The Third Reich: A New History [Hardcover]

Michael Burleigh (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0809093251 | ISBN-13: 978-0809093250 | Publication Date: October 2000 | Edition: 1 Amer ed

Until now there has been no up-to-date, one-volume, international history of Nazi Germany, despite its being among the most studied phenomena of our time. The Third Reich restores a broad perspective and intellectual unity to issues that have become academic subspecialties and offers a brilliant new interpretation of Hitler's evil rule. 

Filled with human and moral considerations that are missing from theoretical accounts, Michael Burleigh's book gives full weight to the experience of ordinary people who were swept up in, or repelled by, Hitler's movement. It emphasizes, as well, the international themes -- for Nazi Germany appealed to the political classes and the ordinary people of many European nations, its wartime conduct included efforts to dominate the entire continent's economy, and its murderous policies involved gigantic population transfers and exterminations, recruitment of foreign labor, and multinational armies. 

What happened when many, or most, of Germany's elite as well as a majority of its citizenry chose not to think for themselves and to favor instead a politics based on faith, hope, hatred, and sentimental regard for their own race and nation? The consequences were catastrophic for Germany, Europe, and the wider world, but no more so than for European Jews. Michael Burleigh's account of the moral breakdown and transformation of an advanced industrial society in the heart of Europe is a remarkably clearheaded assessment of the dangerous consequences when, in a country still obsessed with its losses in a previous war, a political movement takes on the form of a pseudo- or substitute religion. His narrative of events in Nazi Germany, and in a world that was forced to respond to its criminal actions, is a masterpiece of great intellectual and moral courage. 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Humans have a fascination with evil. We long to identify it, quantify it, and understand it. To this end, newspapers frequently splash photographs of murderers with the caption "The face of evil." Heading most lists of the 20th century's most evil people would be Adolf Hitler, but, as Michael Burleigh's tour de force makes clear, evil is not always as cut-and-dried as we would like. The Nazis could not have come to power and committed Germany to a policy of war and genocide without the tacit consent of the German people. This makes Germany as a whole responsible for the crimes committed in its name, but it is clearly wrong to label every German as evil. Through his painstaking research and direct prose, Burleigh slowly builds up a picture of a people desperate for identity and economic prosperity, who, bit by bit, closed off their conscience as the price of their dreams. There was no one cathartic moment when Germany, under the Third Reich, lapsed from goodness into badness; rather, there was an incremental realignment of a collective morality. Burleigh's explanation of this phenomenon is so simple, yet so obviously right, that you can only wonder that it didn't become the generally accepted currency years ago.

Instead of viewing Nazi Germany in purely social, political, and economic terms--though he doesn't ignore these spheres--Burleigh wraps them all into a picture of a country gripped in a religious, messianic fervor, and that which had previously felt inexplicable suddenly seems clear. If you want the nitty-gritty details of the Second World War and the genocide, they are here, retold as well as, if not better than, many of the other histories of this period. But it's Burleigh's take on the people of Germany that makes this book so special. Above all, with similar genocidal wars currently being fought in Kosovo, Rwanda, and Iraq, it makes you think, "Would I be able to resist becoming complicit in such regimes?" This is a must for every 20th-century historian. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

After literally thousands of books have been written on the Nazis and their history, the author who attempts another one has to have a compelling reason. Burleigh, professor of history at Washington and Lee University and author of several books on Germany, focuses on the moral breakdown that gave Hitler control of an industrial society, which then, along with the rest of the world, suffered the catastrophic consequences. Though the topic is not new, the treatment is first-rate, making this indeed a new history. For example, as he does elsewhere, in the case of the Roehm purge, he omits many of the well-known details in order to explain its significance with clarity and even verve. Burleigh treats Christian opponents of Hitler with more kindness than they usually receive, and his treatment of anti-Semitism as something quite minor in the lives of most Germans of the period will no doubt stir up controversy, as will his unusual emphasis on non-Jewish victims of the Nazis. The author emphasizes the perspectives of individuals who lived through these events, giving his book a democratic flavor uncommon since William L. Shirer's famous history. But the primary value of Burleigh's book lies in its overview of the interpretations made by others. However, the book is not without flaws: Burleigh's prejudices toward conservatives lead him to write of the feckless German officers as more heroic than they were and to sneer at the left-wing opponents of the Nazi regime who suffered far more in their struggle. And his writing is sometimes too clever. His reference to the sadistic and murderous Franz Alfred Six as a "1968er avant la lettre" is an example of both flaws at once. Such lapses are minor annoyances, though. Burleigh has produced an important work of synthesis that recapitulates an impressive array of sources. It deserves to become the jumping-off point for scholars who want to take their studies of this uniquely horrible era in new directions. Illus. not seen by PW. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 864 pages
• Publisher: Hill & Wang; 1 Amer ed edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809093251
• ISBN-13: 978-0809093250
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #455,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Summation of the Effects of Nazi Destructiveness, July 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Third Reich: A New History (Hardcover)

