This book tells the story of the Third Reich—the regime created in Germany by Hitler and the National Socialists—from the time it firmly established itself in power in the summer of 1933 until 1939, when it unleashed World War II in Europe. The Nazis came to power in the first half of 1933 from the ruins of the Weimar Republic, Germany's first attempt at democracy, which did not go well. By July they had almost completely worked out the policies of the regime that would subsequently rule Germany until its defeat almost twelve years later in 1945. They eliminated open opposition at all levels, created a one-party state, and coordinated all the main institutions of German society with the exception of the army and the church... Richard Evans' trilogy is a fascinating and at the same time extremely detailed and historically accurate account of the most tragic era in German and European history last century.