Hitler and Stalin is a fantastically researched scholarly novel. This novel focuses on Hitler and Stalin during WWII from their alliance to enemies as well as their similarities and differences.

Rees, the author of numerous books on WWII, tries his hand at a dual look at the two crazed tyrants of the 20th century, Hitler and Stalin. The material in his work is not necessarily new scholarship but it is the way it is handled that provides an interesting read. As a WWII historian, I was already familiar with the information but for someone wanting a good, easy to read, compilation history of the war in Europe, this book fits the bill. Well written and easy to read, Hitler and Stalin provides the reader a glimpse into their respective personalities as war wages all around them.

Just as he did in Auschwitz, Rees uses his topic to set it against the larger canvas. While Auschwitz revealed the horrors of the infamous camp, it also placed the death camp in the context of the Holocaust and the development of the Nazi Germany camp system. Rees repeats this practice in Hitler and Stalin so the reader gains an understanding of the complexity of the times and how it affected each man and their decisions. A great example of this is the opening to Chapter 2: Eliminating Poland. Rees writes ". . . there was one issue on which Hitler and Stalin were in complete agreement. They both loathed Poland." The chapter then goes into detail about each man's motivation for their respective invasions of Poland and the details of the actual invasions, giving the reader a much richer understanding of the consequences of the actions of these two men.

Hitler and Stalin is not a biography of the two men but rather a look at their motivations, goals, interactions, and the reality of their conflicting ideologies as war raged. Using many primary sources, Rees incorporates the voices of those involved to help create a dramatic landscape of the war. Rich in detail and personal narratives, Rees' work paints a very strong image of the conflagration that engulfed Europe. While the author occasionally refers back to earlier actions of the two protagonists, Rees does not engage in a biographical comparison of their lives but sticks to the facts as they apply to the wartime events. The book opens with the slide toward war as the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact is signed and examines the motivation behind this historically disastrous document. He places Hitler/ Stalin in their respective roles and the impact of their decision to dismember Poland. This is an important addition to the story since the invasion of Poland is often only told from the German invasion standpoint. Usually the narrative gives a bare nod to the horrific legacy of the Soviets as they moved into Poland just a few weeks later. By blending the two halves of the story together, the reader gains a much richer narrative of the war.

Rees' work does not break new ground but provides an updated way of studying the war. Much of the historiography of WWII in Europe is told only from the Allied point of view as it analyzes Nazi Germany. Due to the Cold War and the lack of access to sources, the full impact of the Russian participation is often ignored or minimized. By placing Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union on equal footing, Rees gives the reader a way to examine the Nazi-Soviet War in its own scope. This is a great work for the casual reader or to use as a textbook in college entry level class in WWII.

So very different in beliefs and personalities yet comparable in their lofty goals and ambitions. Hitler and Stalin ("steel" in Russian") rose to power...tyranny...and are responsible for millions of deaths. Each. They lived and ruled at the same time though never met and were only eleven years apart in age. Both grew up poor and were beaten by their fathers.

Hitler was charismatic, unlike Stalin who was a man of few words. Hitler despised governing bodies and institutions while Stalin was a staunch supporter of the Communist Party. Both loathed the idea of monarchy, though they technically acted like ruling monarchy and took it further to brutal dictatorship. Neither believed in God. Hitler believed the laws of Nature, Stalin in Marxism. Bolshevism terrified Hitler as Nazism did Stalin. But both had the same vision...a new and perfected world, yet Stalin wanted a stateless society and Hitler a vast empire. As such, in their warped minds no one had the right to be individual. There was nothing they wouldn't do, no torture was an obstacle, mass murder was par for the course. United in their hatred for inferior people, they were relentless and ruthless who used and abused fear.

Some say Stalin was "nice". Hitler loved animals. It is impossible for us to fathom the horrendous and unbearable horrors they meted out without compunction or reservation as they...and I hesitate to say this...had a human side. Adherents stuck with them and to this day Stalin is revered by many Russians.

Stalin is responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens which is different than Hitler who mainly killed non-Germans. They were never friends but tolerated each other at first. But then WWII changed that.

This book is about human behaviour, the need to eliminate in juxtaposition to the need of the victims to just survive in unimaginable circumstances. The author has done extraordinary quantities of research and it really shows. I've read many books on the subject but this is the most thorough. It taught me a lot and got me thinking about human nature.

Many horrors are described which are moving, heartbreaking and sobering. This is not an easy read at times. But it is a topic people should know in greater detail with a focus on the personalities of two of the most reviled repugnant men who ever lived. Incredibly interesting and highly recommended.

My sincere thank you to Perseus Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this thought-provoking book. Much appreciated.

I find them endlessly fascinating, the two despots who were responsible directly or indirectly for the death of 60 million soldiers and civilians from 1937 to 1953. Laurence Rees has given them a joint salute in Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War. (I am adding the prewar famine and purges in the Soviet Union, and the postwar suffering in Eastern Europe and the Gulag, while subtracting those for which the Japanese warlords were responsible.) Mr Rees is a British film producer and historian, and while the book is largely drawn from the archives, he spins the raw material into a story spellbinding enough for the recreational reader. Both men were arguably mad, both were bloodthirsty, and both were comfortable with genocide. Where they differed was the outcome: Hitler was more successful with genocide, while Stalin was more successful at winning wars -- and the peace as well. For me, Mr Rees is nowhere more interesting than when he describes how Stalin outwitted not only the ageing Franklin Roosevelt but also the supposedly more cold-blooded Winston Churchill. (And of course Stalin's triumph over the fate of Eastern Europe neatly paralleled Hitler's victory over the French and British leaders at Munich in 1939.)

