Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan

Rain of Ruin

A remarkable account of the terrible climax of the Second World War in Asia, published to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. 
 
A Telegraph Book of the Year 2025 
A History Extra History Book of the Year 2025 
 
'A short but quietly devastating book, in which Overy adds new perspectives to a subject that has often been approached from a narrowly American angle... Overy's book is a sombre reminder that the border between civilisation and savagery is wafer-thin.' - Philip Snow, Literary Review 
 
In the closing months of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Japanese, mostly civilians, died in a final outburst of violence from the air. American planes were beginning to run low on plausible targets when it was decided to use two atomic weapons in a final, terrible flourish to try to end the war. 
 
Richard Overy’s remarkable new book rethinks how we should regard this last stage of the war and the role of the bombing. This book explores the way in which the willingness to kill civilians and destroy cities became normalized in the course of a horrific war as moral concerns were blunted and scientists, airmen, and politicians followed a strategy of mass destruction they would never have endorsed before the war began. But it also engages with the new scholarship that shows how complex the effort to end the war was in Japan, where ‘surrender’ was entirely foreign to Japanese culture.

A short but quietly devastating book, in which Overy adds new perspectives to a subject that has often been approached from a narrowly American angle... Overy's book is a sombre reminder that the border between civilisation and savagery is wafer-thin.

Rain of Ruin, a new study by war expert Richard Overy, decisively shows that the atomic bombs didn’t force the Japanese emperor’s hand... His brief yet nuanced account draws on a wealth of historical scholarship down the decades, on Allied and Japanese political and strategic thinking... a compelling reconstruction of how morality fares amid total war

An excellent short book.... What Rain of Ruin makes clear is that the strategy of mass murder by bombs – atomic, hydrogen, napalm or incendiary – is not just immoral but hardly ever effective. That it is still employed in war is a terrible stain on humanity.

A chaff-clearing book about the last days of the war in the Pacific... Among the topics Overy discusses with exemplary clarity are the moves already afoot within Japan to bring the war to an end and whether the decision to drop the atomic bombs was really meant as a signal to the Soviet Union.

Rain of Ruin is a compact, first-rate history of one of World War II’s great tragedies

The Second World War was brought to an end by the atomic bomb and Japan’s surrender – or was it? Overy, one of the world’s leading war historians, delves deeper into what happened in the summer of 1945, and shows that far more was at play behind Hirohito’s fateful decisions than anything America’s superweapon represented or did

Richard Overy is Honorary Research Professor of History at the University of Exeter and one of Britain's most distinguished historians. His major works include The Dictators, winner of the 2005 Wolfson Prize, The Morbid Age and The Bombing War, which won a Cundill Award for Historical Excellence in 2014. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

In the closing months of the Second World War hundreds of thousands of Japanese, mostly civilians, died in a final outburst of violence from the air. American planes were beginning to run low on plausible targets when it was decided to use two atomic weapons in a final, terrible flourish to try to end the war. 
 
Richard Overy’s remarkable new book rethinks how we should regard this last stage of the war and the role of the bombing. This book explores the way in which the willingness to kill civilians and destroy cities became normalized in the course of a horrific war as moral concerns were blunted and scientists, airmen, and politicians followed a strategy of mass destruction they would never have endorsed before the war began. But it also engages with the new scholarship that shows how complex the effort to end the war was in Japan, where ‘surrender’ was entirely foreign to Japanese culture.

The Great Imperial War, 1931-1945

Blood and Ruins

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
WINNER OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORY 
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GILDER LEHRMAN PRIZE FOR MILITARY HISTORY 
 
'A masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the shade' Saul David, The Times 
 
A bold new approach to the Second World War from one of Britain's foremost military historians 
 
Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. He argues that this was the 'great imperial war', a violent end to almost a century of global imperial expansion which reached its peak in the ambitions of Italy, Germany and Japan in the 1930s and early 1940s, before descending into the largest and costliest war in human history and the end, after 1945, of all territorial empires. 
 
