A review by lizzie04
The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett

5.0

My professors pick out such good books sometimes. This was probably the most engaging history book I've read because it reads like a novel. We hear a lot about Nazi Germany, but not about the democratic government that came beforehand and lasted 14 years before its collapse (14 years of democracy in central/eastern Europe was actually a new record at the time). I never knew there was such a fascinating background to the variety of reasons why the Third Reich came into power, all of which are inextricably linked to WWI, scheming self-interested politicians, and the malleability of a large voting body when they are desperate and angry. Some aspects echo alarmingly of modern trends rising again, serving as a cautionary tale that things can always get worse.