Richard J. Evans' Brilliant Book Unfolds Perhaps the Single Most Important Story of the 20Th Century How a Stable and Modern Country in Less Than a Single Lifetime Led Europe Into Moral, Physical and Cultural Ruin and Despair. a Terrible Story Not Least Because There Were so Many Other Ways in Which Germany's History Could Have Been Played Out. With Authority, Skill and Compassion, Evans Recreates a Country Torn Apart by Overwhelming Economic, Political and Social Blows the First World War, Versailles, Hyperinflation and the Great Depression. One by One These Blows Ruined or Pushed Aside Almost Everything Admirable About Germany, Leaving the Way Clear for a Truly Horrifying Ideology to Take Command.