How war on a huge scale was fought, supplied, paid for, supported by mass mobilization and morally justified forms the heart of this new account. Above all, Overy explains the bitter cost for those involved in fighting, and the exceptional level of crime and atrocity that marked these imperial projects, the war and its aftermath. This war was as deadly for civilians as it was for the military, a war to the death over the future of the global order. 
 
Blood and Ruins is a masterpiece from of one of the most renowned historians of the Second World War, which will compel us to view the war in novel and unfamiliar ways. Thought-provoking, original and challenging, Blood and Ruins sets out to understand the war anew.

Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. At almost 1,000 pages, it puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the shade.

This book is Richard Overy's magnum opus (in every sense of the phrase) ... It would be difficult to overstate the brilliance with which argument and insight are interwoven in a fast-paced narrative ... Extraordinarily compelling, and written with remarkable fluency.

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

This is a magnificent book that reflects the deep scholarship and humane judgment of a magisterial historian.

Let's praise Overy's stupendous achievement. Anybody interested in the why and how of boundless violence in the 20th century should make space for Blood and Ruins on his or her shelf. It will help you to grasp and revisit the carnage of 1931-45 as the largest event in human history. This book is not Eurocentric, but truly geocentric ... it is history at its best.

Richard Overy has produced one of the most stunning accounts of the Second World War and the events that led up to it.

A magisterial new history ... remarkable in span, depth and scholarship, impressive in sweep and vision, that rightly sees WW2 as starting in China in 1931 and recasts the conflict as a distorted sequel to an earlier epoch.

A truly global view of World War II ... perhaps the single most comprehensive account of the Second World War yet to appear in one volume. You might think that by reading extensively, you could construct a book like this one. You could not ... Richard Overy has done a signal service with this compellingly written, impressively researched book.

Recasting World War Two as the logical continuation of decades of imperial growth and territorial ambition, this new exploration of the conflict is expansive in its geographical and chronological scope. Yet it never loses sight of the very human cost of that ambition ... A weighty, important take from a leading author in the field.

His masterly synthesis of the war's vast literature and sources has never been bettered. ... it is unflagging and consistently illuminating.

Dazzling ... Overy's reframing of WWII as the last gasp of imperialism is astute and incisive. WWII buffs should consider this a must-read.

In this impressively detailed and innovative account of the 1930s and the Second World War, Overy frames the events leading up to the conflict as a last-ditch attempt to shore up or remake empires.

Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its origins and aftermath. He argues that this was the 'great imperial war', a violent end to almost a century of global imperial expansion which reached its peak in the 1930s and early 1940s, before descending into the largest and costliest war in human history and the end, after 1945, of all territorial empires. 
 
How war on a huge scale was fought, paid for and morally justified forms the heart of this new account. Above all, Overy explains the bitter cost for those involved in fighting, and the exceptional level of crime and atrocity that marked these imperial projects, the war and its aftermath. This war was as deadly for civilians as it was for the military, a war to the death over the future of the global order. 
 
Blood and Ruins is a masterpiece from of one of the most renowned historians of the Second World War, which will compel us to view the war in novel and unfamiliar ways. Thought-provoking, original and challenging, Blood and Ruins sets out to understand the war anew.

Countdown to War

1939

'A gripping analysis of the final days of peace ... indispensable' M. R. D. Foot, The Times 
 
Richard Overy's 1939: Countdown to War re-creates hour-by-hour the last desperate attempts to salvage peace before the outbreak of World War Two. 
 
24 August 1939: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. Hitler has ambitions to invade Poland and hopes Stalin will now help him. The West must try to stop him. Nothing was predictable or inevitable. The West hoped that Hitler would see sense if they stood firm. Hitler was convinced the West would back down. And both sides acted knowing that they risked being plunged into a war that might spell the end the end of European civilization.

Richard Overy has spent much of his distinguished career studying the intellectual, social and military ideas that shaped the cataclysm of the Second World War, particularly in his books The Origins of the Second World War, The Inter-War Crisis, 1919-1939, Why the Allies Won, Russia's War and The Morbid Age. Since 2004 he has been Professor in History at the University of Exeter. 
 