"The Third Reich: A New History" does not emphasize Hitler , nor the politics or personalities within the Nazi party itself, and, consequently, Burleigh rushes through the Nazi seisure of power. The book, rather, concentrates on the impact National Socialism had on the lives of people both within Germany and throughout Europe. To learn about Hitler, the Nazi organization itself, or how Hitler molded the party to his will, you will need to go to other sources; Bracher, Stern, and Kershaw, for example. But to read about the destructive effects the Nazi regime had on the lives of everday people, there is no better source than this new book. As one reviewer remarked, Burleigh has demonstrated an "extraordinary mastery of an immense monographic literature." Through it all Burleigh maintains a judicious and balanced approach to his subject, yet he does not hesitate to pass judgment. Burleigh's keen and always balanced evaluation and insight make the work more than a mere compilation.

Early on he presents an excellent analysis of the various classes, occupations, and professions and why National Socialism appealed to them. With keen psychological and sociological insight he is excellent in his presentation of the various Nazi strategies for appealing to the differences in people. He shows, for example, how the Nazis were selective in their use of antisemitism. Yet, the heart of Burleigh's book is what he considers the defining characteristic of the Nazi experience; "the supercession of the rule of law by arbitrary police terror." He is strong on the Nazi approach to the law and the politicization of the police. He is strong on the Nazi attempt to purge what they believed are the "Jewish elements" within Christianity and the degrading effects the Nazi regime had on the churches and the clergy. Burleigh reveals the effects of the Anschluss on radicalizing Nazi anitsemitic policies, but he also clearly reveals that there were many other groups singled out for persecution and elimination than the Jews. The author is especially good at describing the Nazi euthanasia program in regard to the disabled and retarded.

The author is also very strong in his discussion of the occupation of various parts of Europe and how Nazi policies differed from country to country. He reveals the extent to which the occupied countries engaged in their own ethnic housecleaning once the Nazi invasion undermined their stability. Through it all Burleigh does not condemn the German people as such, he doesn't portray them as morally bankrupt beings of a kind different than you and me. To the contrary, he reveals how the German people became the "emotional casualties of their own actions." He illustrates how good people felt corrupted by the Nazi regime and how people struggled with conflicting emotions under the terrible circumstances they found themselves caught up in. In the end the Germans became a people "bathed in narcissistic ethno-sentimentality." This was central to the problem then, and it is still a problem in today's world.

Burleigh is not one to demonstrate the "positive" impact the Nazi regime had on Germany. Any success in the sphere of economic recovery was purchased at a heavy cost. Throughout the work the author cleary demonstrates the depravity and destructiveness of the Nazi's bankrupt ideology which, centered around the "supercession of the rule of law," became a substitute secular religion based upon bio-racial concepts. The destructiveness of the Nazi regime is always kept at center stage. There is no better summation of the brutality and savagery visited upon everyday people by the Nazis.

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What nazism actually meant to the world., November 13, 2000

By 

John Barry Kenyon - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Reich: A New History (Hardcover)

Michael Burleigh has written a most scholarly, and yet richly readable, new history of the Third Reich. It is "new" in the sense that he combines a theoretical approach - nazism as a pseudo religious force in its mass appeal inside and outside Germany - with abundant material on the lives of everyday people. His chapter headings are thematic, rather than strictly chronological, and include sub sections such as "See You In Siberia" and "The Generals Who Dithered". The nazi attempts to dominate and exploit the economic life of Europe and beyond are particularly well discussed. The volume is a useful contrast with Ian Kershaw's recent, excellent biography of Hitler since Burleigh has written a more international account: his particular remit is to analyse the impact of nazism as a huge political force across frontiers. He is impressively adroit in tracing the pro and anti nazi sentiment in eastern Europe and Russia. There is, for instance, some fascinating insight into the Tatars of the Ukraine who were deported by Stalin's police in cattle truck journeys lasting up to three months. The author's final chapter covers the years 1943 to 1948 where it is explained that denazification had a short life from 1945 since the allies and the Russians soon had much greater global problems to address. There are a few slips in the text, for example the main Nuremburg war criminals were not hanged "at dawn" (page 804), and this reviewer felt that nazi and anti nazi media propaganda could tell us more of the international dimension than is revealed in the book. None the less, this is an insightful tome, full of sound judgments and interesting sidelights on virtually every page. Just for the record, Burleigh has no truck with revisionist sentiments about the personalities and policies of the Reich. Here is the story of a criminal gang who brought Europe to its knees.

