“The Third Reich: A New History”, by Michael Burleigh

 

965 pages, Hill & Wang, ISBN-13: 978-0809093250

Michael Burleigh is a scholar. This is obvious from his background: PhD in medieval history from Bedford College, London in 1982, posts at New College, Oxford, the London School of Economics and Cardiff University; he has also been Professor of History at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and Kratter Visiting Professor at Stanford University; more recently he gave the three Cardinal Basil Hume Memorial Lectures at Heythrop College, University of London…oh, and he is also a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. But more than that is his vocabulary, which he puts to good use in The Third Reich: A New History, seeing as it is written in a scholarly (read: turgid) style, with rare words popping up about three times per page (you’ll spend as much time using the dictionary as reading this book; also, who the hell writes an 80-page introduction?). Be aware, too, that Burleigh focuses on the culture, economy and government of Nazi Germany, with a solid emphasis on the Holocaust and the crimes of Nazi Regime and very little time spent on the military aspects of World War II. Nothing wrong with that, just putting it out there.

For all that, Burleigh does not really break all that much new ground – so much for being a “new” history – but A New History is well-organized, well-researched and thorough…the problem is that while Burleigh uses a large quantity of sources, the vast majority of these are secondary and not primary, something I would not expect from a leading light in his field. It is also far too much of a slog to get through the dense prose, as every sentence requires unpacking and, unless one is already pretty familiar with the subject, too much prior knowledge is required (you already know my thoughts on his commodious phraseology). Thus, this is in no way a popular history and virtually screams for a good edit; rather, the whole thing reads like it was meant to impress an academic audience…hell, if I wanted to be really mean (oh, why not), I’d say that his writing style is rather typical of Ivory Tower Types who are trying to impress us all with just how smart he is. I, for one, think that one’s scholarship speaks for itself without trying to impress us with all of the 10¢ words you know.

Thus, for the reader willing to sit with a good, comprehensive dictionary in hand, wading through this book may very well be worth the effort, as the insight gleaned does prove valuable. For those not so inclined, this latest effort at a solid, single volume history of the Third Reich falls short.