The Third Reich in Power

The second book in Richard Evans' trilogy of Nazi Germany.

As if the horrors detailed in the first volume were not enough, Mr Evans details the gradual erosion of the individual rights of all Germans and the complete indifference showed by most to that loss of freedom and especially to the loss of liberty and dignity of the persecuted minorities. An outstanding book that should be read by all.

As with the first volume, my only complaint is the flat and uninspired reading of Sean Pratt. But even that is not enough to cause this wonderful book to lose a star. As after reading the first volume, I will purchase the next as soon as I can gather the courage to listen to another, more brutal, list of horrors.

One can only wonder what those responsible for not stopping the Nazis when they had the power told themselves after the fact. Did Chamberlain ever have to deal with what he helped create? Or Baldwin? Or others in the British and French governments who could have stopped the Nazi horror in its cradle? Did those people who continually ignored Churchill's warnings ever have to face up to what they helped create?

This is a thorough and well-organized history of post Weimar Republic Germany before the actual outbreak of war. My only gripe would be the narrator, who often pauses mid-sentence (not at a comma) and reminds one of a high school student. He mispronounces even some common words. To top it off, he narrates with a sarcastic tone which makes his mediocre reading ability even more annoying. BTW, you won't notice these things in your "sample listening." It will take you about an hour of listening for him to really begin getting on your nerves.

I agree with the other reviewer regarding the reader. This book needs a second edition update - not read by Sean Pratt. If you can get past the herky-jerky narration then it's worthwhile but I'm off to my local Library for the other two volumes.

I am working my way through listening to the whole Evans' trilogy. It is good historical scholarship and a well-written narrative history of the Third Reich. As an audio-book, the narrator is generally pretty good - I have no problems listening to his narration and I have found the first two volumes (yet to listen to the third) excellent.

Evans' trilogy is a significant contribution to what is available in English. Yes, it is quite detailed and specific: obviously some readers do not require so much detail. But that is precisely why I have gotten so much from Evans' work. I've been a student of German history for decades and am always looking to learn something new. The author's knowledge of the German language allows him to delve into primary sources, not just rehash the same old stuff.

Getting through the series was difficult for me, not because of the writing style, but due to the content itself. The events and stories are told in living color. Often they are horrific and heart-breaking, and at times utterly incomprehensible and disturbing. In my opinion, Evans handles the subject matter well, neither holding back nor resorting to hyperbole.

Another difficulty with getting through the series is the narration. I was not thrilled with Sean Pratt's reading of Vol. 1, "The Coming of the Third Reich," and if anything he is even more annoying in this book. I would hope that a reader of a book about Nazi Germany would have at least a basic competence in pronouncing German names. Pratt's bizarre pacing and fingernails-on-a-chalkboard pronunciation are utterly excruciating. I live in hope that eventually a new narrator will do the series, though I doubt it as each book is so long and doubtless expensive to produce.

As with the first of this series I found the information to be quite interesting. I have since read Storm of war and No Simple Victory to supplement my knowledge.

The first book is worth listening to, especially if you've already read Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." It gives a different view that Shirer's--more detailes in some forms, less detailed in others.

This book ("The Third Reich in Power") is terminally boring, especially in the middle two sections. Listening to hour after hour of the administrative pettiness of the Nazis may be very interesting to a sociologist, but the vast majority of history buffs can probably skip it. The fourth part, getting into the foreign policy during the 30s, finally gets interesting again.


Also, as has been said before, the reader is simply AWFUL. It sounds as if this is the first time he's seen the material, he inserts random pauses, mispronunciations, etc. Just awful.

Still looking forward to the third book.

Can't imagine how Nazi achieved and held that level of power? This book explains it.

This is a story we need to know and history we need to remember. That said, this volume, more so than Book 1 in the series, bogs down in detailed statistics. I think it is the weakest book in the trilogy.

Yes, but with a warning about detail and narration.

I'm going to make it through all three books in this series, then probably not. The unique pronunciations of some things, and the general lack of emphasis do make me eager to hear this voice again.

See the first question.

1) Reading is terrible. Especially when you first start it is painful to listen to.
2) Parts of the book are quite good. I actually got very renengaged in the book at the end to the point of thinking about downloading the next volume, however, the middle of the book is awful. You can zone out for hours and feel like you have missed nothing. Its just endless dribble unless you want to hear about the particular effect of the Nazi's on a host of individuals.
3) find the author to be very arrogant. In the beginning of the book he talks (for over an hour) on his goals for the book. I find it amazing that he is so critical of Shirer's book, who has the advantage of actually having lived through the period. In addition, he dismisses evneets/controversies that are in almost every book on the period i have read. For instance he dismisses Hitler's relationship with his cousin as that a lot has been said and written about it but that there is no evidence they ever had a relationship, without quoting ANY evidence or reason for his opinion. He does this for several other issues as well. If you are going to be critical of others, at least give some data for why you feel that way. Then on top of that he argues that he is not here to be judgemental of the nazi regime. Hello? Every sentence is essentially a judgement.
Overall a very poor experience.