There was no book until the day treating the German-Soviet conflict that has so influenced the course of the Second World War and beyond. This is now done, and how! ... This work, which embraces all aspects of this titanic conflict, is absolutely brilliant. Everything is there, the relations preceding the outbreak of Operation Barbarossa to the implementation of total war economy, through the description of the fighting. One of the most dazzling chapters is the one dedicated to the historiography, to the evolving war memory in each of the belligerents. Perhaps we may regret the lack of cards (unless good in geography from the USSR, which is not very common). This takes nothing away from this extraordinary book historian and immense qualities of its author.
