The Third Reich: A New History

What happened when Germany's elite as well as most of its citizens chose not to think for themselves and to favor instead a politics based on faith, hope, hatred, and sentimental regard for their own race and nation? The consequences were catastrophic. Michael Burleigh's account of the moral breakdown and transformation of an advanced industrial society in the heart of Europe is a clearheaded assessment of the history, effects, and meaning of National Socialism in Germany.

Filled with human and moral considerations that are missing from more theoretical accounts, The Third Reich gives full weight to the experience of ordinary people who were swept up in, or repelled by, Hitler's movement. It restores a broad perspective and intellectual unity to issues that have become academic sub-specialties and offers a brilliant new interpretation of Hitler's evil rule.