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I will start this off by reccomending “The Wages of Destruction” by Adam Tooze.I am not much into economic history but this book makes a compelling case that contrary to popular opinion Germany was in a full war economy by 1938 at the latest. It was because of this that hitler was forced to go to war when he did. An excellent book.One of the wierdest parts for me is a section of about 20 pages where he discusseds the accounting and worth of slave vs paid labor.Very Interesting and worth a read. It is reminiscent of the work of John Mosier and Niall Ferguson, revisionist history. It is a pretty big book though at about 850 pages.
Did the book have to be that long? I wonder if some authors simply include too much when they either could have left items out or divided it into multiple books with some journal articles on the side.
After reading it, I am convinced that the book could have been even longer. There are several sections where he does not go into detail about the nature of the Nazi economy; especially in the section dealing with the disposition of raw materials and the exactions from the occupied countries after 1940. He mentions raw totals and percentages but very little analysis of the ways in which the occupied countries were forced to support their oppressors. The one detailed accounting is the discussion of the Generalplan Ost and how that affected the populations of Poland and occupied Russia. He also goes into detailed discussion of the way in which the east was starved to feed the Reich. Very illuminating stuff.
One thing to consider with scholars is usually the average scholar only publishes 1-3 major works during their academic careers. The rest of their work is usually in the form of journal entries or reviews of other scholars. Most scholars are simply not prolific writers. I'd suspect that this particular scholar was seeking to make this one work his defining opus….and from there to “retire” to less intensive pursuits. Not uncommon in the field. However there are prolific writers out there who are workaholics trying to leave their stamp on the field for generations.
I came away from this work thinking that this was a topic that has barely recieved the attention it deserves. i have read about 200-300 books on WWII and its origins and I cant recall reading anything close to this level of analysis on the economic factors of the war. Normally economics are presented as an open and shut case. Tooze makes it clear that they are not. I hope to see more on this topic, it as an area of WWII historiography that is underserved.
