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The Wages of Destruction

The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy

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The Wages of Destruction

By: Adam Tooze
Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
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About this listen

"Masterful.... [A] painstakingly researched, astonishingly erudite study.... Tooze has added his name to the roll call of top-class scholars of Nazism." (Financial Times)

An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period to explore how Hitler's surprisingly prescient vision - ultimately hindered by Germany's limited resources and his own racial ideology - was to create a German super-state to dominate Europe and compete with what he saw as America's overwhelming power in a soon-to-be globalized world.

The Wages of Destruction is a chilling work of originality and tremendous scholarship that set off debate in Germany and will fundamentally change the way in which history views the Second World War.

This audiobook contains a downloadable PDF of tables and figures from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Adam Tooze (P)2021 Penguin Audio Economic Conditions Economic History Economics Europe Germany Russia Imperialism Socialism Soviet Union Holocaust Taxation Capitalism War Middle Ages

Critic Reviews

"One of the most important and original books to be published about the Third Reich in the past twenty years. A tour de force." (Niall Ferguson)

"Tooze has produced the most striking history of German strategy in the Second World War that we possess. This is an extraordinary achievement, and it places Adam Tooze in a very select company of historians indeed.... Tooze has given us a masterpiece which will be read, and admired; and it will stimulate others for a long time to come." (Nicholas Stargardt, History Today)

"It is among Adam Tooze's many virtues, in The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, that he can write about such matters with authority, explaining the technicalities of bombers and battleships. Hovering over his chronicle are two extraordinary questions: how Germany managed to last as long as it did before the collapse of 1945 and why, under Hitler, it thought it could achieve supremacy at all." (Norman Stone, The Wall Street Journal)

All stars
Most relevant  
A remarkably clear, concise and rational account of the economic forces at play in Europe leading up to and including the Second World War, and the manifold ways these forces contributed to the destruction of Europe. The economic perspective presented in the book goes a long way to help explain the often baffling, counterintuitive and seemingly inept decisions made by Nazi leaders that are so often glossed over in other accounts. The reassessment of Speer’s role is especially insightful, leaving little doubt as to the culpability of Nazi leadership in the genocide that followed.

Engaging and comprehensive

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Great book to read to understand the broader German war machine from start to finish

Very detailed!

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fascinating book that cuts through many of the myths surrounding nazi Germany, brings out the personalities, aims, and ideology behind the wars and places it within the economic context of the times.

An in-depth analysis wonderfully told

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