Nazism 1919-1945: Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination : A Documentary Reader (Nazism 1919-1945, a Documentary Reader)

Rating:
Summary: Another book in the series of collections of documents
Review: This book is the third volume of a series of books collecting documents relating to Nazi Germany. It contains primary source documents from war directives to personal diaries of the people involved. This volume contains documents covering topics like foreign policy, extermination of "undesirables", the war itself, the Nazi empire, etc. The editors also provide concise and clear summaries and explanations of the events taking place to relate the individual documents. Overall, it's a great collection of primary source documents.

Rating:
Summary: Good book with problems
Review: This is a book full of useful primary documents as well as excerpts of diaries, reports and other sources. I found the section on the euthanasia program especially useful in my own research.
Unfortunately this book has major problems that make its use by historians problematic. The authors unfortunately did not decide to use footnotes therefore the reader doesn't know where exactly these things come from and if they were simply taken from other secondary sources, as the authors do in a couple sections acknowledge that the section relies heavily on the secondary source of another author.
In addition to the lack of footnotes, the book does not have an index. Therefore if one is looking for something on Auschwitz, for example, one would have to flip through the book, and particularly the section on the camps, looking. This is a huge problem, especially in such a large book.
The maps in the back of the book are also extremely useful and a great addition to the book.

Rating:
Summary: A Blatant Rip Off
Review: This is a great book! Unfortunately it is also the same book (down to the page count) published as Volume II by Schocken Books in 1990. The only thing I found changed was in the first line in the Preface that stated it was the third volume of a four volume set vice a second volume of a three volume set. It is this type of temerity that will cause internet buyers of books to again begin using book stores.

Rating:
Summary: A Blatant Rip Off
Review: This is a great book! Unfortunately it is also the same book (down to the page count) published as Volume II by Schocken Books in 1990. The only thing I found changed was in the first line in the Preface that stated it was the third volume of a four volume set vice a second volume of a three volume set. It is this type of temerity that will cause internet buyers of books to again begin using book stores.