Review Summaries

• The book is valued for recasting the Third Reich as a combination of politics, religion, and society, with a breadth of scope that matches its size.

Reviews

• 焦点を広げ過ぎたようです。

  2001年購入して、最初だけ読んでその後本棚に鎮座することとなった運命をたどった本です。どういうわけか、もうやめようやめようと思いながらこの種の作品（20世紀の世紀病たるnazismやcommunism, neo-liberalism）にいつも麻薬のように手が伸びてしまう悲しい性ですわ。さてこの作品はというと、注やsuggested readingsも入れると900ページの作品です。私が持っているのはハードカバーですが、とても重くて通勤電車で読むというわけにはいかないほどの大著という物理的な理由も鎮座の運命をたどった理由の一つでした。ただ、鎮座してしまったのにはほかの理由もあったようです。 今回、全体をじっくり読んで確認したのは、A New Historyと銘打ってはいるのですが、これは決して初心者向けの概説書でも通史でもないという点です。相当な知識がドイツ史、ソビエト体制そして戦間期（そして戦後）の欧州の国際関係については読者には前提とされています。これらについての骨格となるかなりの知識がなければ本書の狙いを理解することはできません。 次に問題となるのが、著者の文体と用語の選択です。Overlapするするテーマを扱った著者の Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from the Great War to the War on Terror と同じように、著者は相当にこった言い回しと普段は見ることのない難しい単語を乱用する確信犯なのです。慣れるまでに相当な時間がかかるのです。このnarrativeのスタイルにどの程度で共鳴できるが、これが最終的には鍵となります。 次にA New Historyとは言いながらも、必ずしもnarrativeは年代順というformatをたどりません。このThe Third Reichという対象は、いくつかの副題からアプローチされます。ワイマール体制と法の支配、Holocaustの前篇ともいうべき「優生学と安楽死」プログラム、そして占領地域を巻き込んだユダヤ人の最終解決プログラム、ドイツの旧体制（宗教界やプロシアのユンカー体制）によるナチズムへの抵抗、そして戦後初期という大枠からこの体制とテーマが語られていくのです。著者の辛辣で突き放したような叙述は膨大なドイツ語での先行研究の蓄積に支えられながら、著者の特異な文体とも相まって独特の魅力を放っているのですが、これがドイツの占領地域であるVichy政権、デンマーク、ウクライナやバルト三国、ポーランド、ルーマニアそして終末期のハンガリー等の各地で行われた様々なユダヤ人抹殺計画の説明や背景となる反ユダヤ主義が濃淡を込めて細かく延々と何百ページにもわたって続くとさすがに読者も滅入ってきます。 著者の立場は、Voegelin ( Science, Politics and Gnosticism: Two Essays ）と同じく、ナチズムを政治宗教、疑似（代用）宗教と捉えるもので、この部分が詳しく説明されているのが、Introductionの部分ですが、この基本的な立場は各章の個々のテーマごとの描写とは必ずしもうまく融合しておらず、ところどころ面白い視角（ナチ体制によるドイツ旧制度の破壊）が散見されるものの、本書の結語もかなりわかりにくいものとなっています。もう少しドイツという反ユダヤ主義の特異な温床に焦点を絞り、時代もベルサイユ条約以後という限定を外した方がまとまりとしてはわかりやすくなったのかもしれません。著者はこの作品の後に１０００ページにも及ぶ政治と宗教をテーマとした作品（ Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War ）を上梓しているのですが、そちらを読んだ方がいいのかもしれません。ただそちらも焦点は空間、時間共にさらに拡大されすぎて、同じように一筋縄ではいかなかった印象があります。

• Excellent study

  I have read a number of books now on the Third Reich, and this one stands comparison with any. Michael Burleigh is an excellent historian who writes well, with great knowledge. I have read other books by him, and have been impressed by them all. I cannot comment on how The Third Reich now stands in the forefront of academia since it is nearly 25 years on from when it was written - but what this book does do is to study the phenomenon of Nazism as a political movement rather than in the personality driven accounts one often finds. That is not to say that studies of the personality cult of Adolf Hitler are not important, but whilst there is nothing easy about Michael Burleigh's study - it is often, particularly in the later pages - tough and challenging reading as one is emotionally and psychologically challenged reading about the working out of the racial war and attempts by the regime to racially cleanse a large swathe of Eastern Europe - it is still a valid warning to all of us about what happens when an extremist ideology is allowed to take over. There are now many reviews on line, and as one review says, this study is helped if one already has some background knowledge of the history of the period 1918-1945. That the book is still widely available speaks a great deal about what Michael Burleigh had to say about the The Third Reich. Do give it a read - see it through, even if you find that some of what he has to say is deeply upsetting. Can one call it an enjoyable read? Probably not - but worthwhile - yes undoubtedly.

• With great expectations I bought this book

  With great expectations I bought this book. Delivery and packing had the class of Amazon, superb. The same can't be said about the contents of the book. Being a WWII buff and having read masterpieces like The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich by Shirer, history of WWII by Liddel Hart, Third reich at war by Evans, I found it pale in comparison. Without describing the events as they happened, Burleigh tries to pass his own judgement almost page by page. The language also is very unfriendly and proves to be a drag and is fit for reading only by students of english literature.

• The Nazi Cult

  I have already read this and ordered it to reread going by what’s happening in the world today with bombs and famine, because I didn’t read it carefully the first time using a dictionary. It’s one of the best Nazi books, but you need background to access it. Or the Internet to understand what’s going on in the first couple of pages because he assumes you know a lot. You need the entirety of knowledge found in William Shirer to survive the first chapter.

• Language is not simple. not a good book to read easily

  Language is not simple. not a good book to read easily. Not recommend for reading

• I read books like this to fill out the background to the events ...

  I am a professional battlefield guide. I read books like this to fill out the background to the events and characters involved in the warfare on the ground that is the subject of my tours. I reckon this is the best single volume account of the 3rd Reich. I have read Kershaw's two-volume, 1200 page biography of Hitler and his book "The Hitler Myth", an account of the God-like fantasy view Goebbels created around Hitler, which held the German people in such thrall. A book covering some of the same ground as "The Third Reich" is Mark Mazower's excellent "Hitler's Empire". Mazower's book is less wide ranging, less detailed in the account of the Nazi's rise through the 1930's, the period when Hitler formulated the vague notions of world dominance which the rest of his revolting gang put into practice. This book describes in great detail the social and political aims and policies of the National Socialist regime, from Hitler's beginnings as a beer-hall ranter to a man who infected the people of Goethe, Bach and Beethoven with the politics of hate and violence and succeeded in persuading them to act out his appalling vision. The general perception of the Nazis is that the evil of their regime is known, principally as the brutal military invaders of Russia and Western Europe. But the full extent of the evil, evil that penetrated right down into the foundations of German society itself, is not revealed unless by books such as this. Be prepared to think to yourself, as I did, "I knew it was evil. I had no idea it was so profoundly evil."

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