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This book offers the reader thrilling, action-packed snapshots of life as a Luftwaffe nightfighter pilot.'Suddenly, flash bombs to my right, I instantly dive low to avoid being a direct target. We stay down, close above ground … before too long life returns in the area and we spot men milling around; Richard and Pitt let them have it, but good. We're down to our last bit of ammunition. Some Russians have frozen in fear, others lift their arm, others still lie flat on the ground. Not a single one remembers to get up and fire.'On 21 June 1941, assigned to Luftwaffe bomber wing Kampfgeschwader 53, the 23-year-old Arnold Döring took off to fly his first mission against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front. From that day, he kept a diary describing his operations in vivid detail.These diaries, here translated into English for the first time, give a unique perspective on the action on the Eastern Front, from the point of view of a bomber pilot. Döring's accounts not only give technical aspects but are also filled with suspense and excitement with their close descriptions of bombing raids and narrow escapes from enemy fighter planes.This unembellished account gives an honest and meticulous record that moves rapidly from one area to another, from one operation to the next. With a detached professionalism, Döring offers us thrilling, action-packed snapshots of life as a Luftwaffe nightfighter.Döring flew a total of 392 aerial attacks and was awarded the Knight's Cross in April 1945.

Did you know that Bach invested in mines? That Rossini improved his income by running casinos in the opera houses which on weekends performed his operas? Or that Puccini composed shorter arias to make them fit the length of gramophone disks as they reported him huge revenues? Or who was, in financial terms, the most successful classical composer in history? This book —the first of its kind— studies and compares the finances of twenty classical composers in their historical and economical context. Each chapter details and quantifies the sources of income of these musicians (wages, royalties, subsidies, percentages over the number of performances, arrangements, investments in the musical sector, etc), thus allowing to estimate the income they obtained due to their artistic — primarily compositional, but also related— activities. In addition, it also estimates the composer's expenditures, thus drawing a relatively complete image of their personal finances. This not only allows to concludeto create a ranking of composers according to their economic success, but —more importantly— for the first time gives an accurate image of the financial situation of a broad set of composers. This allows to correct many false believes while also giving new insights on the relation between economics and music history.

Pocas personas encarnan mejor que Juan Velarde, decano de los economistas españoles, la historia de nuestro país en los últimos 60 años. Y no sólo por su relevante papel en el desarrollo de la economía como disciplina académica en España sino, sobre todo, por haber sido testigo privilegiado del impresionante proceso de modernización de la economía y política nacional así como de la sociedad española en su conjunto. Este libro recoge los recuerdos y memorias del profesor Juan Velarde a través de unas extensas conversaciones con Mikel Buesa y Thomas Baumert, en las que, de forma rigurosa pero distendida, se repasan los principales episodios de su vida y que, en sus propias palabras,'sirven para iluminar lo sucedido en alguno de los episodios más apasionantes de la historia contemporánea de España y, sobre todo, el período que transcurre desde los años 30 a los 70, en el que España experimenta ese `gran cambio` del que pude ser testigo activo y que da título al libro'. Todo ello sazonado con numerosas anécdotas --en su mayor parte inéditas-- referidas a personas y sucesos relevantes que harán las delicias de los lectores.