Richard Overy's book, The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, won the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hessell Tiltman Prize.

24 August 1939: The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. Hitler has ambitions to invade Poland and hopes Stalin will now help him. The West must try to stop him. If they don't, world war will result. 
 
In this dramatic account Richard Overy re-creates hour-by-hour the last days of peace in 1939, as politicians and the public braced themselves for a war they feared might spell the end of European civilization. 
 
Nothing was predictable or inevitable. The West hoped that Hitler would see sense if they stood firm. Hitler was convinced the West would back down. The one constant feature was the determination of Poland to fight against the armed might of Germany. 
 
Countdown to War brings to life a defining moment in the history of the twentieth century.

The World's First Air Force

The Birth of the RAF, 1918

'Fascinating, full of original material and shrewd insights ... a masterful historian of air power' Leo McKinstry, Literary Review 
 
The RAF was the world's first air force. This is the story of its founding in 1918, as a response to the new terror of aerial warfare, the struggles to keep it alive amid controversy and opposition, its crucial role in the Second World War and its unique place in Britain's history. 
 
'Brilliantly lucid' Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph 
 
'Richard Overy is to be congratulated on creating a concise exposition of the formation of the RAF ... this is a book that makes you think' Peter Hart, BBC History Magazine 
 
'A skilful pocket history of the founding of the Royal Air Force in 1918 ... a fine introduction' Kirkus Reviews

Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter and one of Britain's most distinguished historians. His many works include The Bombing War, Dictators and The Morbid Age.

Europe, 1939-1945

The Bombing War

The ultimate history of the Blitz and bombing in the Second World War, from Wolfson Prize-winning historian and author Richard Overy 
 
The use of massive fleets of bombers to kill and terrorize civilians was an aspect of the Second World War which continues to challenge the idea that Allies specifically fought a 'moral' war. For Britain, bombing became perhaps its principal contribution to the fighting as, night after night, exceptionally brave men flew over occupied Europe destroying its cities. 
 
The Bombing War radically overhauls our understanding of the War. It is the first book to examine seriously not just the most well-known parts of the campaign, but the significance of bombing on many other fronts - the German use of bombers on the Eastern Front for example (as well as much newly discovered material on the more familiar 'Blitz' on Britain), or the Allied campaigns against Italian cities. 
 
The result is the author's masterpiece - a rich, gripping, picture of the Second World War and the terrible military, technological and ethical issues that relentlessly drove all its participants into an abyss.

Magnificent ... must now be regarded as the standard work on the bombing war ... It is probably the most important book published on the history of he second world war this century

Monumental ... this is a major contribution to one of the most controversial aspects of the Second World War ... full of new detail and perspectives ... hugely impressive

This tremendous book does what the war it describes signally failed to do. With a well-thought-out strategy and precision, it delivers maximum force on its objectives ... The result is a masterpiece of the historian's art

What distinguishes Mr Overy's account of the bombing war from lesser efforts is the wealth of narrative detail and analytical rigour that he brings to bear

Excellent ... Overy is never less than an erudite and clear-eyed guide whose research is impeccable and whose conclusions appear sensible and convincing even when they run against the established trends

It is unlikely that a work of this scale, scope and merit will be surpassed

Hard to surpass. If you want to know how bombing worked, what it did and what it meant, this is the book to read

My book of the year ... A staggering amount of research ... provides a sober and realistic assessment of [the bombings'] impact on the warring nations and on the civilians who bore the brunt of its impact ... It's hard to imagine a more thorough account: a masterpiece

A much needed breath of fresh air ... Overy argues his point with the confidence of someone who knows he is master of his subject: his rich and varied approach, coupled with exhaustive research, makes this probably the best history of bombing of the past 20 years

A superbly detailed account of a terrifying aspect of the Second World War

An extraordinary and far-reaching history ... the first full narrative of the bombing war in Europe ... Overy's scope is incredibly broad and well-researched, also highly readable

This is a tough, hardheaded and meticulous work of military history ... It is worth reading

Overy's history explains and explores strategy, tactics, technology and results in one seamless story that shatters myths and establishes truths

Utterly fascinating ... What is most surprising in Overy's book is its remarkable contemporary relevance

The first full narrative of the bombing war in Europe

Richard Overy is the author of a series of remarkable books on the Second World War and the wider disasters of the twentieth century. The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia won both the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize. He is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. Penguin publishes 1939: Countdown to War, The Morbid Age, Russia's War, Interrogations, The Battle of Britain and The Dictators. He lives in London.

