Hitler and Stalin by Laurence Rees is for those of us who try to understand how the horrific events in twentieth century Europe came about. This author has looked at this material before, especially in The Nazi Mind which I read recently – see here for my review. I have read a few books about Stalin too – see here for a review of one. This new book is an attempt to compare and contrast the lives, actions and consequences of both these tyrants.
The author compares how they came to power and how they used that power. Hitler favoured charisma and Stalin went for terror to engage support and obedience. The author considers how they reacted to events and how flexible they were and were not to the challenges and surprises of war. He looks at their relationship with each other and why they initially worked together and then found that their aims differed. What they mainly had in common was their willingness to inflict enormous suffering on many people in order to achieve their goals, but the author argues that Hitler did this because of his ideological convictions and Stalin did it for more pragmatic reasons.
The book looks at how the two men were regarded by Allied leaders and some of the problems they faced in understanding and negotiating with them, although this is not the main focus of the narrative. He does consider, however, their respective legacies and how far their aims and objectives have been pursued by others since their deaths.
One of the features of this book is the number of interviews which the author is able to reference of ordinary people who lived through these times. He uses them to illustrate the points that he has made but they make the book accessible and more real for the reader because we can see the effect on ordinary people of what is decided by their leaders. The whole book is very readable, in my opinion, and, although there is nothing particularly new here, the comparison of the two men and their actions is very interesting.
I thought that this book was informative and it added to my knowledge of these times.
Anne Is Reading 