The Coming of the Third Reich

By: Richard J. Evans

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evans’s history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, even as it shows how ready Germany was by the early 1930s for such a takeover to occur. The Coming of the Third Reich is a masterwork of the historian’s art and the book by which all others on the subject will be judged.

©2005 Richard J. Evans (P)2010 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"[A]n impressive achievement.... [Evans'] opus will be one of the major historical works of our time." ( The Atlantic)

Interesting understandable!

This book is ideal for anyone who wants an in-depth but non-academic understanding of the reasons for the development of Hitler's Germany. It is relatively balanced, however it is let down by some fairly small issues. The wish to use English equivalents for German expressions that have come into the vernacular is just stupid! Translating the title of Hitler's famous book for example is weird! Anyway once you get past this, it's pretty good. It's certainly good enough for me to want to read the rest of the series.

Very informative, definitely woth the listen

Reviews are right about the narrator, it probably could have been a 15 hr listen instead of 21 without the pauses lol but after you listen for a while you kind of get used to it. It didnt detract too badly overall given the decently written wealth of information the book contains, I definitely recommend reading it as well as the other 2 volumes in the series

Meticulous

Long and full of details regarding election results, seats in the Reichstag, etc. BUT gives a comprehensive explanation of the Coming of the Third Reich that is eerily paralleled to today's political climate.

Fantastic Listen

This audiobook gives a thrilling and accurate portrayal of the how the Third Reich came to be. Highly recommend for all history enjoyers.

Must-listen story of the Nazi takeover of Germany

This book is the first part of the "Third Reich Trilogy", and I have now listened to the first 2 parts. This book will give you a thorough understanding of some of the social and political uniqueness of Germany in regards to what set it up for being such a ripe target for the Nazi takeover. It sets up an portrait of Germany just as it is about to "lose" The Great War, and then really gets in the aftermath of the war, in particular the turbulent political establishment of the Weimar Republic, which was one of the most democratic governments of its time, but was considered illegitimate by nearly all of the political parties involved in its function. The formation and organization of the Nazi party is covered in great detail: nationalism defined by the "stab in the back" theory, their philosophy of antisemitism, lebensralm and eugenics , their fierce anti-Marxism, the role of "leaders" that play a role in the party, and particularly their commitment to the use of violence that no other party could meet (except perhaps the communists). The enabling of the Nazi parties by the conservative parties, initially in a hope to usurp their influence, only to be usurped by the Nazi's themselves are the ultimate cautionary tale for political parties that attempt to court extremists and in effort to gain their support. I would have liked to see more on the role of The Great War and the establishment of the Weimar Republic itself, since I think the German political and social system did not have the political institutions to handle such as a rapid political change from a mostly absolute monarchy to a republic. The revolution to the left really sets up the counter revolution back to the right, but in such a politically extreme and morally bankrupt way (even by contemporary standards, as mentioned in the book) that will define the 20th century, whether that response is from the left or the right. I would recommend "November 1918: The German Revolution" by Michael Gerwath is an in-depth story of Weimar republic, a remarkable yet ill-fated government.

Somewhat overrated - quite "meh" but still good

Not really that impressed with Evans as a historian honestly. The book is serviceable as an overview, and is well researched.

However, the level of analysis is often subtly emotionally driven, which doesn't really help to illuminate the truth of things at all. More just muddies it and irritates.

Call me a horrible person or something, but I don't really care what a historian's moral feelings are about things. Even when it comes to this. Woah! Am I blowing your mind? Evan's personal contempt is more distracting than you'd think with his choice of language. For example, he describes H's resignation as "H threw a tantrum and resigned." Tantrum, as in acting like a big baby. Is this history being presented, or an author's personal emotional, political, and moral feelings being placed into the text? The author doesn't present any actual factual information to show how H's behavior was like a tantrum. He just says that it was, and the midwit readership is expected to mindlessly accept this as "Historic Fact."

A better historian would actually show, rather than tell. Show us the actual historic fact, show us why it was a tantrum. Let us think for ourselves. Let us decide for ourselves. We're not children. We're not stupid. We can reach the correct moral and ideological conclusions on our own.

This kind of thing is fairly routine in this work, and I think most readers won't even notice it or care, because most people don't think that this period in history should even be allowed to be thought about critically. Such "moral concerns" should be mindless, and skepticism or critical thought should not be allowed to be used with regard to these topics. I don't agree at all.

That said, it's not all bad. It does present a mostly informative overview of events. Just don't expect much more than that here. This isn't the masterpiece that so many people are saying that it is. Most people are unthinking, uncritical, and shallow in their understanding. If you're a free minded, critical person, you may find yourself irritated by this.

Another issue I have is the coverage of the "Beer Hall Putsch." I could swear the entire event is given one page. Basically, "They marched, bullets flew, some people died, some were arrested." You can unironically get a much deeper historic knowledge of this event from scanning the "Beer Hall Putsch" wikipedia page, for free. Or having Alexa read the page to you. That's not good.

Then take Evans' brief overview of "My Struggle." I found this very shallow and trite, actually. He says it is "turgid and boring and nobody really read it." As someone who dared to look at it, I recall there being a lot more to it than that. There is discussion of economic and political theory throughout, which Evans doesn't bother to mention. Just another example of obfuscating the details and depth of historic reality, and the shades of grey that actually illuminate the truth of history. But of course, it is morally abhorrent to want anything besides a simplistic narrative that goes from A to B and can easily be digested as political morality.

I would say the best thing you can do is look into things as much as possible on your own if you want a strong understanding of events. Don't take Evan's word for it. This is arguably the most intense historic period in human history, and this book (so far) falls short of rising to the level of more than a kind of 7/10 overview and starting point.

Very good@

Excellent analysis of how Nazi Germany came to be! and the people and events of those years. Excellent narration too!

cut and paste staccato reading

I'm having trouble listening to this book as many of the sections sound cut and pasted. There is no rythm or flow to the reading with many inserted pauses that take the reading out of context. It seems like the reader was using AI to string his words together instead of reading the book. A serious disservice to the author and the work as there is a wealth of information but the reading is one of the worst I've come across on Audible.

Reader is not up to the task.

It's a remarkable book done a disservice by the reader who hesitates, mispronounces words (and not only the German words), and goes about his job in fits and starts. Too bad!

Enjoyable listen

Good book to get a feel for how Germany devolved into the tyranny of Hitler's dictatorship. I wish it would have delved more into the personal lives of those involved. Why did the Jews not revolt, stand up and not take it? It does go into how rights were steadily laken away. But it stops well before WWII. Understandable since it is titled "The Coming of the 3rd Reich". All in all a good read.