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Hitler's Empire: How The Nazis Ruled Europe (2008)

by Mark Mazower(Favorite Author)

4.1 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1594201889 (ISBN13: 9781594201882)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Penguin Press

review 1: World War II is not my most loved study object but this book was actually refreshing. I won't go as far as to say that Adolf Hitler was completely absent, but he was not the keyfigure in the book. Being quite a newbie on the subject it was fascinating to learn about the Nazi's. It was also refreshing to read that almost every Nazi policy was created out of chaos and caused even more of it. The chapters are sort by theme and not by chronology and I understand why Mark Mazower chose to do so but for me it was sometimes confusing to see the big picture. Furthermore, the last two chapters remain a mystery for me. Why did Mazower choose to tackle these topics as well? It almost looks like he wanted to say too much in this book and that's a shame for this otherwise well-construc... moreted book.
review 2: Having been very impressed with Mazower's 'Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century', this new volume was an essential read for me, and I was equally impressed with its depth and detail. Rather than approaching the Nazi 'colonisation' of much of Europe from a military/tactical/strategic perspective, Mazower examines it from the political, economic and geo-political points of view - and in many ways, this makes for a fresh outlook on some previously well-trodden historical ground. Taking as his starting point the idea that the Nazi expansion into Europe created an empire (in the conventional and not so conventional senses of that term), he then goes on to examine how this empire functioned and was administered, and how it developed and inevitably collapsed. Mazower is particularly good on the subjects of opposition and resistance, and also collaboration - the chapter on the partisan war and the differing German reactions to it will be of particular interest to students of the period (I certainly learned much that was new to me), as will the section on the Allied liberation of occupied Europe and the capture of the Nazi leadership. This excellent volume is extremely well written and scrupulously researched by an erudite and extremely knowledgeable historian, and will certainly be an extremely valuable resource for students with some prior knowledge of the period. Recommeded. less

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