Hitlers Compromises, Nathan Stoltzfus
Hitlers Compromises, Nathan Stoltzfus
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Hitler's Compromises
Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany

Author: Nathan Stoltzfus

Narrator: Shaun Grindell

Unabridged: 12 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/21/2017


Synopsis

History has focused on Hitler's use of charisma and terror, asserting that the dictator made few concessions to maintain power. Nathan Stoltzfus, the award-winning author of Resistance of Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Germany, challenges this notion, assessing the surprisingly frequent tactical compromises Hitler made in order to preempt hostility and win the German people's complete fealty.

As part of his strategy to secure a "1,000-year Reich," Hitler sought to convince the German people to believe in Nazism so they would perpetuate it permanently and actively shun those who were out of step with society. When widespread public dissent occurred at home—which most often happened when policies conflicted with popular traditions or encroached on private life—Hitler made careful calculations and acted strategically to maintain his popular image. Extending from the 1920s to the regime's collapse, this revealing history makes a powerful and original argument that will inspire a major rethinking of Hitler's rule.

About Nathan Stoltzfus

Nathan Stoltzfus is Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies at Florida State University. He has been a Fulbright and IREX scholar in West and East Germany and an H. F. Guggenheim Foundation scholar. His work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, and the Daily Beast. He lives in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Superangela on March 03, 2018

Excellent book that shows you the intricate ways Hitler's intellect worked. At times it seems he could change his mind when he thought open aggressive methods would not work as well as persuasion... although persuasion does not imply honesty.......more

Goodreads review by Soubresaut on April 29, 2023

This book reads like a dissertation and was a struggle to get through. Published by Yale I was expecting an academic book but not one written in a style so stilted that I looked for the translator’s name - there isn’t one. Helpfully there’s a concluding chapter which condenses everything gone before......more

Goodreads review by Grant on May 17, 2025

Stoltzfus argues that Hitler frequently compromised with popular opinion in Germany (never with enemies) in an effort to gradually convert the German people to National Socialist values. In the cases of the euthanasia program, religious schools, and evacuation of children from cities, the regime bac......more

Goodreads review by Jfranc41 on July 01, 2021

A fascinating look about how Nazism was implemented on the ground in Germany. The old view of a top down imposition is only half accurate, since ideas of national greatness and cohesion had broad support and people were willing to work with the regime. Hitler also adjusted the implementation of some......more

Goodreads review by Mark on February 19, 2025

Interesting but not riveting, I respect the authors intervention into how the coercion Nazi state is taught but didn't find much of this to be terribly ground breaking. The conflicts with the church, parents and the euthanasia question are all compelling examples of how the autocracy was sold to the......more