Reviews for Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne

The average rating for Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearne based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-07-08 00:00:00 Nathaniel Sanders This is a fascinating book, and one of the few strong studies of the archaeology and history of POW camps stemming from World War II. There is a TON of fascinating detail about camp life and the material culture of incarceration in here. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and strongly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in contemporary archaeology, conflict archaeology, or World War II history. I only gave it three stars because of the organization, not the content. It offers up the history, then the archaeology, without really substantively trying to meld the two together, which would have made it a much stronger work. Also, Waters doesn't really celebrate the richness of the historical and archaeological materials strongly enough, in my opinion. There was, for instance, a running war between Nazi and anti-Nazi POWs that cut through Camp Hearne and extended to other camps, via the POW-run mail service. That's a fascinating point that I wish had been explored more fully. I was left fairly frustrated by the many aspects of conflict archaeology and the archaeology of confinement that are not addressed. In the end, this is a book on a historic site written by an archaeologist trained in something other than historical archaeology (Waters is a Clovis specialist), and the trained eye will see its many gaps.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-25 00:00:00 Darrrell Robin We bought this book on the recommendation of the Texas State Historical Association and a person in the Baylor bookstore. It is a very comprehensive look at the WWII prisoner of war camp at Hearne, Texas. I knew there were a number of German POW camps around central and south Texas but had never read anything like this. Many of these camps were located in farming areas where the POWs could be used as substitute labor for the young men who were gone serving in the military. Many people were interviewed including local residents, camp guards and staff, actual POWs who had returned to Germany after the war, and others in the US government and military. Archeological surveys were conducted at the site in order to locate remnants of the camp improvements and personal items that had been lost or discarded. Texas A&M in College Station has many of these items in the Camp Hearne Collection. I would like to see if this collection is open to visitors. The last part of the book became very tedious because of the incredible detail describing each artifact. All in all, I found the book interesting and now would like to know more about the smaller German POW camp that was located in our town.