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Books: Blood and Irony

THE ARMS OF KRUPP by William Manchester. 976 pages. Little, Brown. $12.50.

They were known as Schlotbarone, smokestack barons of the Ruhr. Bismarck treasured them, and used their shells to break the power of France in Europe. The Kaiser presided over their marriage plans, and misused their steel and submarines to lose the first World War. Hitler was awed by them. Deep in World War II, he took time out to write a special law (the Lex Krupp) to keep their family fortune intact. In the minds of many men in many lands, the Krupp name became synonymous with the cold...

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