The German War

The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945 is a non-fiction book written by historian Nicholas Stargardt. Centering upon the "thoughts and actions" of the citizens living inside Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the author argues that the war crimes committed by Adolf Hitler's totalitarian state had widespread awareness among regular people. Despite massive hardship, those citizens continued to fight in support of fascist ideology even when their cause appeared truly lost. Much of the moral callousness arose due to the fallout from the First World War, which impacted regular Germans' lives deeply, yet the far-right dictatorship had fundamentally managed a successful propaganda machine that brought mass public opinion onto the side of the regime. Praise for the book has come from multiple publications. Examples include The Guardian, where the "beautifully written" book was lauded as a "sensitive and subtle portrayal of war", and The Independent, where the author was found to have made a "terrifically good" summary of "disturbing" German thoughts. The German War has additionally attracted support from organizations such as the Jewish Book Council.