Synopses & Reviews
This brilliant new work by the author of the best-selling Five Days in London, May 1940 is an unparalleled drama of two great leaders confronting each other in June 1941. It describes Hitler and Stalins strange, calculating, and miscalculating relationship before the German invasion of Soviet Russia, with its gigantic (and unintended) consequences. John Lukacs questions many long-held beliefs; he suggests, for example, that among other things Hitlers first purpose involved England: if Stalins Communist Russia were to be defeated, Hitlers Third Reich would be well-nigh invincible, and the British and American peoples would be forced to rethink the war against Hitler. The book offers penetrating insights and a new portrait of Hitler and Stalin, moved by their long-lasting inclinations. Yet among other things, Lukacs presents evidence that Hitler (rather than his generals) had moments of dark foreboding before the invasion. Stalin could not, because he wished not, believe that Hitler would choose the risk of a two-front war by attacking him; he was stunned and shocked and came close to a breakdown. But he recovered, grew into a statesman, and eventually became a prime victor of the Second World War. Such are the ironies of history; John Lukacs paints them with a shining narrative skill.
Review
"John Lukacs excels at making historical fulcrum moments exciting, explicable and immediate. As with his superb
Five Days In London, he shows how important Adolf Hitler's one-man decisions were to the experiences of millions in the twentieth century. When the Fuhrer unleashed Blitzkrieg on the USSR on 21 June 1941, he said that Operation Barbarossa would make the world hold its breath; you will hold yours as Lukacs' narrative unrolls."—Andrew Roberts
Review
"John Lukacss
June 1941: Hitler and Stalin is one of the fullest and most authoritative portraits of the ambiguous relationship between the two powerful and wily adversaries during World War IIs watershed year. Drawing on newly available source material from the diaries, personal papers and post-war interviews of senior staff members close to each, it is a fascinating and masterfully researched book."—Henry Kissinger
Review
"A terse and telling book which looks into a familiar turning point in history, and penetrates nearer the marrow than less able historians have done before."—MRD Foot (Michael Foot)
Review
"John Lukacs's latest work,
June 1941, showcases the worldliness, strategic wisdom, and superb eye for the personal detail that has made him one of our most experienced, readable, and sophisticated historians of the WW2 era."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar and
Potemkin: Catherine the Great's Imperial Partner
Review
“A bantam-sized book with a heavyweight punch. Once again, Lukacs has, with great concision and intellectual force, zeroed in on a brief period but momentous episode that literally changed the world. And once again, he has managed to bring alive the protagonists and bring clarity as well as drama to their fateful interaction.”—Strobe Talbott, President, The Brookings Institution
Review
"[Lukacs] watches as two specific people make very specific decisions that will shape the rest of the twentieth century."—Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz,
Atlantic MonthlyReview
“Lukacs project is to restore the characters … of individual leaders to a central role in a historical narrative …. Urgently engrossing”—Tim Rutten,
Los Angeles TimesReview
"A good introduction. . . . Lukacs captures the drama leading up to the German invasion."—Charters Wynn, The Historian
About the Author
A conversation with John Lukacs
Q: What did you find most interesting in your researches for this book?
A: A number of things, but perhaps especially that Stalins admiration of Germany (and even of Hitler) was quite long-standing.
Q: What about the recent thesis of many that Stalin was about to attack Germany in July 1941 and that Hitlers invasion pre-empted that?
A: Absolutely untrue, concocted, and presented often by people whose hidden purpose is to rehabilitate Hitler.
Q: Is yours the definitive history of the origins of the German-Russian war in 1941?
A: There is no such thing as a definitive history. I tried to move as close to truth as I was able to, something that necessarily involves the demolition of many kinds of untruths. The best I can hope for is an honest and telling description (not definition) that will endure.