Rating: 
Summary: Great Work from A Great Historian
Review: I've taken several seminars at UCLA with Saul Friedlander, and to say that he is an objective and very insightful historian is an understatement. This book is terrific and deserves all the critical praise that it has received. Even if you are just curious about the Holocaust, or you are a serious historian of the time period, you should definitely pick this book up.
Rating:
Summary: Great Work from A Great Historian
Review: I've taken several seminars at UCLA with Saul Friedlander, and to say that he is an objective and very insightful historian is an understatement. This book is terrific and deserves all the critical praise that it has received. Even if you are just curious about the Holocaust, or you are a serious historian of the time period, you should definitely pick this book up.
Rating: 
Summary: well researched, great footnotes, new slant on old subject
Review: Overall a good volume and despite other reviews I found this book easy to read. I used it as a source for a paper I did on antisemitism. I especially liked his laying of the groundwork on what he terms "redemptive antisemitism." As far as I know this is a completely new view of what was happening during the time period in the title. Those early years were an important time for the Nazi's because a reason or ideology had to be established and marketed to the german people in order for them to understand why the holocaust "needed" to occur. Friedlander does a great job of setting-up the reader for a second volume. Where is it by the way?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, informative, absorbing, and different.
Review: Perhaps the enduring value of Friedlander's book is its focus on the sociology of the holocaust and its origins in the corruption of social institutions, which provides a lesson--and a warning--for all seemingly stable, civilized societies. This, after all, should be the "message" of the holocaust for non-Jews, as much as for Jews. The information in this book, weaving together facts and figures with the occasional poignant human interest story to illustrate a point, is quite different from the standard holocaust historical writing of who did what to whom, when and how, and is therefore a quantum leap in our understanding of the phenomenon which shall nevertheless forever remain ultimately incomprehensible. While I appreciate the comment of the reviewer who found the language tough going, sometimes, that reader might find, it is worth the rough going. Unfortunately, they will only find that out when they have finished, and are able to look back on the voyage of discovery which they have completed. This book is such a voyage. Personally, I look forward with much anticipation to the second volume. --Irving Wiesen.
Rating:
Summary: A superb achievement of weaving history with memory
Review: The history of Nazi Germany and the Jews has never been told before in such a convincing fashion. Friedlander's knowledge of West European history and culture is second to none, a fact which enabled him to write, for the first time, a "total" history of the crucial, but often neglected years prior to the War. Like a master artist, the author weaves the history with the memories, the voices of the victims with those of the perpetrators, the every day lived experiences with high politics. While rich in telling details, Friedlander makes sure that we never lose sight of the larger picture; of the abnormality in the midst of seemingly normal existence. Professor Friedlander's interpretation of Nazism is highly nuanced and therefore convincing. He sucessfully avoids two common pitfalls: to write this history "backward" and construct its narrative in "black and white." His life-long dedication not only to the study of Nazism, but also to the problems of its historical represntation are clearly obvious in the innovative manner with which he approaches the subject. In his distinctively understated style he is both highly evocative and extremely analytical. With the second volume, which is due to follow, we will have gained a comprehensive understanding of Nazi Germany and the fate of the European Jews, written by a historian, who is a thinker, who is a master story teller.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Intro to Hitler's Germany
Review: This book is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn about the rise of Fascism in Germany. It is factual and yet easy to read. Anyone that wants to understand how Hitler got his power should read this. The author's bias is kept to a minimum.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, authoritative .. a must read
Review: This book presents one of the most balanced, comprehensive, and authoritative analyses of the pre-war Nazi era I have read. As usual, Friedlander avoids the pitfalls of either a purely intentionalist or functionalist position and chooses to present the reader with something in between. This book is a must read for anybody seriously interested in understanding Nazi policy and ideology vis-a-vis German Jewry.
Rating:
Summary: Thorough, authoritative .. a must read
Review: This book presents one of the most balanced, comprehensive, and authoritative analyses of the pre-war Nazi era I have read. As usual, Friedlander avoids the pitfalls of either a purely intentionalist or functionalist position and chooses to present the reader with something in between. This book is a must read for anybody seriously interested in understanding Nazi policy and ideology vis-a-vis German Jewry.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Study Of Nazi Persecution of Jews 1933-1939
Review: This first in a two volume work by acclaimed historian is a remarkably objectivean , comprehensive and scrupulously scholarly work and represents a very critical contribution to historians' efforts to comprehend just how and why one of the most civilized and sophisticated countries in Europe descended into the systematic attempt to exterminate the Jews. The book proceeds along a chronological axis in recounting the slow but inexorably tightening of restrictions on the Jewish population within Germany during the years of the mid to late 1930s. While centering his account of what went wrong in Nazi Germany during the pre-war years, he also humanizes his narrative considerably by interspersing individual accounts of people caught confused and unaware of what was really occurring in the crucible of cultural change. As substantiated in other recent accounts such as Victor Klemperer's "I Shall Bear Witness", Jews were very slow to recognize just how malevolent and serious the national Socialists were about ridding Germany of its Jewish population and also nationalizing and "Aryanizing" their resources and assets. It is important to note that the author does not overlay any overall interpretive spin of his own, intent more on presenting the best evidence of what was going on than in coming to any premature general interpretation of what the mass of evidence in total might mean. This is not to suggest he offers no interpretation; on the contrary, he offers a series of brilliant insights in various aspects of the evidence. But unlike other recent authors like Goldhagen, he makes no sweeping interpretative conclusions based on all of the evidence he presents. Also, one must remember that this is the first of two volumes, and one would expect that he intends to fully conclude his systematic and chronological presentation of all of the available evidence before engaging in that sort of interpretative analysis. In sum, I find this work to be an excellent book that is engaging, well-written and argued, and a joy to read despite its tragic and dispiriting subject matter, and a book that offers an amazing look at a wide variety of different perspectives and social situations within the Third Reich as it descended into the abyss. After finishing this volume I immediately ordered the second volume, which is slated for formal publication release later this year. This is a work that belongs on the bookshelf of any serious student of the Holocaust.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Intro to Hitler's Germany
Review: This is an outstanding history. It is measured, detailed and backed by meticulous research. It is by far the best of this genre The shame is that the much anticipated sequel is now not planned for publication. But half a classic is better than none
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