What a mission of a book. Nonfiction is not a muscle I have developed in my brain. While this is undoubtedly a feat to have constructed and written, it certainly remains a product of its time as well. The author has some really heavy blind spots - calling Hitler a pervert, a short hand for gay men or anything queer, and has a very self admitted (at the start of the book) personal stake and lens to apply to history. Many times his own diaries are quoted. This is really effective because I think the voice crafted works quite well. And the structure… more or less works. But one can’t help but wonder what other blind spots there are, especially when he goes off about vagrants and mocks Hitler as stating he was a great artist, which is hilarious. I mean, you don’t need to imbue further undesirable qualities he has many already, and he devised pretty indisputably effective propaganda, which is… art.

However, when it actually segues into the movements and machinations of the war I think it is really valuable and feels like it is meticulously constructed, holds reinforced conclusions. It collects a staggering amount of information and that particular arrangement of books 3 on, or so, are great. It is so much information I don’t know how much I actually retained, but it effectively shows what is known, what is thought to be known, and some suppositions in very clear and stark terms.

It has been criticized for the thesis of the formation and dissolution of the “third reich” itself, but I didn’t particularly care about that aspect and so had no dog in that race. Whatever reasons of the formation, the death blow seems incontrovertible. Mostly, it’s valuable for a macro perspective during the war. Go to it for that. Turning points and decisions, the dissection feels good to me, a laymen.