A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition (The Great Courses, 805)

Chantilly, Virginia: The Teaching Company, 2001. Audio CDs. 2nd Edition. Twelve 30-minute lectures on six Fine Audio CDs in Fine original clamshell case along with an As New paperback Course Guidebook (58 pages). Not from a library. Suitable for gifting.

These twelve lectures are designed to answer two questions that have nagged generations ever since Hitler and Nazism were destroyed: How could a man like Adolf 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 the whole world into a devastating war that would consume millions of lives? As you travel back in time to answer these questions, you'll gain fascinating (and sometimes troubling) insights into the historical nightmare sparked by Hitler and his beliefs. You'll discover who voted for the Nazis and why; how the Nazis campaigned, and what they appeared to stand for; why there was apparently so little resistance to them; what made the Nazi regime so popular at home; how the Nazis were able to seize control of the press, radio, courts, and police; how the Nazis were ultimately destroyed by Allied forces; and whether or not something like this could happen again--and how to make sure that it doesn't. These lectures are an opportunity to reflect on lessons from the chapter of history that Churchill called "the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime."

Contents: Lecture 1. The Third Reich, Hitler, and the 20th century -- lecture 2. The First World War and its legacy -- lecture 3. The Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazi party -- lecture 4. The twenties and the Great Depression -- lecture 5. The Nazi breakthrough -- lecture 6. Hitler's assumption of power -- lecture 7. Racial policy and the totalitarian state -- lecture 8. Hitler's foreign policy -- lecture 9. Munich and the triumph of national socialism -- lecture 10. War in the west, war in the east -- lecture 11. Holocaust, Hitler's war against the Jews -- lecture 12. The Final Solution.