56 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Revisionist Exploration of Nature Of Nazism!, December 19, 2001

By 

Barron Laycock "Labradorman" (Temple, New Hampshire United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Third Reich: A New History (Hardcover)

After carefully re-reading this book I came to the inescapeable conclusion that if ever there was a book whose theme revolves brilliantly around the single question of individual complicity with, participation in, and responsibility for the manifestations of evil, it is this one. In a work of amazing breadth and depth, historian Michael Burleigh masterfully weaves together a magisterial and complex theory regarding the nature of economic, social, and cultural life in Nazi Germany, and in so doing provides a convincing and seductive notion as to why the Germans succumbed as a people to the mind-numbing evil of the National Socialist regime. He contends that like communism, National Socialism provided a seductive political alternative to traditional religion, and by doing so seduced the German people into a pact with the devil.

The book spins along with a breathless narrative that shows how the prevailing conditions in post WWI Germany, the history of prejudice, envy and fear of the Jewish people, and the lack of integration in various aspects of German life contributed to the existence of a unique cultural vulnerability, which the Nazis subsequently masterfully orchestrated and gradually integrated into what he contends was a secular religion, replacing the existing welter of beliefs with the singular faith and belief in the sacredness of the "Fatherland" as personified in Adolph Hitler. There is much evidence presented which supports such an interpretation.

Yet, while all of this is brilliantly developed and related by Burleigh, in truth there is also much here that is not new or novel. Like William Shirer's masterful portrayal of the evils of the thugs, slugs, and gutter people who rose to power with the Nazi regime in "The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich", Burleigh painstakingly traces the ways in which life as a citizen in the new world of national socialism became more and more oriented around the precepts of fascism. Of course, the Nazis interfered massively with every aspect of society, in ways ranging from encouragement of so-called Aryan art and literature to applied eugenics (Josef Mengele was once a highly admired and respected medical scientist with an international reputation) to the establishment of Hitler Youth Core. In all this Burleigh reveals a people so starved for meaning and identity that they grasped at the straws of greatness that the Nazis dangled before them. Caught in a devil's bargain, of course, they gradually abandoned their traditional values and beliefs in the hopes of participating in the glory and dreams of the Fatherland.

Of course, one does not sense anywhere in this narrative that there is any one critical moment in which they consciously decide to abandon the past in favor of the promise of the Nazi future; instead one gets the impression of a quite gradual, almost glacial drift toward identification with the existing regime and its blueprints for the future. Certainly, however, by the moment in which the terror of events such as the Kristallnacht pogrom, they had begun to realize what they had bought into. By then, of course, it was far too late, for the Nazis had a very firm grip on power and were not afraid to use whatever methods necessary to maintain control. From that point on, there was no turning back.

What seems most unique and convincing here, however, is what historian Richard Overy refers to as "the vast panorama on which it is set". Burleigh writes with convincing authority about the ways in which the secular religion of fascism is sold to the German people, wrapped in the cloak of tradition, folklore, and mysticism. It is no mistake that the Nazi regime seemed Wagnerian; their alignment with such glorious interpretations of German destiny was quite intentional. Seen in this way, the German people were gradually led into subscribing to a whole new culture, one based on the substitution of the Fatherland and its personification in Adolph Hitler for all that had preceded it. Of course, so wrapped in tradition and folklore, the beatification of evil was hardly recognizable at first. It was only with the initial successes of 1939 and 1940 that the truth about the aims and goals and culture of the Nazi regime began to emerge.

It is a truism that Hitler could not have come to power without the tacit consent of a majority of the German people. In this book Michael Burleigh provides a fascinating thesis regarding how that consent was engineered, and the ways in which the German people became involved and embroiled in the most disastrous series of international conflicts in the history of the modern world. While one suspects this is hardly the final word on the subject of the nature of the German state or the people who populated and supported it, this thoughtful and provocative book adds fuel to the fire ignited by Daniel Goldhagen in his book "Hitler's Willing Executioners", and sets the stage for an even more engaged discussion of the nature of human evil. I highly recommend this book, along with Ian Kershaw's recent two-volume study of Hitler (see my reviews), which also uses the new treasure trove of information newly released by the Russians and others. Together the two authors provide a fascinating and fresh look at the nature of the Nazi regime and the murder and mayhem it spawned.