Published Professional Book Review Excerpts

Military History Monthly Commends Why Germany Nearly Won:

"a fresh perspective on key events...Mercatante's...scholarship is undoubtedly on solid ground, which makes this book a welcome addition to Second World War bibliography."

Military History Monthly published its review of Why Germany Nearly Won in its July 2013 issue

WWII History Magazine Praises Why Germany Nearly Won:

"This is an intriguing book that will surely be of great interest to students of World War II. It offers a fresh analysis of why Germany was beaten and poses reasons why it should have won."

WWII History Magainze published its review of Why Germany Nearly Won in its August 2013 issue

Gun Mart Magazine Recommends Why Germany Nearly Won:

"There are plenty of books which postulate the opinion of ‘what if’ Germany had won the war, but this book is different. Firstly, the opinion of the title is based on solid research to present a sound argument. The facts and figures support the case and for anyone who enjoys learning about how much oil it took to keep armies in the field and how much food to feed them will find this book fascinating....This is a book which holds the attention and makes for an excellent reference work."

Gun Mart Magazine published its review of Why Germany Nearly Won in September 2013.

World War II Magazine Recommends Why Germany Nearly Won:

"A thought-provoking book...Mercatante's main purpose is to counter widespread arguments that brute force was the main reason for success in World War II....The Germans, he argues, repeatedly demonstrated that qualitative advantages could be more important than quantitative superiority in men and materiel, and that the Allied armies eventually won because they became better at mobile and combined arms warfare than their enemies....[Mercatante's] case deserves to be heard."--Conrad Crane, World War II Magazine

World War II Magazine (a publication of the Weider History Group) published it's review of Why Germany Nearly Won in its Nov/Dec 2012 issue.

Choice Magazine Endorses Why Germany Nearly Won:

Choice Magazine (a publication of the Association for College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association) published it's review of Why Germany Nearly Won in its August 2012 issue. Choice reaches almost every undergraduate college and university library in the United States.

The Michigan War Studies Review Praises Why Germany Nearly Won:

This book…is worth reading...Steven Mercatante…knows that the devil is in the details. To his credit, even those familiar with World War II scholarship will find here analyses of economic and technological matters that historians have often glossed over or mentioned only in passing. To cite just one example, when Adolf Hitler authorized Admiral Erich Raeder's grandiose program to build a large blue-water fleet, great quantities of steel had to be diverted from the production of badly needed land armaments, in particular, armored vehicles. Such mismanagement of wartime resources in the Third Reich deserves more attention than it usually gets. Mercatante also points out that German Tiger tanks destroyed Allied tanks at a ratio exceeding twelve to one, and still greater than five to one even after factoring in noncombat losses due to breakdowns, etc. He insightfully comments that, in light of such a combat advantage for their enemy, the Allies' five to one lead in armored fighting vehicle production over the Axis powers "becomes less than impressive and more a matter of necessity"...later in chapter 5…: “Without the poor planning and unrealistic assumptions that undergirded Barbarossa as an operational concept, the Red Army of 1941 could not have prevented any number of catastrophes, including possibly both Leningrad's and Moscow's loss during the summer and fall of 1941…. [T]he hard earned victory enjoyed by the significantly weakening German armies east of Kiev was diminished when the 2nd Panzer Army was ordered to march on Moscow in lieu of having Guderian's men strike for economic objectives in the southern half of Germany's eastern front. These resources not only represented the heart of the Soviet economy and agricultural base, but also once put to work for the German economy would have allowed Hitler to wage global war and cement his hold on Europe. (125–26)…As Mercatante notes, an explicit objective of Case Blue was the Caucasus oil fields, which would immeasurably improve Germany's chances in a war with the Allied coalition. Seizing them would also hamstring the Soviet war effort and perhaps pave the way for a reprise of the Brest-Litovsk armistice of World War I…There is…much sound analysis scattered through this book. Chapter 12, "How the Third Reich Staved Off Total Defeat during the Summer of 1944," is a fine extended example. It features, among other things, an astute critique of the legendary M-4 Sherman tank, backbone of the US and British armored divisions. Amid a glut of statistics, table 13.1 (340) is particularly sobering, revealing that Soviet wartime production of more than ninety-eight thousand tanks and self-propelled guns exceeded battlefield losses by a mere two thousand. --Review by Ralph M. Hitchens, Poolesville, MD

The Michigan War Studies Review (MiWSR, formerly MWSR) is an online scholarly journal affiliated with the Michigan War Studies Group and published its review of Why Germany Nearly Won on October 1, 2012.

The UK Military Blog British Army Rumour Service Recommends Why Germany Nearly Won:

"a good read. the author has no end of numbers to back up his position and has obviously studied the subject in some depth." The reviewer ultimately finds that the book is worth reading "for its good detail, interesting facts and just making you think about exactly how an Army that repeatedly steamrollered over its opponents eventually came to grief."

The British Army Rumour Service is a blog and web community for those with an interest in the British Army and published its review of Why Germany Nearly Won on June 16, 2013.

Historyofwar.org Compliments Why Germany Nearly Won:

"Mercatante's main argument is that quality was more important than quantity when attempting to explain the course of the Second World War....Overall I agree with the author's main argument. The Germans were being out-produced by their enemies in 1940-41 and still won stunning victories. Later in the war outnumbered German forces were capable of defeating much stronger opponents, at least for short periods of time, while the D-Day landings showed that the western Allies had learnt the lessons of earlier less successful amphibious landings earlier in the war. Sometimes the quantitative side of things is dismissed a little too easily, but his main argument is well made."

The Historyofwar.org is a vast database of articles, book reviews, and more about warfare. It published it's review of Why Germany Nearly Won on February 8, 2015.