"[A] quite exceptional new book...[Nazi cinema] is an issue which is, in fact, far more urgent, and more topical, than it may at first appear. The cinema of Hitler, far from perishing with the passing of the Third Reich, continues to thrive...One is grateful to Rentschler both for producing such a well-researched, thorough and thoughtful book, and for doing to with such constructive energy, fine style and subtle wit. Any serious student either of film or of the Third Reich will learn a great deal from this splendid new account."

"[This is] an invaluable book of film history...Rentschler has actually watched the several hundred films made in Germany under the Third Reich, and he's the first to be able to talk authoritatively about their content and ideology."

"The scope of Rentschler's argument and the thoroughness of his research--not to mention the elegance of his prose--will significantly change how we look at the cinema of the Third Reich...[This is] a passionate, nuanced, and highly readable book that contributes significantly to existing studies on Nazi cinema while remaining accessible to a general public interested in German history, cinema, and the study of mass media in general."

"The regime of Adolf Hitler was the world's 'first full-blown media dictatorship,' writes Eric Rentschler...[An] accomplished and engaging writer...Mr. Rentschler pays great...attention to the historical context of each film 'text.' "

"The book is well researched and documented. If one wants...to learn more about the sociopolitical realities in Nazi cinema...then this is the work with which to settle down."

"Rentschler's readable, superbly researched, and meticulously documented study does not attempt to engage all of the nearly 1,100 films made during the Third Reich. Rather, the author provides measured, elegantly written assessments of several key films--such as the 'movement film' Hitler Youth Quex, the breezy, American-style Lucky Kids, Sirk's La Habanera,the notorious Jew Sss, and the fantastic, still much beloved Mnchhausen--to explore recent claims of their alleged resistance to the Nazi regime and to examine reasons for their enduring popularity, at least in Germany. Rentschler avoids both pitfalls often associated with discussions of these films--reductive ideological critique and evasive 'aesthetic' appreciation. He enhances readers' awareness of the ways Nazi filmmakers used the 'Jewish' Hollywood conventions Goebbels simultaneously feared and admired and their complex relationship with Weimar film culture. An immensely useful chronology of key events, the most extensive general bibliography of the subject ever compiled in English, and helpful filmographies of and bibliographies about the leading Nazi cineastes make this an essential acquisition."

"The Ministry of Illusion provides a long-awaited and meticulously researched examination of films in the Third Reich that will be of tremendous value to both scholars and educators. Eric Rentschler, whose encyclopedic knowledge of German film has earned him a reputation as one of the foremost film historians in the United States, provides both a historical account of Nazi ideology and a number of readings of exemplary Nazi propaganda films, such as Hitler Youth Quex and the notorious Jew Sss...[It is] essential reading for anyone interested in the popular appeal of the Third Reich or the ideological working of film in general."

"Eric Rentschler, America's leading scholar of National Socialist cinema, has produced a compact compendium of everything you wanted to know about Nazi filmdom...[It is] well-written and extensively researched; nearly half the manuscript is footnotes that yield fascinating anecdotal information...For those with an itchy curiosity about Third Reich culture, The Ministry of Illusion warrants reading. It provides delightful browsing."

"Eric Rentschler's study of the films of the Third Reich, The Ministry of Illusion, situates itself within this context of renewed interest in the Third Reich. Yet while many recent writings by historians, critics, and idealogues may soon be considered little more than the media hype which occasioned them, Rentschler's contribution to the study of Nazi cinema and German fascism in general will undoubtedly be a lasting one. The scope of Rentschler's argument and the thoroughness of his research--not to mention the elegance of his prose--will significantly change how we look at the cinema of the Third Reich...[He] achieves that rare accomplishment of writing a passionate, nuanced, and highly readable book that contributes significantly to existing studies on Nazi cinema while remaining accessible to a general public interested in German history, cinema, and the study of mass media in general. With its extensive appendix, which includes a very detailed chronology of film and events from 1933-1845, 40 directorial filmographies, a listing of American film and video sources, and a comprehensive bibliography, it will undoubtedly stimulate and facilitate further research and teaching in this important area.

"Eric Rentschler, America's leading scholar of National Socialist cinema, has produced a compact compendium of everything you wanted to know about Nazi filmdom but were afraid to ask...well written and extensively researched; nearly half the manuscript is footnotes that yield fascinating anecdotal information...For those with an itchy curiosity about Third Reich culture, The Ministry of Illusion warrants reading. it provides delightful browsing in bits and pieces--the perfect gift for a cinephile-compulsive literate who has a magazine rack in the loo."

"Fifty years after Kracauer's monumental From Caligari to Hitler comes the next installment of the story. Rentschler shows how German films were central to an administered popular culture. Goebbels' chilling, still-seductive cinema exemplifies the complex social role played by the mass media at the end of our century. Rentschler--one of America's finest scholars of German cinema--has given us a lucid, passionate book."

"Given the fact that even in Europe there still doesn't exist a new and comprehensive book on this sordid matter, The Ministry of Illusion will serve as a primary source for the historiographers of the Third Reich and its cultural institutions."

"In this valuable and insightful work on cinema in the Third Reich, Eric Rentschler enters the contentious debate. Refusing to side with either the school of sweeping condemnation or of revisionist redemption, Rentschler instead offers the sophisticated, nuanced analysis that Nazi cinema and its embattled legacy require."