2021 will be the twentieth anniversary of our endless, pointless war in Afghanistan, and 2023 the twentieth anniversary of our endless, pointless war in Iraq. During the Cold War, because of its buffer position, it was occasionally in the news. First, to refute the free market ideology, sometimes called market fundamentalism, represented at that... Live not by lies. I always believed Hitler was elected Reich Chancellor by popular vote. In their eternal quest to remake reality, a perennial target of the Left is the family: man, woman, and children, the bedrock of all human societies. Penguin Press, 622 pp. Despite many people’s best efforts since then to use this period for analogies, none of this history really teaches us anything new, other than those who want power are prone to use any means to hand, and that in the modern world, those include propaganda, forced conformity, and seizing emergencies to expand both. There are no new insights here. The Coming of the Third Reich is a masterwork of the historian's art and the book by which all others on the subject will be judged. If you wish for peace, prepare for war. With a mother raised in Nazi Germany, I have a real interest in how the Nazis came to power, and this book provides a lucid and readable explanation. Actually, with the arrogance of youth, I thought I’d never come to that point. The preface is also noteworthy, explaining Evans's plan and answering (what seemed to me an important question) why these books are necessary despite epics like Shirer's, This pedestrian work is by far the weakest volume in Richard Evan's otherwise excellent trilogy on the Reich. More recently, Nokia was prominent for a while. We get the personalities involved, some who played a role in later years (Himmler; Goebbels), some who later dropped away or died (Strasser; Röhm). Start by marking “The Coming of the Third Reich (The History of the Third Reich, #1)” as Want to Read: Error rating book. We get the early version of Hitler’s management style, designed such that “the most ruthless, the most dynamic and the most efficient would rise to positions of power within the movement.”  We also get the early usage of bemoaning violence publicly, but condemning it vaguely enough that the rank-and-file take the condemnation as an endorsement (something we see in recent cut-rate American political violence, but as I say, we have thin gruel compared to 1920s Germany). The coming of the Third Reich Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. Very few, if any, I suspect. I sped the narration up to 2X, which helped. In America government service has usually lacked the prestige it does on the Continent, with a high percentage of civil servants being placeholders, or those who lack gumption and the ability to succeed in other areas of life. If there are photos in the print edition, it would appear they have may been eliminated in the Kindle edition. The Coming of the Third Reich (Book) : Evans, Richard J. : From one of the world's most distinguished historians, a magisterial new reckoning with Hitler's rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. Evans covers the political machinations in detail, ultimately leading, as everybody knows, to the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor in January, 1933. If you have any question about this novel, Please don't hesitate to contact us … Evans was then tasked with reading all of Irving's books, tracing back all of the sources that he was citing, and writing a memorandum for the court detailing all of the instances in which Irving skued valid historical sources in order to back up his Holocaust denying arguments. Click to read more about The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans. With "The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world's most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time .. It is beautifully accessible in its writing and Evans’ scholarship gives a superb overview of this terrible period in European history. Leftists use this to ensure that innumerable books... Do any American children learn about William Tell today? There was nothing inevitable about the coming of the Third Reich. The only question was would it be Hitler, or someone else at the top. Democracies were failing in Europe, he writes. People arguably suffered from an excess of political engagement and political commitment. The possibility of contemporary democracies falling into more radical governments fueled by hate, anger, and the politics of exclusion is possible in any country, imo. No, not the Wuhan Plague. Crawford expands our minds by exploring... Michael Anton’s latest, half analysis and half prophecy, is simultaneously terrifying and clarifying. do we need another book on the rise of Hitler? The Great Transformation, published in 1944, is an ambitious book. The natural state of so-called civilized man is somewhere between today’s Venezuela and today’s Somalia. I'm sure this is a treasure for academics and history buffs. Enter your email address to subscribe to The Worthy House and receive notifications of new writings by email. We may well wish that we could go back to laziness and political disengagement. I'm worried about some of the parallels I'm seeing today, I get eery feelings that what happened in Germany, the circumstances that allowed for democracy to devolve into violent terroristic regime, is being replicated in today's circumstances facing contemporary Western democracies. However, as a recent adherent to Eastern Orthodoxy, I approach analysis, as opposed to knowledge, of Orthodox theology as presumptively... You have likely never heard of the Finnish Civil War. When Evans explained how Nazi political beliefs were consistent with basic German values and preconceived ideas, it's how I've always understood