Industry and Ideology: I. G. Farben in the Nazi Era

by Peter Hayes

The power of big business in the Third Reich economy remains one of the most important issues of that disastrous era. Drawing on prodigious research in German corporate and government archives, Peter Hayes argues that the IG Farben chemicals combine, Nazi Germany's largest corporation, proved unable to influence national policy outside the firm's sphere of expertise. Indeed, the most infamous aspects of Nazi policy occurred despite IG Farben's advocacy of alternative courses of action. Nonetheless, Farben grew rich under the Nazi regime and was directly involved in some of its greatest crimes. This edition has a new preface that incorporates new developments and research in the field.

Genres: History, Germany, Nonfiction, Holocaust

450 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Peter F. Hayes is professor emeritus of history at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, and chair of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Specializing in the Holocaust, genocide and the history of modern Germany, Hayes is the author or editor of 10 books, including Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era (1987), a prize-winning study of the IG Farben corporation. He has been described as the leading scholar of the historiography of industry in Nazi Germany.