The best history books of 2014 – as rated by historians

Nigel Jones

Roger Moorhouse is a friend, but I can honestly nominate The Devils’ Alliance: Hitler’s Pact with Stalin 1939–1941 (Bodley Head) as easily the best of the books that I have read for duty and pleasure this year.

This study of the shattering accord between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia that began the Second World War reveals that the twin tyrannies – ostensibly mortal enemies – had more in common than has been previously acknowledged. Moreover, the book is written with a grim delight in human stories that is Moorhouse’s hallmark.

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