Then there's the author's assessment of the literal and figurative rape of Eastern Europe in 1944-1945. "No one can ever know exactly how many women were raped by the Soviet conquerers," he writes. "It's possible, however, that nearly two million women and girls in Germany alone endured this horror.... The situation was so bad that women in Berlin did not ask each other whether they had been raped, but simply inquired 'how many'?.... [A Soviet general] had no sympathy: 'When you see this German beauty sitting and weeping ... why did she not cry when she was receiving parcels from the Eastern Front?' [Similar were] the sentiments of the Soviet propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg, who wrote: 'Soldiers of the Red Army. German women are yours!'" The same of course was true of the Polish, Ukrainian, and even Russian women in the path of the victors. (Italics added.) Hitler and Stalin will be sold in the US in February. You can pre-order it now, and the British paperback is available from Amazon vendors including the reliable Book Depository.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This may be the best history book I've read in years.

Hitler and Stalin is a riveting portrayal of the two figures. Of course, almost any book about the European fronts of WWII will address the two men in some fashion, but this book contrasts them deliberately, and it is utterly fascinating. We see how much the two regimes have in common— as one unfortunate soul who spent time in both Soviet and German prisons but it, fascism and communism are the same. Or as the author puts it in the book, "the Soviet and Nazi governments may have been fair apart in their ideological and political goals, but in the practical mechanics of oppression, they were closely linked." Also we see thoughtful analyses of how the men differed. For example, Stalin's rigid control of this underlings in his early rule and the beginning of WWII is contrasted to Hitler's more free hand, the latter of which resulted in much more success. However, as the war progresses, they switch strategies.

It's an engrossing read that's well written, well researched, and peppered with impactful eyewitness accounts and other original sources. An unexpected bonus of this history is the time spent analyzing the complex relationship between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill.

The twentieth century was the deadliest in world history, and two figures who are emblematic of this fact are Hitler and Stalin. They are still invoked as examples of evil incarnate. Laurence Rees masterfully brings to life the personalities of each of these tyrants, their relationship with each other and how their visions inflicted themselves upon the world.

Rees’ setting the two men beside one another allows a greater insight into how these men and the totalitarian systems they championed shared a multitude of similarities – while also highlighting their differences. Of particular note is how even in generally common traits or desires, personality or structural differences produced variances even in the similarities. This allows for a deeper examination into two complex systems which became in many ways made in the image of their tyrants.

Where this work really shines, and which I had not expected, is the witness accounts masterfully woven into the events described to show how people endeavored to survive the hellscape created not just by Hitler or Stalin, but by the fascist and communist ideologies. Sitting next to the accounts of innocents recounting their horrors are perpetrators justifying their faith; next to the recollections of statesmen are everyday people describing cannibalism and rape. This creates a two tier drama encompassing the higher and lower levels of society, both of which come to life.

Rees provides a comprehensive comparison of Hitler and Stalin from 1939-1945. He examines facets of their lives and personalities. The author does a good job giving readers an impartial examination of both tyrants. He doesn't mince words or hold back from the horrible things both men were responsible. Rees inluded many excerpts from individuals who suffered under both regimes. What stood out to me were the deportations of Poles by both the Germans and Russians. I hadn't realized to what extent the Soviets had forced out Polish citizens. It's a remarkable book and is an important contributor to the canon of historical literature.

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. So many facts that I didn't know, and I have read extensively on both Hitler and Stalin. A fascinating history.

I admire very much what Lawrence Reese was trying to do in Hitler and Stalin. Comparing and contrasting these two dictators who are responsible for some of the worst human suffering of the last century. While the differences themselves are fascinating for people into political psychology and the how/why of political decision making, it feels so much like splitting hairs. Both men killed millions, both men compelled millions to commit atrocities through either brute force or personality, and neither man gave it a second thought.

I also feel like at times, the central idea of a section or chapter gets buried in all the discussion of the events of WW2. While I think he gets to his point through all this information, it could be presented in a better format. The way it’s written, I found myself lost in the morass that is the violence and destruction of WW2 to the point of where Hitler and Stalin become background characters until the author pulls me back to the main subject of Hitler and Stalin.

A noble attempt that falls a little short.

Not since Bullock's groundbreaking dual Hitler and Stalin biography has there been such a thorough comparative dissection of two of the deadliest despots of the 20th century. While Bullock took a biographical and lifelong approach, Rees focuses on the years of WWII. He studies the letters, documents and reports of both dictators' friends and colleagues who observed as each of these men reacted and responded to the events of war, Solidly researched and very well written, this book is a new classic.
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I have always known a lot about Hitler but knew much less about Stalin even though I knew some basics. It was incredibly sad to know the travesties that happened at the hands of these men. This really explored the parallels between the two and also the differences. Very well done and well cited.

This book tells the story of two formidable dictators and their influence on the world around them. I highly recommend this illuminating read.