Russia's War

In Russia's War: 1941-1945, Richard Overy re-creates the Soviet Union's apocalyptic struggle against Nazi Germany, from the point of view both of the troops and of the ordinary civilians. 
 
 In the course of human history there has probably been no more terrible place than Eastern Europe in 1941-45. Estimates of total Soviet military and civilian deaths in the period now stand at more than 25 million. 
 
 Yet without the Soviet war effort, it is unlikely that Germany could have ever been defeated. Drawing on a recent wealth of evidence to account for the Soviet Union's remarkable victory against invading forces, Richard Overy's Russia's War is a fascinating account of the epic struggle that turned the tide of the Second World War. 
 
 'Masterly ... a vivid account' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Robert Service, Independent 
 'A dramatic and exciting tale ... His set-piece descriptions of such visions of Hell as Stalingrad, the 900-day siege of Leningrad and the crucial battle of Kursk are as fascinating as they are horrifying' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Alan Judd, Sunday Times 
 'Overy is a first-class military historian ... Now, we have an authoritative British account that understands both sides, without illusions' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Norman Stone, Spectator 
 'Excellent ... Overy tackles this huge, complex and multifaceted story with the vital gifts of clarity and brevity' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Antony Beevor, Literary Review 
 
 Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. His books include Why the Allies Won, Russia's War, The Battle of Britain, The Morbid Age and The Dictators, which won the Wolfson and the Hessell Tiltman Prizes for history in 2005.

A dramatic and exciting tale ... His set-piece descriptions of such visions of Hell as Stalingrad, the 900-day siege of Leningrad and the crucial battle of Kursk are as fascinating as they are horrifying

Overy is a first-class military historian ... He writes concisely and says what he means to say ... Now, we have an authoritative British account that understands both sides, without illusions

Excellent ... Overy tackles this huge, complex and multifaceted story with the vital gifts of clarity and brevity

Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. His books include Why the Allies Won, Russia's War, The Battle of Britain, The Morbid Age and The Dictators, which won the Wolfson and the Hessell Tiltman Prizes for history in 2005.

In the course of human history there has probably been no more terrible place than Eastern Europe in 1941-5. Estimates of total Soviet military and civilian deaths in the period now stand at more than 25 million. In Russia's War, Richard Overy re-creates the Soviet Union's apocalyptic struggle against Germany from the point of view both of the troops and of the ordinary civilians.

Britain and the Crisis of Civilisation, 1919 - 1939

The Morbid Age

Richard Overy's The Morbid Age opens a window onto the creative but anxious period between the First and Second World Wars. 
 
 British intellectual life between the wars stood at the heart of modernity; it was the golden age of the public intellectual and scientist: Arnold Toynbee, Aldous and Julian Huxley, H. G. Wells, Marie Stopes and a host of others. Yet, as Richard Overy argues, a striking characteristic of so many of the ideas that emerged from this new age - from eugenics to the Freudian unconscious, to modern ideas of pacifism and world government - was the fear that the West was faced a dystopian future of war, economic collapse and racial degeneration. 
 
 Brilliantly evoking a Britain of BBC radio lectures, public debates, peace demonstrations, pamphleteers, psychoanalysts, anti-fascist volunteers, sex education manuals and science fiction, The Morbid Age reveals a time at once different from, and yet surprisingly similar to, our own. 
 
