The Coming of the Third Reich [Paperback]

Richard J. Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

There is no story in twentieth-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evans’s history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, even as it shows how ready Germany was by the early 1930s for such a takeover to occur. The Coming of the Third Reich is a masterwork of the historian’s art and the book by which all others on the subject will be judged.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On March 30, 1933, two months after Hitler achieved power, Paul Nikolaus, a Berlin cabaret comedian, wrote disconsolately, "For once, no joke. I am taking my own life.... [U]nfortunately I have fallen in love with my Fatherland. I cannot live in these times." How Germans could remain in love with their fatherland under Nazism and even contribute willingly to its horrific extremism is the subject of Cambridge historian Evans's gripping if overwhelmingly detailed study, the first of three projected volumes. Readers watch a great and historic culture grow grotesquely warped from within, until, in 1933, a dictatorial state was imposed upon the ruins of the Weimar republic. A host of shrill demagogues had, in the preceding decades, become missionaries to an uneasy coalition of the discontented, eager to subvert Germany's democratic institutions. This account contrasts with oversimplified diagnoses of how Nazism succeeded in taking possession of the German psyche. Evans asserts that Hitler's manipulative charisma required massive dissatisfaction and resentment available to be exploited. Nazism found convenient scapegoats in historic anti-Semitism, the shame of an imposed peace after WWI and the weakness of an unstable government alien to the disciplined German past. Although there have been significant recent studies of Hitler and his regime, like Ian Kershaw's brilliant two volumes, Evans (In Hitler's Shadow, etc.) broadens the historic perspective to demythologize how morbidly fertile the years before WWI were as an incubator for Hitler. 31 illus., 18 maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This is the first volume in a projected three-volume history of Nazi Germany. Cambridge history professor Evans states clearly that this is a work aimed at general readers who hope to gain a fuller and deeper understanding of the course and causes of the Nazi rise to power. Although he breaks no new ground, Evans has written a highly readable and comprehensive account. Thankfully, he does not fall into the trap of looking for proto-Nazis as far back as Luther; however, Evans credibly asserts that the roots of National Socialism can be uncovered in the Germany of Bismarck, which had all of the stresses and tensions of a rapidly modernizing society. While acknowledging that strains of virulent nationalism and anti-Semitism were prevalent in other European nations, Evans shows that these tendencies combined with other vulnerabilities in Germany in an especially volatile mix. This is a first-rate narrative history that informs and educates and may inspire readers to delve even deeper into the subject. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143034693
• ISBN-13: 978-0143034698
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > History > Europe > Germany

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

282 of 294 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overview With A Different Angle, April 20, 2004

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming of the Third Reich (Hardcover)

I have read perhaps more than a hundred books on the Third Reich from almost every angle possible. This morning, I finished the Coming of the Third Reich then I read the reviews posted here to see just how different perceptions affect other readers' understanding of the material. After digesting some of the commentary, I wondered if we had read the same book.
This is the first time I've read a book by Richard Evans so I can't compare and contrast with his other work on the same subject. At no point did I detect excessive moralizing or self-congratulatory passages. I would urge those who have not yet read the book to read the preface. Its very important. Evans explains that he is breaking no new ground but that this book is primarily for the edification of those who know little or nothing about Hitler or the Third Reich. It is an overview with different angles than those of Shirer, Kershaw, and Burleigh and that is part of what makes this book so useful. Rather than dwell on the poverty of Hitler's youth and his anti-Semitism, though Evans does cover these, the focus is on the political, economic and social situation of the ill-fated Weimar Republic and how it became fertile soil for extremism.
Evans has written a coherent, interesting, and fast-paced explanation for the rise of the Nazis to the top of the extremist crop of political fringe groups that got their start following WWI. It is useful to remember that out of the ashes of defeat in the war, myriad extremist groups popped up in Germany like mushrooms in a Mississippi cow pasture after a spring shower.
The Weimar Republic was a fractious cacophony of partisan squabbling. Many Germans rejected its legitimacy and after twelve years of abject political failure despite the constant shuffling of Cabinets, millions were ready for a strong leader to take control and restore German pride and economic clout.
Many party leaders vowed to dismantle the Weimar system should they come to power, but only Hitler and his Nazi Party promised to do so while restoring Germany to its rightful place in the world. People increasingly began to see Hitler as a decisive leader and the Nazis as a youthful, dynamic movement that had the capabilities of fulfilling its promise. The Nazi Party was the first to use technology and science to further its aims and to build support.
Innovations like focus groups that we take for granted today were potent weapons in the Nazi political arsenal then. With the guidance of Goebbels and others, Hitler learned to tailor his speeches to his audience. Where his anti-Semitic harangues were not working, he dropped any talk of the Jews. When he spoke to workers, he spoke against capital. When he spoke to industrialists, he emphasized the party's program for individual initiative and profits for those who earned them.
The book shows that at no time was Hitler's appointment as Reich Chancellor inevitable, that the Nazis were actually seen by many, including some of their own worried leaders, to have already peaked in electoral support and that much of the support they had was soft. It was only a matter of tenacity coupled with luck on Hitler's part and stupid overconfidence on the part of others that got him a shot at running the country to begin with. Of great interest to readers are the electoral maps which show the relative strength of the Nazis around the country in a series of elections. It is interesting to note that one area where the Nazis lacked substantial support was in the south focusing on Munich and southern Bavaria, the birthplace of Naziism.
Evans brings to life the daily street violence from the left and the right that had ordinary people living in fear. Hitler had promised a dictatorship time and again, but no one was more surprised than the mass of the people when that is exactly what he gave them.
I highly recommend this book, even if you already think you know about all there is to know about Hitler and the Third Reich. Trust me. You don't. I sure didn't! And I'm looking forward to learning more in the next volume!

