Description
Book Synopsis*A TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR*
WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF THE MOST PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY EUROPE, AND THE RISE OF THE MOST TERRIFYING?
In the 1930s, Germany was at a turning point, with many looking to the Nazi phenomenon as part of widespread resentment towards cosmopolitan liberal democracy and capitalism. This was a global situation that pushed Germany to embrace authoritarianism, nationalism and economic self-sufficiency, kick-starting a revolution founded on new media technologies, and the formidable political and self-promotional skills of its leader.
Based on award-winning research and recently discovered archival material, The Death of Democracy is a panoramic new survey of one of the most important periods in modern history, and a book with a resounding message for the world today.
'Extremely fine... with careful prose and scholarship, he brings these events close to us.' Timothy Snyder, The New York Times
'Intelligent, well-informed... intriguing.' The Times
'With the injection of fresh contemporary voices, The Death of Democracy is also a thoughtful reflection of how our time more resembles the Thirties than the Noughties.' Daily Telegraph
Trade ReviewExtremely fine... with careful prose and scholarship, with fine thumbnail sketches of individuals and concise discussions of institutions and economics, he brings these events close to us. Hett... sensitively describes a moral crisis that preceded a moral catastrophe. -- Timothy Snyder * The New York Times *
Intelligent, well-informed... intriguing. Hett provides a lesson about the fragility of democracy and the danger of that complacent belief that liberal institutions will always protect us. -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *
Readable and well-researched, with the injection of fresh contemporary voices,
The Death of Democracy is also a thoughtful reflection of how our time more resembles the Thirties than the Noughties. * Daily Telegraph *
Benjamin Carter Hett deftly summarises this dismal period... Hett refrains from poking the reader with too many obvious contemporary parallels, but he knew what he was doing when he left "German" out of his title. On the book's final page, he lays his cards on the table... "Suddenly, the whole thing looks close and familiar." Yes, it does. -- Alex Ross * New Yorker *
A superb explanation of how democracy died in Weimar Germany. Too much of this story seems painfully familiar today. -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times, 'Books of the Year' *
