The Death of Democracy

Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic

By: Benjamin Carter Hett

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

The Death of Democracy is a riveting audiobook account of how the Nazi Party came to power, and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen.

Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In this dramatic audiobook, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time.

To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. From the late 1920s, the Weimar Republic’s very political success sparked insurgencies against it, of which the most dangerous was the populist anti-globalization movement led by Hitler. But as Hett shows, Hitler would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not tried to coopt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler’s hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship.

Benjamin Carter Hett is one of America’s leading scholars of 20th-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.

©2018 Benjamin Carter Hett (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"[Narrator Steven Crossley's] British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout." (AudioFile Magazine)

Truly Terrifying

Everyone who is concerned about what is happening in The United States today and everyone who thinks it can't happen here needs to listen to this!

As a history teacher, I am going to include this in my summer reading list. It is a gripping read.

It so foreshadows today’s US Republicans fealty to trump and the callous people he has surrounded himself with

Great!

May we learn from history. “What's past is prologue.” - Shakespeare. Well done. Enjoyed the story and narration.
Thank you.

This should serve as a warning.

It could be about America today. We can ignore the lessons of history or doom ourselves to repeat it.

Eerily familiar to todays political climate in US

If you are a voting age, you need to read this book. It demonstrates how a political party can be hijacked and used to put forth the agenda of an entirely different ideology. For those who think this cannot happen today, think again, read this book, read about how it happened in history and how one of the world's Darkest Hours unfolded.