The Third Reich in Power | Richard Evans

The Third Reich in Power | Richard Evans | Waiting for the third book

books:

The Third Reich in...

	The Third Reich in Power Richard Evans Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006 - 960 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

The definitive account of Germany?s malign transformation under Hitler?s total rule and the implacable march to war

This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans?s three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of the Atlantic Monthly as ?the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise.? It chronicles the incredible story of Germany?s radical reshaping under Nazi rule. As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms, Hitler?s drive to prepare Germany for the war that he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September 1939. 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.

for more information click here

The Master of Disaster

In the second part of the said three volume history of the Third Reich, Mr. Richard Evans enters the territory of William L. Shirer. He joins a rather august group of chronicilers of the subject of the Third Reich in the English language.
I'll make this review short and sweet. Mr. Evans explains the complete mindset of Adolph Hitler.
1. The progressive Jewish genocide pogroms.
2. The complete change of Art culture according to the tastes of Adolph Hitler.
3. The complete ruin of intellectual activities in all German pedagogical institutions.
In short a Germany as seen through the eyes of a Madman. In this study we also see Adolph Hitler's seduction of the Prussian military elite. The bully conquering of the Sudentenland, Czecho-Slovakia and Austria. As Winston Churchill noted this was "The Gathering Storm".
I highly recommend this book as a popular historical masterpiece. Read it and learn! I'm looking forward to Mr. Evans take of the Second World War in Europe.

for more information click here

Waiting for the third book

Evans' project - to write a comprehensive history of the Nazi Germany state from its beginnings to its bitter end - probably is one of the best known in this field of history in recent years. And it seems that he has succeeded, providing two both historically valuable and rather easy to read books, and I hope that the upcoming third book will follow the trail.

A Master Historian Dissecting the Turbulent Third Reich

This second book in the series goes from 1933 - when Hitler assumed power - to September 1939 at the onset of the Second World War II. The author shows how Hitler manipulated the system, seizing power in an ever widening grasp. He then began to infiltrate and subvert every aspect of German society. Propaganda stepped up. Government from local neighborhood groups to the top of the Reich heap were controlled and monitored. Hitler's feared henchmen were the Brownshirts and the SS. At first, the Brownshirts under Roehm were far more powerful and threatening than the SS. But fearing Ernest Roehm's ambitions, Hitler and Himmler waylaid him to consolidate their hold on power. Throughout this period, both groups used terror against political opponents and then the Jews. Hitler's focus was war - pure and simple - girding the Germanic nation for the future onslaught against the world. This book is a powerful and meticulous history of this horrible period and well worth the investment in time and money for those interested in this history.

for more information click here

Readable and though provoking

The concept of the "banality of evil" takes on a new twist in Mr. Evan's book. We know about Hitler and his squalid band of psychopaths and how their crimes haunt our consciousness to this day. What I didn't appreciate until I read this book was how thoroughly and quickly Hitler's vision permeated all aspects of life in the Third Reich.

The populist appeal to the small merchant led to a campaign against department stores that initially restricted their scope (in-store restaurants banned, for example). This was not a town council passing an ordinance; this was set out at the highest level of the government upon the Nazis taking power.

Hitler's struggles as an artist instilled a distaste for any sort of Modern Art. Artists who produced work satisfactory to the regime were lionized; galleries that displayed modernist art were closed and offending works were seized and sold abroad. A "Law for the Confiscation of the Products of Degenerate Art" was promulgated.

It was thus not a big leap to coerce the population into behavior consistent with the Nazi worldview in matters of procreation, worship and basic human rights.

These efforts to transform the mindset of the people met with mixed success but why it was able to even attempt these intrusions continues to baffle us. How thoroughly worn down could the people have been following Versailles and the Weimar Republic? And of course, how would I have reacted in these circumstances? This is what I found fascinating in reading this book.

for more information click here

Longer

Are you crazy you want a longer book? It's a great book very readable well structured. But, it could have had a little more on foriegn affairs Spanish Civil War etc. This brings me to my main point. By the third volume there will be enough pages to put out a 4th volumne taking the footnote pages. Evans himself said he only used footnotes for references not additional information. Put them on the web for God's sake.Even those few who would read this book and don't have the web won't be missing anything

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

products you might be interested in