I read hundreds of books connected to the Holocaust when studying for a PhD on Holocaust representation. This is one of the best academic works. It shows how the spread of Nazi racist ideology throughout German society created new moral norms and enabled the Holocaust to happen. ( )

An examination of how, in the process of downplaying their most raucous displays of racism, Hitler and the Nazi Party managed to achieve a wider spread of their implicit principles of racial combat then they might otherwise have done. Much of this being due to playing up positive messages of social unification in tandem with apparently authoritative justifications of strong action against "The Other." In the end, Koonz argues that the Nazi experience needs to be regarded not as being a bizarre throwback to a more tribalistic time, but as an exercise in the politics of ethnic fundamentalism that is still grimly relevant. That I don't rate this book higher is due to a somewhat scatter-shot feel in places. ( )

A well conceived look at the Third Reich from a much forgotten but crucial angle: that Nazism, particularly in its early years, was a movement that attracted members through its call for moral purity and renewal. ( )