Life in the Third Reich

by Bessel, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780192802101
• ISBN10: 0192802100
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Even today, the Third Reich--the regime that instigated the most destructive war in modern history--evokes powerful images of fascination and horror. Yet how were the lives of the ordinary German people of the 1930s and '40s affected by the politics of Hitler and his followers? Looking beyond the catalog of events, this intriguing book reveals that daily German life involved a complex mixture of bribery and terror; of fear and concessions; of barbarism and appeals to conventional moral values employed by the Nazis to maintain their grip on society. Eight leading historians present essays that shed fresh light on topics as familiar as the role of political violence in Nazi seizure of power and the German view of Hitler himself. It also focuses on lesser-known aspects of life in the Third Reich, such as village life, the treatment of "social outcasts," and the Germans' own retrospective view of this period of their history.

Author Biography

Richard Bessel is Professor of Twentieth Century History at the University of York. He works on the social and political history of modern Germany, the aftermath of the two world wars and the history of policing. He is co-editor of German History and is a member of the editorial board of History Today. His recent publications include Patterns of Provocations: Police and Public Disorder, and 'Mobilizing German Society for War', in R. Chickering and S. Foerster (eds) Great War, Total War: Combat and Mobilization in the Western Front, 1914-1918.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	ix
List of Illustration	xi
Introduction	xiii
Richard Bessel
Political Violence and the Nazi Seizure of Power	1	(16)
Richard Bessel
Village Life in Nazi Germany	17	(8)
Gerhard Wilke
Youth in The Third Reich	25	(16)
Detlev Peukert
Hitler and the Germans	41	(16)
Lan Kershaw
The Nazi State Reconsidered	57	(12)
Michael Geyer
Nazi Policy Against the Jews	69	(14)
William Carr
Social Outcasts in the Third Reich	83	(14)
Jeremy Noakes
Good Times, Bad Times: Memories of the Third Reich	97	(14)
Ulrich Herbert
Suggestions for Further Reading	111	(4)
Notes on Contributors	115	(2)
Index	117