83 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Historical Account, February 6, 2004

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Coming of the Third Reich (Hardcover)

Many historical works about Nazi Germany focus on the cult of personality that surrounded Adolf Hitler. And while it is true that without Hitler there would have been no Nazi movement, it is equally true that Hitler as a leader could only have flourished in the hothouse political environment that was post-World War I Germany. Historian Richard Evans?s ?The Coming of the Third Reich,? the first in a trilogy about the Nazis that takes the movement up to Hitler?s 1933 ascension to power, concentrates on those qualities of the German nation that made it susceptible to his virulent brand of fanatical nationalism and racism. This is an important historical work that will soon take its place alongside the best books ever written about the subject.

Evans is a meticulous researcher, but even more importantly he is a good storyteller whose easy prose brings the subject matter to life for the reader. He begins his story in the days of the legendary Otto von Bismark, the so-called ?Iron Chancellor,? who once and for all united the German nation in 1870. Evans shows how the latent intellectual seeds of ferocious nationalism, militarism and subdued but prevalent anti-Semitism that would later spring to life so forcefully were sown into the body politic of Germany, waiting for the catastrophic defeat of the First World War to help bring them into full flower. This worthwhile examination of previous German history is often overlooked, or gets only perfunctory treatment, in other books about the Nazis. Indeed, Hitler himself is not mentioned by name here until after almost 160 pages of text.

Evans goes on to describe early Nazi history, dramatically illustrating how Hitler and his henchmen tapped into the currents of discontent flowing just under the surface of 1920s Weimar democracy, particularly among military veterans. He graphically depicts the street violence that was so much a part of the fledging democracy, as thugs beholden to the Nazis, the Communists and even democratic parties like the Social Democrats engaged constantly in pitched battles the ultimately undermined the republic. Even in this environment, however, the Nazi movement needed the drastic economic upheavals of the 1930s before they could turn from a fringe party to a mass movement. The final tragedy of the book comes in late January 1933 when Hitler, whose party had peaked short of 40% of the popular vote and was actually declining, is invited to become chancellor by some contemptible and hopelessly misguided conservative politicians who thought they could control him.

Overall, ?The Coming of the Third Reich? is an outstanding historical work that is aimed at general readers, but should appeal to anyone with an interest in this important subject.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine start to the planned trilogy, April 11, 2004

By 

"strongbeliever" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming of the Third Reich (Hardcover)

I am not a fan of Richard J. Evans' habit of pontificating and moralising all the way through his books, but this annoyance cannot erode my belief that the fellow has researched and written a fine book. It is aimed at a wide and therefore unspecialised readership, and contains less originality that I expected, but the topics it covers receive thorough, persuasive and readable analysis of the highest order. This is indeed a very good first work in a trilogy.