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The End

The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945

Ian Kershaw - Author

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ISBN 9781101565506 | 592 pages | 08 Sep 2011 | Penguin | 18 - AND UP
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From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II

Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost the Second World War, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital questions of how and why the Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Drawing on prodigious new research, Ian Kershaw, an award-winning historian and the author of Fateful Choices, explores these fascinating questions in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the death of Adolf Hitler and the German capitulation in 1945. The End paints a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.



List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Acknowledgments

Preface

Dramatis Personae


Introduction: Going Down in Flames

1. Shock to the System

2. Collapse in the West

3. Foretaste of Horror

4. Hopes Raised—and Dashed

5. Calamity in the East

6. Terror Comes Home

7. Crumbling Foundations

8. Implosion

9. Liquidation

Conclusion: Anatomy of Self-Destruction


Notes

List of Archival Sources Cited

List of Works Cited

Index

"Kershaw's comprehensive research, measured prose, and commonsense insight combine in a mesmerizing explanation of how and why Nazi Germany chose self-annihilation."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[A]superb examination of the final defeat of Hitler's tyranny...an excellent portrait of the regime's death throes."
-Booklist (starred review)

"This is an astonishing story well told by the reigning English-speaking master of Third Reich history...A carefully considered and powerfully told saga."
-Kirkus (starred review)


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