it. The “why” of entrepreneurship varies by entrepreneur. ... Shirer's book cannot really deliver a history of Nazi Germany that meets the demands of the early twenty-first -century reader." I wanted to read this for a variety of reasons, but the main reason was that I wanted to get a clearer picture of how a Western democracy - 1920s Germany in this instance - could devolve into a violent terroristic regime like the Nazis. One thing is clear to the reader of this book, the first of massive trilogy covering the Third Reich, and that is there is little evidence that we are heading the way of 1920s and 1930s Germany—but that if we are, it has nothing at all to do with Donald Trump. These two introductory sections take up about a quarter of the book. A few “anti-fascists” with delusions of grandeur and a dubious grasp of history burn trash cans and cause mild disorder to shut down speech, but only on campuses and in cities totally friendly to them. None of this is new, but then, it’s not supposed to be. One of the greatest problems in writing history is to imagine oneself back in the world of the past, with all the doubts and uncertianties people faced in dealing with a future that for the historian has also become the past. (Whether there are still diverse views on the Continent I doubt, but the prestige remains.) This is a special review. The American civil service has gotten steadily worse since the Progressive Era, where it became acceptable to work for the government as a way to achieve desired social change by imposing your radical views on the deplorables at gunpoint, and the government has simultaneously grown ever larger and more powerful. How did an extremist party lurking at the fringes of political life take over the entire government in such a shot time without ever raising the wrath of the bigger parties or of the people? Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich. Perhaps the most shocking thing about the way they seized and held onto power is the speed with which they managed to silence any opposition - within just weeks of assuming power they had established the notorious Dachau concentration camp along with several others to detain their political opponents. Why was Germany such fertile soil? In the life of every World War II buff, there comes a point where he or she must ask this question: Have I read enough books about the Nazis? The three volumes of the trilogy – The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich In Power, and The Third Reich at War – were published between 2003 and 2008. Evans writes: "Shirer's book was universally panned by historians. For a variety of reasons, this unique book is perhaps much more important than other books on Third Reich or WW2. Buy The Coming of the Third Reich: How the Nazis Destroyed Democracy and Seized Power in Germany New Ed by Evans, Richard J. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. At times the running litany of names got tedious and didn't add to overall understanding; I'd have preferred fewer details at times and more analysis. Contemporaries could not see things as clearly as we can, with the gift of hindsight: they could not know in 1930 what was to come in 1933, they could not know in 1933 what was to come in 1939 or 1942 or 1945. I always believed Hitler was elected Reich Chancellor by popular vote. The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans charts the forces at work in Germany from the end of the Bismarck era, through the Wilhelmine period which led up to the end of WWI, then on through the years of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis from fringe group to power. Here, a few dirty beggars of the “Occupy” movement risk nothing and march in the streets, threatening occasional violence because they know they face no threat. Actually, if I had to choose, I would recommend Pretzel’s memoirs over Evans’s; there is a lot less detail, but basically the same story, and the first-hand perspective adds a lots to the reader’s grasp that litanies of fact do not. The Coming of the Third Reich (Book) : Evans, Richard J. : From one of the world's most distinguished historians, a magisterial new reckoning with Hitler's rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. Well documented, it is an accessibly readable academic study with considerable attention to those pivot points whereby matters might have turned out differently. I am giving it a two star rating because Evans in his Preface has the gall to assure the reader that it is superior to William Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." This first installment takes up key issues and po‐ When we are feeling particularly adventurous,... For Americans who think that so-called liberal democracy is neither, and in any case is a dead end, successful modern societies with a different political model always intrigue. I was really looking forward to reading this book since I find the formation of the Third Reich an interesting subject. Only in the last chapter does Evans address how Nazism could have taken root. Evans makes the argument that as an authoritarian dictatorship (which Germany was from 1932 on, even before Hitler became Reich Chancellor in 1933), Germany wasn't exactly an outlier in Europe. Along came the war, the Treaty of Versailles, the rise of Communism, the revolts of Communists immediately after the war, and all the well-known instabilities of post-war Germany, to which today’s talking heads compare our society. The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J Evans Penguin/Allen Lane £25, pp480. For the past few months, we have been subjected to a tedious, hysterical stream of comparisons of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. I’m not exaggerating by much when I say I literally fell asleep within five pages of opening the book most of the times I read it. Whenever, which is often, I see in the media that “experts say . Classifications. My inclination is that it is because so much more has been revealed in the intervening years and because Evans has left out much drama and personality to focus on the facts of the events themselves. All this was possible, of course, because of the weakness of the state and the emasculation of the ruling class. Almost always one reads a book of future-looking political theory long before or long after its substance has been proven or disproven. . Evans begins with the first of six sections:  “The Legacy of The Past.”   