The Third Reich in Power (Paperback)

~ Richard Evans (Author) "The Third Reich came to power in the first half of 1933 on the ruins of Germany's first attempt at democracy, the ill-fated Weimar Republic..." (more)
Key Phrases: comradeship houses, brownshirt leaders, fast geschlossen, Third Reich, Hitler Youth, Social Democrats (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The second work in a planned three-volume series (after 2004's Coming of the Third Reich) this book starts with the Nazis' complete assumption of power and creation of a one-party state in 1933, and goes to September 1939 and the beginning of World War II. In sharp detail, Evans shows how Hitler seized upon his political victory and immediately began his plan for the Nazi infiltration of every aspect of German society. The Nazi propaganda blitz covered everything from local councils to social clubs to all voluntary associations. And when propaganda didn't work, coercion and fear did. At the behest of Hitler, the brownshirts and SS (secret police) ruthlessly harassed, beat, and murdered the Jews and Communists first, but later targeted anyone who showed even the slightest criticism of Nazi activities. Those Germans who disapproved of the Nazis were mainly confined to acts of passive resistance to Hitler's totalitarian rule. Nationalism proved to be the one issue capable of galvanizing the nation, as the Nazis' growing power helped to erase the shame and humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles that closed World War I.

Over the course of the book, Evans shows how everything Hitler did in this period was designed to prepare the nation for a war--"a life and death struggle"--whose aim was less geographical conquest than racial purity. Hitler's main objective was "to remould the minds, spirits and bodies of the German people to make them capable and worthy of the role of the new master-race that awaited them." Though Hitler did not work alone, Evans makes it clear that he was the overwhelming driving force behind it all, including policies regarding education, eugenics, and foreign affairs. Well written and logically organized, The Third Reich in Power is an impressive work of meticulous, readable history. --Shawn Carkonen --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The second volume of Cambridge historian Evans's trilogy on the Third Reich (after The Coming of the Third Reich) is a major achievement. No other recent synthetic history has quite the range and narrative power of Evans's work. There are no surprises here. Instead, the reader will find careful, detailed analyses of all the major issues relating to the Third Reich between Hitler's assumption of power on January 31, 1933, and the start of WWII on September 1, 1939: the construction of the dictatorship, the propaganda, the economy, the racial policy and the planning for war. Evans shows just how difficult it was for Hitler to secure his power in Germany (it required unabashed terror to defeat the Nazis' many opponents), but also how successful was the establishment of the Volksgemeinschaft, the racial community. Once Hitler had successfully consolidated his power, every other aspect of Nazi policy, from education to the economy, became subordinated to the preparation for war. The war, Evans emphasizes, was never simply an effort to redraw the map of Europe. The vast, overarching aim of establishing a racial utopia, a newly modern, German-dominated Europe cleansed of Jews and other undesirables, could only be accomplished through war. When complete, Evans's trilogy will take its place alongside Ian Kershaw's monumental two-volume biography of Hitler as the standard works in English. Illus. and maps not seen by PW.(On sale Oct. 24)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 960 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143037900
• ISBN-13: 978-0143037903
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hugely detailed but readable history of Germany just before the war, December 4, 2005

By	John Gossman (Seattle, wa USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 (Hardcover)

Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of this series is how the 3 volumes (one still coming) are divided up. Volume 1 is a highly readable and thorough account of how the Nazis came to control Germany. It can be read completely standalone as either a pure history of the times or as a cautionary tale of how a democracy can fail. Volume 3 is to cover the war, and I suspect again it will largely stand on its own given how many other books have already been written about that period of German history.

The period covered by this book, Volume 2, is also self-contained: defined by the period after the Nazis seized power but before the arrival of war swept away most other considerations. Of the three, I think this is the period that is the least well-covered...perhaps in many ways it is the least dramatic. Most histories tend to be divided up more into "before the war" and "the war" with the bulk of the first part covering the rise of the Nazis and treating their time in power as merely prelude to the war itself.

Evans covers the usual topics from this period with suitable detail and emphasis: the persecution of the Jews, the night of long knives and destruction of the SA, the union with Austria and the final stages of the pre-war period in the confrontations with and over Czechoslovakia and Poland. But these topics have been covered elsewhere. For example Donald Cameron Watt's "How War Came" covers the Czech and Polish situations in a more traditional way, as diplomatic history from the points of views of all the players (and arguably in a more readable fashion). Evans in contrast writes from a very German-centric view, which is a nice departure from the norm (at least of books available in English) but can occasionally leave one with a lack of perspective.

