Nazism and War (Modern Library Chronicles)

Rating:
Summary: Concise and Frightening
Review: Richard Bessel looks at Nazism from Hitler's rise to the aftermath of the war. It is fine companion piece to Robert S. Wistrich's book on the Holocaust in this same series, Modern Libary Chronicles. These two books together will give one a frightening picture of the impact of Nazism, first in Germany and then in the world. Bessel paints a broad picture and, in as much space as these small format titles allow, goes into the economic and sociological impact of Nazisim, particularly after attaining power in the early 1930s, in addition to the more obvious political impact. The last chapter is particularly fascinating in showing how Nazism and the German people were separated as concepts in post-war Germany as the focus in memory shifted to the last years of the wars with the Germans as victims. A tidy, concise, frightening read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction into Nazi ideology and impact
Review: The Modern Library Chronicles offer readers concise history on a broad range of historical ideas, events, and nations. "Nazism and War" is a really good introduction of Nazi ideological beginnings, its impact on Germany and its war making ability.

What I learned from this book (while not a complete neophyte of German/WW2 history):

1. War was the basic element of Nazism. Not just for territorial conquest, but of racial superiority and annihilation. For example, the WW2 was lost as early as 1942 (right after Stalingrad), but the regime wasn't prepared to refocus strategy since its only stragegy was waging war endlessly. Germany suffered the majority of war casualities in the last 2 years (1944-1945) which were also its most brutal.

2. Majority of Germans believed they were victims in the post war world. The German Army, the Wehrmacht, underwent a period of revisionist history in that it was not a advocate of the racial war. Only in the mid 1990s did Germany feel comfortable discussing the army's role in the war.

3. Nazism's collapse was total (unlike Baathism and its insurgency in post-war Iraq 2004). Allies destruction of German forces in 1945 and the Nuremburg trials (where high level Nazis were hanged) removed any advantage Nazism once held by its believers.

This book has almost 220 full pages of text. The remaining 20 pages or so are for notes and bibliography.