1941: The Year Germany Lost the War is an interesting book to read. It is getting five plus stars from me. Readers who enjoy World War II non fiction will enjoy it.

A well-researched and thoroughly interesting read. I learned a lot from this book. Normally when I read WWII books I mostly focus on topics such as the Holocaust as well as how everyday people lived during the war throughout the various countries involved. I usually get lost with books that focus on the logistics of warfare during WWII. Nagorski presents this information but also ties it into Hitler and Stalin's mindset during this period and what decisions they chose to make. The book also focuses heavily on Britain's need for the US to enter the war and Roosevelt's struggle with the strong isolationist movement in the United States. I think that this book did a great job covering all the aspects of the war in 1941, both politically and militarily, and highlighting the ways in which all of these things helped changed the course of the war during that period.

It must be frustrating to be an expert advisor to an impetuous and power-mad leader who thinks he knows better than the experts in any field. Nagorski gives the example of the military and financial advisors who told Hitler in the late 1930s he shouldn’t be aggressive, because France, Britain, the USSR—and the US if it came to that—would be able to come up with greater sustained military resources in the future. But did this egomaniac who knew nothing about economics and had been a corporal in the army listen? Of course not. Instead of taking the advice, Hitler decided that he needed to strike immediately, while the other powers hadn’t yet built up their armaments.

So yes, Germany cruised to easy victories in 1940, but Hitler made a series of delusional decisions in 1941 that Nagorski argues doomed the Third Reich not to a 1,000-year reign, but a few at best. First, Hitler decided to invade the USSR, thinking he could do what Napoleon had failed to achieve. But did he start in, say, April, so he’d have a good long stretch of time before winter set in? No. He was angry at Yugoslavia after it rejected the Tripartite Pact, so he decided he needed to punish them, which delayed his invasion of the Soviet Union until late June of 1941.

When Germany invaded, many civilians and even Russian soldiers were welcoming, figuring the Germans would save them from the starvation and collectivization forced on them by Stalin. But the Germans were under orders to treat the conquered harshly, and they did—with rampant murder of civilians and soldiers alike. Nagorski argues that Germany might have been more successful in the USSR had it treated the conquered better; soldiers might have joined them and civilians willingly fed, quartered and clothed them.

Much of the book focuses on Hitler’s misadventures in the USSR. It’s only the last 25 pages or so that he turns to Hitler’s final big blunder of the year. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the US declared war on the Japanese, Hitler decided it would be a good idea to declare war on the US. In short order Germany was facing foes that vastly outweighed it in population, territory and resources.

Although Nagorski’s thesis is focused on Hitler and the German military, he also provides a lot of information about Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and their governments’ plans and actions. Although it’s well-known that Stalin rejected intelligence that told him the the German invasion would be coming in the spring of 1941, it’s interesting to read Nagorski’s description of just how deeply in denial was; to the point of insisting that there must be a mistake when news began to pour in that the Germans were actually invading in overwhelming numbers and causing catastrophic damage to the USSR.

Scholars and longtime readers of WW2 history won’t be surprised by anything in Nagorski’s book, but this is a good, readable popular history of a pivotal year of the war.

This is a fantastic history of pivotal moments that brought an end to the WW2 German regime. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned many new and interesting facts. The "Cast of Characters" at the beginning of the book was especially helpful, as I sometimes get people confused. Overall, an excellent book that I would recommend to any history buff.

EXCELLENT history!
Nagorski carefully makes the case for 1941 being the year when things started going south for the 3rd Reich--mostly through Hitler's hubris, blunders, ignorance, and antisemitic animus.

The book is organized mostly chronologically, with appropriate backstories to clarify and give a context for the events and decisions made during the year.

Two major themes are the hopes and efforts of Churchill to recruit the US directly into the struggle, and Hitler's plan to invade the USSR, which began with apparent great success, but petered out before Moscow and the onset of the Russian winter. Nagorski includes a detailed picture of Stalin and Stalinist Russia to highlight the Nazis' gross error of brutalizing the peasantry, brutalized already by Stalin, instead if recruiting them to the anti-Bolshevik crusade.

Excellent, incisive overview of 1941 and how it was the critical turning point of WWII
The focus is on the the US -Britain relationship and Hitler’s strategic mistakes, all undergirded by his demented racial views