Hitler's Third Reich often seems like an aberrant historical episode that defies rational explanation. Hitler's Germany seeks to provide context to this period by viewing the development of Nazism from the broader perspective of nineteenth- and twentieth-century German history. The book's interpretive focus offers insight not only into how Nazi Germany evolved, but also into its underlying causes and reasons.

Starting with the great ideological movements of the past two centuries, Roderick Stackelberg examines the cultural, political, and economic factors that led to the Nazi's rise to power in 1933. He presents detailed coverage of Germany up to 1945, paying special attention to World War II and the Holocaust. The book concludes with a discussion of the legacies of Nazism, the bitter disputes it has provoked among German historians, and the evolving meaning of the Nazi experience today.