How does one explain the mind set of the high command and the strategic framework within which the Germans lost the war? How did the high command reach and implement its decisions? No one has answered these questions systematically before. This extraordinary and fascinating book fills that gap in the literature on World War II.--Williamson Murray, author of The Luftwaffe, 1933-45 "Comprehensive, well written, important. Megargee does a first-rate job in describing the personalities of the high command and their relationships."--James S. Corum, author of The Roots of Blitzkrieg "Megargee permits us a fresh perspective on both the magnetic figure of Adolf Hitler and his military advisers."--Jürgen Förster, Militargeschichtliches Forschungsamt "Hitler emerges from these pages as an adept manipulator. He took full advantage of the tensions in the command structure to divide it and focus it on himself. But he took the officers nowhere they were not at least ready, if not immediately willing, to go."--Dennis Showalter, author of Tannenberg: Clash of Empire