Rating: 
Summary: The perfect gift for a member of the "Greatest Generation"
Review: Michael Burleigh has crafted a wonderful book that achieves on multiple levels. Not only does he take advantage of the most illuminating research discoveries of recent decades, he packages his argument in a form that is friendly to thoughtful "non-specialist." I gave a copy to my grandfather, a Polish conscript who survived U-Boat service to escape and join the allied division Polish navy. He has told me countless times that as a young man he never knew what was actually going on in the turbulent political world that surrounded him. Now, finally, he gets an informed, balanced, intellectually rigorous, overview of HIS times. I am personally very grateful to Michael Burleigh. His rigour and literary flair combined with his judgment and even-handedness, make this a treasure for our time.
Rating: 
Summary: What nazism actually meant to the world.
Review: Michael Burleigh has written a most scholarly, and yet richly readable, new history of the Third Reich. It is "new" in the sense that he combines a theoretical approach - nazism as a pseudo religious force in its mass appeal inside and outside Germany - with abundant material on the lives of everyday people. His chapter headings are thematic, rather than strictly chronological, and include sub sections such as "See You In Siberia" and "The Generals Who Dithered". The nazi attempts to dominate and exploit the economic life of Europe and beyond are particularly well discussed. The volume is a useful contrast with Ian Kershaw's recent, excellent biography of Hitler since Burleigh has written a more international account: his particular remit is to analyse the impact of nazism as a huge political force across frontiers. He is impressively adroit in tracing the pro and anti nazi sentiment in eastern Europe and Russia. There is, for instance, some fascinating insight into the Tatars of the Ukraine who were deported by Stalin's police in cattle truck journeys lasting up to three months. The author's final chapter covers the years 1943 to 1948 where it is explained that denazification had a short life from 1945 since the allies and the Russians soon had much greater global problems to address. There are a few slips in the text, for example the main Nuremburg war criminals were not hanged "at dawn" (page 804), and this reviewer felt that nazi and anti nazi media propaganda could tell us more of the international dimension than is revealed in the book. None the less, this is an insightful tome, full of sound judgments and interesting sidelights on virtually every page. Just for the record, Burleigh has no truck with revisionist sentiments about the personalities and policies of the Reich. Here is the story of a criminal gang who brought Europe to its knees.
Rating: 
Summary: The line between fiction and fact.
Review: Professor Burleigh quotes, several times, from Curzio Malaparte's classic World War II story "Kaputt". Malaparte was a commissioned Italian war correspondent, assigned to the "Eastern Front". His frontline dispatches first appeared in the magazine "Corriere della Sera" and, after the war, were published in book form. But that book is "The Volga Rises in Europe". The back cover of my copy of "Kaputt" clearly identifies it as a novel. I also note that the "amazon.com" History Editor's recommendation describes "Kaputt" as Malaparte's "novelistic account of the war". I am not aware of any instruction, left to us by Curzio Malaparte, which identifies the portions of "Kaputt" that are to be taken literally. Yet Professor Burleigh quotes from it as unvarnished fact. Even had he been unaware that the book is a novel, a careful examination of this source should have given any serious historian cause for skepticism. For example, Malaparte's TWO accidental encounters with Heinrich Himmler in Finland seem particularly concocted. And his clever dinner-party ripostes with the Nazi Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank, seem the wishfully doctored memories (i.e., artistic license) of a man not unconcerned with explaining his social role with Hans Frank. Malaparte's powerful friends and acquaintances in the Axis governments no doubt caused him to make many personal compromises that would trouble any conscionable person. He chose to deal with it by publishing a novel, not a memoir. That such material now finds itself passing for fact in a "new" history reminds us of how much we need the "old" standards.
