The Third Reich - by Michael Burleigh (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich presents a major study of one of the twentieth century's darkest periods.

Until now there has been no up-to-date, one-volume, international history of Nazi Germany, despite its being among the most studied phenomena of our time. The Third Reich restores a broad perspective and intellectual unity to issues that have become academic subspecialties and offers a brilliant new interpretation of Hitler's evil rule.

Filled with human and moral considerations that are missing from theoretical accounts, Michael Burleigh's book gives full weight to the experience of ordinary people who were swept up in, or repelled by, Hitler's movement and emphasizes how international themes for Nazi Germany appealed to many European nations. It also focuses on the Nazi's wartime conduct to dominate the Continental economy and involve gigantic population transfers and exterminations, recruitment of foreign labor, and multinational armies.

Review Quotes

"A remarkable achievement, a comprehensive history of the criminality of the Third Reich as well as of the (very limited) efforts to resist it. Burleigh has placed his narration within a general representation of Hitler's Germany, and his extraordinary mastery of the monographic literature and the cogency of his interpretation based on the notion of political religion gives The Third Reich the status of a classic." --Saul Friedländer

About the Author

Michael Burleigh was born and educated in London. He was a senior academic for eighteen years before deciding to write full-time in 2001. He is the author of several books on Germany, including Death and Deliverance, The Third Reich, and Ethics and Extermination