Thursday 16 April 2015

Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45


I'm reading this now as it's one of the few books by Max Hastings that I haven't yet read, for some indeterminate reason.

I really like Hasting's approach to historical writing as he always focusses on the experience of ordinary people in extraordinary situations, rather than from the top down, yet also incorporates the strategic decision making side of things, which not infrequently led to the extraordinary situations the people at the bottom found themselves in. 

He has a very readable style and an eclectic approach to contemporary sources of evidence, which often provides an unusual perspective.  He also rarely 'takes sides' like some other popular military historians I could mention, with equal criticism of both the US and British high command.

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