Review by Booklist Review
Nineteen thirty-eight was the year the Nazi regime went into radical high gear, when its leader destroyed two countries and unleashed the worst pogroms yet against Jews. In a journalistic rendering of the year, MacDonogh begins with the shake-up of German army leadership that replaced skeptics of Hitler's course in foreign policy with reliable lackeys. Nevertheless, Hitler's departure from a program of nationalist revival toward one of limitless conquest emboldened some army officers to plan a coup d'état (see Terry Parssinen's The Oster Conspiracy of 1938, 2003), a what-if contingency that flows through MacDonogh's unfolding of Hitler's foreign-policy victories of the year. Ironically, he was not triumphant: Hitler wanted a war in 1938, not the peace brokered by Neville Chamberlain (see David Faber's Munich, 1938, 2009). For the moment, then, fanatical Nazis had to remain content with persecuting Jews, which escalated drastically toward the notorious genocidal threat Hitler publicly prophesied in early 1939. An accessible chronicle of crisis and atrocity that should especially interest readers who want to review the gathering storm of World War II.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Might-have-beens haunt this insightful narrative of a watershed in the history of Nazi Germany. MacDonogh (After the Reich) chronicles milestones in the development of a radicalized, expansionist Third Reich in the year 1938: the forcible annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland, the Kristallnacht pogrom and the purging of opposition figures in the government, army and church. He portrays these events not as an unfolding master plan but as a series of gambles by a sometimes chaotic Nazi regime plagued by infighting among Hitler's satraps, Wehrmacht coup plots, a collapsing economy (the Anschluss was motivated partly by a need to plunder Austria's treasury and raw materials), and jitters about foreign reaction. The Fuhrer perseveres with theatrical bullying and nervy improvisations that are matched by the Western powers' appeasement; a tragic theme of MacDonogh's story is how easily a determined resistance, from within Germany or without, might have derailed Hitler's initiatives. Another is the callousness of the international community; much of the book follows the travails of Jews who faced closed doors when the Reich was eager to expel them. This well-researched, fine-grained study sketches the moral rot that made possible Hitler's rise. Photos. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The year 1938 was the last before world war engulfed Europe. In reconstructing that year, MacDonogh (The Last Kaiser) here focuses on Hitler's drive to remove internal rivals, prepare for war, outmaneuver the befuddled West, and expand his empire into Austria and Czechoslovakia. He also covers the increasing efforts to remove the Jews from German life, culminating in the vicious pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, when Jewish synagogues and shops were looted and destroyed. A subsidiary theme in the book, which is told chronologically, is how people, usually at the direction of the state, continued to promote and enjoy traditional "German" culture as a desperate distraction from their tense environment. Readers will perceive how all year the pressure built for war and genocide. VERDICT This is not a traditional history based on dry archival sources or details about who said or did what and when. Instead, it deals more on the social and personal levels, adding a human flavor, quoting from memoirs and journals, and focusing less on Hitler and more on his entourage, which was always scheming to stay in the F hrer's good graces. Interesting and easy to read, this is recommended for avid general readers of World War II history.-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of Du Page Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A chronological account of the pivotal year in which Hitler's master plan of Lebensraum and Jewish extermination was set in motion. British historian MacDonogh (After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation, 2007, etc.) carefully traces the ominous events of 1938, which function as a kind of countdown to world warfrom Hitler's consolidation of military power in January and February to the shameful Munich Agreement and Kristallnacht toward the end of the year. The Fhrer had unveiled his master plan to his service chiefs by November 1937, and MacDonogh's study of the following year is especially revealing in its depiction of the reluctance to go to war displayed by both his underlings and the German populace as a whole. The German military was not prepared, the economy was weak and the country desperately needed raw materials. Before 1938 was over, though, Germany had absorbed Austria and annexed German-speaking Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. With the help of avid Austrian anti-Semites and the Nuremberg Laws, the Nazis were able to strip the approximately 200,000 Austrian Jews of their power and wealth, transporting the ones who didn't flee the country to Dachau and elsewhere. Hitler cozied up to Mussolini, and their Berlin-Rome axis coordinated racial and military policies. The July Evian Conference failed to find homes for Jewish refugees. In the face of Hitler's expansionist fantasies, British Prime Minister Chamberlain conceded that Czechoslovakia was not worth a widespread effort on the part of the British military. Though a public-relations disaster, Kristallnacht sealed the fate of the Jews; relief organizations run by Quakers and others helped transport Jewish children to safety. By his January 1939 speech in the Reichstag, Hitler had declared his "prophecy" of Germany's return to glory. A chilling examination of a critical year in European history. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
