The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (Hist Atlas)

User Review: - Great maps but for the rest...blah
When I was at a used bookstore looking for a world map to complement my reading of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich due to lack of my knowledge of European territories, I found the colorful The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich by accident while browsing in the history section. I thought that book might just have exceeded my expectations since I only was going to look for simple maps although I became concerned about the change of borders before, during, and after World War II. After reading The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich, I found the text to be mostly dry as it reads like an ordinary college textbook, and while there is an abundant supply of maps, charts, graphs, figures, and numbers, I didn't feel them to be all that informative in an absorbing way. Yes, I got what I wanted for my expectation but more than that, I didn't feel my knowledge to be increased that much by reading The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich since I am aware of most of the history although not in reaching depths. There are nice pictures of persons in the book, but they are so thumbprint small and hard to scan through. I like how every section is started off with a whimsical quote especially by Hermann "As for myself, I think of looting comprehensively" Goring and Adolf "In my new training schools young people will grow who will shock the world" Hitler on the left side of the paragraphs. There is a nice compilation of statistics in the end of the book as part of appendix. All in all, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich is not a great book but useful for the maps only.

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User Review: - Superb Reference Work
Richard Overy's "The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich" is a superb reference work. In just over 100 pages (not counting timelines and appendices) it provides an excellent overview of the Third Reich, working in roughly chronological order from the turmoil at the end of the First World War to the chaos and despair at the end of the Second World War.



The book is sectioned into seven parts: Each part contains a four-page introductory section followed by three to ten chapters further illuminating that topic.



The seven parts are:

I. From War to Third Reich, 1918-1933

II. Establishing the Dictatorship

III. Foreign Policy in Germany, 1933-1939

IV. Expansion and War, 1939-1945

V. The German New Order

VI. German Society and Total War

VII. The Aftermath



Each chapter that follows an introductory section is only two pages, yet there is an incredible amount of information packed into those two pages as easily understandable pie-charts, graphs, and/or maps are included. Many interesting photos and posters (or other propaganda) relevant to a chapter are also often included, although they are generally quite small.



The writing in each chapter and section is extremely well-done. Time and again the author deftly explains complicated matters in a few brief paragraphs.



The book is a handy reference on many of the social, economic, political, and military aspects of the Hitler regime. It could almost double as a mini-history of the Third Reich and certainly supplements any study of it. Highly recommended.

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User Review: - Plenty of info well presented
Comprehensive in its scope, dense in its content. Plenty of charts, maps, etc. More than enough information to get a global picture of what was going on with Germany from the end of the First World War to the end of the Second and its aftermath. It has about 115 pages plus another 15 of timelines.

The tone, however, is a bit dry, like a textbook. But I guess, being so concise, it would be difficult to make it more reader-friendly. A very good historical atlas.

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User Review: - A window into socio-political realm of the Third Reich...
~The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich~ is an intriguing window into economic, military, social and political policies of the Third Reich. The best value in this nifty and succinct roughly 150-page historical atlas is putting the Third Reich into perspective and gaining an understanding of the policies and ideology that fueled its fanatical, albeit short-lived assent to power. With pictures, maps, statistics, and demographics, this book captures something that more voluminous books on the subject often fail to do. It frames economic, social, and political policies of the Third Reich into perspective while offering a history of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany. Overy even chronicles post-war plans for the New Order under the Reich. Hitler was obsessed with building colossal monuments (mostly those designed by Speer) and hoped to make Berlin into 'Germania,' the capital of the world. He aspired to implement massive network of road and rail to forge his new empire and tighten the noose over the conquered territories. The Germans hoped to harness their innate engineering ingenuity and the Nazi henchman laid out plans for a New Order under German dominance, which never prevailed. In reality, the so-called thousand-year Reich died in its infancy.

Ideas have consequences! In ascertaining Nazi ideology, as it relates to economic matters, most modern liberal historians who tacitly embrace Marxist-Leninist revisionist interpretation of the fascist phenomenon, ignore the Nazi affinity for socialist ideas. They're always apt to paint fascism in a caricatured mold of imperialism - capitalism serving the interest of capitalists - which is a dubious assessment to say the least given the anti-capitalism espoused by Nazi ideologues like Goering and Hitler for example. Richard Overy perceptively outlines Nazi ideology and its economic, political and social policies in practice. In reality, the Nazis on their own terms tended to see themselves as expositors of an authentic nationalism of the "German Left." (See _Leftism Revisited_ and Konrad Heiden's biography on _Hitler_ to corroborate this.) The anti-bourgeoisie ideological flavor and Byzantine corporatism of Nazi economic policy acted to undermine the industrial potential of Germany by sabotaging its productivity potential and ultimately alienating the Ruhr industrialists-the very class that the Nazis most needed to build and supply their war machine. As Overy notes, the Nazis occasionally tolerated the private sector only as practical expedient, though they didn't shy from sporadic intervention, economic controls, as well as outright confiscation. The industrialist Fritz Thyssen, frustrated with state prodding, lamented, "Soon Germany will not be any different from Bolshevik in Russia." Likewise, the Nazi economic chieftain, Hermann Goering was always out to gobble up private industry and incorporate it into the state-run conglomerate, the Reichswerke A.G. In précis, Richard Overy captures the historical developments as well as the economic, military, social and political policies of the Third Reich on the pages of this succinct and informative book.

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User Review: - chock full of info
If you are looking for a book that gives a tremendous amount of information, of the sort not often found in the books that primarily cover only the actual fighting, or the personality of Hitler and his henchmen, this may be the book you're looking for.

Most of the chapters run from 2 to 4 pages, often detailing subjects like Culture and Education, Farming in the Third Reich, Planning the Post-War Order, Exploitation and Plunder, and The Survival of Neo-Nazism. And do you like charts and graphs? Well, this book won't leave you disappointed.

All in all, well done.

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