Third Reich

List of contents

CONTENTS
   Introduction to the Series
   Acknowledgements   
   Chronology   
   Who’s Who
  Glossary
   Maps 
  
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION
 
1.    THE HISTORICAL DEBATE
   Can the Third Reich be ‘Historicised’? 
 
PART TWO: ANALYSIS   
 
2.    THE ORIGINS AND RISE OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM  
   The Ideological Roots  
   The Bismarckian Reich: An Incubator of National Socialism?  
   The German Revolution, 1918–19: A Turning Point that did not Turn?
   Adolf Hitler and the Formation of the NSDAP, 1919–24
   The Renaissance of the Nazi Party, 1925–30
   Nazi Voters, 1930–32 
   The Road to Power, September 1930–January 1933
 
3.    THE LEGAL REVOLUTION AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF POWER, 1933–34   
   The Dissolution of the Reichstag and the Election of 5 March 1933  
   The ‘Revolution from Below’ and the Enabling Act  
   The Process of Gleichschaltung
   The Churches  
   The Defeat of the Second Revolution
 
4.    STATE, PARTY AND FÜHRER: THE GOVERNMENT OF NAZI GERMANY, 1933–39 
   Ministries and ‘Supreme Reich Authorities’, 1933–38  
   Himmler and the SS State   
   The Centralisation of the Reich 
   The Civil Service
   The Party   
   The Role of Hitler   
  
 5.     THE ECONOMY, 1933–39
   Work Creation and Economic Recovery, 1933–35
   Agriculture  
   The Mittelstand
   Schacht and the Financing of German Rearmament  
   The Four Year Plan
         Industrialists and the Four Year Plan: winners and losers
   Rearmament and the German Economy, 1936–39   
 
6.    THE PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY: GERMAN SOCIETY AND THE THIRD REICH, 1933–39
The Work of the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda  
   Education and Youth
   The Peasantry  
   Women and the Family
p;   Nazi Health and Eugenic Policies  
   The ‘Asocials’ and Homosexuals
   Gypsies, Part-Africans and the Slav Minorities 
   The Jews
  The Germans and the Jews
 
8.    FOREIGN POLICY, 1933–39   
   Hitler’s Priorities, 1933–37
   The Anschluss 
   The Destruction of Czechoslovakia
   The Polish Crisis and the Outbreak of War  
 
9.    GERMANY, EUROPE AND THE WORLD, 1939–45  
   The British Problem, 1940–41 
   The Decision to Attack Soviet Russia
   From European to World War, 1941–45
   Europe under German Occupation, 1939–44
   ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ and Settlement Policies in Eastern Europe  
   The Holocaust 
 
10. THE HOME FRONT, 1939–45
   Disintegration of the Führer State
   The Increasing Power of the Political Party and the SS 
   The War Economy
   Food Supplies and Rationing
Solving the Labour Crisis in the War Industries
   The Impact of War on the German People, 1942–45
   The End of the Hitler Regime
   Postscript to the Third Reich: The Doenitz Government 
 
11. THE GERMAN OPPOSITION  
   Resistance and Resistenz  
   Opposition from the Churches  
   Opposition on the Left 
   The Challenge of Youth Culture   
   Resistance by the Military and Conservative Elites   
   The Road to 20 July 1944  
   Why was there no German Revolution in 1945?   
  
PART THREE: ASSESSMENT
 
12. THE THIRD REICH IN RETROSPECT   
   Hitler’s Rise to Power  
   The Nazi regime
   How 'modern'as the Third Reich  
   The Legacy of Nazi Germany
PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS   nbsp; Guide to Further Reading   
     References
 Index
 

About the author

David G. Williamson has written extensively on modern German and European history. Among his recent publications are Poland Betrayed: The Nazi Soviet Invasions of 1939 (Pen and Sword, 2009) and, also in the Seminar Studies series, Bismarck and Germany, 3rd edition (2010). Formerly head of history at Highgate School, he is now a writer and freelance lecturer.

Summary

Since publication of the first edition in 1982, David Williamson's The Third Reich has become established as one of the most successful books in the Seminar Studies in History series.  The author draws on up-to-date scholarship to guide students through the maze of historical controversies concerning the Third Reich and to offer a comprehensive analysis of the key issues of the period.  In a clear and accessible manner, the new edition provides chapters that:

• introduce readers to the historiography of the Third Reich
• analyse the reasons for Hitler's rise to power
• look at how the Nazi regime consolidated it's grip on power during the period March 1933- August 1934
• explain how Nazi Germany was governed and discuss to what extent Hitler can be viewed as a 'weak dictator'
• analyse Hitler's economic, foreign and social policies in both war and peace up to 1945, as well as the development of Nazi racial and eugenic policies.

The analysis of these themes is backed up with an increased selection of documents, which enable students to discuss the key issues more fully.  Providing a concise but comprehensive account of the origins, course and downfall of the Third Reich, this new edition of an already classic text will be an invaluable introduction to the subject for students.  

Product details

• Authors: Williamson, D. G. Williamson, D.G. Williamson, David G. Williamson
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 24.12.2014
• EAN: 9781138835313
• ISBN: 978-1-138-83531-3
• No. of pages: 264
• Series: Seminar Studies; Seminar Studies
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > History