Workman like but not especially interesting. ( )

A detailed, well-written biography of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who was killed on Hitler's orders due to his implication in plots to bring down the Nazi government. Unfortunately, the book is marred by the author's conventional leftist bent. Höhne not only fails to credit Canaris as a man of conscience--his antipathy drives the author to underrate Canaris' effectiveness as intelligence chief. Canaris comes off as a slack-witted fool, and clearly no "master spy". One must ask how a fool could have survived so long in the Nazi hierarchy--without ever cozying up to Hitler.

Briefly put, Höhne cannot understand that a man can be both an arch-conservative and anti-Nazi. This is a common failing of the intellectual elite of today: they must believe that a man of the right is necessarily an enemy. Yet, as historian John Lukacs has noted, the strongest opposition Hitler faced came not from the left, but the right. Consider Churchill: hardly a liberal, he was the Nazis' most implacable enemy. Just so with Canaris: the German spy chief might best be described as "arch-conservative", even "imperialist" (in the sense of desiring a return to the old Imperial government), but he nurtured the core of military resistance against Hitler; a resistance that twice would try to kill Hitler during the war, and that would have killed him before the war started--had they not been paralyzed by Chamberlain's astounding trip to Munich.

Still, this book shows abundant scholarship, and should be read (critically) on that account. ( )

historically interesting, written very long-winded, took me forever to read. maybe it would have been easier in german. ( )