Hermann Goering was Hitler's most loyal supporter, his designated successor, and the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. One of the main architects of the Nazi regime, he was also instrumental in the creation of the Gestapo and directly ordered the Final Solution. But who was the man behind the carefully constructed mask?

Self-indulgent and ruthless, sybaritic and brutal, egotistical yet capable of self-effacement, weak-willed yet fiercely calculating, Goering was a contradictory, complex, and often buffoonish character. In this classic biography, Richard Overy takes the...