Nazi Germany

ISBN-13: 9780333600726 / Angielski / Twarda / 2006 / 288 str.

Tim Kirk

Opis

Nazi Germany is a succinct general study of the origins and development of the Nazi dictatorship, its impact on Germany and Europe and its consequences for our understanding of German and European history. Tim Kirk focuses on the relationship between Nazism and German society, and covers a number of important and controversial themes, including the social base of Nazism, the role of Hitler in the party and the Third Reich, the impact of Nazism on the everyday lives of ordinary Germans and the relationship between Nazi racial and eugenic policies and the Holocaust. He also examines the role of Hitler and Nazi ideology in the development of German foreign policy and concludes with a review of the many different interpretations and explanations of Nazism.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements.- Introduction.- The Origins and Development of Nazism.- The Nazi Dictatorship.- Nazism and the Economy.- The Myth of the 'National Community': German Society Under Nazism.- Culture, Leisure and Propaganda.- Consensus and Opposition in the Third Reich.- Reproduction, the Family and Racial Hygiene.- Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.- Foreign Policy and the Second World War.- Conclusion.- Notes.- Glossary.- Bibliography.- Index.

O autorze

TIM KIRK is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His recent publications include Nazism and the Austrian Working Class (2nd edition, 2003) and the co-edited volume Working Towards the Fuhrer (2003).

Blurb

Hitler's 'thousand-year Reich' lasted barely longer than twelve brief and inglorious years, and yet had an impact on millions of ordinary lives scarcely comparable with any other episode in modern European history.

Nazi Germany examines the origins and development of Nazism, the establishment of the dictatorship and the impact on Germany's economy, society and culture of the regime's single-minded drive towards war and genocide. The view from above, reflected in the movement's ideology, policy and legislation is complemented by the many, often conflicting, views from below, as described in the reports smuggled out of Germany by Socialist dissidents or overheard by the regime's spies and policemen. Tim Kirk depicts a society divided, where most were initially wary of Hitler and sceptical about his party and its promises, and where even enthusiastic admirers quickly became disgruntled; but where the majority complied and few were inclined to oppose or resist the regime, or its brutalities, until disillusionment set in and the prospect of defeat was imminent.

Approachable and authoritative, this is an essential introduction to one of the most significant periods in German, and modern European, history.