Here he covers the period of the Bismarckian Reich and World War I, focusing on what Evans views as the progenitors of the Nazis, nationalist and anti-Semitic movements of the late 19th Century. I was shocked to learn how the Nazis were abetted by parties that were conservative or anti-democratic or pro-monarchist and even Catholic. LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for booklovers — Elvis Presley. I often say that the Crusades were a high point of Western civilization. Most cultures throughout history have been terrible. No stunning new insights which is probably a good thing. These conditions included not only the historical context in which they lived, but also the way in which they thought, the assumptions they acted upon, and the principles and beliefs that informed their behavior. I've read many different accounts of these times, from the autobiographical work of Christopher Isherwood to William Shirer's classic of many years ago, and this book is definitely one of the best. He also makes a very good case that because of Weimar's failures and the vacuum of power they caused, some type of right wing authoritarian dictatorship was almost assured. In America, the civil service today, the administrative state, takes the lead in the destruction of the rule of law and imposes a leftist ideology in a vast range of areas of life on the people though its arbitrary and largely unappealable authority, by creating mechanisms explicitly designed to avoid constitutional rule and to be immune to democratic oversight, such as regulatory “guidance.”  We’ll see if Trump is able to hack this overgrowth back, preferably with napalm. . He may be a nice guy (or he may not be) but as a narrator, the net effect was like nails on a chalkboard. Only in the last chapter does Evans address how Nazism could have taken root. The Great Depression and the unemployment it brought; the failures of the Weimar Republic on so many levels - many people despised it, and the Nazis nurtured this hatred; Hitler's enormous charisma; Germany's humiliation in losing the First World War, and the extremely onerous economic reparations meant the populace was hugely nationalistic; Hitler's political deals with other German leaders like Hindenburg and von Papen, who thought they could control him when of course it was he who would do the controlling. It attempts two huge tasks. ISBN 0 713 99648 X. useful, if rather dry. The closest analog in America is not today, but the widespread leftist violence of the 1970s, something we are still very far from. Less Hitler-centric than Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich;" provides a more comprehensive treatment of the various factors (many that pre-date WW1) that ultimately led to the collapse of Weimar democracy. I have always been aware of the great Shawnee Indian war chief Tecumseh. How could one of the most advanced, highly cultured, industrialized and modern nation states in Europe allow such horrors to come to pass? We get the range of movements later associated with the Nazis, but which earlier had totally separate (and often originally much greater) influence on society, such as the Steel Helmets. The Coming of the Third Reich is a masterwork of the historian’s art and the book by which all others on the subject will be judged. Every question I had about how and why Hitler was able to rise to prominence and so swiftly overtake not just the political but also the cultural, educational, and military institutions in Germany has been answered. This edition was published in 2004 by The Penguin Press in New York. The utter tone-deafness of using this... A disease is going around. (There are exceptions, of course, in prestige, focus and ability.) From one of the world's most distinguished historians, a magisterial new reckoning with Hitler's rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. Germany, on the other hand, had fifteen years of constant disorder and violence in the streets, where hard men across the political spectrum risked life and limb to foment disorder and raise the banner of their political views. In fact it is already happening, the question is how far we will fall. He also can’t pronounce German, which seems like it’d make him an odd choice for this book. Hi! In America, on the other hand, today we have a leftist monoculture totally dominating the bureaucracy, mostly devoted to the success of the Democratic Party, and to leftist goals, the latter usually triumphing if there is any conflict between the two. Nonetheless, this is an interesting book of history, and just because it’s not a warning, per se, does not mean that it does not contain interesting lessons. Quickly thereafter, Evans was elavated to being regarded as one of, if not the world's leading scholar on the Third Reich, and has now presented us with this remarkable trilogy. But, this book fell flat for me for two reasons. A final note. In it, Evans tells the story of what happened in Germany from the end of World War I (1918) to the consolidation of power by the Nazis in mid-1933. As a reader of this book, The Coming of the Third Reich, will quickly figure out, such