 'History at its best' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Economist 
 
 'The carefree image of life in Britain between the wars is overturned in this magnificent account' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Peter Preston, Observer 
 
 'It is hard to imagine anyone recording these times more exactly and more intelligently, or with greater insight and scholarship, than Overy has' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph 
 
 'With learning, lucidity and wit, The Morbid Age ... brilliantly describes the sense of an inevitably approaching catastrophe' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Eric Hobsbawm, London Review of Books 
 
 Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. His books include Why the Allies Won, Russia's War, The Battle of Britain and The Dictators, which won the Wolfson and the Hessell Tiltman Prizes for history in 2005.

Wonderfully compelling ... never less than a delight to read ... supremely well informed, thoughtful and enjoyable

Overy is one of the great historians of the second world war

It's difficult to do justice to the richness of Overy's account

It is hard to imagine anyone recording these times more exactly and more intelligently, or with greater insight and scholarship, than Overy has in this book

a rewarding book, and a highly readable one

Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. His books include Why the Allies Won, Russia's War, The Battle of Britain and The Dictators, which won the Wolfson and the Hessell Tiltman Prizes for history in 2005.

British intellectual life between the wars stood at the heart of modernity. The Morbid Age opens a window on to this creative but anxious era, the golden age of the public intellectual and scientist: Arnold Toynbee, Aldous and Julian Huxley, H. G. Wells, Marie Stopes and a host of others. Yet, as Richard Overy argues, a striking characteristic of so many of the ideas that emerged from this new age - from eugenics to Freud's unconscious, to modern ideas of pacifism and world government - was the fear that the West was facing a possibly terminal crisis of civilization. Ultimately, Overy shows, the coming of war was almost welcomed as a way to resolve the contradictions and anxieties of this period, a war in which it was believed civilization would be either saved or utterly destroyed.

Myth and Reality

The Battle of Britain

From the award-winning author of The Dictators, Richard Overy's The Battle of Britain: Myth and Reality is the best introduction available to a defining moment in British history. 
 
 The extraordinary struggle between British and German air forces in 1940 was one of the pivotal events of the Second World War. How close did Britain really come to invasion during this time? What were Hitler and Churchill's motives? And what was the battle's real effect on the outcome of the war? 
 
 'It is harder to imagine a sounder and more succinct account of the Battle of Britain' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Max Hastings, Evening Standard 
 
 'No individual British victory after Trafalgar was more decisive in challenging the course of a major war than the Battle of Britain ... the best historical analysis in readable form which has yet appeared on this prime subject' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Noble Frankland, The Times Literary Supplement 
 
 'The Battle of Britain is hard to beat' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Saul David, Sunday Telegraph 
 
 'Exemplary ... a compelling account' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Boyd Tonkin, Independent 
 
 'Succeeds brilliantly ... along the way a lot of myths bite the dust' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Time 
 
 'A captivating and brilliant analysis of the fragile circumstances of Britain's victory' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Observer 
 
 Richard Overy has spent much of his distinguished career studying the intellectual, social and military ideas that shaped the cataclysm of the Second World War, particularly in his books 1939 - Countdown to War, Why the Allies Won, Russia's War and The Morbid Age. Overy's The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia won the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hessell Tiltman Prize.

As an objective reassessment of this most critical of struggles, cogently argued and concisely written, The Battle of Britain is hard to beat

A captivating and readable analysis of the fragile circumstances of Britain's victory

Succeeds brilliantly ... puts the battle in context, and along the way a lot of myths bite the dust

Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. His books include Why the Allies Won, Russia's War, The Morbid Age, and The Dictators, which won the Wolfson and the Hessell Tiltman Prizes for history in 2005.

The Battle of Britain tells the extraordinary story of one of the pivotal events of the Second World War - the struggle between British and German air forces in the late summer and autumn of 1940. Exposing many of the myths surrounding the conflict, the book provides answers to important questions: how close did Britain really come to invasion? What were Hitler and Churchill's motives? And what was the battle's real effect on the outcome of the war? Told with great clarity and objectivity, this is a superb introduction to a defining moment in our history. 
 
