The End
Germany, 1944-45
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4.3 • 40 Ratings
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Named Book of the Year by the Sunday Times, TLS, Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail and Scotland on Sunday, Ian Kershaw's The End is a searing account of the final months of Nazi Germany, laying bare the fear and fanaticism that drove a nation to destruction.
In almost every major war there comes a point where defeat looms for one side and its rulers cut a deal with the victors, if only in an attempt to save their own skins. In Hitler's Germany, nothing of this kind happened: in the end the regime had to be stamped out town by town with an almost unprecedented level of brutality.
Just what made Germany keep on fighting?
Why did its rulers not cut a deal to save their own skins?
And why did ordinary people continue to obey the Fuhrer's suicidal orders, with countless Germans executing their own countrymen for desertion or defeatism?
'Nuanced and sophisticated ... undoubtedly a masterpiece' - Mail on Sunday
'Gripping yet scholarly ... the best attempt by far to answer the complex question of why Nazi Germany carried on fighting to total self-destruction' - Antony Beevor, Telegraph
'Masterly ... Kershaw's gripping and boldly intelligent work of scholarship ... will surely become the standard account of the Nazi system's terrible final phase' - Financial Times
'Brilliant ... utterly terrifying' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year
Customer Reviews
Outstanding
An excellent book that is thorough and engaging.
The End - interesting but...
There is much detail that fascinates and makes one wonder at the structures and attitudes in the Third Reich. As with any work of this sort there is a tendency to put yourself in the place of each character or group and puzzle: would one react differently?
It would be good to have more comparisons with Italy. I also couldn't help wanting a similar analysis of the fall of France, although I realise comparisons would be difficult. However this book is still rich enough in detail and observation from all strata of the Reich to leave one pondering on it for a long time to come.
Why the two stars then? Mainly down to the tortured use of English that necessitates the reading of many sentences several times to make sense of them. In everything, bar the Conclusion, it is as if written by someone who's first language is not English. It is not just unwieldy construct, there are unusual, if not incorrect, usage of words, "down" being a particular example.
The Conclusion is like the final downhill straight after several miles of tortuous slalom.
A good book but far too much effort to read.