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64 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb finish!, 10 Oct 2008
Like the previous reviewer I waited for this third instalment with impatience. I was not disappointed, impassioned writing tempered by impeccable scholarship and judicious use of the vast sources on the subject. I can do no better than refer prospective readers to the excellent and substantial review by Nicholas Stargardt in the Times Literary Supplement of 10 October 2008 (pages 8-9).
As for me, I was glad to see the author has been able to incorporate references to recent works by other scholars. For instance, Evans cites extensively the highly praised and enormously informative book by Adam Tooze "The Wages of Destruction" (2006) on the economic history of the Third Reich. However, Evans does not always agree with that author and when it comes to what, palpably, went on at the infamous Wannsee Conference I am emphatically with him (see page 265) in holding that the major purpose of that meeting was to "discuss the logistics of extermination".
A brilliant and essential book, and page-turningly readable too. In particular the interspersion of contemporary everyday diary entries (like those of schoolteacher Luise Solmitz) illuminates and adds greatly to our feeling of actually being inside the Reich during the war years.
Of wide-scope studies in English of Hitler's ghastly regime there are now, I think, three which stand out amongst the dauntingly large number of works of special value and interest for the general reader: Ian Kershaw's masterly two-volume biography of Hitler; Richard J. Evans's now completed three volumes, and, lastly (and surprisingly in view of the usual reputation of economic history as off-puttingly `heavy') Adam Tooze's brilliant and clearly written in-depth analysis of the fatal flaws underlying the Nazi drive to war.
Insofar as there can ever be a definitive, overarching summation of the Third Reich, it seems to me that these three authors come nearest to supplying it!
[Postscript: Michael Burleigh's 'The Third Reich: A New History' (Macmillan, 2000) is also very highly recommendable though its emphasis on Nazism as a political religion is not universally accepted among professional colleagues. Nevertheless it remains, in my view, a powerfully persuasive interpretation. However, don't be put off by his 'political religion' stance if it doesn't appeal to you. As Robert Gellately says in his review of the book (Journal of Modern History, 2003, vol 75 pp216-217): "in the book itself the theoretical discussion takes up only part of the introduction. After that Burleigh gets down to the job at hand and tells a very compelling story". As for Burleigh's 'extracurricular' forays into newspaper columns, I reckon we ought not to object to distinguished academics letting off steam in public even if we disagree sometimes with what they say!]
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant combination of detail and abstraction, 2 Nov 2008
With this third volume, Professor Evans brings his rightfully acclaimed "History of the Third Reich" to a very fruitful end indeed. All the major developments from 1939 till 1945 are at least touched upon in a very insightful and balanced manner, blending social history, the biographies of well-known heavyweights of the Nazi regime such as Hitler, Göring, Goebbels, Himmler or Speer and the lesser known experiences of ordinary Germans into one complex but highly readable narrative, exposing a good deal of the inner workings of Hitler's dictatorship rather than taking an overly abstract bird's eye view on this disastrous epoch.
Abstaining from any form of moralising, which is unnecessary anyway in the face of the well-known enormity of the crimes committed, there is, of course, a heavy emphasis on the horrifying genocidal activities of the Nazis and the political arena, yet economic, cultural and military events are also accounted for in a convincing way. Most of the major controversies concerning the historiography of Nazi Germany like Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" are mentioned, although Evans does not always take up a clear position and understandably refrains from making any new untested hypotheses, for which a book of this scope cannot be intended anyway.
For students of modern history the book offers a remarkably well-crafted starting-point to develop their own research interests, providing also a detailed bibliography of the major works on the Nazi era. The only real downside perhaps, along with a certain tendency towards oversimplifying complex military events, is an apparent lack of explicit theoretical reflection on his own position within the field of historical research on the part of Evans, like his rejection of the Great man theory of history, which is responsible for his concentration on social history. As a consequence, lay readers not familiar with the major currents in historical research may not be able to fully comprehend and appreciate Evans' findings. Reading the preface to the first volume, in which Evans explains his methodology in greater detail, is therefore strongly recommended.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
But did German women wear trousers on the shop floor?, 21 Aug 2009
So many books have been written about the Third Reich and WWII - do we need another one on the subject? Richard J. EVANS sets himself a challenge: "The central focus of this book is on Germany and the Germans" is the promise in the preface, and he continues: "it is important to reiterate that this book is a history of Nazi Germany in all its aspects." Does the book fulfil the promise? The answer is a qualified yes.
Two out of the first three chapters deal with the gruesome tale of crimes of Nazi Germany against humanity, foremost the Jews. They set the gloomy tone for the whole book. There is no question that this is a central aspect of the war, but this story has been fulsomely told many times over, and one wonders whether gruesome detail - down to the fate of individuals on the basis of diaries and testimonials - adds knowledge. On the other hand the `grand genocidal design' that encompasses Jews as well as Slavs, but also assorted minorities and 'social deviants', might have been fleshed out better to show that if the Jews suffered first and worst, other groups were the target of racist ideology and proportionately suffered just as much or even more. If history writing should be more than just 'one damn battle after another', the history of the Third Reich at War should be more than one murder after another.
We know what the Third Reich did - in the battlefields, in the ghettoes, in the vast regions it conquered. The interesting question is: how was this achieved? What were the material means, how did the country organise itself to make the horror possible? The `audit of war' The Audit of War: The Illusion and Reality of Britain as a Great Nation is missing from this book. We hardly hear about the organisation of German industry, war production, supply of raw materials (often from distant - and neutral lands). 'Germany' is monolithically portrayed as enduring, producing, and having affects about it all. No details given about the inner workings of the German society at war, or the differences in its many regions, townships, and lands. Hence my rhetorical question: "But did German women wear trousers on the shop floor?" American and British women, as they entered the work force, did - a signal of profound changes in social relations. How was war production organised? What social changes did the war bring about in Germany? What made the ensuing reconstruction and Wirtschaftswunder possible?
The chapter on the professions and the universities is poor. Reducing the effort of the German medical establishment during WWII to medical experiments by Mengele is no way to treat the subject. Lawyers, judges, philosophers also get all too short shrift. This chapter appears to be a hurried afterthought.
Contrary to Hitler's wishes Germany as a society somehow survived destruction and occupation. Political figures like Adenauer, Erhard and Brandt, but also Ulbricht and Honnecker emerged, and led the two rump countries out of the pits. Evans never even mentions them. Where were they? How could the political structures that brought them to power emerge after defeat? They must have existed - albeit inchoately. The seeds of resurgence - political, material, social, and artistic - were planted while the Nazi ruled. In the end, this missing link to the aftermath somehow seems to me the worst shortcoming.
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