The People’s Dictatorship. A History of Nazi Germany

The author presents a synthesis of the origins, development, and downfall of Nazi Germany. After tracing the intellectual and cultural origins of Nazi ideology, the book recounts the rise and eventual victory of the Nazi movement against the background of the struggling Weimar Republic. The book details the rapid transformation of Germany into a dictatorship, focusing on the interplay of Nazi violence and the readiness of Germans to accommodate themselves to the new regime.  The author chronicles Nazi efforts to transform German society into a so-called People's Community, imbued with hyper-nationalism, an authoritarian spirit, Nazi racial doctrine, and antisemitism. The result was less a People's Community than what the author calls a People's Dictatorship – a repressive regime that acted brutally toward the targets of its persecution, its internal opponents, and its foreign enemies even as it enjoyed support across much of German society.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• The Idea of Nazism
• The Triumph of Nazism
• The Nazi Dictatorship
• The Nazi Economy, 1933–1939
• Nazi Society, 1933–1939
• Policing the Boundaries of the People’s Community
• A New Order in Europe
• The Nazi Empire
• The War of Annihilation
• The Destruction of Nazi Germany
• Conclusion