The Wages of Destruction

The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy

By: Adam Tooze

Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance

Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

"Masterful.... [A] painstakingly researched, astonishingly erudite study.... Tooze has added his name to the roll call of top-class scholars of Nazism." (Financial Times)

An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period to explore how Hitler's surprisingly prescient vision - ultimately hindered by Germany's limited resources and his own racial ideology - was to create a German super-state to dominate Europe and compete with what he saw as America's overwhelming power in a soon-to-be globalized world.

The Wages of Destruction is a chilling work of originality and tremendous scholarship that set off debate in Germany and will fundamentally change the way in which history views the Second World War.

This audiobook contains a downloadable PDF of tables and figures from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Adam Tooze (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"One of the most important and original books to be published about the Third Reich in the past twenty years. A tour de force." (Niall Ferguson)

"Tooze has produced the most striking history of German strategy in the Second World War that we possess. This is an extraordinary achievement, and it places Adam Tooze in a very select company of historians indeed.... Tooze has given us a masterpiece which will be read, and admired; and it will stimulate others for a long time to come." (Nicholas Stargardt, History Today)

"It is among Adam Tooze's many virtues, in The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, that he can write about such matters with authority, explaining the technicalities of bombers and battleships. Hovering over his chronicle are two extraordinary questions: how Germany managed to last as long as it did before the collapse of 1945 and why, under Hitler, it thought it could achieve supremacy at all." (Norman Stone, The Wall Street Journal)

Excellent and Unique View

Best I have read in terms of tying German strategy with economic realities Germany faced after WW1 and in going up against Russia and the United States. Clearly and logically explained and well narrated.

Book is good but contains bias

Good book discussing the economics of the Nazi s and their disorganization. The author is overly very pro Russian and does not really credit British intelligence as a factor in Russians success nor does he credit US lend lease other than vehicles. The US provided food, clothing , meds vehicles steel tubes, plating , machine tools, communication equipment, chemicals diesel aviation fuel and so much supply including razors. The US tax payer fed armed and clothed the red army from late 1942 to 45. The author basically says the Russians did it on their own. In terms of losses that is true. Major oversight and short coming of the book. He covered the Germans well. The book needs to be revised . Otherwise a very informative book for history buffs. Thanks

Ties the story together in an amazing way

I expected the best from Adam Tooze, having happily devoured audios of The Deluge and Crashed (and avidly awaiting the release soon of Shutdown). My expectations were more than fulfilled. I long ago absorbed all the standard narratives of World War 2 in classrooms, documentaries and shallower books, but this only deepened my curiosity: how did this battered nation seemingly spring up from ruin, march across the world stage, and shake (and ultimately rearrange) the world order? This is the book I was waiting for, to connect all the vital parts and details. Here is a masterful telling of a huge body of events, yet producing all sorts of unforeseen insights, through various connecting side stories. It goes far beyond a dry recitation of, say, steel production statistics. It breathes life into those facts, with riveting personal (and corporate) stories, moving seamlessly from on-the-ground details to the big picture and back, from culture to politics to personalities to finance to weapons systems to battles, through countless connecting narratives. In retrospect I am startled at my ignorance on something like the full role of Hermann Goering in Nazi history. Similarly the doings in occupied territories sprung into new detail and dimensions. I knew the Nazis as vicious kleptocrats, but now I get the whole tapestry of this, the vital nuts and bolts alongside the big picture. Narrator Simon Vance does his usual top job.

More than history.

Interesting deep dive into the catastrophe of World War II in Europe. well narrated & produced.

Great Read

Highly engaging read. Hard to put down. Explains economic and ideological rationale for what is often written off as idiosyncratic miscalculation.

Superb

This book helped me to challenge many assumptions that I had held about WWII. Absolutely fascinating.

Wish I had now about this book earlier.

it was absolutely a brilliant analysis that tied the war, ideology, and world economy together. If every dictator knew about this resource, the world would have been a different place.

answers a long awaiting question

very nice and elaborate.
also manacung in how similar the third reich's economic system was to what we currently have.
only issue is how the writter keeps on using the derogatory term "Capitalism" to indicate free markets... the Communist propaganda is a hard habit to loose.

Enlightening perspective enhanced by narration

This is an enlightening perspective on how economic and financial challenges affected the Nazi regime’s prosecution of its European war on two fronts. Tooze’s historiography is dense with fresh facts, data, analysis, and hence, insightful conclusions. I would recommend some familiarity with WWI, WWII and Europe between the two wars. And perhaps some knowledge of post-WWII Europe. Also helpful would be a knowledge of economics. Simon Vance, as always, gives a clear and pleasant narration, fostering one’s comprehension and entertainment.

Important new angles on a much covered topic

Viewing the upcoming battle of the century with an itemized inventory of the two sides resources one rapidly understands Hitler was on a suicide mission from day one. How the 4:1 advantage of the allies eventually expressed itself, whether in young men, coal, oil, grain, steel, or subsets of alloys or weapons.

It was also interesting to see the abject incompetence in 1940 of the British and French. How different the next 5 years would have been with some brighter generals. To see how, right from the beginning the British Empire plus strong support from the US was a looming monster that would have consumed Germany even without the earlier phenomenal efforts of the USSR in bleeding the nazis dry. Interesting how Germany extracted more fuel and grain from the East under contract before the war than they could as hated occupiers.

Many lessons and new perspectives.