comparisons are both vicious and ignorant. I've read many diffe. He spoke slowly, and, more importantly, he continuously (and I mean in every sentence) paused slightly at random places. Evans does a good job of communicating the basic facts about the various mainline political parties (Social Democrats, Center Party, Nationalists, People’s Party) including their views, their support (both from voters and from sectors of society, such as the army, civil service and judiciary, and their geographic strengths), as well as the rising power of the Communists, who, of course, took orders from Moscow and had every interest in destroying the republic, but were tainted by the rebellion in 1919. Refresh and try again. When I didn’t fall asleep outright, I found myself constantly checking page numbers to hurry up and reach my goal. This book tells the story of the events that happened in German politics from about 1918 to 1933 when the Nazi’s came to power. I am skeptical of those who predict the future by looking at the past. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. A central aim of this book is to re-create all these things for a modern readership, and to remind readers that, to quote another well-known aphorism about history, 'the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.”, “Narrative history fell out of fashion for many years in the 1970s and 1980s, as historians everywhere focused on analytical approaches derived mainly from the social sciences. As with most of the western European upper classes, excessive anti-Semitism was generally viewed as, well, excessive, but a modicum was viewed as just fine, and plenty of people, especially among the merchant and academic classes, went further. We get the various ideological struggles and workings-out of Nazism, including the sometimes-more, sometimes-less emphasis on left-wing elements such as socialism. It is quite another experience to observe... A few weeks ago, I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Quentin Tarantino’s movie delivered to me what I have been seeking. The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard J. Evans My rating: 4 of 5 stars The first of three books on Germany’s Third Reich. Evans then takes us a few months forward, in “Creating the Third Reich”; here is where the Gleichschaltung begins, the Reichstag Fire happens, and so forth. We think that, in essence, “there but for the grace of God go I”—or rather, since we lack humility, we think “there, but for my good efforts, go my political opponents, where they really want to go.”  Either way, though, the fear is that since the Germans are like us, we may someday follow their path. In cynical moments, it sometimes appears that the first law of commercial nonfiction book-publishing runs: "If you put Nazis in it, they will come." ... Shirer's book cannot really deliver a history of Nazi Germany that meets the demands of the early twenty-first -century reader." When the so-called historian David Irving, who was a blatent Holocaust denier, sued some of his collegues for accusing him skuing historical sources to make his arguments, Richard J. Evans was asked by the court to be the expert witness for the plantiff in the case. Certainly, the goal of... We live in an age lacking dynamic leadership. The first volume of a three-volume overview of the history of Nazi Germany. Newer Post Older Post Home. But there’s precious little evidence of that, and much more evidence of Huxley-ite enervation of the masses and the elites by entertainment and drugs of various types, not the political awakening of a hard core and their turn to violence. The book starts 60 years before the rise of Hitler to the Chancellorship so that the reader gets a feeling for the political and cultural environment that led to the rise of this terrible movement. My inclination is that it is because so much more has been revealed in the intervening years and because Evans has left out much drama and personality to focus on. In fact, this book may have been the most disappointed in a book I’ve felt so far this year. Welcome back. The Coming Of The Third Reich summary: The Coming Of The Third Reich summary is updating. How could one of the most advanced, highly cultured, industrialized and modern nation states in Europe allow such horrors to come to pass? You can think of Book One of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as laying the intellectual groundwork for the pages that follow. Throughout the book, Evans several times cites Raimund Pretzel, whose posthumously published memoirs (under the pseudonym Sebastian Haffner) are very much worth reading, in part because they were written in 1939, and give an excellent first-hand overview of this time from the perspective of a politically disengaged, “Aryan” German. First, I found it deadly dull. Evans has also taught at the University of Stirling, University of East Anglia and Birkbeck College, London. S Byatt, Times Literary Supplement I am reading the Kindle edition right now. Not for me. This is the first book in a trilogy by Evans about the Third Reich which was clearly written with the layman in mind. How could democracy be replaced so easily? Evens turns to analysis of political structures in the next section, “The Failure of Democracy.”  Here he talks about the poorly structured political institutions of Weimar democracy and their shallow roots, the difficulties proceeding from which were compounded by economic turmoil, including hyperinflation, resulting in social turmoil of various kinds. Unemployment and economic despair fuel the search for new solutions and scapegoats. Without specific intention, I seem to have turned into a Roger Crowley fanboy, as shown by that I have now read every one of his books. 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