The title of the book is misleadingly accurate. The book does depict the rise and fall of the Third Reich somewhat thoroughly; however, most people would assume that that means covering World War II as well, at least the European/African scenario of it. In this the book fails miserably. As an example, Kursk 1943, the greatest tank battle in history, is covered with just one paragraph of text. The U-Boat warfare is similarly neglected (he does mention that X tons of shipping were sunk in then-and-then; however, as he does not say how many tons of shipping got through, the figure is absolutely impossible to put in any perspective), as are practically all other areas.

But, then again, WW2 is the largest event in the history of humankind, so maybe it's too much to ask for one book to cover it with any thoroughness. At least this book gives an overview of the war, allowing you to read more detailed accounts later on and pin them in the overall scheme of things.

There are other problems with the book as well. The anti-German viewpoint is one of them. Sure, Germans did lots of unpleasant things. They were neither the first, last, biggest, or most efficient mass murderers in history, so any moral outrage needs to be tempered. Personally I don't see how americans for one can point any fingers, as they conquered a whole continent from the american indians and practised genocide against them, very successfully at that.

Even if you dismiss earlier events, even WW2 is ripe with examples on both sides. So the germans didn't feed their prisoners of war? Neither did the russians. The germans wreaked havoc on conquered lands? Guess what the russians did. Germans bombed england? Allies' firebombing of german and japanese cities, not to mention Nagasaki and Hiroshima, are 1000x worse than any bombing the germans ever did, and it's even worse because there was absolutely no need for any of it.