Although Hitler and Stalin uses all the significant sources one would expect in a scholarly work, time and again it is the brand new personal testimony that has never appeared before in print that rivets the reader ... Of course, Rees is far too experienced an historian to take all of this at face value ... As this book brilliantly shows, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were blood brothers.
... riveting ... Rees brings this six-year period vividly alive ... Rees’ skillful incorporation of these eyewitness accounts, carefully checked for reliability, gives a 'you are there' feeling to events ... Rees gives us detailed, nuanced portraits of these two men ... There are other fine, very long biographies of these dictators. However, this excellent book for the general reader is shorter and gives an authoritative and very readable understanding of who Hitler and Stalin were and what they did.
A dual biography of two of history’s most notorious dictators from a master historian ... [a] rich biographical and historical study ... Via meticulous research and mesmerizing testimonies, Rees expertly reveals the 'malleability of the human mind.'
... informative yet somewhat skewed ... Rees decisively interprets the thinking behind Hitler’s actions, including the decision to invade the Soviet Union, yet tends to speculate when it comes to Stalin’s strategies ... Despite the lack of balance, this richly detailed history powerfully documents 'the destruction that tyrants with utopian visions can inflict upon the world.'
