In this groundbreaking new history, Adam Tooze provides the clearest picture to date of the Nazi war machine and its undoing. There was no aspect of Nazi power untouched by economics-it was Hitler's obsession and the reason the Nazis came to power in the first place. The Second World War was fought, in Hitler's view, to create a European empire strong enough to take on the United States. But as <i>The Wages of Destruction</i> makes clear, Hitler's armies were never powerful enough to beat either Britain or the Soviet Union-and Hitler never had a serious plan as to how he might defeat the United States. <i>The Wages of Destruction</i> is an eye-opening and controversial account that will challenge conventional interpretations of the period and will find an enthusiastic readership among fans of Ian Kershaw and Richard Evans. BACKCOVER: <b>Advance praise for <i>The Wages of Destruction:</i></b><br> <b>"One of the most important and original books to be published about the Third Reich in the past twenty years. A tour de force."<br> -Niall Ferguson, author of <i>Colossus</i></b> <br> <br> "Unputdownable epic history . . . Transforms not only our reading of Hitler's sordid regime, but the history of the twentieth century itself. Brilliantly written, its original scholarship is telling and lightly borne on every page."<br> -John Cornwell, author of <i>Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII</i>