Deathride: Deathride - Hardcover

""Deathride" is a dramatic departure from the conventional wisdom and is itself a dramatic chronicle of the most brutal theater in the most brutal war in one of history's most brutal centuries. . . . This is a clear-eyed, compelling description of a battle that has been described many times, but seldom with such an ironic eye." --David M. Shribman, "The Boston Globe" "Mr. Mosier [is] one of the more entertainingly contrarian military historians writing today. . . . an important and groundbreaking book about the Eastern front." --Joseph C. Goulden, "The Washington Times"

During World War II the Eastern Front was the biggest and most important theatre, most historians agree that this is where the decisive battles of the war were fought. The conventional wisdom about the Eastern Front is that Hitler was mad to think he could defeat the USSR because of its vast size and population, and that the Battle of Stalingrad marked the turning point of the war. Neither statement is accurate, says Mosier; Hitler came very close to winning outright. Certain to be controversial, Mosier's history of the Eastern Front will generate considerable debate both because of his unconventional arguments and because he criticizes historians who have accepted Soviet facts and interpretations. Mosier argues that Soviet accounts are utterly untrustworthy and accounts relying on them are fantasies. Deathride argues that the war in the East was Hitler's to lose, that Stalin was in grave jeopardy from the outset of the war, and that it was the Allied victories in North Africa and consequent threat to Italy that forced Hitler to change his plans and saved Stalin from near-certain defeat. Stalin's only real triumph was in creating a legend of victory.