'No individual British victory after Trafalgar was more decisive in challenging the course of a major war than was the Battle of Britain ... In his carefully argued, clearly explained and impressively documented book ... Richard Overy is at pains to dispose of the myths and expose the real history of what he does not doubt was a great British victory ... the best historical analysis in readable form which has yet appeared on this prime subject' Noble Frankland, The Times Literary Supplement

The Origins of World War II

The Road to War

A revised and updated edition of a classic history book exploring the beginnings of World War II in concise, accessible and enjoyable prose.

The best short work on the origins of the second world war. It is a masterpiece of compression

Stimulating and enjoyable... essential reading

The authors combine passion with understanding to make sound historical sense

It is mesmerising to read about a world careering to hell

Richard Overy is Professor in History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of books on the Second World War, the European dictatorships and the history of air power. His latest titles include Why the Allies Won (2nd edn 2006), The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004) and The Morbid Age: Britain Between the Wars (2009). He is a fellow of the British Academy and winner of the Wolfson History Prize in 2005. 
 
Andrew Wheatcroft is the author of many pioneerign books on early modern adn modern history, including The Ottomans (1993) and The Enemy at the Gate (2008). he is based in Dumfriesshire adn is Professor and Director of the Centre for Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling.

Hailed on publication as a thought-provoking, authoritative analysis of the true beginnings of the Second World War, this revised edition of The Road to War is essential reading for anyone interested in this momentous period of history. Taking each major nation in turn, the book tells the story of their road to war; recapturing the concerns, anxieties and prejudices of the statesmen of the thirties.

Why The Allies Won

'Outstanding... Overy has written a masterpiece of analytical history, posing and answering one of the great questions of the century' - Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times

A compelling analysis... skilful and chilling

A much needed book... He deserves the attention of a wide audience

Richard Overy is writing at the height of his powers... The result is often startling, never less than fascinating

A thought provoking reappraisal of the war - deeply researched, complex and yet beautifully lucid

Richard Overy is Professor in History at the University of Exeter. He is the author of books on the Second World War, the European dictatorships and the history of air power. His latest titles include The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004) and The Morbid Age: Britain Between the Wars (2009). He is a fellow of the British Academy and winner of the Wolfson History Prize in 2005.

'Outstanding...Overy has written a masterpiece of analytical history, posing and answering one of the great questions of the century' Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times 
 
The Allied victory in 1945 – though comprehensive – was far from inevitable. By 1942 almost the entire resources of continental Europe were in German hands and Japan had wiped out the western colonial presence in Asia. Democracy appeared to have had its day. 
 
 In this remarkable study, Richard Overy provides a reinterpretation of the war through an account of the decisive military campaigns that created the astonishing revival in Allied fortunes. He also explores the deeper factors that determined success and failure: industrial stength, fighting ability, the skills of leaders and the moral contrasts between the two sides. 
 
 Today the modern world is once more in the throes of painful transformation. It is essential to establish why and how the last great war was won. Richard Overy casts a brilliant light on the most important turning-point of the modern age. 
 
‘A compelling analysis...skilful and chilling’ The Economist

Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia

The Dictators

Stalin and Hitler - a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of unscrupulous men.

Richard Overy is Professor of Modern History at King's College, London. His previous books for Penguin include Russia's War and The Battle of Britain.

Half a century after their deaths, the dictatorships of Stalin and Hitler still cast a long and terrible shadow over the modern world. They were the most destructive and lethal regimes in history, murdering millions. They fought the largest and costliest war in all history. Yet millions of Germans and Russians enthusiastically supported them and the values they stood for. In this first major study of the two dictatorships side-by-side Richard Overy sets out to answer the question: How was dictatorship possible? How did they function? What was the bond that tied dictator and people so powerfully together? He paints a remarkable and vivid account of the different ways in which Stalin and Hitler rose to power, and abused and dominated their people. It is a chilling analysis of powerful ideals corrupted by the vanity of ambitious and unscrupulous men.

Inside the Minds of the Nazi Elite

Interrogations

From award-winning historian Richard Overy, Interrogations: Inside the Minds of the Nazi Elite is the harrowing true story of the interviews with Nazi masterminds in the aftermath of the Second World War. 
 
