The Third Reich Sourcebook - (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism) by Anson Rabinbach & Sander L Gilman (Paperback)

About the Book

"This book is a collection of documents, mostly translated from the German, that covers the entire Third Reich, from the beginnings of National Socialism in Munich in 1919, through the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, and ultimately the defeat of the Third Reich. It is wide-ranging, covering the core doctrine of anti-Semitism, education, German youth, women and marriage, science, health, the Church, literature, visual arts, music, the body, industry, sports, and the resistance"--

Book Synopsis

No documentation of National Socialism can be undertaken without the explicit recognition that the "German Renaissance" promised by the Nazis culminated in unprecedented horror--World War II and the genocide of European Jewry. With The Third Reich Sourcebook, editors Anson Rabinbach and Sander L. Gilman present a comprehensive collection of newly translated documents drawn from wide-ranging primary sources, documenting both the official and unofficial cultures of National Socialist Germany from its inception to its defeat and collapse in 1945. Framed with introductions and annotations by the editors, the documents presented here include official government and party pronouncements, texts produced within Nazi structures, such as the official Jewish Cultural League, as well as documents detailing the impact of the horrors of National Socialism on those who fell prey to the regime, especially Jews and the handicapped. With thirty chapters on ideology, politics, law, society, cultural policy, the fine arts, high and popular culture, science and medicine, sexuality, education, and other topics, The Third Reich Sourcebook is the ultimate collection of primary sources on Nazi Germany.

From the Back Cover

"An absolutely magnificent achievement. After the mountain of books that have been published on Nazism, it can seem implausible that there is still more to learn. This brilliantly conceived collection of primary documents shows that there is indeed more - much more. No prior anthology or analysis does nearly so much to help readers enter the emotional landscape of the Third Reich, so as to understand better the at once savage and subtle ideological work that made the regime so terrifyingly successful." --Dagmar Herzog, Graduate Center, City University of New York

"The indispensable collection of texts from the Third Reich in this extraordinary volume gives readers first-hand knowledge of the transformation of life in Nazi Germany into a racist state and culture. In this most important single volume for understanding German society under Hitler, Rabinbach and Gilman document the racial hatred and violence that transformed all aspects of life into a Nazi society: law, politics, culture, science, religion, education, sexuality, marriage, childrearing, sports, the arts, concentration camps, that finally led to World War II and the murder of the Jews."--Professor Susannah Heschel, author of The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany

"No other topic provides a deeper insight into Nazism's mobilizing ambiguity then its attitude towards America as modernity's hothouse. The Reader contains an excellent collection for that query."--Dan Diner, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/ The Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig University

Review Quotes

"Essential. No library, whether public or academic, should be without this remarkable resource."-- "CHOICE" (10/1/2014 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Anson Rabinbach is professor of history at Princeton University, founder and co-editor of New German Critique, and author of several books, including In the Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between Apocalypse and Enlightenment.

Sander L. Gilman is a distinguished professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences as well as a professor of psychiatry at Emory University, and is the author or editor of over eighty books, including Obesity: The Biography and Wagner and Cinema (co-edited with Jeongwon Joe).