Dresden

This historical account re-examines the Allied attack on Dresden during World War II, revealing the justification behind the controversial aerial bombing.

“Passionately written and deeply affecting. . . . A bracing rebuke to the myths and propaganda that have painted over the memory of this tragedy.” —People

For decades it has been assumed that the Allied bombing of Dresden was militarily unjustifiable, an act of rage and retribution for Germany’s ceaseless bombing of London and other parts of England.

Now, Frederick Taylor’s groundbreaking research re-examines the facts and reveals that Dresden was a highly-militarized city actively involved in the production of military armaments and communications concealed beneath the cultural elegance for which the city was famous. Incorporating first-hand accounts, contemporaneous press material and memoirs, and never-before-seen government records, Taylor documents unequivocally the very real military threat Dresden posed, and thus altering forever our view of that attack.

“The enigmatic past and the patient muse of history are brilliantly served by this blockbuster of a book. It is a masterpiece of scholarship and even-handed reporting not unlike John Hersey’s Hiroshima . . . Dresden is a war classic, one that combs the ashes to bring the complicated past to shuddering true life at last.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Taylor’s chronicle makes for compelling reading . . . he puts the assault in its proper context to reveal the inherent moral tangle of total war.” —Atlantic Monthly