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. He would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not responded to a spate of populist insurgencies by trying to co-opt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. 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 The Death of Democracy, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. He will publish Disruptive Power: Catholic Women, Miracles, and Politics in Modern Germany, 1918-1965 with University of Toronto Press in the fall of 2018.A riveting 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. O’Sullivan is Associate Professor of History at Marist College where he teaches courses about Modern Europe. Utilizing captivating anecdotes, a deep understanding for the state of the field, and an immersive grasp of the most important political personalities of the era, Hett’s new book is essential for anyone interested in modern German history. He synthesizes much of the new research on this era from the last twenty years while also subtly pointing out connections between the 1920s and the present political environment. In his new book, The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic (Henry Holt, 2018), Benjamin Carter Hett provides a new narrative about end of the first German democratic experiment and the rise of National Socialism. The downfall of the Weimar Republic in Germany has long fascinated historians, but this catastrophe gained increasing prominence as a touchstone for contemporary political commentators in recent years.
0 kommentar(er)
