The Third Reich at War

By: Richard J. Evans

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

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.

©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)

Now, the rest of the story...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely. This book does a masterful job describing not only the blow by blow accounts of the war, but also the home front of Nazi Germany. The most interesting aspect was the accounts of life in Germany immediately after the war.

People like me who have an interest in this area of history were brought up believing that the Nazis were a small minority who did not enjoy the support of the German people. Furthermore, the German people had no idea about what was happening in the death camps. This book shatters that myth, and destroys the long professed alibi of the German people that it was all the SS and Nazis who committed atrocities.

The accounts of the Wehrmacht's interaction with the civilian population in Eastern Europe and Russia strips away any pretense that the SS were the only bad guys in the war.

One criticism I have of the book is that the author is a too kind to Soviet Russia, and discounts many atrocities that they committed. Keeping that in mind, it was a good read.

Best of the Series

What do you say about a book as finely researched, as meticulously executed, as solidly paced, as informative and horrifying and shocking as the Third Reich at War? It is a masterpiece and all I can say to Richard J. Evans is, "Thank You." This is an exceptional book that begins with the invasion of Poland and ends with the Nuremburg Trials. You can read it alone or as part of the larger series: The Coming of the Third Reich and the Third Reich in Power. It is a fantastic series and this book is its pinnacle.

It is not a history of WWII, as that has been done many times. Instead, this is a story of the Third Reich, their leadership at home, their policies, and their wartime strategies. There is, of course, military history here and there is a history of the Holocaust. Both of these sections are told in finite and powerful detail. But this is also the story of Germany and its fall into absolute ruin.

Read these books, they are researched, written, paced, and read with perfection.

Tremendous achievement

This is an excellent overview of World War 2 from the German perspective. Fine writing.

Entertaining,educational,history lesson.

Mr. Evans has captured a time in the past and unfolded it for all to see. Mr. Pratt does a very good job of narration as well. It is a lesson in history that does not put you to sleep. All of the evil traits of the human kind seemed to have come together at that time and Hitler and his deplorable menions held center stage for only a brief time. Thank goodness for that. Very revealing bood. I reccomend it.

Great update on the Third Reich

This volume will cause any reader to think deep about the European conflict we know as WW II.