A History of the Third Reich - Complete Four (4) Volume Set

Greenhaven Press's first multi-volume encyclopedia covers a perennial topic for students and adults alike. In four volumes, A History of the Third Reich is a comprehensive, easy-to-read reference on the Nazi regime.

Written by historian Jeff T. Hay of San Diego State University in consultation with Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this thoroughly researched work is uniquely organized to make writing paper topics easier for students. Each volume is cross referenced with others to allow students to quickly see relationships between volumes and subjects. A History of the Third Reich combines Greenhaven's known strengths in content, research, and the importance of examining a wide variety of sources in a traditional multi-volume set. Other features include:

• A thorough timeline that includes events around the world
• A comprehensive bibliography of books, articles, and important websites
• Detailed maps offer visual information on a wide variety of topics, including major battles and offensive plans, and pre- and post-war comparisons
• Archival photographs
• Charts and graphs give a quick visual reference for statistical information
• Hundreds of excerpts from primary sources

There have been several recent publications about the Holocaust aimed at secondary-school students. Notable selections include Learning about the Holocaust: A Student's Guide (Macmillan, 2000), and Holocaust (volume 11 of History in Dispute, Gale, 2002). This new offering provides essential background information to help students understand the social and political elements that enabled the Third Reich to come to power and set events into motion.

The first two volumes consist of more than 550 alphabetically arranged articles ranging from a paragraph (Hitler salute) to several pages (Anti-Semitism) in length. Occasional black-and-white archival photos accompany the text. Entries are detailed and complete and employ straightforward language. Numerous see also references and a comprehensive index guide researchers to related articles.

The third volume, Personalities, offers approximately 140 brief biographies on not only the Nazi Party elite, world leaders such as Churchill and Mussolini, and those who directed their efforts against the Nazi regime, such as Oskar Schindler, but also individuals who laid the political foundation for the Third Reich (Otto von Bismarck, Karl Lueger) and others who provided supposed theoretical or artistic influence (Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Wagner). The fourth volume presents primary source materials--official proclamations and political treatises; excerpts from Mein Kampf; diary entries, not only from Anne Frank but also from Eva Braun and Joseph Goebbels; and snippets of everyday life--a program from a Hitler Youth campout, letters home from soldiers on the Russian front. Hitler's last will and testament is included, as is testimony from the Nuremburg Trials. The set ends with a chronology and a list of print and electronic sources for further research.

The value of this set is that it provides accessible documented data. Student researchers generally depend on the Web as their main information source, and educators will find it useful to have a comprehensive, reliable resource to refute the sometimes sketchy or even intentionally misleading information that appears on some sites related to the Nazis and the Third Reich. This offering is recommended primarily for high-school collections but should be considered for community college and public libraries as well. RBB
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