A remarkable feat of historical scholarship and intelligent analysis -- Jonathan Sumption Spectator Gripping yet scholarly ... the best attempt by far to answer the complex question of why Nazi Germany carried on fighting to total self-destruction. Kershaw, the author of the best biography of Hitler, is the finest sort of academic, for he combines impeccable scholarship with an admirable clarity of thought and prose -- Antony Beevor Telegraph Masterly ... Kershaw's gripping and boldly intelligent work of scholarship ... will surely become the standard popularly accessible account of the Nazi system's terrible final phase Financial Times Brilliant ... nuanced and sophisticated ... undoubtedly a masterpiece Mail on Sunday Well-written, penetrating ... and ground-breaking -- Andrew Roberts Evening Standard No one is better qualified to tell this grim story than Kershaw ... A master of both the vast scholarly literature on Nazism and the extraordinary range of its published and unpublished record, Kershaw combines vivid accounts of particular human experiences with wise reflections on big interpretive and moral issues ... No one has written a better account of the human dimensions of Nazi Germany's end New York Times Book Review Sober, judicious, clearly written and superbly well researched - a definitive history of the last months of the Third Reich -- Richard Bessel History Today Magisterial ... distinguished Daily Mail, Book of the Week Kershaw is a sure-footed guide through the Hades of the final dark months of the war in Europe ... his is a thoughtful and thought-provoking account, which admirably combines analysis, historiography and commentary within a very readable narrative Independent on Sunday A compelling account of the bloody and deluded last days of the Third Reich ... this is far from being of mere academic interest ... The greatest strength of Kershaw's narrative is that he gives us much more than the view from the top ... Interwoven are insights into German life and death at all levels of society The Times [Kershaw] understands as well as any man alive the complex power structure that existed in Nazi Germany ... Gripping ... arguably the most convincing portrait of Germany's Gotterdammerung we have seen so far Wall Street Journal Britain's most feted and prolific historian of the Third Reich Sunday Times [Kershaw] is among the foremost western scholars of Nazi Germany. Although this book pursues a narrative of events between June 1944 and May 1945, its real business is to explore the psychology of the German people -- Max Hastings Sunday Times An insightful study of how the Fuhrer held his grip over the German people for so long Telegraph Comprehensive ... it generates real power Observer