A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition

By: Thomas Childers, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Thomas Childers

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Job well done

This is a huge subject to cover in so short of time.Considering this its very well done.This would be a good starting point for those interested. And we all should be interested. Great lecurer..I plan on listening to his.other courses

Excellent and surprising

Even though I love Great Courses history lectures, I had put this off - such a disturbing and potentially overdone subject. But Prof. Childers has breathed life into this dark period of our recent history. It is particularly compelling given the rise of more authoritarian regimes recently, and the lectures helped me understand how this could happen. Prof. Childers does a great job of not othering the Germans and makes a compelling case that this can't be something we can tell ourselves would never happen here.

The last ten minutes or so of the last lecture were the most powerful moments I've heard listening to Great Courses.

I would highly recommend this series, though I might start with his course on World War II first. The two courses would combine well for a homeschool course.

An excellent overview of Hitler linking WW1 to WW2

Just a novice history fan, but have read books on WW1, WW2, and the German hyperinflation. Somehow my background readings were too focused and never really synched the inter-war period together for me. This is a high level intro to that time period, but it really stitched my prior readings together.

By high level it is only 12 lectures 30 mins give or take a piece. The sixth lecture (lecture titles can be found on great courses website) is Hitler's Assumption of Power. It then covers through WWII resolution at a high level.

If you're a history novice like me or just lacking in knowledge about he interwar period, this is a great start to answering a lot of questions you may have and fueling the fire for further exploration. I highly recommend it.

necessary history

fascinating and understandable look at the beginning of the Nazi party and what events led to the atrocities of WWII and the Holocaust

Passionate

Well-organized and passionate, especially in the last two lectures when Childers discusses Hitler’s war on the Jews. I listened to this as preparation for reading his history of the Third Reich. He doesn’t cover much detail about the war, leaving that for the Great Courses entry on that subject.