UBC: 2 social histories of the Third Reich

[truepenny]

Ayçoberry, Pierre. The Social History of the Third Reich, 1933-1945. Transl. Janet Lloyd. New York: The New Press, 1999. [library]

Fritzsche, Peter. Life and Death in the Third Reich. Cambridge, MA: Belknap-Harvard University Press, 2008. [library]

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These were an interesting unintentional pairing. The Ayçoberry was exactly what it says on the tin: a social history of the Third Reich. It didn't tell me anything I hadn't read in other social histories of the Third Reich, and it stood out mostly because the author's intellectual quirks.

The Fritzsche, on the other hand, was both a social history and a determined, patient, compassionate, but unforgiving attempt to understand why the citizens of Germany went along with the Nazis. He used a lot of primary sources--diaries and letters--and while many of the diarists were people I'd encountered before, some of them weren't, and the way Fritzsche used his material offered me new insights about how and why the Third Reich happened.

Comments

[larryhammer]

What sort of intellectual quirks?

---L.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

There's a particular kind of Cranky French Intellectual vibe all over it.

[larryhammer]

Ah. Gotcha.

---L.

[melusinehr.livejournal.com]

I just came across this, and while I know it's not really the kind of thing you write (which is fine by me, I adore your fiction), it seemed like something you might be interested in?

Jack the Ripper Conference (http://webedit.drexel.edu/honors/conferences/jtr/) (with a call for papers)