Author:Timothy Snyder
A powerful and revelatory history book about the bloodlands - the lands that lie between Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany - where 14 million people were killed during the years 1933 - 1944.
In the middle of Europe, in the middle of the twentieth century, the Nazi and Soviet regimes murdered fourteen million people in the bloodlands between Berlin and Moscow. In a twelve-year-period, in these killing fields - today's Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Western Russia and the eastern Baltic coast - an average of more than one million citizens were slaughtered every year, as a result of deliberate policies unrelated to combat.
In this book Timothy Snyder offers a ground-breaking investigation into the motives and methods of Stalin and Hitler and, using scholarly literature and primary sources, pays special attention to the testimony of the victims, including the letters home, the notes flung from trains, the diaries on corpses. The result is a brilliantly researched, profoundly humane, authoritative and original book that forces us to re-examine one of the greatest tragedies in European history and re-think our past.
A hugely important historian of this nightmarish era. Nobody has explained it this way before
—— William Leith , Evening StandardSuperbly researched and academically impeccable, yet written with all the pace of a thriller, The Devils' Alliance shines a powerful beam into one of the undeservedly least known aspects of the Second World War
—— Andrew RobertsMeticulous and vividly readable… Moorhouse’s grim and compelling book could not be more topical
—— Sunday TelegraphA highly enjoyable history written with verve and attention to detail
—— Financial TimesSuperb
—— Brendan Simms , Wall Street JournalAuthoritative and highly readable
—— Lawrence James , The TimesLucid and well-researched
—— Keith Lowe , Mail on SundayElegant
—— IndependentMoorhouse is the best guide now available to explain…the awful consequences for those caught in the unscrupulous coils of dictatorship
—— Richard Overy , Literary ReviewThorough and eloquent... a scholarly yet accessible reminder of the frighteningly tangible costs of totalitarianism
—— New StatesmanRoger Moorhouse’s definitive book blends eyewitness accounts with an authoritative master narrative… The Devils’ Alliance is not just a good book, it’s an important one, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the two worst dictators of the 20th Century, and the calamitous conflict they both had a hand in causing
—— History of War MagazineIn this profoundly researched, briskly argued and wonderfully readable book, full of dramatic and darkly comic detail, Roger Moorhouse has done history a great service. He has rescued one of the Second World War’s dirtiest little secrets from the shadows into which the pro-Soviet bias of post-war historians had swept it and reveals in all its moral squalor the deal that made it possible for Hitler to go to war.
—— Professor Adam ZamoyskiA terrifying account of cynical diplomacy, deceit, untrammelled power and the echoes that can be heard even now
—— Sinclair McKay , Daily TelegraphAuthoritative, highly readable account.
—— Lawrence James , The TimesIntelligent, well-informed.
—— Evan Mawdsley , BBC History MagazineHas a lot more to offer than the usual facts and figures thrown together about a largely forgotten part of history… This has a certain amount of written fluidity… I have read any number of books about this subject and I have to say that this is one of the best researched that I have found… I found it a satisfying read throughout, I learnt a lot and filled in a few holes in my knowledge, an excellent book.
—— Reg Seward , NudgeI am chilled to the bone and beyond ... the most extraordinary story ... absolutely fascinating
—— Vanessa FeltzAn accessible and anecdotal account of the battle and the men who waged it, full of colour and surprising detail
—— Charlotte Heathcote , Daily ExpressFascinating, thought-provoking and entertaining. Explodes a number of self-serving myths
—— Andrew Roberts (on 'Destiny in the Desert: The Road to El Alamein')Fresh and provocative
—— Peter Snow (on 'Destiny in the Desert')A wonderfully incisive, superbly written history. What Dimbleby has nailed so brilliantly is what so many war historians miss: the big picture
—— Saul David (on 'Destiny in the Desert')I enjoyed this book immensely…This book fills a vast gap in our knowledge of history and I am glad to have read it.
—— Reg Seward , NudgeThis is a compelling book…It’s a story of endurance – of place as well as people – and ultimately, it’s uplifting.
—— Psychology, 'Our Friends at BBC 4'A brilliant way of coming at the history of Berlin and Germany itself, which shows how people coped with the vicissitudes of the regime.
—— Country and Town HouseHarding has recorded the fate of the house and its inhabitants, from the Weimar republic until reunification. This is German history in microcosm ... as exciting as a good historical novel.
—— Die WeltAn inspirational read: highly recommended.
—— Western Morning NewsA genuinely remarkable work of biographical innovation.
—— Stuart Kelly , TLS, Books of the YearI’d like to reread Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey every Christmas for at least the next five years: I love being between its humane pages, which celebrate both scholarly companionship and deep feeling for the past
—— Alexandra Harris , GuardianRuth Scurr’s innovative take on biography has an immediacy that brings the 17th century alive
—— Penelope Lively , GuardianAnyone who has not read Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey can have a splendid time reading it this summer. Scurr has invented an autobiography the great biographer never wrote, using his notes, letters, observations – and the result is gripping
—— AS Byatt , GuardianA triumph, capturing the landscape and the history of the time, and Aubrey’s cadence.
—— Daily TelegraphA brilliantly readable portrait in diary form. Idiosyncratic, playful and intensely curious, it is the life story Aubrey himself might have written.
—— Jane Shilling , Daily MailScurr knows her subject inside out.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayThe diligent Scurr has evidence to support everything… Learning about him is to learn more about his world than his modest personality, but Scurr helps us feel his pain at the iconoclasm and destruction wrought by the Puritans without resorting to overwrought language.
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianAcclaimed and ingeniously conceived semi-fictionalised autobiography… Scurr’s greatest achievement is to bring both Aubrey and his world alive in detail that feels simultaneously otherworldly and a mirror of our own age… It’s hard to think of a biographical work in recent years that has been so bold and so wholly successful.
—— Alexander Larman , Observer