The Nazi Regime and its Impact on Germany: 1933-1939

Jean Thomas: Packed with information. A lot of which was new to me.

United Kingdom on Sep 26, 2023

Timothy Byrne: The book was perfect.

United Kingdom on Jun 20, 2023

sjm53: In the preface to the first volume of his Third Reich trilogy, Evans quotes professional historians' views that Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, is, as implied by the title, "unbelievably crude". In contrast, he states here in the preface to this second volume that his treatment of the Third Reich in the years 1933-39 will be "necessarily thematic". I can't help feeling that there is a happy medium. In the first and third volumes, the themes were determined by events and so there is a narrative drive, but the eschewal of narrative in this volume makes it difficult to discern how the themes relate to each other. It is not until the last chapter, The Road to War, that narrative crudity appears, and the book is all the better for that.
I was also frustrated by the lack of discursive analysis, which I assume is deliberate, with Evans preferring to let events speak for themselves. For instance, he states that Nazism was not a religion, and quotes a speech to this effect made by Hitler in order, says Evans, to distance himself from the woolly-minded mysticism espoused by the likes of Himmler. But merely quoting Hitler doesn't close the argument. Why did Hitler feel it...

United Kingdom on Jan 02, 2017

Magnitude: Evans deftly distills decades of research from English and German sources, mainly secondary but some primary too, in this masterful account of the years 1933-1939 in Germany. As a lifelong WWII buff, I learned a lot from this book.

In the preceding volume, "The Coming of the Third Reich," Evans describes the conditions that led to the rise of Nazism up to 1933. This book picks up where the preceding one ends. In some ways, both books (which I've read) can be read separately. If you've forgotten some of the finer points of the first volume, Evans provides a helpful summary of it in this volume, as well as footnote references to that work, if you're inclined to flip back and forth.

Describing how the Nazis implemented their policies in this period, and how the German public reacted to it, is a massive subject, and in many ways summarizing this work does a disservice to it. Instead, it's perhaps better to focus on the themes that emerge.

First, Evans shows that various policies were willingly embraced by the German public in many ways, but only up to a point. This is clear on certain things like policing and justice, schools, and industry. Cops stood by while SA...

United States on Sep 11, 2016

D. Schotman: Richard Evans - The Third Reich in Power, 1933 - 1939: How the Nazis Won Over the Hearts and Minds of a Nation

In this second volume of the trilogy (counting 2560 pages together) Evans continued the story where he left off in volume one, which is in 1933, directly with the elimination of the SA and the murder of Rohm and works his way up from there to end right before the invasion of Poland in 1939. Where the previous volume clearly illustrated the problems of the Weimar Republic, the constant threat of communists succeeding in taking power (the legacy of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the fear that Germany will face the same fate), in this volume the Weimar Republic came to an end (accidentally killed off by their own chancellor Von Papen, making the grave mistake to use Hitler for conservative purposes, living in the illusion that Hitler could be kept in check) and the Nazi firmly established in power. The era of the Third Reich that was expected to last a thousand years begun.

This volume, I believe works out three important narratives. The first one, is the departure from only persecuting communists and political dissidents to a wide range of unwanted groups,...

United Kingdom on May 07, 2013

H. Schneider: This is the middle volume of a Nazi trilogy. Part 1 is the way to power, part 3 is the war. The middle part covers the years 1933 to 1939. Evans has decided to arrange the vast material by subject matter rather than chronologically. This proves to be a wise choice. We have the option to choose individual chapters like independent shorter books. The book is highly recommended to anybody who has an interest in the subject. It serves as a myth buster in several interesting ways. My review will give a short summary of key points of the chapters.

Chapter 1 is about fear and terror. Unruly internal competition is killed off early; opposition parties are banned, their leaders and activists arrested and many killed; growth of SS, Gestapo, special courts for `crimes against the people'; denunciation as tool of control; block wardens; concentration camps; manipulation of plebiscites by intimidation and falsification. Never believe anybody who claims that Hitler unified the German people!

Chapter 2 on propaganda addresses that question. Goebbels' aim was winning the mind of 100% of the people, not just the 37% who had voted for the Nazis at their peak. All media are brought...

United States on May 29, 2010

The Nihilest: As an overall history, the book(s) are informative, readable, and for the most part balanced. I say for the most part, because although in some respects they present a well-balanced view of the events, in other respects they very much do not.
For example, there are instances where an unfortunate occurence took place, that was not in any way Hitler's fault, such as certain incidences of brownshirt violence and rioting. The books do make clear that Hitler opposed these acts and took steps to stop them. But in other cases, the point-of-view of Evans comes clearly through. He provides literally thousands of citations to show where his information comes from, yet many times, these citations are for meaningless events, while more important assertions are not backed up at all - I don't need a citation to tell me what Himmler's taste in art was, but I do demand one if you tell me the Nazis did medical experiments on children.
Evans also uses language to subtly hide his agenda, following the exact same techniques the corporate media uses. For example, although he covers the election of the Nazi Party in the first book, for the rest of the series, literally thousands of times, he...

Canada on Jan 24, 2010