lowe’s] examples might rightly raise some hackles . . . Insightful accounts of memorials where there is usually more than meets the eye." —Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193698876
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/11/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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