The Third Reich at War

Starred review from January 5, 2009
Describing the Third Reich from the height of its power to its collapse, Evans concludes the masterful trilogy that began with The Coming of the Third Reich
and The Third Reich in Power
. As in those works, Evans demonstrates a fluent style and a sweeping grasp of the Third Reich’s history and of the enormous historical literature. The account is peppered with insightful anecdotes drawn from diaries, letters and speeches. What comes across most clearly is the supreme arrogance of the Nazis and the utterly rapacious character of their rule. Evans gives the Holocaust the centrality it deserves, while also depicting effectively the suffering of Poles and many others under Nazi domination. Evans offers a nuanced picture of the lives of Germans, but ultimately, he suggests, the Nazis’ racial ideology thoroughly corrupted German society. 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 read this work, not quite with pleasure, for there is little joy in this story, but with admiration for the author’s narrative powers. Illus., maps.

The author investigates the Nazis' war activities from the Reich's invasion of Poland to the end of WWII. Dedicated history fans will find lots of collected facts and worthwhile quotes, but general readers will find little compelling creativity. Numerous jumps in time and place and a plodding narrator make for some tedious going. Sean Pratt provides the same nuance for every sentence: pausing for quotes and leaving prodigal spaces between sentences. The author writes copiously about the treatment of the Jews, and Pratt misses every opportunity to inject emotion or empathy into these tragic accounts. He shines, however, with the German names and locations, the hard names being "Doenitz," "Der FŸrher," "Goebbels," and "von Brauchitsch." J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine