Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A bold new interpretation of Germany s democratic transformation in the twentieth century, focusing on a group of intellectuals who shaped the post-Nazi reconstruction
Not long after the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, Germans rebuilt their shattered country as a robust democracy and one of the Western world s leading nations. In his debut work, Noah Strote analyzes this remarkable turnaround and challenges the widely held perception that the Western Allies particularly the United States were responsible for Germany s transformation. Instead, Strote draws from never-before-seen material to show how Hitler s rise ultimately united the fractious social groups that had vied for supremacy during the so-called Weimar Republic of 1918 to 1933. Strote s character-driven narrative follows ten Germans of diverse backgrounds who lived through the breakdown of the Weimar Republic and together assumed founding roles in the post-Nazi reconstruction. Accessible, deeply researched, and strikingly original, this book offers a fresh understanding of postwar Germany and, more broadly, the postwar European order."