Buy Low Price From Here Now
The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war.
By the middle of 1933, the democracy of the Weimar Republic had been transformed into the police state of the Third Reich, mobilized around the cult of the leader, Adolf Hitler. If this could happen in less than a year, what would the future hold? Only the most fervent Nazi party loyalists would have predicted how radical the transformation ahead would be.
In The Third Reich in Power, Richard J. Evans tells the story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule. Every area of life, from literature, culture, and the arts to religion, education, and science, was subordinated to the relentless drive to prepare Germany for war. His book shows how the Nazis attempted to penetrate and reorder every aspect of German society, encountering many kinds and degrees of resistance along the way but gradually winning the acceptance of the German people in the long run.
Those who were seen as unfit to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms. The Nazi regime took more and more radical measures against the racially "unfit," including Germany's Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill, "asocial" and "habitual" criminals. After six years of foreign policy brinkmanship that took the Nazi regime from success to success, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September 1939. The war he unleashed was to plunge the world into a maelstrom of genocide and destruction. The Third Reich in Power is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss.
Readmore
Technical Details
See more technical details
By Grettir Strong
The book is not as dynamic and fascinating as the last book of the trilogy but nevertheless extremely interesting and quite comprehensive. Pretty much all imaginable sides of life in Germany under matured Third Reich are dissected in variety of ways and exposed under different angles of view. Author does his best to stay impartial in his narrative although it is clear that it is not that easy for him to do. Third Reich political system is shown as a tough regime that grows more and more radical, slipping to extreme brutalization towards its own citizens and, eventually, to war.
There are many aspects of that epoch that are relatively well known. Persecution of certain minorities as well as such large scale actions as Night of the Long Knives or Night of Broken Glass would sound familiar (even if vaguely) to many. But Mr. Evans goes much further - he explores less known corners of life then - artistic and literary life, education (both higher and regular), religion and economy. It gets clear that hardly anything was left untouched - even such seemingly other-worldly spheres as mathematics experienced intrusion. Mr. Evans writes that there was an attempt to create some true "German mathematics", which stressed geometry rather than algebra. Somehow geometry, he writes (page 309), "was supposedly more closely related to the ideal human form as expressed in the Aryan racial type". It is not that easy to see how mathematical disciplines other that geometry can be less (or more) related to that ideal, moreover geometry itself (except for maybe elementary one) deals with matters that are so far away from human form in its level of abstraction that it may be possible that whoever was trying to reshape mathematics under Third Reich did not have mathematical education. Another aspect of that reshaping was so-called Aryanization - that phenomenon took place everywhere, but especially in education and economy. Quite eloquent testimony of consequences of that phenomenon at one of the best in the world research facilities can be seen in the dialog between David Hilbert, prominent German mathematician, and Bernhard Rust, Nazi Minister of Education sometime in 1934. Rust asked, "How is mathematics in Göttingen now that it has been freed of the Jewish influence?" Hilbert replied, "Mathematics in Göttingen? There is really none any more." (quoted from Wikipedia).
Interestingly enough, some consumer brands well known today, as Mr. Evans shows, have stamp of Aryanization in their history, namely cosmetic products of Nivea and shoes Salamander. Story of Voklswagen is more complex. Reportedly Adolf Hitler was involved personally in design of a certain model as the book says. What really surprised me is that Volkswagen was in fact available to German consumers and many did own it in 1930s. Viktor Klemperer, whose diaries are frequently quoted across the book, had one and had driven often German famous autobahns in it.
Overall though, the book is not a happy reading. All social innovations by the regime, introduced by Nazi ideology, made lives of many either hard or unbelievably hard with great deal plunged into destitution, forced to flee the country or perished in concentration camps, prisons, or series of pogroms. Each time I look at my neighbor's Golf, I can't help but think about Viktor Klemperer and his rides in his Volkswagen across German countryside shortly before racial policies culminated in Nuremberg Laws that shuttered his life so completely. Mr. Evans' book does a good job in description of that era and generating reflection but one question after the book is finished is left unanswered in its entirety - what should be done to prevent repetition of that episode of the human history? Chances are many readers will formulate that question for themselves and it is very probable that the answer is a very complex one.
