A Book or Two to Review (31):

The review introduces a Canaris biography and frames the intelligence officer's career as a way into the institutions and rivalries that helped enable Nazi rule.

Canaris's many intrigues lead into a warning that the German military retained the character of a state within a state across political regimes, including Nazi rule.

A parliamentary inquiry into the 1917 fleet mutinies reveals how the postwar Navy defended its officers and blamed political radicals for unrest.

The account follows the backlash against Canaris after the inquiry, including allegations tied to political violence and the Navy's attempts to defend him.

Despite controversy at home, Canaris's Spanish connections kept him involved in projects ranging from air defence to naval-mine manufacture.

The Canaris biography offers lively, worthwhile history with the journalistic flair that separates it from academic scholarship.

Canaris's career opens a discussion of intelligence officers, conservative fear after the First World War, and an imagined return to Bismarck's Germany.

The review turns Bismarck's reputation for preparation into a wider lesson: fleets and military plans depend on railways, shipyards, dockyards, and the systems that sustain them.

A contrast between glittering promises and durable preparation becomes a practical test for political aims and strategic claims.

Late in the review, Canaris confronts reports of mass killing and military crisis, linking moral catastrophe to intelligence warnings and the conduct of war.

The review closes with a plain recommendation: the Canaris biography is worth reading and thinking through.