The Third Reich: A New History - Hardcover

Burleigh, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809093251 ISBN 13: 9780809093250

Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub, 2000

Synopsis

Argues that the Germans' acceptance of Hitler's totalitarianism and Nazi philosophies stemmed from their desire for economic prosperity and a national identity, which slowly developed into a collective conscience and religious fervor.

About this title

About the Author

MICHAEL BURLEIGH, William R. Kenan Visiting Professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, is Distinguished Research Professor in Modern History at Cardiff University. He is the author of six well-received books on modern European history, including The Racial State; Death and Deliverance; Euthanasia in Nazi Germany; and Ethics and Extermination.

Reviews

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.

A rich, comprehensive analysis of the rise and fall of Hitler's Germany, by historian Burleigh (Death and Deliverance, 1994).The author wishes to resist "an indiscriminate condemnation of the German people in general," but he presents a devastating examination of the "almost total moral collapse" that accompanied (and permitted) the unthinkable atrocities of Adolf Hitler. Beginning with an assessment of the devastating effects of WWI on the German economy (and psyche), Burleigh moves swiftly to a biographical sketch of Hitler-with special attention to his notion of "racial fitness and purity, which was not without religious undertones." Slowly-but with insidious momentum-the Nazis' racist ethos pervaded German society, then spread throughout Europe as one country after another capitulated to the German military. Although the author writes with the disinterest of the professional historian, he also delivers appropriately harsh and often eloquent judgments of the principals involved. "Rarely," he quips about Hitler and his immediate circle, "can such an unprepossessing group of people have had so much to say about fitness and purity." Because this is a general history, Burleigh's strokes are often broad. The Normandy invasion, for example, consumes only a couple of pages. Nonetheless, he manages to include many specific incidents and details, some that freeze the blood: a brutally frank speech by Himmler (he refers to Jews as bacteria), a sympathetic view of the German civilians who endured the rather indiscriminate Allied bombing (hundreds of thousands died), and an inspiring account of the of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (hanged for his opposition to the Nazi mass murderers). Burleigh comments, too, on the irony of the alliance of the world's great democracies with the Soviet Union, "a totalitarian dictatorship of unfathomable barbarity."A brilliant synthesis: lucid and felicitous, scholarly and compassionate. (20 b&w illustrations, not seen; maps, not seen) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Burleigh (Washington and Lee Univ.) has written a masterly narrative of how Nazi racial, political, and economic ideology was applied in Germany and in those territories conquered by the Third Reich. The result is a book that reveals the complexity of daily life under Nazism. Burleigh's greatest strength is in avoiding facile generalizations about such controversial topics as whether the Christian churches supported or opposed Nazism. In addition, he prevents the text from devolving into historiographical controversies, such as the functionalists vs. structuralist debate. Burleigh is at his best when analyzing the structure of Nazi ideology and its implementation, and as such his chapter on the postwar world is probably the weakest. Furthermore, although he introduces many interesting and sometimes sympathetic characters, the reader is sometimes left wondering about their fate. Nevertheless, this book should become one of the standard volumes on the history of the Third Reich. Recommended for all libraries.DFrederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Although yet another massive history of the Third Reich may seem like overkill, this brilliant and unique view of a great tyranny is an important addition to our understanding of the first half of the twentieth century. Burleigh is a professor of history at Washington and Lee University. While the basic structure utilized here is narrative history, Burleigh consistently enriches his narrative with passionate and moving examples of the price paid by ordinary people caught up in the ravages of totalitarianism. He avoids the trap of viewing the Nazi revolution as an "aberration" or "distortion." Rather, Burleigh places the Third Reich within the broader context of the spiritual and moral crisis that plagued Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was that spiritual void and sense of moral chaos that made totalitarian movements, with their pseudo-religions and claims to moral certainty, so appealing to many among the European elites. This comprehensive and majestic work serves as a reminder of the costs we still pay for the worship of false gods. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809093251
• ISBN 13: 9780809093250
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 965