He boasted his empire would last a thousand years; it collapsed within a decade.

This was Adolf Hitler's Europe—the formidable fortress that cast its last shadow across half the world and which, indeed, seemed nearly ready to sustain itself for a millennium. But it was corroding from within before the Allies stormed the walls.

The Fall of Europe tells us why.

Fred Majdalany's sweeping history condenses an enormous amount of material with precision and grace, unraveling the story of the Nazi collapse and offering fresh insights into the men who shaped the most massive of wars.