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A review by tanyarobinson
The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany 1944-45 by Ian Kershaw
3.0
In this heavy volume, Kershaw (Hitler specialist extraordinaire) traces the decline of the German war machine from the July 1944 failed assassination attempt to the final surrender in May 1945. He sets out to answer the intriguing question, "Why did Germany keep fighting so long after their defeat was obvious and inevitable?"
I will say that I was intrigued by that question when I began the book. Now I feel like it has been beaten into the ground. The End is thorough to the extreme, and became redundant as we moved month by month through fanatical obedience and cowed passivity in the face of declining fortunes. I certainly can't fault Kershaw's scholarship, but - like the people of the bombed and battered German cities - I just wanted it to be over!
I will say that I was intrigued by that question when I began the book. Now I feel like it has been beaten into the ground. The End is thorough to the extreme, and became redundant as we moved month by month through fanatical obedience and cowed passivity in the face of declining fortunes. I certainly can't fault Kershaw's scholarship, but - like the people of the bombed and battered German cities - I just wanted it to be over!