A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition

By: Thomas Childers, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Thomas Childers

Know thy enemy. That's what the wisdom of history teaches us. And Adolf Hitler was surely the greatest enemy ever faced by modern civilization. Over half a century later, the horror, fascination, and questions still linger:

• How could a man like Hitler and a movement like Nazism come to power in 20th-century Germany – an industrially developed country with a highly educated population?
• How were the Nazis able to establish the foundations of a totalitarian regime in such a short time and hurl all of Europe - and the world - into a devastating war that would consume so many millions of lives?

Professor Childers has designed this gripping 12-lecture course to shed light on these and other questions that have plagued generations. You'll start by looking at the catastrophic impact World War I had on Germany, and how the war and the humiliating Treaty of Versailles crippled the Weimar Republic. From there, you'll turn to the Third Reich – Nazism in power – with an investigation of how Hitler and his henchmen systematically and ruthlessly broke resistance, taking over the major institutions of state power and creating a totalitarian system of terror, propaganda, and pervasive regimentation. You'll also examine Hitler's foreign policy between 1933 and 1939, and discover how and why he puzzled the world by entering into an accommodation with his deadly enemy, Stalin, on the eve of World War II. In the final lectures, you'll focus on Hitler's war against the Jews from Mein Kampf to Auschwitz, dissecting the horrifying racial ideas of the Nazis and the policies adopted to transform those ideas into reality. Finally, you'll learn how Hitler's evil empire was destroyed by Allied might.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2001 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2001 The Great Courses

Informative and concise

The material is great. I wish it were longer and more detailed. However, uh, I find it, uh, hard to, uh, believe that the, uh, professor has been, uh, teaching all these, uh, years and is so, uh, bad at public speaking.

Great short course

Read this after the World War II course. Great supplement. Much shorter - flies through some important aspects and events but provides a great overview of the third Reich. If you liked this, read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Terrible period in human history

I gained a much better understanding of how the outcome of WWI lead into the WWII.

Good

Good loved the narrators voice that’s important to me however didn’t go into super detail but that’s okay
History nerds like me can’t ever get enough :)

A warning for us all

What did you like best about this story?

Professor Childers outlines how Hitler rose to power and slowly eroded the rights of Jews, and others, until no one dared contest him. This should be a warning to us all.