What sets "The Third Reich in Power" apart from previous works is the detailed attention to the social and economic consequences of Nazi policies on German life: from religion (the Nazis tried to establish their own form of Christianity, even proposing dropping the Old Testament from the canon), to education (at all levels, Evans goes into depth on the Nazi Youth, the University system, the various education initiatives), to population policy, to women's rights, to industry and the relationship between business and the Nazi party. The word that comes to mind over and over is "detail". This book is enormously detailed.

If there is controversy about this work, it will center around the author's stance toward whether the German people supported the actions of the Nazis or not, in particular as regards to anti-semitism. Evans clearly does not subscribe to the "German people as first victims of Hitler" theory, but I think he has drawn back from the "German people fully cooperated with the Nazis" thesis that has received so much attention the past decade or so. He never comes down strongly on one side or the other, and at times even seems to contradict himself. This is probably inevitable in a work of this depth, as these situations are complex and he presents much contradictory evidence: people who supported the Nazis in some areas or at some times and fought them or ignored them at others. But it does not make for as exciting writing as some of the more opinionated works.

In the end, it is the amount of detail that will make this book indispensible, but may be a barrier to its readability. I'm not qualified to rate the book on its historiography, but I would certainly give it 5 stars on the amount of data and research presented. However, for the non-professional it may become overwhelming. Your own tolerance for dry detail (I would classify the book as "engaging academic" or "dry popular") should determine if you want to read this book.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Book -- Just Short of a Great Book, March 26, 2006

By	John E. Mack (New London, Minnesota United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 (Hardcover)

Evan's "Third Reich in Power" falls just short of being a great book. I would rate it a "9" if Amazon had a ten-point rating system. Evans concentrates on the period between the elevation of Hitler to the chancellorship and the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Evans uses what might be called the "mosiac" method. He examines most of the essential features in which Nazism attempted to regulate and direct the lives of the German people, and does so in succcessive chapters. This is an interesting approach -- rather unusual for contemporary history --, and is reminiscent of that taken in, say, Cambridge's Ancient History and Medieval History series. No "grant theses" emerge, but several themes suggest themselves.

First, Evans demonstrates that the German people were extremely ambivalent about the Nazi regime. On the one hand, most Germans genuinely idolized Hitler. On the other hand, they were deeply distrustful of his underlings, and of many things the government was doing to the economy and to national welfare. The picture that emerges is of a people disturbed by the quotidien aspects of Nazi rule -- censorship, police surveillance, low wage rates, labor restrictions, etc. -- but sufficiently sympathetic with the broader aims of the regime to make tolerance for the disagreeable aspects possible. The picture of the German people which emerges is rather unflattering: it was distrustful of the disorder occasioned by the regime's extreme anti-semitism, but disliked Jews and was more than happy to profit from their suppression. It was suspicious of militarism and the march toward war, but happy about the economic recovery rearmament enabled (as long was the eventual war was fought by somebody else). It was unhappy about the restrictions on art, culture and education, but shared the prejudices against modernist tendencies and agaisnt the educated elite which caused most people to shed few tears when the Nazis systematically dismantled Germany's high culture. Above all, Evans paints a picture of a people very queasy about what was happening, but unwilling to do much to save anybody else from the clutches of the Nazis. The Germans were not so much Hitler's willing executioners as Htiler's self-absorbed bystanders.

Second, Evans attempts to paint a picture of the Nazi regime as an attempt to completely mobilize and structure the way society thought and behaved. Evans emphasizes the role of terror and coercion, implicitly disagreeing with other historians who emphasize the small size of the Nazi policing appartus when compared with, e.g., the Soviet Union. He also focuses on something which has received relatively little attention -- the "dumming down" of German society. While Evans notes that the Nazi efforts to change the nature of the German educational system -- particularly its system of higher education -- met with mixed results, his claim that the quallity of the product of that system had dropped considerably by 1939 is compelling. One wonders how the Germans managed to be as successful in World War II as they were; it probably did as well as it did principally to the extent that its efforts to totally transform society were unsuccessful.

Finally, Evans confronts and sheds light on a very important issue. Nazi "philosophy" was, in important way, incoherent. It idealized men who were at once, aggressive, bullying, Darwinian, anti-intellectual, athletic, competitive and warlike, while at the same time obedient, self-sacrificing, other-directed, altruistic, idealistic and dedicated completely to the common "good" (as defined by the Nazis). It is very difficult to create a docile thug. The Nazis were as successful as they were in this endeavor by separating the thugs (who were allowed to do just about anything, as long as they did not threaten the regime) from the sheep (who, if obdient -- and Aryan-- were largley immune from thuggery by a sort of protection racket).