Rating: 
Summary: The Third Reich
Review: Save your money. Yet another book about Jewish victimization. Judging from Mr. Burleigh's previous works, this is his area of interest and speciality. It is by no means a new perspective on 'the Third Reich'. It is surely no advance on Wm. L. Shirer's somewhat dated history written close after the war with the expected overuse of adjectives, and the many histories that have followed. Mr. Burleigh writes as so many contemporary academicians, which is to say with extraordinary resort to notes and bibliography (125 pages) as if to impress with his research, similar to any PhD thesis. In places, the text seems to be a gloss on the numerous paragraphs Mr. Burleigh has inserted from other authors. Why did I buy it then? I was gulled by critical reports in several of the news media. I am seventy and get most of my books via Amazon. Had I been in a store and thumbed through "The Third Reich" I would never have bought it. Be happy to donate my copy.
Rating: 
Summary: Where was the editor?
Review: Shame on the editor of this book. The writing style is so thick and unwieldy as to make it almost incomprehensible. I haven't seen prose this "purple" since my last reading of Edgar Allen Poe.
Bulwer-Lytton, move over...
So, while the information content is good, there are other more readable books that cover the same territory. Read one of them instead.
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERFUL CONTRIBUTION
Review: Some previous reviewers have complained about the complex style and writing of this book. Although in fact it is not an easily readable book, for the general public, if you have a serious interest about the history of the third Reich, make no mistake: you will not be able to overlook this book, which will surely be a classic. It is a thoroughly well researched contribution about the connection between religious beliefs and mass fanaticism; the interaction between the "new" domestic and international values, based on aggression; and the other causes involved in the rise (and fall) of the III Reich. From a different perspective from other mainstream historians, this winner of the Samuel Johnson prize for non fiction, has accomplished quite an original scholarly feat, one which will enlighten the comprehension of this particular period of history. No wonder many international critics have found the subtitle of this opus -A new History- particularly well deserved. Of great interest is the chapter related with the demise of the rule of law, a thorough analysis of the penetration of the judiciary and the subordination of the police and government to the totalitarian Fuhrerprinzip.
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERFUL CONTRIBUTION
Review: Some previous reviewers have complained about the complex style and writing of this book. Although in fact it is not an easily readable book, for the general public, if you have a serious interest about the history of the third Reich, make no mistake: you will not be able to overlook this book, which will surely be a classic. It is a thoroughly well researched contribution about the connection between religious beliefs and mass fanaticism; the interaction between the "new" domestic and international values, based on aggression; and the other causes involved in the rise (and fall) of the III Reich. From a different perspective from other mainstream historians, this winner of the Samuel Johnson prize for non fiction, has accomplished quite an original scholarly feat, one which will enlighten the comprehension of this particular period of history. No wonder many international critics have found the subtitle of this opus -A new History- particularly well deserved. Of great interest is the chapter related with the demise of the rule of law, a thorough analysis of the penetration of the judiciary and the subordination of the police and government to the totalitarian Fuhrerprinzip.
Rating:
Summary: Book not intended for general public use
Review: The complexity of the word use in this book makes it incomprehensible. How did it get past his editors? Most of the adjectives Burleigh uses I have never heard before. I have to sit with a dictionary next to me to look them up as I read so I can try to follow what he is saying. When I do understand him, I think his insights are excellent. However, I find his tone condescending at times and I think that detracts from the idea that this is an attempt at a somewhat objective study of history. I would recommend against reading this book for the same reason the Catholic Mass is no longer spoken in Latin. I hate to say it, but if the author dummed down his work a little then it would be nice to grasp the perspective he is trying to convey. As it stands, this is a book for professors, not for the general public.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Analysis of Nazism
Review: The literature on the Third Reich and related phenomena is immense; there are tens of thousands of books on the Holocaust alone. Michael Burleigh has done a superb job of distilling this complex literature and providing a clear way of understanding the phenomenon of Nazism. Readers picking up this book should be aware that this is not, however, a conventional narrative history. Rather, it is a series of chronologically ordered and thematically linked essays on various aspects of the Nazi state. This book presupposes a fairly good knowledge of 20th century German and European history.... The central theme of the book is that the phenomenon of Nazism can be understand only as a 'political religion', an ideological movement with many of the trappings and elements of religion but oriented towards a form of salvation mediated by the state. Inspired by the work of scholars such as Fritz Stern and the late George Mosse, Burleigh sees Nazism as an irrational millenial movement offering simple and brutal answers to complex questions. Burleigh describes the seed bed of Nazism in the Weimar state, the Nazi seizure of power, and the ruthlessness exhibited by the Nazis as they exploited all the resources of the modern state to achieve their depraved ends. Following his masterly description and analysis of how Nazi ideology penetrated every aspect of German life, Burleigh proceeds to describe the murderous foreign policy of the Nazis, a bid for European and world power based on their bizarre and horrifying ideas of racial conflict. Burleigh's descriptions of life in occupied Europe, the invasion of the Soviet Europe, and the Holocaust are both precise and powerful. Burleigh is a skilled and vivid writer. Burleigh is not one of these who believe that Nazism arose from unique features of German culture nor does he regard Nazism as an aberration from the rest of German or European history. He is very good at showing the specific, and contingent, historic events and features of recent German history that provided the opportunity for the growth of Nazism in Germany. At the same time, his concept of Nazism as a political religion links Nazism to a broad range of political and religous phenomena that have characterized many societies. This is a warning that phenomena like Nazism are part of the potential of all human societies. As shown by the examples of Cambodia and Rwanda, Burleigh's conclusions are inescapbly and painfully correct.
