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The End
The End
Oct 9, 2024 6:14 PM

Author:Ian Kershaw,David Timson

The End

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook of Ian Kershaw's The End, a searing account of the last days of the Nazi Regime and the downfall of a nation. Read by David Timson.

The last months of the Second World War were a nightmarish time to be alive. Unimaginable levels of violence destroyed entire cities. Millions died or were dispossessed. By all kinds of criteria it was the end: the end of the Third Reich and its terrible empire but also, increasingly, it seemed to be the end of European civilization itself.

In his gripping, revelatory new book Ian Kershaw describes these final months, from the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944 to the German surrender in May 1945. The major question that Kershaw attempts to answer is: what made Germany keep on fighting? In almost every major war there has come a point where defeat has loomed for one side and its rulers have 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 a level of brutality almost without precedent.

Both a highly original piece of research and a gripping narrative, The End makes vivid an era which still deeply scars Europe. It raises the most profound questions about the nature of the Second World War, about the Third Reich and about how ordinary people behave in extreme circumstances.

Reviews

A remarkable feat of historical scholarship and intelligent analysis

—— Jonathan Sumption , Spectator

Masterly ... Kershaw's gripping and boldly intelligent work of scholarship ... will surely become the standard popularly accessible account of the Nazi system's terrible final phase

—— Financial Times

Gripping yet scholarly ... the best attempt by far to answer the complex question of why Nazi Germany carried on fighting to total self-destruction. Kershaw, the author of the best biography of Hitler, is the finest sort of academic, for he combines impeccable scholarship with an admirable clarity of thought and prose

—— Antony Beevor , Telegraph

Brilliant ... nuanced and sophisticated ... undoubtedly a masterpiece

—— Mail on Sunday

Well-written, penetrating ... and ground-breaking

—— Andrew Roberts , Evening Standard

Magisterial ... distinguished

—— Daily Mail, Book of the Week

Kershaw is a sure-footed guide through the Hades of the final dark months of the war in Europe ... his is a thoughtful and thought-provoking account, which admirably combines analysis, historiography and commentary within a very readable narrative

—— Independent on Sunday

No one is better qualified to tell this grim story than Kershaw ... A master of both the vast scholarly literature on Nazism and the extraordinary range of its published and unpublished record, Kershaw combines vivid accounts of particular human experiences with wise reflections on big interpretive and moral issues ... No one has written a better account of the human dimensions of Nazi Germany's end

—— New York Times Book Review

A compelling account of the bloody and deluded last days of the Third Reich ... this is far from being of mere academic interest ... The greatest strength of Kershaw's narrative is that he gives us much more than the view from the top ... Interwoven are insights into German life and death at all levels of society

—— The Times

Kershaw ... understands as well as any man alive the complex power structure that existed in Nazi Germany ... gripping ... arguably the most convincing portrait of Germany's Götterdämmerung we have seen so far

—— Wall Street Journal

Britain's most feted and prolific historian of the Third Reich

—— Sunday Times

Author of a magisterial biography of Hitler, [Kershaw] is among the foremost western scholars of Nazi Germany. Although this book pursues a narrative of events between June 1944 and May 1945, its real business is to explore the psychology of the German people

—— Max Hastings , Sunday Times

An insightful study of how the Führer held his grip over the German people for so long

—— Telegraph

Comprehensive ... it generates real power

—— Observer

Truly eye-opening ... Edgerton's carefully researched book will fundamentally change the way you think about World War II

—— Daily Beast

Riveting ... a wonderfully rich book ... thoroughly stimulating

—— Richard Toye , History

A major new assessment of Britain's war effort from 1939 to 1945. Never again will some of the lazy assessments of how Britain performed over these years ... be acceptable. That's why this is such an important book

—— History Today

Innovative and most important

—— Contemporary Review

Compelling and engaging ... an excellent read

—— Soldier

Edgerton's well-researched volume bursts with data that reveal Britain's true strength even when supposed to be in critical condition

—— Peter Moreira , Military History

Britain's War Machine offers the boldest revisionist argument that seeks to overturn some of our most treasured assumptions about Britain's role in the war ... Edgerton [is] an economic historian with an army of marshalled facts and figures at his fingertips ... This is truly an eye-opening book that explodes the masochistic myth of poor little Britain, revealing the island as a proud power with the resources needed to fight and win a world war

—— Nigel Jones , Spectator

Masterful Britain's War Machine promotes the notion that the United Kingdom of the Forties was a superpower, with access to millions of men across the globe, and forming the heart of a global production network

—— Mail on Sunday

Toni Morrison’s mesmerising prose manages to be both elegiac and visceral at the same time

—— Mail on Sunday
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