[ Reviews refer to the book as an "everyman's story" made up of accounts from those with lesser roles in the conflict; "ranging from ship's cooks to wireless operators, farmers and housewives to typists and black marketeers."[3]]The book addresses several "triumphalist" aspects of written war history by focusing on the "misery, heroism and endurance" of individual accounts.[4][5] Hastings concludes that whilst the Nazis fought individual battles well, their overall war effort showed "stunning incompetence".[6]
Critical reception
Martin Rubin, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, gave a positive review, calling All Hell Let Loose "a true distillation of everything this historian has learned from a lifetime of scholarship".[ In a review in The Observer, Ian Thomson noted the book's British-centric Western Front narrative, although not ignoring other aspects of the war, and called it "immensely long, but extremely readable". Thomson also says that Hastings has "a faint antipathy towards foreigners".[3] Jonathon Sumption criticised the book's "relentlessly pessimistic message" and says that the everyman perspective gives a distorted view of the war.[5]]
All Hell Let Loose was named as one of The Telegraphs Books of the Year 2011, in the category of History Books.[10]References
1. ^1 2 {{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/16/max-hastings-hell-let-loose|title=All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945 by Max Hastings – review|author=Ian Thomson|newspaper=The Observer|date=16 October 2011|accessdate=30 November 2011}}
2. ^1 {{cite web|title=Books of the Year 2011: History Books|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8896707/Books-of-the-Year-2011-History-Books.html|author=Dan Jones|date=21 November 2011|newspaper=The Telegraph|accessdate=30 November 2011}}
3. ^1 {{cite web|url=http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/Titles/51197/all-hell-let-loose-max-hastings-9780007338092|title=All Hell Let Loose}}
4. ^1 2 {{cite web|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/7271963/the-good-war/|title=The good war?|author=Jonathon Sumption|date=29 September 2011 |work=The Spectator}}
5. ^1 {{cite web|title=All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939-1945 by Max Hastings: review|author=Keith Lowe|date=29 September 2011|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8796759/All-Hell-Let-Loose-The-World-at-War-1939-1945-by-Max-Hastings-review.html|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}}