 How can we ever understand why those in the Third Reich acted the way they did? What could have led them to commit such atrocities in the name of the Fuhrer? 
 
 In 1945, as the Nazi regime collapsed, its remaining leaders were imprisoned and interrogated for months before the Nuremberg Trials. In this searing work Richard Overy reveals the original transcripts of these little-known interviews with key Nazis: the brutal and unrepentant Goering, the selective amnesiac Hess, the deliberately evasive Ribbentrop, the courteous Speer and the suicidal Ley. For the first time, they were forced to examine their actions and speak about the unspeakable. The result is an unprecedented and shocking insight into Hitler's henchmen. 
 
 'A chilling glimpse into the minds of Hitler's chief lieutenants' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;J.G. Ballard, New Statesman Books of the Year 
 
 'Enthralling ... I know of no better book to explain what really motivated the elite of the Third Reich' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday 
 
 'Remarkable and gripping ... the interrogations, along with Overy's incisive commentary, throw light on the dejected cast who had once happily danced to Hitler's tune' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;David Stafford, The Times 
 
 'Fascinating ... reveals the mindset of Hitler's inner circle' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Ian Kershaw, Sunday Telegraph 
 
 Richard Overy has spent much of his distinguished career studying the intellectual, social and military ideas that shaped the cataclysm of the Second World War, particularly in his books 1939 - Countdown to War, Why the Allies Won, Russia's War and The Morbid Age. Overy's The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia won the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hessell Tiltman Prize.

Richard Overy is Professor of History at King's College London. His previous books include WHY THE ALLIES WON, RUSSIA'S WAR and THE BATTLE.

Europe in early 1945 was a vast physical and moral wasteland.  It was now that the weary Allied armies, fighting their way through the devastated Reich, truly came to understand the horror the Nazi's had unleashed. As the Nazi leaders were killed, committed suicide or were captured and the regime fell to pieces, it was through the interrogation of the survivors that the Allies began to find out the true nature of their enemy. In hour after hour of questioning the truth (and of course many lies)about Nazi Europe came spilling out. Richard Overy brings the reader face to face with a regime in its death throes and with a world struggling to understand what had really been perpetrated within the gigantic fortress of Hitler's Reich.

Richard Overy is Professor of Modern History at King's College, London. He is also the author of &quot;The Road to War&quot;.

RUSSIA'S WAR is the epic account of the greatest military encounter in human history. In a vivid, often shocking narrative, Richard Overy describes the astounding events of 1941-45 in which the Soviet Union, after initial catastrophes, destroyed Hitler's Third Reich and shaped European history for the next half Century.

The Pursuit of Progress in Britain After 1945

Anxiety and Longing

Richard Overy

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: 'Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the shade.

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

This is a magnificent book that reflects the deep scholarship and humane judgment of a magisterial historian.

There can be few more important but also more contentious issues than attempting to understand the human propensity for conflict. Our history is inextricably tangled in wave after wave of inter-human fighting from as far back as we have records. 
 
How can we make sense of what Einstein called 'the dark places of human will and feeling'? Richard Overy draws on a lifetime's study of conflict to write this challenging, invaluable book. Studying every facet of war from biology to belief, psychology to security, Overy allows readers to understand the many contradictory or self-reinforcing ways in which warfare can suddenly appear a legitimate option. 
 
Repeatedly humans have foresworn war, have understood its appalling risks and have wished to create more pacific, productive societies. And yet almost inevitably circumstances emerge under which war once more seems inevitable or even desirable.

Richard Overy

Praise for Why War?

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

**PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: '**Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

**PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: '**Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

**PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: '**Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

Books by Richard Overy

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

Praise for Why War?

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: 'Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: 'Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

A richly absorbing book... Overy is unquestionably one of our finest living historians

PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: 'Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

Monumental... [A] vast and detailed study that is surely the finest single-volume history of World War Two.

Books by Richard Overy

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter

**PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: '**Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

**PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: '**Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...

**PRAISE FOR BLOOD AND RUINS: '**Majestic and original ... Overy has written many fine books, but Blood and Ruins is his masterpiece. It puts all previous single-volume works of the conflict in the ...