From 1933 onward, Nazi Germany undertook massive and unprecedented industrial integration, submitting an entire economic sector to direct state oversight. This innovative study explores how German professionals navigated this complex landscape through the divergent careers of business managers in two of the era’s most important trade organizations. While Jakob Reichert of the iron and steel industry unexpectedly resisted state control and was eventually driven to suicide, Karl Lange of the machine builders’ association achieved security for himself and his industry by submitting to the Nazi regime. Both men’s stories illuminate the options available to industrialists under the Third Reich, as well as the real priorities set by the industries they served.

"This book explains how six isolationist media barons in the United States and Great Britain shaped the political culture of their respective nations on the eve of and during World War II. Together, William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain, Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail, Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express, Robert McCormick's Chicago Tribune, Joe Patterson's New York Daily News, and Cissy Patterson's Washington Times-Herald reached a staggering sixty million people by the late 1930s, and even more during the war that followed. Often dismissed by historians and foreign policy scholars because of their sensationalist, tabloid treatment of the news, these media lords and their newspapers had massive influence on public opinion at a critical time in world history. As Hitler built up his military and invaded his neighbors, these press lords worked together to pressure their governments to dismiss and ignore the fascist threat. They met the greatest crisis of the twentieth century not by urging collective action against tyranny but by spinning conspiracy theories, warning of race suicide, or even embracing fascism. They imagined a white nation and then constructed its enemies-not the Nazis, or even the Japanese, but the "warmongers" among their fellow citizens who wanted to resist rather than appease the aggressors. As they fought against resistance to fascism, they helped lay the foundation for the nationalist, racist, and anti-Semitic Right that we live with today"--

"Provides a valuable insight into the development of ideas that were to shape Hitler’s foreign policy after 1933."—Jeremy Noakes, The Times Literary Supplement “The text bears all of Hitler’s hallmarks, along with a terrifying, sustained belief in war and violence as a means to ensure that Germany would flourish.”—Publishers Weekly “He envisaged the German people becoming involved in a series of wars for Lebensraum culminating in an epic battle against America.”—Michael Smith, Daily Telegraph “The Second Book is in many ways more important than Mein Kampf.”—Guardian “I have never known anyone to say this is a forged document.”—Volker Berghahn, The New York Times “Hitler admires the ‘young, racially select’ American people and the nation’s restrictive immigration policies at the time.”—The New York Times “Far more than Mein Kampf, the Second Book establishes the grandiose scale of Hitler’s ambitions.”—Dennis Showalter, Colorado College “More clearly than ever, Hitler sketched out the worldwide struggle against the Jews which he and his party had to lead.”—Richard Overy, Guardian Hitler’s Second Book is the first complete and annotated edition of the manuscript Hitler dictated shortly before his rise to power four year after publishing Mein Kampf. It contains a catalog of shocking policy statements and previously undisclosed plans of world conquest at the core of Nazi ideology that Hitler concluded were too provocative for publication.

Published in the year 1994, The Third Reich is a valuable contribution to the field of History.

Now updated with a new introduction and bibliography Ian Kershaw's classic study of popular responses to Nazi policy and ideology explores the political mentality of 'ordinary Germans' in one part of Hitler's Reich. Basing his account on many unpublished sources, the author analyses socio-economic discontent and the popular reaction to the anti-Church and anti-Jewish policies of the Nazis, and reveals the bitter divisions and dissent of everyday reality in the Third Reich, in stark contrast to the propaganda image of a 'National Community' united behind its leaders. The focus on one particular region makes possible a depth of analysis that takes full account of local and social variations, and avoids easy generalization; but the findings of this study of ordinary behaviour in a police state have implications extending far beyond the confines of Bavaria or indeed Germany in this period.

A riveting account of how the Nazi Party came to power and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen. Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. He would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not responded to a spate of populist insurgencies by trying to co-opt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler’s hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship. Benjamin Carter Hett is a leading scholar of twentieth-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.

An acclaimed historian of twentieth century Germany provides a vivid account of Hitler’s rise to power and its intimate connection to the Bavarian capital. The immediate aftermath of the Great War and the Versailles Treaty created a perfect storm of economic, social, political and cultural factors which facilitated the rapid rise of Adolf Hitler’s political career and the birth of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. The breeding ground for this world-changing evolution was the city of Munich. In Hitler’s Munich, renowned historian David Ian Hall examines the origins and growth of Hitler’s National Socialism through the lens of this unique city. By connecting the sites where Hitler and his accomplices built the movement, Hall offers a clear and concrete understanding of the causes, background, motivation, and structures of the Party. Hitler’s Munich is a cultural and political portrait of the city, a biography of the Fuhrer, and a history of National Socialism. All three interacted in this expertly rendered exploration of their interconnections and significance.