Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies

by Roderick Stackelberg

Hitler's Germany provides a comprehensive narrative history of Nazi Germany and sets it in the wider context of nineteenth and twentieth century German history. Roderick Stackelberg analyzes how it was possible that a national culture of such creativity and achievement could generate such barbarism and destructiveness. This second edition has been updated throughout to incorporate recent historical research and engage with current debates in the field. It Exploring the controversies surrounding Nazism and its afterlife in historiography and historical memory Hitler’s Germany provides students with an interpretive framework for understanding this extraordinary episode in German and European history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 1999

About the author

Educated at Harvard (AB 1956), the University of Vermont (MA 1972), and the University of Massachusetts (PhD 1974), Dr. Stackelberg retired in 2004 as Professor of History Emeritus after a thirty-year teaching career at Gonzaga University. He is the author of six books and numerous articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and reviews in scholarly journals.

Reviews

[Michael Vela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and digestible historiography of Nazi Germany and its ideological and material origins in German historic development. Detailed account of how Hitler took power (or was rather given it) by the German elite in order to prevent a socialist revolution and how their shortsightedness allowed the Nazis to take total power and start a world war.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This struck a cord, coming from a (partly) German-Canadian family:

"If freedom to walk on the grass, for example, illustrates the Western conception of freedom from government regulation or control, then not wanting to walk on the grass epitomized the German notion of what it means to be truly free."

[Nishkarsh Swarnkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book on German political and socio-economic landscape over past century and half. It answers a lot of of questions about the reasons and causes of the rise of Nazism and puts their policies in perspective. Note: Although WW2 is part of the overall narration in specific chapters, it is not a book on war details - which is presumed.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this book for background information for a paper. I really liked the layout, the information was well written and concise. It paints a very good picture of the atmosphere in Germany prior to World War I through the end of World War II.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informational and well organised, but a bit dry.