Richard J. Evans' The Coming of the Third Reich: A Comprehensive History of Nazi Germany

DSE: This is the first of 3 volumes. Incredible book. Loved the first 2 volumes. So many references. So much history with a captivating narrative spun over the source data, masterfully complied and written by this author. 5 stars. Loved it!

Australia on Sep 07, 2023

observer100: If you read only one account of the Nazis, the set of three of which this is the first is what I would recommend. Amongst the vast number of books on Nazism including a huge number of good ones this stands out because of its masterly and balanced distillation from staggering amounts of reading.

Evans writes: "These three books are addressed in the first place to people who know nothing about the subject, or who know a little and would like to know more." But note the words "in the first place". Copious excellent references and the bibliography make this a superb starting point for students and the overall quality of scholarship is such that even those who have studied the subject will, I suspect, find a few misconceptions challenged or corrected and some questions answered.

I simply cannot recommend this book highly enough.

United Kingdom on Aug 16, 2023

R Helen: I was unimpressed with the book in the beginning. The pre-WW1 and early Weimar years are not done particularly well and the information is no better than what you would get if you were taking a history GCSE. If you are not knowlegeable in the life and times of Bismark, you'll find this part inadequate. But the book picks up by the late 1920s and the details get fuller and more interesting. I found the book a good read, despite the fact that I teach Nazi Germany for the GCSE. I still learned a great deal. Evans clearly shows a continuity between the Germany of Kaiser Welhelm II and the rise of the Nazi Party. After reading this book it is impossible to think that the Third Reich was some anomoly in German history.

I was a little surprised, though, by some of the things Evans says. On page 207 he states that Goebbels called the Berlin Deputy Police Chief Bernhard Weiss, "Isidor-an entirely made-up name, commonly used by anti-semites for Jews." While it is quite likely that Goebbels chose to call him some generic Jewish name as an insult, Isidor is not, in fact, a made-up name. In fact, my great-grandfather is called Isidor, as are quite a few famous people, most notably...

United Kingdom on May 11, 2017

Magnitude: As a long-time WWII buff, Evans's book deepened my understanding about the origins of the Third Reich. I'd recommend it to WWII students and anyone else who wants to learn about the period.

Evans focuses on the nature of German society at the time, and in a way de-emphasizes the role of Hitler himself in the coming of the Reich. Hitler, when put in the context of Germany as a whole, was just what Germany wanted. Evans explains why that is in this book.

The first words of the first chapter set the theme for the entire work: after 1918, Germany wanted another Bismarck, a strong leader. Many Germans were united in their common hatred of the imposed Weimar democracy. They also hated the Versailles treaty and its restrictions on Germany. While many right-wing groups had existed before and during the time of the Nazis, the Nazis succeeded through a combination of a strong message that they tailored to each audience; the personality of Hitler, which other parties across the political spectrum lacked; and strong-arm tactics on the streets. The Social Democrats were frequently associated with Weimar democracy and everything it represented; they also introduced policies such...

United States on Jul 05, 2015

D. Schotman: The Coming of the Third Reich: How the Nazis Destroyed Democracy and Seized Power in Germany

As stated before, I'm not a WW2 expert and I haven't read so much on this subject as I did on other periods and subjects of history. WW2 merely interests me from a philosophical point of view as it does show what happens if every intellectual input is lost and all that is left is nihilism. Nihilism that was built on the rubble of Nietzsche's infamous practicing of philosophy with a sledgehammer. Reading this book more than ever I feel that he has something to explain to humanity. And this book, the first of a trilogy (all in all about 2600 pages) explains perfectly we'll how the Nazi's indeed robbed Germany of everything intellectual. The narrative worked out in this book becomes even more stellar if you read The German Genius of Peter Watson before it. More than ever, one realized how it ever could have happened as under the Nazi's Germany was but a mere reflection of the country Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Herder, and Fichte once lived in. Years ago (in 2002) to be exact, I was reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich of William Shirer. I think Evans tried to write a thorough update...

United Kingdom on Apr 17, 2013

Gio: It's just the sum of the contingencies of what people and nature do to each other in the irrevesrible course of time. There's nothing `inevitable' in history until it seems so after the fact. "Destiny" is a mere sleight of tongue, and `manifest destiny' is a declaration of intent rather than an anaylsis of past events, which would read truer as `manifesto: destiny.' Hegel, Marx, Tolstoy, Toynbee and such were theologians, not historians; the `Westward March' of the World Spirit is just a rhetorical parade toward the justification of national misbehavior, whether the music is the Horst Wessel Song or The Stars and Stripes Forever.

That's my own formulation, and it might well be too florid to suit Professor Richard J Evans. Nevertheless I think it expresses his fundamental skepticism toward any kind of historical determinism. Evans is not a Marxist of whatever caliber, but he's just as little a Wagnerian Romantic. He begins his detailed account of "The Coming of the Third Reich" by dismissing the notions of a unique German Character and/or a Thousand-Year Mythos of German Exceptionalism, despite the fact that many Germans and especially German hsitorians have subscribed to...

United States on Nov 12, 2010

Germinal: I wanted to read this book because when I was at university I studied the Third Reich, it's history and it's historiography but this was nearly 30 years ago and I hadn't studied the subject since. What I was looking for was a good general account that would fill in any gaps in research, debates and analysis over the intervening period and, from reading reviews, thought that Evans' work would fit the bill.

It does so and does it in some style. This is an excellent book that both people who are new to the subject (assuming such people exist!) and more serious readers will find rewarding. It is very well written, reads like a novel and is a pleasure to read.

What surprised me was that, actually, in the past 30 years, not a lot has changed about what we know and understand about the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. There have been few new facts and the debates around interpretation are largely the same today as they were in 1980.

What else was good about this book? Well, I liked the way that Evans addresses misconceptions about the Nazis. An example of this would be something like Norman Tebbit's assertions that the Nazis were socialist and you often see this...

United Kingdom on Apr 09, 2009