markm reviewed To Hell and back by Ian Kershaw
Review of 'To Hell and back' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Described as a history of Europe from 1914 to 1949, this is actually a political and economic history of the two world wars in Europe; other aspects of European history are not discussed independently. Military details of the wars are not present. The various human actors are mentioned only as necessary, so Hitler's (of whom the author is a famous biographer) adult political activities are mentioned, but his various colleagues are mostly ignored. There is excellent and enlightening description of Lord Halifax, Neville Chamberlain and Hitler regarding meetings about the Sudetenland, but Churchill, for example, is not discussed in any detail. Consequently, the work is anecdote poor. The first eight chapters of the book are sequential. The book reads like it was well-outlined and is an excellent reference with interesting statistics. I liked the discussion of the economics of the 1920s by country; some myths are dispelled. The book was …
Described as a history of Europe from 1914 to 1949, this is actually a political and economic history of the two world wars in Europe; other aspects of European history are not discussed independently. Military details of the wars are not present. The various human actors are mentioned only as necessary, so Hitler's (of whom the author is a famous biographer) adult political activities are mentioned, but his various colleagues are mostly ignored. There is excellent and enlightening description of Lord Halifax, Neville Chamberlain and Hitler regarding meetings about the Sudetenland, but Churchill, for example, is not discussed in any detail. Consequently, the work is anecdote poor. The first eight chapters of the book are sequential. The book reads like it was well-outlined and is an excellent reference with interesting statistics. I liked the discussion of the economics of the 1920s by country; some myths are dispelled. The book was recommended to me by the author Lewis Weinstein after his initial exposure to Kershaw's analysis of the Spanish civil war. I have to admit that I find the Spanish civil war so confusing that I'm not sure I was enlightened much. The later chapters include interesting discussions of the relationship between the major Christian religions and the Nazis, country by country, the relationship between various famous intellectuals and the Nazis (including, for example, Arthur Koestler, Ezra Pound and Martin Heidegger), interesting statistics about the approximate number of deaths among all of the displaced people after the war, country by country, and interesting statistics about how each country dealt with collaborators and Nazi functionaries after the war. There are many other useful things here. I look forward to the second volume and I will let pass the author's absurd comment that Proust's epic novel was extraordinary "not least for its length".
