This is a very short history of Nazi Germany, skipping (or rather leaving for a different series) World War II itself, instead focusing on the interwar period and rise of Hitler and the nazi party. This is a period covered not at all, or poorly by most other courses. The lecturer takes some pains to give depth to the combination of luck of circumstance and adaptability that led to success, where others would present it as somehow inevitable. He also doesn't fall into the common pitfall of presenting everything in a moralistic way as to assure nothing positive is said; one example would be a petty dismissal of Hitler's iron cross or his position as a runner in WWI being unearned, or leaving out that certain political innovations like direct mailing were pioneered by nazis (and are now ubiquitous).
Of course the evil of the nazis is not given a pass either, as this course also covers the start of Hitler's antisemitism predating his rise in the party, to the shifting strategies of displacement to annihilation, as well as the ever present opportunism by which Hitler sets up others to take the fall. ( )

Virkilega flottir fyrirlestrar fluttir af Thomas Childers þar sem hann lýsir aðstæðunum sem urðu til þess að Hitler og nasistaflokkurinn komust til valda í Þýskalandi á þriðja áratug síðustu aldar og valdatíma þeirra. Hann lýsir vel hvað varð til þess að nasistunum tókst að ná alræðisvaldi á örskömmum tíma þrátt fyrir að vera kosnir til valda í lýðræðisríki og hvernig hugmyndafræði þeirra orsakaði útrýmarbúðirnar og stríðshörmungarnar.
Þetta eru stuttir fyrirlestrar og ekki kafað mikið í smáatriði auk þess sem stríðinu sjálfu er ekki mikill gaumur gefinn en Childers hefur góð tök á aðalatriðunum og ber þau skýrt og vel á borð fyrir hlustendur. ( )

As a lecturer, Childers has some odd speech patterns that may put people off and I had the feeling his books may be better. I just finished reading the lecture notes which were good at reinforcing the lectures.

Overall, I was not satisfied with the lectures but when I bought them, I thought that could happen as 12 lectures aren't enough for such an important time in history. I learned a little but not a great deal. On the other hand, I purchased them from Audible for something like $7.50 during a sale, so they were not all that expensive.

( )

Tom Childers is an expert on German voting patterns. In this series he takes a wider view of the preconditions of the rise of the Nazi regime, the years in power and the war (it is not a military history). He provides a pretty up to date and useful introduction. ( )

Do not be put off by the course's price, many libraries have these available, which is how I was introduced to The Great Courses and to Modern Scholar which has been around a little longer and seems to be very popular, judging by the long wait periods.

Thomas Childers is introduced in this course as an expert on World History, with many books published about WWII. I enjoyed this course very much, but have little to compare it to by way of history. I'd never seen the history from the perspective of someone living through it. All my relatives were born once Hitler was already in power or had died before I was ready to listen, not to mention the ones who don't want to talk about those times. I don't think I need to convince you there were many tragedies in this period of time, but I was struck at how devastating Hitler's rise to power was. His ideologies frighten me more the longer I look at them, since I know the places they come from. But as this course clarifies, Hitler was only one part of this, albeit it an important and powerful one. Knowing some of the theories which allow for such a man to come to power, the reverse propaganda popularized by Bismark, the reactionary rioting, the clear abuse of power while the Republic floundered... It was a fascinating look into those times.

It should be made clear that this is a relatively short series. It does not go into depth about the battles or detail events of World War II which do not directly make clear how Germany came to think it was winning and then lose all that hope. This does not go into depth about the final hours of Hitler either, those are the end of the man, not of the Empire he sought to build. And I think it makes for a much more evocative lecture series, that way.

It made me angry, it made it me sad, and, shockingly, it occasionally made me laugh. Although it was sometimes a joke that Childers made, it was probably more often a gasp of disbelief: we forget how much the world changed because of Hitler, for better and worse.

6:26. Audible. July 2013.