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Rating: 
Summary: Challenging But Extremely Valuable Analysis
Review: I found this analysis of the Hitler period both challenging and profoundly disturbing reading. It is not for the faint of heart. It requires considerable analytical ability on the part of the reader! But, having said that, the translation is excellent. The message..."it could happen here"...is clear. It provides a chilling look at Nazi Germany from the viewpoint of ordinary citizens caught up in the megalomania of a charismaric leader. It makes abundantly clear the fact that many, if not a majority, of Germans knew that atrocities were being committed by their government and that they accepted these acts in a kind of "pact with the devil". The masses saw economic and political stability, despite its totalitarian nature, as preferable to the perceived chaos of the Weimar democracy. Thus, "looking the other way" became the status quo, despite statements to the contrary made by so many after the war. This book demands that the reader look deeply into his or her own soul, and it makes each of us consider what darkness might lie in any one of us, given circumstances of privation, starvation, and the widespread perception of national humiliation engendered by the onerous reparations exacted by the victors of World War I.
Rating: 
Summary: Scholarly, but had to put it away
Review: This book is WAY too detailed for what I thought would be enjoyable reading--"social history" in the title to me implied more of day-to-day life under the swastika, but I instead found myself wading through more than enough detail to fill a university-level course. While the work is exceptionally informative, it nonetheless is NOT intended for casual perusal. And once I found myself scanning rather than reading, I knew it was time to put it away--at least for now.What I did finish is no secret to anyone: not everything was as it seemed under Nazi rule--ordinary Germans still gave aid to domestic "enemies", highly visible social structures such as the churches were not silent on the issues, and the volk did not speak with one voice. Aycoberry just went overboard (for everyday readers) in describing it all.
Rating: 
Summary: Competing structures in the Third Reich.
Review: This is an extremely well written (and translated) insight into what made nazi Germany tick. The author's skill lies in his adroit use of paradigms or frameworks of assumptions within which his scholarly insight shines forth. For example, he shows clearly how the four powers that dominated society - state bureaucracy, the nazi party, business bosses and the army - changed with the advent of war. In general, the power of the party and of the business leaders grew after 1940 whereas the army high command and the state bureaucrats lost ground as defeats multiplied. His account of nazi propaganda is succinct but revealing. Thus he illustrates, through SD reports and other sources, how Goebbels' official line that Germans did not commit atrocities was often refuted by ordinary people's experience on both the war and the home fronts. This is not an introductory guide to the power structures of the Reich, but a masterful and semi sociological review of why and how Hitler's Germany took the course it did. And why its many contradictions were a key element in its eventual demise.
Rating:
Summary: Competing structures in the Third Reich.
Review: This is an extremely well written (and translated) insight into what made nazi Germany tick. The author's skill lies in his adroit use of paradigms or frameworks of assumptions within which his scholarly insight shines forth. For example, he shows clearly how the four powers that dominated society - state bureaucracy, the nazi party, business bosses and the army - changed with the advent of war. In general, the power of the party and of the business leaders grew after 1940 whereas the army high command and the state bureaucrats lost ground as defeats multiplied. His account of nazi propaganda is succinct but revealing. Thus he illustrates, through SD reports and other sources, how Goebbels' official line that Germans did not commit atrocities was often refuted by ordinary people's experience on both the war and the home fronts. This is not an introductory guide to the power structures of the Reich, but a masterful and semi sociological review of why and how Hitler's Germany took the course it did. And why its many contradictions were a key element in its eventual demise.
Rating:
Summary: A Compelling & Rigorous Study of the Nazi Regime!
Review: With this scholarly & carefully researched book, author Pierre Aycoberry weighs once more into the ongoing debate concerning "who" within the National Socialist German state of the 1930s-40s participated in the Holocaust, & with as much import and significance, also details the "hows" & "whys". In a previous book, "The Nazi Question", the author examined the scope & breadth of Nazi violence & genocide, and described the participation of the populace in terms of both active involvement & passive acquiescence. Here he approaches the issues by systematically cataloguing the people, institutions, and individual events to see who actively participated, who didn't, and why. This is an exhaustive, rigorous, and carefully documented academic study, and Aycoberry obviously has taken care to be as deliberate and detailed as possible in grounding his assertions in the substantive facts he can marshal to support them. What results from this scrupulous approach is an illuminating look at who within the Nazi regime participated, who didn't, as well as the respective rewards and punishments or consequences associated with such individual choices. The comprehensive picture that emerges is one of a complex modern industrial state in which some segments of the population perceived the social circumstances as offering opportunities for personal gain and took them, while others resisted such temptations consistently, often to their own disadvantage, detriment, and ultimate danger. Of course, in all of this is an implicit understanding that in modern societies the average man tends to simply try to survive in whatever prevailing social and cultural conditions he may find himself located within. What is more difficult to piece together is the often puzzling question as to why so many seemed to just go on with the growing violence with apparent indifference, willing to acquiesce with whatever madness is presented as long as it doesn't personally affect them or their loved ones. Such mass evidence of moral cowardice is likely at the seat of the so-called "German question"; i.e., how could a civilized, cultured people countenance or participate in this kind of violence & genocide? One must consider the author's findings in terms of recent tomes by authors such as Daniel Goldhagen and Eric Johnson, each of whom interprets the answers to the "German Question" in terms of active and willing mass participation in the violence and genocidal activities of the regime. Aycoberry is more circumspect, and much more specifically locates pockets of both active participation and passive resistance. Thus, Germany did become 'Nazified' through all its institutions; the military, churches, schools, industry, and within the bureaucracies as well. In this sense, it is difficult to deny the complicity of the people in the criminal actions of the state. However, one must also recognize the frailties of millions of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, trapped in an oppressive society with a cultural history compelling obedience and requiring passive acquiescence to its rules. Certainly this book will not end the debate regarding who, how, and why, but does add important new evidence more specifically locating pockets of participation and resistance within the regime, and adding a scholarly thoughtfulness to the issue of the complexity of the cultural situation leading to the Holocaust. This is an important book, and one I would heartily recommend to all serious students of 20th century history.
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