The Third Reich at War

By: Richard J. Evans

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The final volume in Richard J. Evans’s masterly trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany traces the rise and fall of German military might, the mobilization of a “people’s community” to serve a war of conquest, and Hitler’s campaign of racial subjugation and genocide. Already hailed as “a masterpiece” (William Grimes in The New York Times) and “the most comprehensive history… of the Third Reich” (Ian Kershaw), this epic trilogy reaches its terrifying climax in this volume.

Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the war’s progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since.

Fresh insights into the conflict’s great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitler’s suicide in the bunker. But just as important is the re-creation of the daily experience of ordinary Germans in wartime, staggering under pressure from Allied bombing and their own government’s mounting demands upon them. At the center of the book is the Nazi extermination of Europe’s Jews, set in the context of Hitler’s genocidal plans for the racial restructuring of Europe.

Blending narrative, description, and analysis, The Third Reich at War creates an engrossing picture - at once sweeping and precise - of a society rushing headlong to self-destruction and taking much of Europe with it. It is the culmination of a historical masterwork that will remain the most authoritative work on Nazi Germany for years to come.

Listen to previous volumes in Richard J. Evans' Third Reich trilogy.

©2009 Richard J. Evans (P)2010 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"Masterful….Evans demonstrates a fluent style and a sweeping grasp of the Third Reich’s history and of the enormous historical literature….Evans narrates the Reich’s end in gripping fashion as the Allies closed in on Germany. Evans’s fellow historians as well as a broader public will listen to this work, not quite with pleasure, for there is little joy in this story, but with admiration for the author’s narrative powers.” ( Publisher’s Weekly)

One of the best books on the Third Reich

This series provides valuable insight into the Third Reich. In this installment, Evans explores the Reich's experience during World War II. It is exceptionally well done.

Great trilogy

Although the third volume is not as eye opening as volumes 1 and 2, it was still excellent and well read

So Great! I learned so much!

I never knew so much of the nitty gritty details of the Halocaust until I read this book. I was really moved by this book.

Fascinating conclusion to the series

Even though this book covered the period that I felt I knew the most about, it exposed me to so many things I didn't know. As well written and compelling as the first two in the series, it gave what I found was a very objective look at the NAZI's attempt at war, and how and why they failed so resoundingly at it (fortunately). It penetrates and goes beyond the myth and romanticism that many have and treats things in a realistic way.
It also handles the more important Holocaust well. A very difficult topic, and one that leads most authors to just focus on the horribleness of the act. I felt that I was left with an understanding of how it happened, how rational humans can loose all sense of reality and perpetrate such an act. All lessons we should watch for so that it never happens again.
This series is was enlightening and depressing at the same time, enlightening because of the scholarship and writing, depressing because of the events it brings to light.

A must read for anyone looking to understand the past.

Great Read

Great book that goes into to such incredible detail that is sometimes mind boggling. In addition, the book accomplishes this without feeling incredibly dry. The narration is great and fits the overall mood and tone of the book. All in all, if you enjoy WWII, history, or a combination of the two, you will enjoy this book. Highly recommend.

Masterwork of History

Richard J. Evans is one of the preeminent historians of the 3rd Reich and this book remains at the top of the class in terms of (English-language) surveys of the topic. Evans would undoubtedly revise his last words concerning neo-Nazis, who are again in 2024 a clear and present danger in virtually every Western democracy, but he wrote them twenty years ago when things still looked very different globally. The narrator is not very good. He is terrible at German, Polish, Russian, etc. and given that German names are ubiquitous, you’ll be tempted to start pronouncing names like Louise Solmitz like the narrator does - wildly incorrectly.

Excellent series of books -- HORRIBLE reader

The series of books by Richard Evans is great, and you really should read them in order - however that is not required. I will say The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a much easier to follow and more entertaining book and it's reader is on a level that this book reader could never hope to obtain. I would highly recommend that book over this series if you could only have one. However I think you'd be best served to listen to both. This series gives more of an in-depth at the day to day lives of Germans and helps you have a better understanding of the war in general and how Germany became the place it did.

I give it a high recommend which would be much higher if it wasn't read by such an amateur. The reader is extremely poor and does a great disservice to this book. After about 50 hours (between the 3 books) I think I finally started to get used to him so I wasn't as annoyed by the readers inability to know when to pause in a sentence and his extremely monotone voice. Overall however the reader is awful and has no business doing so much as reading a 2-line power point presentation.

Not riveting, but good.

I just completed all 3 books in the series and enjoyed them. Narrator Shawn Pratt got on my nerves at first but in the long run his voice was comfortable. I would have liked more time devoted to Hitler but that's just my preference. Also, much time was given to details of how Nazism effected every aspect of life. I wearied at times anxious to get to the next segment or chapter. I am thankful that when describing the treatment of the Jews' persecutions, tortures, and deaths Evans used restraint. In other words he could have been much more graphic describing rapes and tortures. The imagination can take care of what is lacking.
I like the fact that he portrayed the leaders of Nazism as brute beast worthy of the worst punishments for the horror for which they were responsible Nevertheless, no book or books will EVER capture the summary of evil that took place in Europe during WWII.

Outstanding History

Where does The Third Reich at War rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The Third Reich at War rates at the top of my audiobook list. Richard Evans brings the Third Reich to life as clearly as if it were drawn from today's news. I've listened to it twice through now and will probably give it a third go. I've been reading WWII history for 50 years (yes, really) and this is one of the best I've read.

Which character – as performed by Sean Pratt – was your favorite?

I've seen other reviewers slam Sean Pratt's narration. He does have odd pauses, but I got used to them and found they helped me absorb the words. This isn't fiction, and shouldn't be read as such. I'm actually looking for more that he's narrated.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

At 30 hours + this is a little more than I'd even try in five or six sittings. The whole series, though, including Coming of the Third Reich and Third Reich in Power, combined with this volume, make a stunning summary of the era.

Any additional comments?

I've recently re-read Rise and Fall of Third Reich, and Evans' history is on a par with Shirer's classic. Shirer has the immediacy of having been in Germany for part of the period, but Evans has the objectivity that time bestows (at least in theory).

History can repeat if we’re not careful

Near the very end of the book, Prof Evans quotes a reference “What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany” by Eric Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband: “The power of (German) nationalism had ... been broken, so thoroughly that when elderly Germans came towards the end of the century to look back on the Third Reich and ask themselves why they had supported it, they could no longer remember that one of the main reasons had been because they had thought that it made Germany “great again.” We MUST NOT forget the Third Reich.