<span></span><span>Not unlike the Manifest Destiny expounded by Americans a century earlier, many Germans in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century advocated expansion into what they regarded as the Eastern Frontier. Hitler, for one, was determined to turn the old dream into reality by conquest, colonizing lands ripe for settlement and exploitation. With <em>Ostkrieg</em></span><span>, historian Stephen Fritz identifies Hitler's central goal as the subjugation of the Soviet Union, not only to destroy the home base of the rival Communist ideology but to provide “living space” for Germans and a killing field for the Jews.</span><span><br /><br />The author shows how the task was hopeless, given American support for Great Britain, the haplessness of Germany's Italian ally, Japan's refusal to attack Russia from the rear and the overstretching of German resources. Hitler was not ready or able to fight a war on three fronts and gambled that Stalin could be knocked out of the war with a few lightning blows. One of the remarkable achievements of Fritz's massively detailed and always readable account is to expose the vulnerable position of Germany, which proceeded to make war on the basis of a radical ideology rather than sound strategic judgment.</span>