Evans paints a compelling picture of a society whose contradictions were bound to result in fatal instabilities in the absence of an every-victorious state of war. It is also a picture of a regime whose very commitment to physical and intellectual brutality would eventually make it impossible to quit while it was ahead.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned..., August 26, 2006

By	Omer Belsky (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 (Hardcover)

"The Third Reich in Power" is the second part of Richard J. Evans's projected trilogy on the Nazi Dictatorship. The first book, The Coming of the Third Reich, narrated German history since Bismarck, explaining how the various elements of what we know as Nazism grew during the 19th century, intensified as a result of Germany's defeat during the Great War, and then rose to power following the Great Depression and the inept political leadership of both the traditional right and left.

"The Third Reich in Power" picks up where the previous volume has left. Hitler's regime is now in power, but it is not in control. Even at their prime, the Nazis never won a majority of the popular vote. Most Germans had at best a partial allegiance of the regime, undermined (at least in Nazi eyes) by their association with the Churches or the trade unions. Although competing political parties where quickly outlawed, the former Social Democrats and Communists were no fans of the regime, and the Conservative circle around President Hindenburg had allowed Hitler to assume the chancellery of Germany, but had expected full well to remain in control. Pockets of -potential- resistance existed in the Universities and the armed forces, and even inside the Nazi Sturmabteilung (better known as the SA). And of course, there were the Jews, the mythical, eternal enemies.

Most of the volume details how the Nazi state dealt with the challenges of winning over the German population. The means included propaganda, control of the media, Arts and Press, Nazified education system, popular programs of Social redistribution such as Strength Through Joy, a program offering subsidized cultural and social events for the people, an economic recovery and the prestige won through the regime's foreign policies triumphs. But they also included darker means - concentration camps and secret police, military purges, racial laws and even Pogroms.

Evans divides his book to theme based chapters, one for the Arts and the Press, one for Religion and Education, and one each exploring the Police State, the Economy, the Racial Laws, and Foreign Policy. As in his previous volumes, Evans manages to 'hit' all the best known items in the Third Reich. So we encounter Leni Riefenstahl directing "The Triumph of the Will", Eichmann directing the Aryanization of Jews, The Catholic Anti-Nazi encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge, and Martin Neimuller's poem "First they came..."

Evan's narrative is best when he manages to demonstrate the effects the Nazi regime had over the lives of simple people. The travails of best selling author Rudolf Ditzen, for example, are page turning, and demonstrate the difficulty of living under Germany's dictatorship even if one was neither a political opponent nor a handicapped nor a Jew (pp. 149-152).

As in the previous volume, Evans's thoroughness as a researcher is sometimes at odds with his Powers as story teller, and we are sometimes subjected to fatiguing details of disciplines in Nazi Prisons or Bureaucratic infighting. Furthermore, some of the best parts are narratives from fairly well known German diarists, such as Jewish Literature Professor Victor Klemperer and League of German Girls activist Melita Maschmann.

Unfortunately, in my view, Evans mostly spares the reader the details of scholarship controversy. Only the footnotes contain hints of controversy regarding Nazi influence in Universities, the Fuhrer's involvement in the regime, and the Nazi's status as "Hitler's Willing Executioners". The most interesting question of the Nazi economic recovery, whether or not the Nazis pursued a progressive Keynesian recovery program, is hinted to but not developed enough.

The major insight I gained from "The Third Reich in Power" was the centrality of Hitler's projected eventual European War on the Third Reich. Everything in Nazi Germany was subordinate to the needs of Rearmament, and Hitler risked endangering the economic recovery and the quest for Autarky, and even the pace of the Anti-Jewish persecution, in order to achieve readiness.

And the War Came... the culmination of the Nazi Project, the fight for Lebensraum and eventual world domination, occurred when Britain had finally abandoned its policy of Appeasement and declared War on Germany, following Hitler's invasion of Poland. Although the German people were far from enthusiastic about the War, they had followed their leader, and they had now answered to his call. Everything the Nazi Regime had worked for was set to come during the War: the Solution of the Nation's perceived need for Space and Resources, the regaining of the lost position of Germany as the World Leader, and the solution, as last final, the Jewish Problem. But Evans's account stops now, and we must patiently wait for his last volume, "The Third Reich at War"