Donald S. Detwiler, professor of history at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, received his doctorate cum laude at Goettingen. He is chairman of the World War Two Studies Association and a council member and past president of the Association for the Bibliography of History. Detwiler's publications include Hitler, Franco und Gibraltar, an annotated translation of Percy E. Schramm's Hitler: The Man and the Military Leader, the documentary collection World War II German Military Studies (24 volumes), and, with Ilse E. Detwiler, an annotated bibliography, West Germany: The Federal Republic of Germany.

"How could it happen that the Germany that produced Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Brahms, could start two world wars, gladly follow that most evil of all human monsters, Hitler, embrace militarism and racism so eagerly? We understand these matters better after reading this cogent interpretation of Germany's history."—Long Beach Press-Telegram