Hitler's Empire

How the Nazis Ruled Europe

By: Mark Mazower

Narrated by: Michael Page

Drawing on an unprecedented range and variety of original research, Hitler's Empire sheds new light on how the Nazis designed, maintained, and lost their European dominion - and offers a chilling vision of what the world would have become had they won the war. Mark Mazower forces us to set aside timeworn opinions of the Third Reich, and instead shows how the party drew inspiration for its imperial expansion from America and Great Britain. Yet the Nazis' lack of political sophistication left them unequal to the task of ruling what their armies had conquered, despite a shocking level of cooperation from the overwhelmed countries. A work as authoritative as it is unique, Hitler's Empire is a surprising - and controversial - appraisal of the Third Reich's rise and ultimate fall.

©2008 Mark Mazower (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Incredibly subtle and detailed work

I honestly didn't like this one at the beginning, it seemed a little dry and scholarly. The early chapters are on the historical details that led up to the Reich. But as it goes on, it becomes fascinating. It delves into the real nuances of the power struggles and motivations of all the parties involved, I've read other WW2 books and they mostly deal with the events. This one analyzes the why things happened, in enlightening detail - many things I never thought about. I went from mildly interested at the beginning to fascinated a few hours in.
I wasn't crazy about the narrator at first, either. Thought maybe he was a little "sleepy" and laid back, but I changed my mind there as well. It's not a dramatic piece, kind of a 'sleeper' that builds in complexity as it goes along, and Page ends up being a great narrator for that kind of thing. You'll have to stop it at times and really think about what's being said.
It's not a beach read, or your first intro to WW2. You'll need to know a good bit about WW2 or you'll be completely lost. Start with Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Maybe listen to it twice. If you're still interested, give this one a try.

Well presented history of WW II

Well presented history of Hitler during WW II. My mother’s brother served and did not return alive. I thought this was well presented.

The Rest of the Story

This book gives the rest of the story of WWii in Europe. A good read!

best out look on nazi ideas and infighting

out standing the way the nazi empire was a disfunctional mess of competing ideas and personal

Page Turning Scholarship

This is a great book. Most people interested in Nazi history have read books on WWII and on the Holocaust, but this is about Hitler’s short lived empire and how is was run by his Nazis. I especially enjoyed Mazower’s contemptuous irony. There were a few moments where I actually laughed out loud at the idiocy of Hitler and his goons. This is not a book to be picked up for laughs though. But this is a fine blend of outstanding scholarship and fine writing.

Like taking a graduate course!

This book is sometimes overwhelming in the amount of data presented. I got depressed listening to the war atrocities paraded in a seemingly unending march.
The data on logistics was truly awe inspiring.
I was left feeling I had been through a most painful experience, but at the same time sadly more wise for learning the human cost Hitler imposed on all humanity.

WWII geeks will enjoy it

Wow. A lot of info to soak up and it was tedious at times but for a WWII-obssessed freak like me, it was enthralling. We all know Hitler, his hate, his delusions of grandeur...and how Nazi Germany came to reflect him as a person. This book touched on him only in association with all the moving parts of his inner circle, the SS, and German psyche, culture, and history in the eyes of those who lived and died under the Third Reich.

Entirely Miselading Title

With an introduction as arrogant as off topic it should set off alarm bells in the reader's mind. The blurbs have fulsome praise from other authors and sure, you've got a dramatic front cover of Fuhrer and Eiffel Tower to lure you in, but it's a trap. When you somehow work Francis Bacon into the introduction along with the German Revolution of 1848, Bismarckian colonial policy in the Pacific and other wonky things, you should get the idea that you done got got. This is, in its midsection, a story of how the Nazi regime ruled the East and there is a good section on Romania, Odessa and Anotonescu, which I guess is included in Nazi rule of an empire. I guess. Running the Vlasov story to ground, the gory details of the Kaminski brigade, the Flensburg government of Donitz, Goring in detention, none of this is relevant to anything about Nazi rule of their empire. Focus, man, focus!

But he can't, and that's not the point. It's rambling coverall of a story loosely about the Nazi regime in total and its aftermath, because the last 4th of the book is all postwar ruminations, which simply do not concern us here. All in all it reads like his agent did a good hustle on the publisher and then the editor kind of said "Oh shit! What do we do with this?" And the answer was... rebrand it to sell, baby, sell.

There are some passable to good sections buried in the center of this rambling tome but it's not nearly enough to save it from itself or its author's intentions and I feel that everyone who contributed a glowingly praising blurb for this thing ought to be soundly slapped for their transgression.

Buyer beware.

Accurate but Depressing

One of the most depressing books I have read
the HUGE numbers murdered by yhe Nazis are undoubtedly accurate, but the numbers are simply mind numbing after a while