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The German War: A Nation under Arms, 1939–1945; Citizens and Soldiers Audiobook
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Publisher Description
A major new history of the Third Reich that explores the German psyche.
As early as 1941, Allied victory in World War II seemed all but assured. How and why, then, did the Germans prolong the barbaric conflict for three and a half more years?
In The German War, acclaimed historian Nicholas Stargardt draws on an extraordinary range of primary source materials—personal diaries, court records, and military correspondence—to answer this question. He offers an unprecedented portrait of wartime Germany, bringing the hopes and expectations of the German people—from infantrymen and tank commanders on the Eastern Front to civilians on the home front—to vivid life. While most historians identify the German defeat at Stalingrad as the moment when the average German citizen turned against the war effort, Stargardt demonstrates that the Wehrmacht in fact retained the staunch support of the patriotic German populace until the bitter end.
Astonishing in its breadth and humanity, The German War is a groundbreaking new interpretation of what drove the Germans to fight—and keep fighting—for a lost cause.
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“In this gut-wrenching work…Stargardt…examines the German experience during WWII. His extraordinarily deep and wide research allows him to fill in an otherwise solid history of the war with intimate, newly unearthed recollections of harrowing service on the battlefield and homefront. Such is the complexity of human nature that, after millions of deaths, massive destruction, and unbelievable ‘psychological shock waves,’ Germans maintained their fierce nationalism and took pride in their ability to endure individually and collectively…Stargardt has produced a brilliant, sobering work.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Stargardt’s…gracefully written The German War offers by far the most comprehensive and readable guide to these issues…This is splendid scholarship…Anyone interested in National Socialist Germany, World War II, and the many murderous regimes that still disfigure the earth should relish The German War.”
— Wall Street Journal -
“A dramatic look at the lives of ordinary German men and women during World War II.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“Exhaustive…A first-rate historical read.”
— Washington Times -
“The German War by Nicholas Stargardt is a riveting account of how…ordinary Germans experienced and sustained the war.”
— Daily Telegraph (London) -
“[Stargardt’s] method of using letters and diaries of ordinary Germans yields unexpected insights, both into the Germans’ humanity and their turn to barbarism.”
— Economist -
“Important…Stargardt provides a vital and necessary addition to the World War II canon that will appeal to World War II buffs and anyone with an interest in twentieth-century German history.”
— Library Journal -
“[A] massive but thorough meditation…A well-researched, unsettling social history of war that will prove deeply thought-provoking—even worrying—for readers who wonder what they might have done under the same circumstances.”
— Kirkus Reviews
Awards
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A New York Times Editor’s Choice
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An Amazon.com bestseller in German History
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A 2015 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
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About Nicholas Stargardt
Nicholas Stargardt is a professor of modern European history at Magdalen College, Oxford, and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives under the Nazis, which was the first work to show how children experienced the Second World War under the Nazis, exploring the widely divergent experiences of German and Jewish, Polish and Czech, Sinti and the disabled children. He lives in Oxford, England.
About Michael Kramer
Michael Kramer is an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, and recipient of a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an actor and director in the Washington, DC, area, where he is active in the area’s theater scene and has appeared in productions at the Shakespeare Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and Theater J.