The Coming of the Third Reich, Volume 1This book tells a terrible story not least because, as Evans makes abundantly clear, there were so many other ways in which Germany’s history could have been played out. The seeds of the Third Reich’s rise to power may have been sown in Bismarck’s Germany, but it required a devastating sequence of events before they were reaped in the Nazi seizure of control with which Evans ends his sweeping and dramatic narrative. 'The Coming of the Third Reich' will force us to reassess our view of the rise of the Nazis in Germany. With tremendous authority, skill and compassion, Evans re-creates a country torn apart by overwhelming economic, political and social blows; the First World War, Versailles, hyperinflation and the Great Depression. One by one these disasters ruined or pushed aside almost everything admirable about Germany, leaving the way clear for a truly horrifying ideology to take command. The consequences of this assault would change the world in ways that we will always have to live with. |