The Hitler Years: Triumph, 1933-1939

 

Today's nonfiction post is on The Hitler Years: Triumph, 1933-1939 by Frank McDonough. It is 496 pages long and is published by St. Martin's Press. The cover is a picture is a Nazi rally. The intended reader is someone who is interested in what was really going in Germany during the lead-up to World War II. There is no foul language, no sex, and discussion of violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- From historian Frank McDonough, the first volume of a new chronicle of the Third Reich under Hitler's hand.
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the German chancellor of a coalition government by President Hindenburg. Within a few months, he had installed a dictatorship, jailing and killing his left-wing opponents, terrorizing the rest of the population, and driving Jews out of public life. He embarked on a crash program of militaristic Keynesianism, reviving the economy and achieving a full employment through massive public works, vast armaments' spending, and the cancellations of foreign debts. After the grim years of the Great Depression, Germany seemed to have been reborn as a brutal and determined European power.
From 1933 to 1939, Hitler won over most of the population with his vision of a renewed Reich. In these years of domestic triumph and cunning maneuvers, pitting neighboring powers against each other and biding his time, we see Hitler preparing for the moment that would realize his ambition. But what drove Hitler's success was also to be the fatal flaw of his regime: a relentless belief in was as the motor of greatness, a dream of vast conquests in Eastern Europe, and an astonishingly fanatical racism.
In The Hitler Years, Frank McDonough charts the rise and fall of the Third Reich under Hitler through Germany's comprehensive military defeat of Poland in 1939. 

Review- A very interesting way to read about World War II, year by year following Hitler and his closest followers. The book starts with some background in Germany and Hitler before he came to power. Year by year, the book goes from all the events that helped build Hitler's power both in Germany and on the world stage. The notes at the back are very useful and provide good insight, not only into Hitler but those closest to him. With many excellent first hand documents, McDonough presents the reader with a very comprehensive piece about World War II and Germany from the inside. I would recommend this book. 

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.