British historian Taylor (The Berlin Wall) surveys the occupation policies of the Allied victors, showing a variegated picture: brutal in the Soviet zone, relatively humane in the American, British, and French sectors, but everywhere a landscape of hunger, cold, and--in German eyes--humiliation. Taylor also examines how the efforts to bring to account millions of ex-Nazi Party members were erratic, corrupt, and ineffective.

Examines Hitler's profoundly disturbed psyche & explains how he made an entire nation help him advance a dark, deeply personal agenda.

This book helps us to understand how intelligent, well-intentioned, educated, principled people could become so caught up in the movement, so captivated by Hitler's magnetism that they could accept everything.