Rating:
Summary: Like medicine, it's hard to swallow, but necessary
Review: There are a few things to ponder before you wade into this tome. At 950 plus pages this book is hard to digest on this basis alone. Added to that is the certainty that you will put it down feeling drained and depressed by the author's elucidation of the evil that characterized Nazi Germany. Speaking of clarity, if you like to read books that require you to have your OED handy, this book should suffice. There are places where one gets the distinct impression that Burleigh, in the (best?) traditions of English academia, intends his work to be accessible to the intelligentsia. Are we, the Hoi pol-loi, to be kept busy looking up entries? The following sentence (which got me twice) is typical: "On the right, an egregious elision of ethnic and political issues gained ground." Here's one I didn't have to look up Mr Burleigh - your book is too Pedagogical. That said, the book shows that he is serious about his history, and there is a lot to be learned. His 'new history' is more of a new perspective. Rather than focus on Hitler or any of the other Nazis, the view is more useful; it's broad - the German people as a whole. His emphasis is not on culture either. Racism, totalitarianism, forced sterilzations, eugenics, and police brutality hardly qualify as culture. What Burleigh does well is meticuously show how Germany slowly slid into the state that it became; an evil, despotic, system. It's more than that though because this implies that the rot remained at the political level. Not so, Burleigh sees a "progressive, and almost total, moral collapse of an advanced industrial society at the heart of Europe, many of whose citizens abandoned the burden of thinking for themselves, in favour of what George Orwell described as the tom-tom beat of a latterday tribalism. They put their faith in evil men promising a great leap into a heroic future, offereing a 'quick fix' to Germany's local, and modern society's general, problems." And problems there were. Carefully laid out is a description of the economic and social malaise that followed the country's shattering in WWI. The 'Great War' was only so for the victors; the vanquished felt themselves in undeserved purgatory, and they were looking for someone to lead them out. This partly explains the emergence of a 'Hitler Cult' with all the pseudoreligious trappings; the Nazis promised salvation. The rise of totalitarianism is one of the areas where Burleigh's analysis shines. I had read elsewhere (one of Lukacs's books I think) and come to accept, that for the average German their experience of Naziism was not that of a Police State, at least not before the war. In 1934, Hitler said something to this effect (if my memory serves me); "bayonets do not terrorize the people, the government is supported by the confidence of the people" (please realize, I am not quoting from memory of the experience!, just the book where I read it). Burleigh totally refutes this timetable. He says that "Nazi terror from above and the demise of the rule of law started just a few days after Hitler's assumption of power in January 1933...By 1936, a brutal police state had penetrated virtually all spheres of life". Burleigh is quite original is his exposition of this brutality. He looks at it from the perspective of two different populations at two different times - the domestic population in peacetime and foreign (and domestic) populations during the war. The book is well researched and very scholarly and as such will be referenced by many historians for some time to come, and just like medicine, if you take it in small doses, it's palatable.
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