By Cody Carlson (Salt Lake City, UT United States)
The second volume in Richard J. Evans Third Reich trilogy matches the first for breathtaking scope, attention to detail and truly fine writing. Evans successfully illustrates how the Nazi process of Gleichschaltung (coordination) allowed fascism to permeated every facet of German life. Propaganda, police terror, the Nazi war on the churches, the creation of the racial state, and the preparation for world war are all addressed in all their horrific wonder by the author. This is another important book in the pantheon of Third Reich histories and will no doubt educate the curious for years to come.
By Ronald Iden (Tennessee)
The Evans' trilogy on the Third Reich is comprehensive and may well become the definitive general history of that period. An excellent bibliography for more detailed reading, too. With his public works projects and national work camps helping bring Germany out of the depression, you can readily see why Hitler was supported by much of the German populace. There are some frightening comparisons with the Obama administration's socialists tendencies in the latter's actions today.
By Allen Smalling (Chicago, IL United States)
THE THIRD REICH IN POWER is the middle of historian Richard J. Evans' trilogy of life and politics under the Nazis (the first deals with their rise to power and the new final volume the experience of war). It is Evans' stated attempt to steer a middle course between dry and highly specialized academic texts on the one hand, and excessively popular (and increasingly outdated) works on the other, and in that it succeeds brilliantly IMHO. I have a major in German studies but was looking for social as well as political history and came away with enhanced knowledge of some aspects of Germany in the Thirties (the inexorable spread of anti-Semitism) and brand-new and fascinating knowledge of others (did you know Hitler had a hand in designing the Autobahns?).
In fact, this book explicitly makes the day-to-day life of average Germans important; not mere nuggets but information and narrative that give the reader an excellent overview. For instance, one wide-ranging program, called "Kraft durch Freude" (Strength through Joy) did everything from build resort hotels and offer cheap rates to (Nazi-approved) groups, to opening up a lay-away program for the newly developed Volkswagen(a plan cut short by war).
And speaking of war, it is impossible not to agree that Hitler started war planning from his first day in office. As medievalist-turned-mystery writer Dorothy Sayers once remarked, the only shock in his annexing the Sudentenland (Bohemia) and perpetuating even worse atrocities is not that Hitler didn't make it quite clear what he intended to do -- it's just that the western democracies chose not to believe him. I highly recommend THE THIRD REICH IN POWER. Whether you read it in hardcover or in paperback, you'll probably want to hang onto this work for a long time to come.
By Dale P. Henken (Coquille, Oregon)
I had read about the Third Reich but mainly through biographies of Hitler & other histories of the Second World War. Most of these concentrated on Hitler's foreign policies & his war making.
Evans, in his second volume of this large history, has given me a priceless look inside the Third Reich & how the Nazi's took over all aspects of daily life in Germany & how they reordered German society in their image through "co-ordination". I never realized how complete the transformation (or the revolution) of Germany was until Evan's painted this stark portrait. It is a chilling tale.
Now I finally have the answer to a question I have always had. Why was there no organized opposition to Hitler & the Nazis? The establishment of the police state was so thorough & so severe any opposition was quashed. But beyond the repression was the transformation of German society & it was complete.
One of the better vignettes in the book answered another question I had. Why were the Jehovah's Witnesses prosecuted by the Nazis & sent to concentration camps. How could this harmless, little sect be any threat to the might of Third Reich? The answer is actually the key to understanding the basic philosophy of that Third Reich. To know the answer you must read the book.
The book is tough sledding. There is a lot of information & some statistics. It is not necessarily a fun history to read. There is a lot of detail about a lot of different aspects of German life from religion to work to the arts but there must be so much in order for Evan's to paint this picture.
Evan's The Third Reich In Power is the definitive look at the Third Reich for this generation & a long time to come. If you have any interest in the modern history of Germany then you owe it to yourself to read this series.
And the moral or the story is this: be careful who you elect. If they say they are for change then change you could get. But it could be more change than you ever suspected. The German people made a deal with the Devil and the thugs took over. It is a fable of the Twentieth Century for us in the Twenty First.
Buy The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 Now
0 Responses to "The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939"
Post a Comment