Max Hastings

Author Event: Sir Max Hastings
Armageddon
December 2, 2004 

The Eisenhower Institute and The English-Speaking Union hosted a luncheon and lecture by British military historian Sir Max Hastings, author of Armageddon, an epic account of the last eight months of World War II. The event was on December 2, 2004 in Washington, DC.

The Financial Times (October 30, 2004) says of Armagedon - "His research embraces the gruesome testimony of frontline soldiers and civilians, but he is equally comfortable with matters of grand strategy and rivalry between generals. He gives vivid descriptions of the devastation of East Prussia, the Warsaw Uprising, the futility and viciousness of area bombing of Germany (the subject of his earlier work, Bomber Command), and even the little-known battle on the Dutch offshore island of Texel in April 1945. Armageddon is a magnificent achievement."

During his research, Hastings interviewed 170 veterans in Russia, Britain, America, the Netherlands, and Germany about what it is like to be a soldier in the thick of battle, as well as accounts of the horrible excesses and atrocities of the closing months of the war, particularly during the Soviet advance into Germany. "This book traces a descent into an inferno," writes Hastings.